By Michael Cunningham
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Before dismissing his players from Saturday’s practice, Hawks coach Mike Woodson told them they can’t afford to blow leads as they did to the Mavericks on Friday night.
Paul Connors, AP Mike Woodson's Hawks have blown two big fourth-quarter leads in the last three games.
But he also reminded him them that they don’t squander leads late very often, though it might feel like it lately with late comebacks by Golden State and Dallas in the last week.
“We normally finish games,” said Hawks forward Josh Smith. “It’s mind-boggling that we haven’t been doing it.”
The Hawks gave back leads to Golden State on Feb. 21 and to Dallas on Friday night. The Mavericks came back after trailing 90-79 with five minutes to go and won 111-103 in overtime.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Hawks are 32-3 this season when they have the lead with five minutes left and 35-4 when they are ahead with three minutes to go. The Feb. 21 loss at Golden State isn’t included because they had already squandered their 18-point lead at the five- and three-minute marks.
The Hawks’ losses to Dallas and Golden State both featured inattentive defense and stagnant offense late in the game.
“We can’t get the stops we need to get,” Hawks guard Joe Johnson said. “We know what to do against the zone [defense], but we just didn’t execute.”
What is their goal when opponents pack in their defense?
“Good ball movement, attack the defense and penetrate and dish,” Johnson said, but the Hawks instead passed around the perimeter and settled for long jump shots after Dallas switched to the zone defense.
Woodson said the Hawks had “four or five possessions where there was one pass and then the shot went up” instead of being patient and using time when they held the lead.
“It’s not so much what they are doing as what we are not doing,” Woodson said. “We’ve had really good success against the zone. Normally, once we make two or three shots against the zone they run from it. Last night was just one of those nights.”
The Hawks’ defense wasn’t any better in both losses. Golden State’s pick-and-roll plays befuddled the Hawks, and Dallas quickly moved the ball around to get open shots against their slow-reacting defense.
“We just relaxed a little, assumed that we had them beat,” said Hawks center Al Horford. “We have to stay hungry, keep pushing because these teams are not going to stop coming at us.”
Though Woodson didn’t want his players to think they can’t hold leads, their recent slippage in that area comes at a bad time. The Hawks are two games behind Orlando for the Southeast Division lead after the Magic blew its own big lead at New Orleans on Friday.
The recent trend of giving back leads also is not a good sign for the playoffs, when the Hawks will have to withstand furious comebacks and win tight games.
“I’d rather have it happen now instead of the playoffs,” Horford said. “It’s something we are learning from. We need to fix it because we don’t want to have that feeling anymore after playing a good game.”
Woodson mum on tech
Woodson called NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson about his technical foul for colliding with Mavericks guard Jason Kidd. Woodson declined to comment on their discussion.
Woodson said he believes he was out of bounds when Kidd made contact with him. Officials called the technical after huddling to discuss the play, which they are not allowed to review on video replay.
They are saying the right things but whether they can actually solve these issues is another thing. I feel better that the players know what the deal is. Hopefully Woodson can do a better job at getting the players composed when this arises again .