After losing last night to the Utah Jazz, the Atlanta Hawks are now 1-3 on their road trip. They need to win in Denver on Wednesday night to to salvage their road trip, though I said they would probably go 2-3 on their five game Western swing.
The Hawks lost last night by 19 points, 108-89. Outrebounded by 13 and gave up 14 offensive rebounds, you aren’t going to win many games in the NBA on the road that way. It was just a hunch, but after doing some research (yes, this blog is not just rants and opinions, its backed up by the numbers), not having Mike Bibby 100% for the game (sickness) meant major problems for the Hawks. In the 8 road games that Mike Bibby has not logged 30 minutes, the Atlanta Hawks have gone 1-7. Mike Bibby is the catalyst that is the reason why the Atlanta Hawks are as good as they are. The difference between last year’s team without Bibby and this year’s team with Bibby was 9 games (records compared at the All Star break). I know you can’t compare seasons, but let’s pretend that the Hawks won 9 games they didn’t last year. They would have been exactly where they are this year…the fourth seed. It just is interesting to see that Mike Bibby takes them from being a bubble playoff team, to a legitimate fourth seed, given his play and leadership over the course of a full season. His contract runs out at the end of this year…let’s hope the Hawks do the right thing.
