| 03 May 2011
I had my doubts that the Hawks could continue to play as they had against the Heat against Rose, Boozer, and the Bulls. I thought I would see the Hawks that had become so familiar. The win big and lose big Hawks. In game 1 of round 2 of the NBA Playoffs, I got the win big Hawks and that's no bull.
The Hawks commanded most of the game in the points spread and kept the Bulls and Rose off their game. The Hawks continued their mastery of Rose's shooting keeping him in the low 20%. Boozer, who had been suffering with turf toe, did play, but was not the factor I expected. Hinrich is expected to miss the entire series for the Hawks, but they seemed to play around that missing piece with relative ease. Joe Johnson had a great night for the Hawks dropping in 34 points including a huge 10 in the 4th quarter. He was 12-for-18 from the field, made all five 3-pointers he attempted and was five-for-five from the free-throw line. Jamal Crawford added 22 points for the Hawks. Rose for the Bulls was only 11 for 27 from the floor and didn't even score a single point until the 4:28 mark of the 2nd quarter.
The Hawks had the lead for most of the first two quarters, but by halftime the Bulls were within 1 point. The Hawks came out after the break and let the Bulls go up by 6 points in the third. The Hawks came storming back in the 4th though and eventually took the game 103-95. The Hawks shot 51.3 percent from the field and 53.8 percent (seven for 13) from 3-point range. They also out-rebounded the Bulls 38-37, led by Al Horford's 13 boards. Jeff Teague came off the bench in Hinrich's absence and played 44 1/2 minutes Monday, scored 10 points, handed out five assists and had only one turnover.
The Hawks came out in the fourth and scored the first 8 points of the quarter. The Hawks started Teague off the bench to play point guard in Hinrich's absence rather than moving Crawford to that position. They also played Marvin Williams off the bench instead of Jason Collins against the Bulls somewhat smaller front line. Joe Johnson was five-for-seven from the field in the first half and seven-for-11 in the second half.
The Hawks had only 3 players in double digits on the game, Johnson, Jamal with 22 and Teague with 10. The Hawks had 9 offensive boards and 38 total rebounds. They had 8 steals, 8 blocked shots and 7 blocked shot attempts. The Hawks turned the ball over 10 times on the game. They shot 51.3% from the floor, 53.8% from beyond the arc, which is a real high for the Hawks, and 80% from the free throw line. Joe Johnson was a perfect 5-5 on shots from beyond the arc. The Hawks bench provided 6 of their 9 offensive boards. Despite the Bulls having 4 of their players in double digit points, they were unable to beat the Hawks in the end. The soon-to-be-named NBA MVP Rose had 24 points (he was 11-27 from the floor), 2 offensive boards, 10 assists, 1 blocked shot and 3 turnovers on the game. Rose also turned his ankle over near the end of the game, but said he should be fine for game 2.
The Hawks started off round 2 playing the Bulls the way they had played them for the most part in the regular season by keeping Rose's shooting to a minimum. The Hawks made the necessary adjustments for the missing Hinrich and players like Teague and Crawford once again came up big for the Hawks. Game 2 is on Wednesday and the Hawks need to keep playing their game just as they did with the Magic. If they do, they just might have a chance at winning this round as well. LET'S GO HAWKS!!!!
