Court Vision: Hawks upended by Knicks in regular-season home finale
ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Hawks dropped their regular-season home finale to the lowly New York Knicks despite playing four starters, losing 112-108 on Monday night. The Hawks play the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night before entering the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed. Here are three observations from the game:
1. The game held little to no meaning, but it was an odd end to the Hawks' home dominance
In a strange twist for a team that wrapped up the East's top seed approximately three months ago, words like "panic" and "concern" and "worried" were thrown into questions after a meaningless April loss. Such is the effect of losing to the Knicks.
The playoffs are around the corner and the only goals the Hawks have left are on the other side of the weekend, but a loss to one of the major contenders for the No. 1 overall draft pick and, arguably, the league's most dysfunctional franchise allows for doubt to creep in -- no matter how misplaced. The Hawks weren't happy with their performance, but looking past the week ahead and toward the weekend should be understandable.
"The only positive we can take from this is that we fought back and we had a chance to tie the game at the end. And we didn't," said forward DeMarre Carroll after the loss, one in which the Hawks erased a substantial first-half deficit to come within a game-tying shot with a few seconds remaining. "By the same token, we just gotta continue to get better. It's a bad loss, but we gotta look forward to the playoffs."
The loss was more of an oddity than anything.
It featured a team with the Eastern Conference's best home record (35-6) in its regular-season home finale losing to a team with the second-fewest road wins in basketball. The Hawks have dominated at Philips Arena this season. That bodes well for the postseason, where they will hold home-court advantage through the first three rounds. By playing their four healthy starters, it was clear they wanted to extend that trend before the first round tips off.
Still, even with a surprising loss, coach Mike Budenholzer embraced the positives and spun things forward. (As he should.)
"I think for our players to really work and to blow it out, even though obviously we didn't play well, I think it's great that we're in a position where we've played 30-plus minutes going into the playoffs. We've been in a close game. We've had to extend ourselves. I think it's a balance between really pushing yourself and blowing it out -- we came close to that tonight and I think that's a good thing."
As of Monday night, the race for the East's No. 8 seed remains tight: Brooklyn's loss and Boston's win (clinched playoff berth) left idle Indiana a 1/2-game ahead of the Nets with two games to play.
2. Paul Millsap misses fifth straight game
If the other shoe existed in the regular-season home finale, it revolved around the health of All-Star forward Paul Millsap, who has been absent over the past week-plus with a right shoulder sprain and contusion. For the fifth time down the closing stretch of an excellent season, Millsap was held out and it leaves questions unanswered -- not as much focused on his playoff availability, but rather his form when the postseason arrives.
The past month of the Hawks schedule has consisted of the team readying itself for playoff basketball -- running out strict platoons with starters and reserves, resting stars, tinkering with lineup combinations and, most importantly, trying to avoid the injury bug (one that bit anyways with an off-court incident involving Thabo Sefolosha) -- and Millsap is a major component of that formula. If the Hawks are going to make the conference finals for the first time in the franchise's history since moving to Atlanta, they'll likely need Al Horford's frontcourt counterpart to be clicking.
Millsap is averaging 16.8 points and 7.8 rebounds in 72 games played. He's been a defensive force for Atlanta, ranking ninth in the NBA in defensive rating (99.3), while posting a career-high 8.3 win shares.
The Hawks system works so well, particularly with their starters, because each player fills his role.
Horford remains the team's best player, point guard Jeff Teague dictates the tempo, Kyle Korver spaces the floor and taxes opposing defenses mentally and Carroll plays Korver sidekick and defends the best wing. (At least that's the shorthand version.) Just like the others, Millsap helps fill in the gaps. His absence has not been as evident in recent games because Budenholzer is mixing and matching so frequently, but anything short of All-Star Millsap will be noticeable in the playoffs.
The organization has downplayed the injury's significance in recent days -- it seems clear that he's expected to be ready in the coming days. Still, the players admitted before the Knicks clash that the best-case scenario would be for Millsap to get back into the rotation in Wednesday's regular-season finale, if only to get some game-action feel back before the playoffs. It's hard to argue with them.
And despite Budenholzer leaving Wednesday's playing time up in the air, Teague and Carroll made it clear that if Millsap plays the starters want to be on the court with him.
"Coach makes the decisions, we just play. By the same token, if Paul plays I think the starters want to get out there and get back out there with him," Carroll said. "That's my biggest issue. ... (We want to play to help) get him his rhythm back, so we can know where guys are going to be." Teague added: "Yeah, I think that will be the key thing, if Paul plays. If Paul plays I think everybody should get out there. ... I think guys want to play, trying to get that rhythm and they're excited about the postseason. We need to go into the postseason playing at a high level."
3. Knicks forget season-long shooting woes, lose collective mind from long range
There's no sense in pulling punches: The Knicks have been a season-long train wreck. On Monday night, one of their 17 wins this season, they tried their best to fumble away a 17-point lead while media covering the team on a day-to-day basis audibly predicted upcoming mistakes almost out of reflex. They were rarely wrong. The Hawks were given multiple opportunities to steal a win down the stretch -- a missed rebound here, a missed floater there -- before New York snuck out of Philips and closer to the NBA Draft.
Still, credit where it's due: The Knicks shot the lights out for the better part of the game.
"They made a lot -- a lot -- of shots. I think one guy went perfect from the 3-point line, or something like that," Teague said. "They played well, but it's nothing to panic over. It's one game."
This was a strange occurrence because the Knicks so rarely shoot the lights out. Or even well.
New York entered its penultimate game of the season with the third-worst true shooting percentage in the NBA (50.6) -- better only than the Philadelphia 76ers and Charlotte Hornets, two teams that happen to grasp the concept of defense. Boosted by the likes of Jose Calderon, who hasn't even played since February, the Knicks were marginally better from the outside (17th in the league) but they weren't anywhere close to dangerous.
Behind the efforts of Langston Galloway, who was the perfect 6 for 6 player that Teague referenced, the Knicks shot a season-high 52 percent for games in which they attempted 20 or more 3-pointers. Six different players hit outside shots for a total of 13 in all. It was the most 3-pointers they made in a game that ended in regulation this season. That certainly wasn't in the scouting report.
6: The Knicks logged six more assists (33 to 27) than the assist-happy Hawks
35: The Hawks are 19-11 when they shoot under 35 percent from 3-point range
"I got a good look, it just didn't fall. I'll take that shot every day." -- Jeff Teague on potential game-tying shot
