After all the work the Hawks put in to stay afloat after Al Horford's season-ending torn pectoral muscle injury, it could all go up in smoke if they're not careful.
They've suffered two of their worst losses of the season in the past three days, both of them at home and both in frightening fashion for a team that has weathered every storm that has come their way this season.
Thursday night's loss to the Memphis Grizzlies can be blamed on fatigue, the after-effect of a 4-1 road trip that included three straight wins. But Saturday night's 98-87 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers raised some serious questions about the Hawks' ability to last much longer without some much-needed help in the frontcourt.
"We better find some help somewhere," one Hawks player said after the game. "Because we're hitting the deep end of the water right now and we need some help."
The Sixers, the league's best defensive team (statistically speaking), smothered the Hawks' scorers and shredded them on the other end of the floor. They used 15 Hawks turnovers for 17 extra points on top of the huge scoring output they got from their bench to wax the Hawks before the home crowd.
"We turned the basketball over, particularly in that second quarter. For some reason, everybody got into that 'I'll try to do it myself' mentality," Hawks coach Larry Drew said. "We coughed the ball up three or four straight times, taking one bounce too many, and lost it on steals.
"Against a team like Philly, or any team, you have to be better in taking care of the basketball. They are a team that really scraps. They have speed, they have quickness, you have to move the ball around against them and force their defense to shift. If you just try to go one-on-one, they do a good job on digging down, and you have to make the extra pass out. I thought in the second quarter particularly, we just took one bounce too many, and we end up coughing the basketball up."
The Hawks face yet another unforgiving stretch of the schedule with games this week against Phoenix and Indiana at home and Orlando on the road before a Feb. 12 showdown at Philips Arena against Southeast Division rival Miami.
If the Hawks limp into that matchup on the same streak they're on now, it won't be pretty.
"We've got a chance to snap out of this mess over the next few days," Josh Smith said. "We really don't have a choice. We either stop this mess now and get it together or things could get a whole lot worse."
NOTES, QUOTES
-The bad news started for the Hawks before tipoff against the Sixers when it was learned that backup center Jason Collins will sit out the next two weeks with a sprained elbow.
That leaves the Hawks with only Zaza Pachulia as a true center that is healthy enough to play. And with him struggling the way he did against the Sixers, Larry Drew was forced to insert Ivan Johnson into the lineup and go small with Josh Smith and Johnson handling the bulk of the frontcourt duties.
While it might seem like an impossible task to some, battling so many players that have size advantages over you, Johnson relishes the challenge.
"We just have to keep pushing and keep working hard. We have somebody down, but it can't stop you from playing hard," he said. "It's not too much of a challenge, it's just another person. I think I'm physically strong enough to hold them down."
-The Sixers had the perfect game plan to stop the Hawks, one culled not only from their previous experience against the Hawks but also from watching what others have done against them.
Sixers coach Doug Collins didn't hesitate to detail his plan after it worked.
"We had 54 points in the paint (and also from their bench), and our guys were rolling to the basket and finding areas because our guards had 25 assists and I think only seven turnovers and we shot 50 percent," Collins said. "And when you play them (Atlanta), you have to defend the three-point line. And when Joe Johnson scores 20 points, they are 11-1. I think they're shooting 45 or better at home, I think they're undefeated. And (we) took care of all three of those areas and focused in on each of them."
QUOTE TO NOTE
"We did it to ourselves. Starting with me, I have to be more aggressive making plays. We just have to come out and play the first half like we played the second half." -- Hawks guard Jeff Teague on how his play can spark the Hawks out of their recent funk.
