The consolation prize is dangling with the enticement of a toxic carrot for one team in the Eastern Conference to back into the eighth playoff spot. And the good news is most of the inter-conference play is over, which means they’ll essentially be slugging it out between themselves for the distinction of being put to bed by the powerful Celtics.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t the obvious benefit of experience and extra money for teams that haven’t been there forever like the currently No. 8 Atlanta Hawks. Their last postseason was nine years ago, so both general manager Billy Knight and coach Mike Woodson have been regarded as on the verge of being unemployed because of that familiar underachievement song.
Or consider the long-shot Charlotte Bobcats, suddenly five games behind the Hawks with 15 to play. . They were in the mix to crash the party for the first time in the five-year history of the franchise until the past week under rookie coach Sam Vincent; a four-game tailspin has essentially taken them out of the picture.
And in between we’re left with the New Jersey Nets, Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers – all of whom have suffered horribly disappointing seasons. Playing for the final spot as opposed to home court brings to mind whether their preference is to make the playoffs or slip into the draft lottery with the infinitesimal odds of moving into the top four in the NBA Draft.
In the case of the Hawks, it’s a moot point because their pick goes to the Phoenix Suns as part of the payback from the controversial Joe Johnson sign-and-trade acquisition in the summer of 2005 that created a split in the ownership group that continues even today. With a half-game lead over the Nets, they desperately need to get into the playoffs – particularly after swinging the trade for Mike Bibby last month that presumably ended the perpetual need for a point guard.
Despite their recent three-game winning streak that pushed them ahead of the Nets, they Hawks have won only four of their last 10 games – so vulnerability lingers. But on the bright side, eight of their final 15 games are at home, with only three of those games against teams playing better than .500 ball. In many ways, this is the perfect opportunity for Johnson, who has averaged 27.8 points and 7.1 assists over the past nine games, to prove he’s more than just a token All-Star and the guy who can carry them to a new height.
It’s a different deal for the Nets. They’ve been in the playoffs the past six years and into the second round the last two. President Rod Thorn is rebuilding them on the fly – unloading discontented Jason Kidd and adding youth around veterans Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson – the most prominent being Kidd’s replacement Devin Harris.
The Nets seemingly have the edge – certainly in experience and generally speaking in talent. However, nine of their final 16 games are on the road, with six of those games against winning teams. And we’ll learn a lot quickly, with New Jersey playing at Chicago tonight before the Hawks come to Meadowlands in a big one tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Bulls and Pacers have been dancing around each other most of the season as they generally do, only this season while languishing. The Bulls are still trying to see if their new pieces fit. Ten of their final 16 games are at home, including the next four against the Nets, Spurs, Pacers and Hawks. Perhaps more importantly, they’ll find out how well Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden add to the cause less than a month after their big three-way trade with Cleveland and Seattle.
And lastly we have the broken-down Pacers, lost in the abyss since their brawl with Pistons fans 4½ years ago, they’ve been weighed down not only by uneven play on the court, but constant problems after hours. Nobody is happy with what has happened since Larry Bird presumably took the reins from Donnie Walsh as team president even before the brawl. And now the 67-year-old Walsh, with the title of CEO, apparently is either going to retire or take over another team next season. Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Tinsley have been broken the entire second half of the season – reflective of how Bird has waited far too long to move either player.
Nonetheless, they’ve been hanging in there since the All-Star break behind the sweet-shooting Mike Dunleavy’s career-best season, and they’ve got the best schedule – nine of 15 at home, with only two games against playoff-bound teams.
Logic says the Hawks are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 1999 or, to put it into perspective, three jobs ago for their now-retired coach Lenny Wilkens. Not only is it huge for Woodson and Knight to keep their lofty positions, but it will show if Johnson has mentally grown into his immense talent. That’s not to diminish the value of Bibby, the multi-skilled Joshes – Smith and Childress, Marvin Williams or rookie-of-the-year candidate Al Horford. This is why they got Johnson in the first place.
Depending on your perspective, Saturday night in Atlanta will feature either the longest or shortest game in NBA history. It will also become the first game of a doubleheader.
It’s either two months, two weeks and four days long, or has just 51.9 seconds left to play before the full game begins.
Granted, it doesn’t make sense … but this is the NBA.
You see on Dec. 19, the Hawks had apparently defeated the Heat 117-111 in overtime until Heat coach Pat Riley saw in the official boxscore that center Shaquille O’Neal had been erroneously fouled out with 51.9 seconds to go in overtime with only one problem … it was only his fifth foul.
Riley protested the game, incredibly enough the NBA office agreed with him, so they will resume the game with just less than 52 seconds remaining in the first overtime period with the Hawks leading 114-111 as the first game prior to the regularly scheduled game between the two teams Saturday night.
So they’re on, and of course that includes weirdness … a lot of weirdness.
O’Neal is no longer on the team, dealt to Phoenix for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, who are eligible to play in the game. And his backup center at the time, Alonzo Mourning, already having announced this season would be his last before retirement, tore the patellar tendon in his right knee during the Dec. 19 game and his career apparently is unofficially over.
That translates into two guys from the game are no longer with the Heat, but two new guys who weren’t on the team will play.
The Hawks, too, have made their changes. They completed a five-player deal that brought point guard Mike Bibby from Sacramento in exchange for Lorenzen Wright, Shelden Williams, Tyronn Lue and Anthony Johnson. Plus, the Hawks now have Jeremy Richardson on the active roster. The well-traveled swingman has been in Memphis, San Antonio and the D-League this season. Wright, Williams and Johnson played in the game, but Lue and Richardson did not.
A little basic math tells us that that’s a transition of 10 players between the two teams form the first game. Moreover, with six of theplayers no longer available for this game, there is a little accounting to do that adds up to 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists they contributed to a game in which they can no longer compete.
How’s that for keeping it real?
Even more interesting about it is the Hawks, now 11 games below .500 and 10th in the conference, with coach Mike Woodson and general manager Billy Knight under fire, were rolling at the time and in the thick of the playoff race at one game above .500. After the game, during which Anthony Johnson had 19 points, 9 assists and a steal including the presumed final basket with 14 seconds left in overtime, Woodson was prompted to say this about his now departed veteran point guard in part, "A.J. has been phenomenal. He’s running our ballclub, getting the ball where is has to go. He’s defending for us and scoring. He’s doing everything a point guard is supposed to do. It’s beautiful to see."
Evidently it wasn’t that beautiful since he was shipped out two months later.
Furthermore, the Hawks' talented young forward Josh Smith won’t be able to finish the game for a basketball reason … he really did foul out in December with 1:43 left in regulation. On the flip side there is Hawks guard Salim Stoudamire. He didn’t play in the Dec. 19th version of the game, but is eligible to be a part of the final 51.9 seconds or more, if it requires another overtime period. The same goes for Heat guard Jason Williams, who sat out Dec. 19 with swelling in his knee but has had no problem playing in recent weeks.
Just to fill you in on what has already happened, Heat star Dwyane Wade is the leading scorer in the game with 36 points and also leads both teams with 10 assists, while Ricky Davis had 16 points and 4 assists. O’Neal also had 16 points and 7 rebounds that will be part of the post-game numbers. Marvin Williams leads the Hawks with 26 points and 9 rebounds, with Joe Johnson already having accumulated 25 points and 9 assists.
Just to tighten up the viewership and understand the circumstances when the game re-starts, both teams are in the penalty. The Hawks have one timeout left and two, 20-second timeouts. The Heat has just one 20-second call left.
Fifteen minutes after that game ends, they will have pre-game shooting for the second game. Of course, there will be inactive list announcements before the partial game, then shortly after the partial game has ended, the inactive list for the second game of this twin bill will be announced.
The curious thing will be the feel of the game for everyone from the players and coaches to the officials and the fans. Everyone will prepare the same as a normal game, except there is a less than a minute left on the clock, the Hawks are already winning by three points, and the Heat are in-bounding the ball on the baseline in front of the Atlanta bench.
How can this be normal? Although the Heat (11-47) have the worst record in the NBA and have long since been out of the playoff picture, the Hawks (24-35) are only a game out of the eighth seed in the Leastern Conference postseason race. So it does matter. If the Heat were having a normal season, it would matter even more and draw even more cynicism.
But what makes it even more intriguing is what happens to the emotions after the short burst o####ame has come to end. How do the players respond from that game, and leading into another?
Nobody can know that since it is unprecedented for any of these guys in their NBA careers. It’s a sad commentary on game logistics. But there is one real positive, and that’s for the fans. In one of those rare moments when everybody gets a break in price, they get two games for the price of one … even if the first one will take two months, two weeks and four days to be completed.
It’s pretty easy to rattle off the top three teams in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics have been dominant all season, the Magic were unbeatable while following the same pattern as last season, and the Pistons have become the hottest team of all.
Name the fourth. C’mon, I dare you. Here’s a hint: They haven’t been in the playoffs this century, and they finished last in home capacity attendance last season, playing in front of just 78 percent, and are up only slightly this time around in one of the biggest metro markets in the south.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Atlanta Hawks.
Off to a 14-12 start for Mike Woodson, the Hawks begin their holidays with a four-game winning streak and a starting lineup dominated by youth, only to have a 33-year-old veteran point guard return from that last playoff team in 1999. All of a sudden, journeyman backup Anthony Johnson has surprisingly given them the direction they’ve sorely lacked.
Sure, he was around to finish up the final 27 games last season. But he’s starting now and the Hawks have won 12 of 18 games in his direction, a transformation that has not been lost on Woodson. In his fourth season, the popular coach entered this season with a 69-177 record (.280) and certainly figured to be one of the prime candidates to win the annual first-coach-to-be fired derby. But with Johnson averaging 13.5 points, 9.5 assists and 1.0 steals during the modest winning streak, the team’s young talent has stabilized.
"A.J. has been phenomenal," Woodson said. "He’s running our ball club. He’s getting the ball where it’s got to go, he’s defending for us and he’s scoring. He’s doing everything a point guard is supposed to do. It’s beautiful to see because I think guys are really starting to latch on around him and playing along right along with him."
It helps that they got to know him late last season, and that the team can stop calling him Dad or Sir considering the average age of the other four starters is 22.5 – Joe Johnson (26), Josh Smith (22), Marvin Williams (21) and Al Horford (21). That’s not to mention significant bench players Josh Childress (24) and Acie Law (22) coming back from injuries.
It seems that Woodson and the team have found their stride, playing smaller, faster and smarter as time progresses. It doesn’t hurt that after the top three teams in the East, everybody else is trying to find their way. Joe Johnson remains one of the top all-around young talents in the league, averaging 28.8 points and 7.0 assists over the past four games, including 16 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter of the big win at Washington. At 6-foot-7 and 230, although a cut below in presence and overall game, he is from a similar athletic mold as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant – yet with a far less dynamic personality.
On the flip side, Smith, coming right out of the fabled Oak Hill Academy, had to tone it down a bit in attitude and flamboyance to find his niche. What nobody knew was that he would become such an exceptional stat-stuffer, averaging 17.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 3.2 blocks and a shade under 2.0 steals.
Childress brings similar versatility from the bench as the sixth man, but the Hawks have yet to find the toughness in the post that has to come from exceptionally gifted youngsters Horford and Marvin Williams, a rugged second-year guy in Shelden Williams, and veterans Zaza Pachulia and Lorenzen Wright.
So chances are they’ll be overpowered from lack of experience in the paint, but this is far more encouraging than recent years, and at least for now they’ve overcome the error of drafting Marvin Williams in 2005 and not taking Deron Williams or Chris Paul when they already had talent up front. The hope is that Law can fill that void when he grows up.
Nonetheless, they are playing fearless basketball right now with the veteran Johnson running the club. Now, if they can just clean up the ludicrous ownership squabbling that’s been going on in court for more than two years, actually get the inert local fans (just 14,750 per game so far) excited for a change, and continue to grow together, they’ve certainly got a shot at making the playoffs for the first time since 1999.
"We’ve just got to keep improving from this point on," Woodson said. "We talked about playing .500 basketball … and anything above that is just icing on the cake. So we’ve got to keep climbing. Take it a game at a time. It just shows that we’re starting to grow up. We’re making plays down the stretch of games that you need to make at both ends of the floor.
"Every win is important for us. We don’t want to be here in March and April looking at games we could have won. These are games we should win. We’re at home. If we’re talking about making the playoffs, you’ve got to win games at home. That’s important. I’m going to keep pushing them every time we step out on that Philips Arena floor. We’ve just got to get our fans to keep coming and support us because we need their support."
Shots from the perimeter
Kobe Bryant became the youngest player in history to reach 20,000 points Sunday night in New York at 29 years and 122 days – 12 days younger than Wilt Chamberlain and 204 less than Michael Jordan. … The Cavaliers continue to reel, and the pressure is building on general manager Danny Ferry to change things quickly. They’ve lost 10 of their last 13 and for the first time, LeBron James stormed out of The Q without talking to anybody following Sunday night’s loss to the Warriors. Perhaps the top candidate to go to the Cavs is unhappy Jason Kidd, as the Nets continue to flounder and are in dire need of a serious makeover to compete in the East. … The Celtics took care of business with the Magic Sunday night to raise their NBA-best record to 22-3. Meanwhile, the Magic appear on the verge of falling apart. They’ve lost eight of 12 since a 14-3 start, and coach Stan Van Gundy is seriously challenging their manhood with warnings of a collapse after a great start just like last season. Other than Dwight Howard, they’ve gotten nothing consistent from anybody of late. Max free agent Rashard Lewis has reverted to his erratic, injury-prone self that frustrated people in Seattle. He had 20 points or more in eight of the first 10 games, but he’#### 20 only four of the past 19 games. … The Blazers extended their winning streak to 10 games, and it may result in Brandon Roy becoming the permanent point guard instead of the revolving door next to him attempting to run the offense. … Now that they’ve gotten over the ankle injuries to Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, the Spurs have got to find a fix for the badly sprained index finger on Manu Ginobili’s left hand. Yes, even the Spurs have their issues, and that has given the Mavs time to get back on track. Dallas has won five in a row and Dirk Nowitzki has averaged 28.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists over the past four games, as the Mavs have pulled to within a half-game of the Suns and a full game of the Spurs in the race to be best in the West.
The last word
With Stephon Marbury missing seven of the past eight games since the death of his father, the Knicks continue to be this bizarre mystery wrapped in a riddle. Never fear, Knicks fans, because coach/general manager Isiah Thomas promised to clean up his three-year mess over the next two weeks, which is tantamount to George Bush insisting war in Iraq will end by the end of January.
O’Neal is no longer on the team, dealt to Phoenix for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, who are eligible to play in the game. And his backup center at the time, Alonzo Mourning, already having announced this season would be his last before retirement, tore the patellar tendon in his right knee during the Dec. 19 game and his career apparently is unofficially over.
