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Hawks Turn over for Magic
By: Jason McDonald
The new look Atlanta Hawks took to the Philips Arena court Tuesday night for a preseason game against southeast division rival the Orlando Magic. Plenty of new faces showed up around the arena to see the fiery Hawks fizzle down the stretch losing 104-93.
Last season the young Hawks struggled to score down the stretch and close out tight games. Coach Mike Woodson believes the Hawks scoring woes are over. “This team is better offensively than last year’s team so we’ll score points” Woodson professed following the game.
Scoring wasn’t the weak link in the loss to the Magic. Turnovers were. Although the turnover differential was only 2, the Magic were far more efficient with their opportunities. Orlando turned the Hawks 22 turnovers into 36 points. Conversely, Atlanta was only able to manufacture 23 points off Orlando’s 20 turnovers.
Atlanta trailed for most of the game staying within 4 to 6 points of the Magic’s lead. By the 5:51 mark in the fourth quarter the Hawks had shaved the Magic’s lead to a basket on a dunk by Josh Childress. Three minutes and two turnovers later Orlando’s lead was 10 points.
Much of the late game damage by the Magic was accomplished with Hill, Howard, and Francis cooling off on the bench. Hedo Turkoglu tossed in 7 of his 10 point to hold off the Hawks in the stretch run.
Southwest Atlanta native Dwight Howard had a decent homecoming with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Howard reunited with former AAU teammate Josh Smith for the first time as League veterans. The two high school-to-pro players even jumped the tip to start the game.
Star of the night honors went to new Hawk Zaza Pachulia. Acquired from Milwaukee as a free agent in the off-season, the 6’10” forward/center from Georgia (Europe) had a respectable 18 point 6 rebound night in his new threads.
While Pachulia basked in relative obscurity all eyes were on fellow newcomer Joe Johnson. Atlanta fans showed up to see what all the fuss and money was about. Johnson didn’t totally disappoint serving up 18 points in addition to 7 assists. Where he faltered was his assist to turnover ratio of almost 1 to 1. Coach Woodson offered an explanation for Johnson’s ball handling woes, “his turnovers were in traffic where he was trying to make plays for his teammates.”
While excusing some of the turnovers, Woodson was unapologetic for the easy lay-ups his defense allowed. “The commitment has to be made on the defensive end. There was so much penetration where we probably gave up 20 plus points just on lay-ups and you‘re not going to beat teams in this league like that.” Woodson said.
The Hawks will tip it off again tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama.