20 Second Timeout

Atlanta and Houston Join Milwaukee and Oklahoma City in the NBA Cup Semifinals

Milwaukee and Orlando advanced to the NBA Cup semifinals on Tuesday night, and after Wednesday night's action Atlanta and Houston joined them. The Hawks silenced the Knicks 108-100 in Madison Square Garden, and then the Rockets tamed the visiting Warriors 91-90.

De'Andre Hunter scored a game-high 24 points off of the bench for the Hawks. Trae Young had 22 points despite shooting just 8-22 from the field, and he dished for a game-high 11 assists. The Hawks shot just 43-104 (.413) from the field, but they held the Knicks to 40-93 (.430) field goal shooting while winning the rebounding battle 58-49, outscoring the Knicks in the paint 66-54, and outscoring the Knicks in points off of turnovers 18-13. All five New York starters scored in double figures--led by Josh Hart's 21 points--but the Knicks' bench contributed just 14 points. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 19 points, grabbed a game-high 19 rebounds, and passed for five assists, and Mikal Bridges added 19 points, but Jalen Brunson had just 14 points on 5-15 field goal shooting, though he did pass for eight assists.

The Knicks started the season 4-5 as they battled injuries while trying to acclimate offseason acquisitions Towns and Bridges into their system, but they have posted an 11-5 record since then. Barring further injuries, there is every reason to believe that the Knicks are poised to make a deep playoff run.

The Hawks are more of a mystery. They have played well recently, but it is not clear if what they are doing is sustainable over the course of an 82 game season and through the playoffs; after all, last season the L.A. Lakers won the NBA Cup only to barely qualify for the NBA playoffs before meekly bowing out to Denver in five games in the first round. Last season, the Hawks missed the playoffs with a 36-46 record while ranking 28th in the NBA in points allowed and 28th in defensive field goal percentage; this season, the 14-12 Hawks rank 28th in points allowed and 20th in defensive field goal percentage. After starting the season 7-11, they have won seven of their last eight games, a run that began with a surprising 135-124 win versus the Cavaliers in Cleveland. I attended that game, and watched the Cavaliers take a 27-8 lead in the first seven minutes before the Hawks stormed back to tie the score at 35 by the end of the first quarter; my takeaway is that the Hawks have a lot of talent, but their shot selection is questionable and they only play defense sporadically.

In short, the Hawks are a streaky team not just from game to game, but from quarter to quarter, and they demonstrated that again on Wednesday night: they trailed the Knicks 26-14 in the first quarter, and then outscored the Knicks 34-18 in the third quarter.

I tend to not believe in low-ranked defensive teams that rely heavily on an undersized, inefficient guard, so forgive me if I do not yet jump on the Hawks' bandwagon; I acknowledge that their roster is more talented than I thought before the start of the season, but I am skeptical that they can sustain the level of play that they have maintained over the past couple of weeks.

Switching our attention to the other NBA Cup bracket, the Houston-Golden State game was dramatic because of the close finish, but it also exemplified much of what is wrong with the modern NBA; if you enjoy watching elite athletes jacking up--and missing--three pointers, then you were in basketball heaven while looking at the teams combine to shoot 18-65 (.277) from three point range. The teams launched nearly 40% of their field goal attempts from beyond the arc, undeterred by their misses; that is a normal NBA game now, and while it is true that the league's three point shooting percentage is a respectable .360 that does not change the reality that this style of play results in long stretches during which neither team scores very much. I previously explained the inherent flaws involved in this high variance playing style. It seems like no team is willing to buck the trend of volume three point shooting, but one gets the sense that the first team with a quality big man that decides to play "old school" ball will wax these teams that live and die with the long ball; the evidence supporting that assertion is that even after the so-called three point revolution took hold the NBA championship has still consistently been won by teams that are proficient defensively and that are able to attack the paint offensively when their three point shots are not falling.

Alperen Sengun scored a game-high 26 points for the Rockets, and he attempted just one three pointer while spearheading Houston's 58-40 points in the paint advantage. He also had a game-high 11 rebounds plus five assists. Jabari Smith Jr. added 15 points. Jonathan Kuminga led the Warriors with 20 points, while Stephen Curry had a quiet game by his lofty standards (19 points on 8-17 field goal shooting, team-high five assists). Golden State Coach Steve Kerr was incensed by a loose ball fall with 3.5 seconds remaining that gave Jalen Green the opportunity to drain what proved to be the game-winning free throws. Kerr is correct that the referees should have granted Houston a timeout instead of calling a foul, but it is difficult to muster much sympathy for a team that missed 26 three pointers and that squandered a seven point lead in the final 3:38 while missing three treys and committing two shot clock violations; one of those missed three pointers was fired up by Curry with 11.1 seconds remaining and the Warriors clinging to a 90-89 lead. Is that a high percentage play? I realize that Curry has made many such shots, but that is not the point. The high percentage play in that situation is to run the clock down as far as possible before shooting, thus giving the other team very little time to score. A three pointer is not necessary or desirable, let alone a three pointer with so much time remaining. After Curry missed, the resulting loose ball scramble took several seconds before the fateful foul was called, which means that if Curry had drained more time off of the clock then time may have run out before either team gained possession.

Viewed from a wide lens, the "exciting" finish consisted of poor clock management, bad shot selection, and then a questionable foul call. NBA action is...not as fantastic as it used to be.

Labels: Alperen Sengun, Atlanta Hawks, De' Andre Hunter, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony-Towns, New York Knicks, Stephen Curry, Trae Young

posted by David Friedman @ 1:45 AM

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