For only the second time in the franchise’s history since moving to Atlanta in 1968, the Hawks are going to the Eastern Conference finals after capturing a 103-96 win at Philadelphia in Sunday’s Game 7.
Nevertheless, if you listened to any television or national sports radio on Monday, the only story you heard about was Philadelphia’s collapse and the pending divorce with one of its stars in Ben Simmons.
That’s nonsense, though. To hell with Simmons, who is on forced vacation. To hell with Joel Embiid, who came up lame when it mattered most in this series.
And most of all, to hell with Doc Rivers, the 76ers’ first-year head coach who as a player remains the career all-time assists leader for the Hawks franchise. Twenty years after he and Dominique’s Hawks fell to Boston in seven excruciating games in the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals, he led the hated Celtics past Atlanta in an epic seven-game series on the way to winning the NBA championship in 2008.
Put simply, Rivers got his ass out-coached by Atlanta’s Nate McMillan for seven games. Rivers had the best player (Embiid) in the series, the top seed in the East and homecourt advantage. The Hawks owed him one and were glad to stick it to him, handing him his ninth career Game 7 loss, which is the most for a head coach in NBA history.
Rivers took the defeat and threw Simmons under the bus afterwards, only to backtrack those comments when he met with the media on Monday. Rivers had all of his best players available unlike McMillan, who was without De’Andre Hunter, the second-year forward who is Atlanta’s best perimeter defender — and would’ve made life much more difficult for Seth Curry over the past two weeks — that was averaging better than 17 points per game when he went down with a knee injury in late January.
Although he was able to return and contribute to Atlanta’s five-game bludgeoning of the New York Knicks, the NBA’s media darling this year that’s also on an early vacation after winning only once against Atlanta despite being picked to advance by 16 of 18 national media members polled before the opening round, Hunter is out for the rest of the season due to a torn meniscus in his knee.
Without Hunter and with Bogdan Bogdanovic limping through Game 7, it was a tall task for Atlanta to win a third road game in the series over Philadelphia in front of a raucous crowd, especially after a disheartening home loss in Game 6 with the chance to close the 76ers out.
Even with star point guard Trae Young going an abysmal 5-of-23 on field-goal attempts and coughing up six turnovers, Atlanta was never in serious trouble at any point in Game 7. When the Hawks failed to make their first bucket of the fourth quarter until there was 7:10 remaining, Philadelphia built its largest lead of the game to 81-77 on Tobias Harris’s 3-point play the hard way.
But Danilo Gallinari answered with a 3-ball. After Seth Curry responded with a trey of his own, Young buried a 19-foot jumper to cut the 76ers’ lead to 84-82. At the other end, Embiid settled for a 27-foot 3-point attempt that was off the mark. Kevin Huerter, just one day shy of the three-year anniversary of being drafted in the first round along with Young by Atlanta GM Travis Schlenk, drained a pull-up jumper to tie the game with 5:55 left.
Rivers called a timeout but couldn’t dial up a successful play for his club’s ensuing possession. Instead, Atlanta took the lead back on Young’s driving floater that’s been a staple of his shot making throughout the postseason with 5:11 remaining.
Two possessions later, Embiid brought Philadelphia even again by hitting a 20-foot jumper. However, Huerter put Atlanta back in front — for good — by bullying his way into the paint on Curry and knocking down an off-balance fadeaway 16-footer.
Then came one of the most defining moments of the series. Simmons caught the ball down low and a spin move set him up for an easy dunk. Instead, apparently concerned that he’d get fouled and have to go to the free-throw line, Simmons inexplicably passed to Matisse Thybulle, who drew a two-shot foul but made just one from the charity stripe.
The home crowd wasn’t happy with Simmons’s unfathomable decision, nor was his sidekick Embiid, who was clearly upset as you can see in the tweet below:
Coming out of a timeout after Thybulle’s free throw trimmed Atlanta’s lead to one, Young dished to Clint Capela for an alley-oop dunk. After Embiid missed a jumper, Young pulled up from 30 feet when Simmons gave him too much room and splashed the nets for a six-point advantage with 2:31 remaining.
The 76ers got a bucket from Harris but after a stop, Huerter intentionally fouled Simmons, who made just one of two from the FT line. Next, a driving layup by Harris made it a one-point game with 1:12 left, but Huerter’s pump fake at the other end got Thybulle off his feet. Huerter then elevated for a 3-point attempt and was fouled.
Huerter drained all three FTs for a four-point cushion. Trying to make something happen, Embiid lost control of the ball in the paint on the next possession. When he coughed it up, Huerter grabbed the ball and led a streaking Gallinari for a run-out dunk.
Young and Gallinari added five free throws combined in the closing moments to account for the 103-96 final. Atlanta won outright as a seven-point underdog, hooking up money-line supporters with a +240 return.
Huerter was the Game 7 hero, finishing with 27 points, seven rebounds, one steal and three assists compared to just one turnover. He hit 10-of-18 FGAs and played 40 minutes with Bogdanovic’s ailing knee limiting him to 21 minutes.
Young dished out 10 assists and had 10 of his 21 points in the last seven minutes. John Collins contributed 14 points, 16 rebounds, one block and one steal on 5-of-6 shooting in 41 workmanlike minutes. Capela finished with 13 points and six boards, making 6-of-8 FGAs. Gallinari wrapped up an outstanding series (103 points) with 17 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal.
When the Hawks left Atlanta for Philadelphia on Saturday, they packed clothes for a six-day trip. As of Tuesday afternoon, most betting shops had Milwaukee (54-29 straight up, 38-45 against the spread) installed as a seven-point home favorite for Wednesday’s Game 1. The total was 226.5 points with the Hawks at +240 on the money line.
Most shops have the Bucks anywhere from -450 to -500 to win the series and advance to the NBA Finals. Atlanta (49-35 SU, 47-36-1 ATS) is around +375 on the comeback.
Mike Budenholzer’s club is 31-10 SU and 21-20 ATS, while the Hawks are 21-22 SU and 21-21-1 ATS in 43 road assignments. They are 5-2 both SU and ATS in seven postseason road games.
Atlanta’s only other appearance in the East finals came in 2015 when Budenholzer was the team’s head coach. When former GM Danny Ferry was fired, Budenholzer added the role of GM.
Let’s just say ‘Bud’ did a poor job as a GM. After the 60-win regular season in 2015, the Hawks finished 48-34 in ’16 and went to the East semifinals. With the second-best player in franchise history, Al Horford, who had led the team to nine consecutive postseason appearances after an eight-year hiatus from the playoffs before he was drafted No. 3 overall in the 2007 NBA Draft, due to become a free agent, ‘Bud’ started free agency by signing Dwight Howard to a three-year deal worth around $70 million.
Let’s just say Horford got the message loud and clear. Although the Hawks allegedly made a strong push to ink Horford and offered him North of $120 million, he decided to sign with the Celtics, the franchise’s bitter nemesis dating back to the 1980s.
Going into the offseason prior to the 2017-18 campaign, a full rebuild was in order. The organization and ‘Bud’ went their separate ways and the Hawks brilliantly hired Schlenk in May of 2017.
Schlenk, formerly the assistant GM for the Golden State Warriors, patiently struck gold in the draft (Collins, Young, Huerter and Hunter), got rid of bad contracts (Howard after just one season in Atlanta) and bad apples (Dennis Schroder) and acquired assets. He passed on potential free agents to build up as much cap space to make a splash before this season. (We chronicled the stellar work Schlenk was doing prior to the 2019 NBA Draft that netted Hunter and Cam Reddish, who has been out since February with an Achilles injury.)
Schlenk’s goal this past offseason was to surround Young with shooters. He had already addressed the center position with last year’s deadline deal that brought Capela to Atlanta. Therefore, Schlenk inked Gallinari, Bogdanovic, Solomon Hill, veteran point guard Rajon Rondo and Tony Snell, who made 56.9 percent of his 3-pointers during the regular season.
Schlenk moved Rondo to the Clippers several months ago for Lou Williams, who was instrumental in Atlanta’s crucial comeback win at Philadelphia in Game 5.
Another enormous decision Schlenk had to make was firing Lloyd Pierce after a 14-20 start. In fairness to Lloyd, he never had the full roster with Snell, Gallinari, Bogdanovic, Kris Dunn and Rondo missing a bunch of games in the first two months of the season. However, the Hawks blew 11 fourth-quarter leads in those 20 losses, the most in the NBA at that time.
Schlenk’s decision to move on from Pierce for the more proven McMillan was a no-brainer that’s worked perfectly. He also made the move to trade Luka Doncic for Young and another first-round pick that turned out to be Reddish, who was averaging 11.2 points per game before his injury. He’s an athletic wing that’s already a solid defender. Whether he develops into an elite player remains to be seen.
But Young’s postseason heroics have already quieted the steady criticism Schlenk has received for the deal over the past two years. Even if Reddish doesn’t pan out, those critics should be permanently hushed.
Atlanta’s present and future appears as bright as any other organization in the league. Many people are responsible for that, but none should get as much credit as Schlenk.
**B.E.’s Bonus Nuggets**
–I own a small ticket on the Hawks at 100/1 odds to win it all. My amount pales in comparison to some large wagers that a few Las Vegas books have liability on if the Hawks continue to enjoy success, though.
–Here are the updated future numbers from The Westgate SuperBook’s Jeff Sherman:
–McMillan didn’t give ‘Bogi’ an injury designation for Game 1 when he briefly met with the media on Tuesday:
–Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been writing about the Hawks for nearly four decades. His most recent column proclaims that the Hawks are Atlanta’s team (ahead of the Braves and Falcons) for the first time in a long time.
–Here’s the schedule of games for the East finals: