Just The Hawks Being The Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks blew an opportunity at Philips Arena tonight.  Tonight’s game was potentially about two rounds in this post season.  With the Bulls losing Derrick Rose and getting blown out by Philly tonight, the Hawks could have inched a little closer to a semi-final matchup vs. the modest 76ers, with a ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals on the line.

Tonight’s game presented an opening to step on the throat of the enemy and say, “thanks for delivering us home court advantage a few weeks ago, how’s that 2-0 hole look down there?” (See previous blog).

Tonight’s game was an opportunity for Joe Johnson to show some leadership and carry a team to victory.  This topic alone would be longer than the epic novel War & Peace.  I’ve said it a hundred times, Joe Johnson is missing a chromosome.  He was born without the ‘leadership chip.’  It’s not in his DNA.  His genetic makeup has turned him into a nice NBA player.  He’s not great, he’s not terrible.  Joe Johnson makes it way to easy for opponents to take him out of a game.  Whenever a game comes down to crunch time, Joe gets the ball and pounds it and pounds it and after about the 5^th pound, opponents either force him into a turnover or a forced shot.  When he doesn’t have the ball, Joe spends most of his time floating around the perimeter (perhaps he should watch the constant motion without the basketball from guys like Ray Allen and Reggie Miller), or he runs underneath the basket and allows two defenders to trap him down there.

Tonight Joe Johnson saw what he will never be in this league – Paul Pierce.  Paul Pierce came to Philips Arena on a mission for Game Two.  His mindset from the opening tip was, “I will not let my team lose this game.”  I don’t think Joe Johnson’s conscious has ever uttered that phrase once.

The Atlanta Hawks played their role to perfection tonight.  They will forever be typecast as the team that is good enough to make the playoffs, but just bad enough to ever really do anything significant.  Tonight was why the Celtics didn’t care about starting out this series on the road.  The Celtics showed their championship pedigree while the Hawks showed why every talking head on television pegged the Celtics to square off withMiamionce Rose went down inChicago.

I truly believe that as along as this franchise has its wagon hitched to Joe Johnson as their number one option, they will never compete for a spot in the NBA Finals out of the East.  Most teams around the league are a reflection of their “star” player.  The Knicks and Melo are selfish.  The Lakers and Kobe are dangerous.  The Spurs and Duncan are steady.  The Hawks and Joe are nice.  Nice doesn’t win championships.

The Hawks have been calling Philips Arena the Highlight Factory.  During the post season it’s the Playoff Factory.  Apparently this factory shuts down every May and then reopens again in November.  The Hawks need a new employee base.  Time to find some guys that want to keep this factory open in June.

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