If the Atlanta Hawks are going to make for great NBA playoffs picks and finish off the Orlando Magic, they had better do it on Thursday night. They’re on the verge of a disaster in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, and a loss would send them back on the road for Game 7 against a team that just blew their doors off in Game 5.
Doesn’t it seem a little ironic that the best game the Magic played in this series featured Dwight Howard scoring just eight points and coming up with eight rebounds? It is definitely odd to say the least, but there is some truth to the point that this team plays better when Howard is at his worst.
Not that we’re really suggesting that the Magic are better off without Howard, but they definitely do get better games as a team when the other players are involved. Everyone had their take in Game 5, as it felt like the whole team went off for near double digits. Jason Richardson, JJ Redick, and Ryan Anderson did get to double digits, while Jameer Nelson, Brandon Bass, Hedo Turkoglu, Gilbert Arenas, Quentin Richardson, and the aforementioned Howard all had at least seven points.
Three point shooting was key as well. Orlando shot just 2-of-23 from beyond the arc in its last visit to the Peach State for Game 4, and it hit a much more palatable 11-of-26 from long range on Tuesday night to extend its season.
The Hawks have been known as a team full of chokers in their history, and they have never been able to seal the deal. They tend to fall apart when they get behind, and they become disinterested with the proceedings. Tuesday’s horrible loss was a microcosm of this mindset, as the Hawks fell behind 26-13 in the first quarter and just never woke up for the rest of the game.
Joe Johnson had just five points, while Kirk Hinrich had only six points. More importantly, Jamal Crawford, a man which went off for 24.0 points per game over the course of the first four duels in this series, had just eight points. The team was -30 in scoring against the Magic when he was on the court, the worst margin for any player on the team. Marvin Williams and Josh Smith were the two leaders at 12 and 22 points respectively on this night. Shooting just 36.2 percent from the field isn’t going to win many games in this series, and the truth of the matter is that it has been a problem for the Hawks from the get go here in this series.
The problem is that the Magic aren’t going to shoot in the 30 percent range every night either.
The difference between this year’s Hawks and last year’s Hawks is that this year’s bunch believes that it is better than the Magic, and it is probably right. Orlando still really hasn’t shown all that much, and we certainly aren’t ready to say that it is going to win a game on the road at least half the time. Fly with Atlanta to close out this series and to set up a date with the Chicago Bulls starting as early as this weekend.
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