Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Confidence Interval of the Atlanta Hawks

It must be a great time to be a Hawks fan. They finally bested big brother Orlando in convincing fashion, Dominique Wilkins is fist pumping quite frequently in the stands, and Joe Johnson is wetter than the Thunder Canyon water ride at Dorney Park. Not to mention last night's thievery of home-court advantage against Chicago, in a game that was never really in contention. After a few years of pathetic playoff performances, this team appears ready to take the Bulls to the brink.

Sure, we could point to the outstanding scoring of Joe Johnson as the biggest factor in Atlanta's success right now, most notably draining all five of his three point attempts yesterday and comporting himself as if not even God would be capable of checking him these days. And yes, Jamal Crawford's bench play was impressive, fearless and suggested that not only does the moment not scare him, he frankly doesn't seem to notice that said moment exists. Even little man Jeff Teague deserves credit for stifling the media-anointed MVP, Rose, ensuring that Chicago's orchestrator was somewhat slowed down.

What stands out most to me however, is a palpable team attitude of true belief in themselves and their talents. This is clearly evident through their cocky body language, their giggling bench each time Johnson nets a silly fade-away, off-balance 20-footer, and in the eyes of players that are finally living up not only to hefty contracts, but to the potential so many NBA experts thought was being wasted all these years. This alone might be enough to carry the Hawks past the Bulls. Records and history are out the window during the NBA's second season, and confidence can go a long way—we might even find out that the Coach of the Year and MVP don't have enough.

1 comment:

  1. Pete, linking to the Wikipedia page for God is a stroke of brilliance. I like that you want the reader to be informed.

    ReplyDelete

ShareThis