Much has been made about their lack of a superstar, but the real weakness of the 60-win Atlanta Hawks this postseason was their bench.
The Hawks’ bench keeps hurting them in the playoffs
Atlanta’s secret weakness this postseason was that their second unit wasn’t great. It showed in Game 3.
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As Atlanta's starting five fell apart slowly and surely before and during a must-win Game 3, the Hawks finished the overtime period with Mike Scott, Kent Bazemore and Shelvin Mack. In the final 30 seconds of the game, Scott let a rebound fly past him costing his team another possession. Meanwhile, Mack missed back-to-back game-tying three-pointers. For once, they did yeoman's work helping the Hawks get back into the game, but their limitations showed when it mattered most.
It's not the Hawks' fault that Kyle Korver is now done for the year with an ankle injury. Certainly, Al Horford's second quarter ejection was controversial for more than one reason. Thabo Sefolosha is also out for the season, and coach Mike Budenholzer opted against playing usual rotation members Pero Antic and Dennis Schroder on Sunday because they've been ineffective in the playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, neither Scott nor Bazemore or Mack were ultimately the solution. Together, they combined for a respectable 35 points on 11-of-28 shooting, but in total they played 108 minutes. Individually, all three are fringe playoff rotation members as it is and together they couldn’t salvage the Hawks’ season that was quickly fading away.
Their play shows a stark contrast to the Cavaliers, who are just as banged up but keep watching their end of the bench role players step up in big moments throughout these playoffs. With Kyrie Irving missing his second straight game, Matthew Dellavedova filled his place in the starting lineup and scored 17 points. James Jones hit a couple of three-pointers and recorded five assists on Sunday in his second straight game of playing more than 20 minutes.
It's sad that this is the end of the road for Atlanta. Their starting five was sensational when healthy and together. In the regular season, those five -- Horford, Korver, Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll -- played the second-most minutes of any five-man lineup in the NBA. They outscored opponents by eight points per 100 possessions when together and recorded a 73 percent assist ratio -- the percentage of baskets scored that were assisted -- a number better than even the league-best Warriors.
But in the NBA playoffs, attrition strikes everyone and a second unit that was good enough in the regular season suddenly showed its flaws. As the Hawks march to their demise in Game 4, they’ve learned how important a bench really is.
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