Hawks vs. Lakers: New NBA vs. Old NBA
The Atlanta Hawks play the Lakers on Sunday night. The Lakers beat the Hawks 114-109 on November 18th.
The Atlanta Hawks are on the brink of a 60 win season because they have turned a blind eye to what has been traditionally thought of as Building a Contender 101. They have refused to buy into the aged old concept of a dominant star, a dominant rebounder and a dominant personality and instead rely on toughness, unselfishness and ball movement. The Hawks take high percentage shots after spreading the floor while giving a Herculean effort on defense. Their pace isn’t the quickest but it doesn’t’ matter because they make the extra pass, giving them a high probability of success. The Hawks only trail the Warriors in assists.
When the Lakers beat the Hawks in November, it was one of those flukes of basketball that happens in the NBA during a long season of ups and downs.
Then, the Lakers had their iconic star/talent Kobe Bryant doing Kobe Bryant things, a continuing theme for him over the years in Atlanta, but a little bit more rare at the age of 36. His 28 points kicked the Hawks into a pedestrian 5-5 record and the Hawks sulked just long enough to lose 9 more games in four months. (The Lakers have lost 38 games in 4 months.)
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Everything the Hawks do well such as drive the ball and dish to the perimeter, contest shots, hit threes, play unselfishly, the Lakers are miserable at, often not even attempting any level of mediocre efficiency because the Lakers are still stuck in the quicksand of their past glory, the mid-range shot, the let’s not drive the ball and dish to the corner for a three, the let’s hold the ball and then when time is running out jack up an contested three. This is their identity in 2014-15.
In that sense, the Hawks are the poster child of the new era of NBA analytics and while they are still an unproven commodity as far as the playoffs are concerned, their embrace to the point of devotion of ball sharing and guarding shooters and constant motion has them the top seed in the Eastern Conference, displaying a consistency that has been a part of their culture since they lost to the Lakers on November 18th.
In measurables, the Hawks do what needs to be done. On offense: the Hawks are in the Top 10 in Points, Assists, Field Goals, Free Throws and 3 Pointers. On defense: the Hawks are in the Top 10 in Opponent Points, Opponents Field Goals, Opponent 3 Pointers, Steals.
The Hawks have amassed 51 wins without a dominant star taking over the bulk of their possessions on offense. Strategically, they have defied the anti-Jordan, anti-Kobe theoretical model of the basketball earth revolves around the sun with a Top-10 player of all time.
Instead, Paul Millsap gets 13 shots and Kyle Korver gets 8 shots and Jeff Teague gets 12 shots and Al Horford gets 13 shots. It is a system based upon sharing as a skill and that is the secret about the Hawks, what they know and what the Lakers do not know. What is as important as making shots is trusting that everyone can make shots.
Of their 30 minute a game players (Kyle Korver, Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap, DeMarre Carroll), the lowest field goal percentage is Teague’s 46%.
The Lakers will have to do what they have not done all season long if they want to beat the Hawks and at this point the Hawks can sustain a loss but the Lakers cannot stomach a win, not with their top-5 draft pick fantasy swirling in their head. The Lakers have to contest shots, play defense with intensity, move the ball, things that are not in their nature so why believe it will happen in March?
Even when they beat the Hawks in November, the Hawks shot 48%. The Lakers just outscored them. The absence of scorers on this current Lakers team puts in doubt their ability to stay with the Hawks whose ball movement is D’antoni-esque, creating open shots for everyone.
On the plus side, the Lakers are three games back of the Minnesota Timberwolves for the worst record in the Western Conference which is something else altogether, a proud franchise actively wanting to debase themselves for losses and the opportunity to start over, sort of.
This week, with the NCAA tournament beginning, the Lakers will have a smorgasbord of players to fantasize about as they play out these last weeks of a pathetic season where sometimes they hit new lows and embarrass themselves, as was the case against the Knicks.
Who would have ever thought the Atlanta Hawks would have bypassed the Lakers in talent, structure, stability, identity and championship window?
Welcome to the new NBA.