By Jon Cooper
FOXSportsSouth.com
March 7, 2011
The crowd was into the game early on Sunday night at Philips Arena.
The New York portion of the crowd, that is, as they watched the Knicks race out to a 7-0 then 11-3 lead.
It was the same story as Wednesday night's home game against Chicago, when the "Running of the Bulls" took on new meaning; the squad from the Windy City threatened to make the game a runaway, leading 14-0 a few minutes in.
The Hawks were able to come back against Chicago. They weren't as lucky against New York.
That those two losses came against one of the Eastern Conference's best teams and one of its potentially most dangerous come postseason and happened only days apart is bad enough. That they came at home is worse.
This was supposed to be a part of the schedule where the Hawks showed what they've got against teams that could stand in their way of getting to the next level.
What it's shown is almost a lack of interest coming out of the locker room in the form of slow starts.
These slow starts are countering home-court advantage, taking an avid fan base in Atlanta out of the game. The tradition of standing until the Hawks make their first basket has become almost a painful exercise in patience. Hawks Head Coach Larry Drew's patience has run out.
"I didn't feel like we had a good rhythm. Again, at the start of the game, we're playing catch-up, and I got to try to find out what's going on with that," he said addressing the media, some 25 minutes after addressing his team. "That's three straight games where we've done that, gotten off to a slow start, playing catch-up basketball.
"We're not playing with that urgency," he continued. "We're not playing with that swag that we talk about
