Hawks 104, Bucks 111 or Where It's Okay To Lose On The Road When Your Head Coach Doesn't Really Expect You To Win Anyway

I'm not even sure where to start. I could start with the defense, but that would take analysis that I'm not even qualified to present. You'll have to go check out Hoopinionblog.com for that. All I know is, the Bucks ran maybe 3 plays, and the Hawks had no idea how to stop any of them. I'm pretty sure their strategy turned into "let's just hope they miss". Bibby "guarding" Delfino and Za Za "guarding" Jennings was the manifestation of said strategy. Needless to say, it was a flawed strategy, but you have to at least admire the fact that the Hawks were committed to something tonight.
This brings us to the head coach. , I couldn't get everything he said in the post game press conference, but let me sum it up for you as best as I can. He doesn't really expect them to win on the road. Did he flat out say that? No, but he kept reiterating that they played all season for home court advantage for this reason. I had a feeling they were using that as a crutch, I just hoped that feeling was wrong because they're the #3 seed, and the Bucks are without their best player, and the Hawks have 2 All Stars, and the Hawks won 7 more games than the Bucks, and the Hawks have more recent playoff experience, and the Hawks head coach is coaching for a job, and so forth and so on. Either way, I was right.
There was a stretch in the 4th qtr when the Hawks had cut the Bucks lead to 6 and then decided to let Mo Evans take over on offense. He took 4 of the Hawks 6 shots from the 7:12 mark to the 3:54 mark. He missed all 4 shots. I'm not even sure who to blame for that, but the head coach viewed this sequence positively. The only problem he had was that Mo missed the shots. One would think he should have a problem that Mo was taking the shots at all, but whatever.
Coach Woodson ended his presser with this gem: We've been in this position before. We were able to push Miami to 7 and win it in 7. It's not like this team isn't ready to accept the challenge. I feel good about the position we're in, we've just gotta go home and handle our business like we have all year.

Okay. A) They were the favorites in that series. They weren't doing the pushing, They were being pushed, that is not a position he should point to as a reason for hope. B-Z) No one gives a shit about last year's series!
He also said he needs to watch the tapes so he can see the defensive miscues. Really? He couldn't see where his strategy of switching on everything defensively was a huge mistake from his courtside seat? I saw it from my couch, as did most every other person in America. The only difference between him and us is that he had the ability to do something about it and he did not. Seriously, if from where he was sitting he couldn't determine that Za Za should not be asked to guard Brandon Jennings, then he should not be the head coach an NBA team.
In the interest of preserving time, let me skip ahead to why Mike Woodson was not extended last summer. Hawks 104, Bucks 111 If you want to know why Rick Sund is asking him to show and prove, just go watch this game in it's entirety. (that link will not take you to the game in its entirety, it's just a recap) You'll notice I haven't really said much about the players. Obviously, they have to play the game and they have to make the plays. However, everything about this game was an indictment on the head coach and his offensive and defensive strategy. On offense there is no strategy. "It will take care of itself" as the head coach likes to say. On defense the strategy is so flawed a rookie is exploiting it with ease. I'm not letting the players off the hook, just pointing out that they're doing what is expected of them. If they plan on winning this series then they're going to have to take it upon themselves to stray from the game plan when it's clearly not working. This game wasn't lost because of adjustments that the Bucks made, it was lost because of adjustments that Mike Woodson didn't make.

Go Hawks.








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