When the Atlanta Hawks fended off the Washington Wizards last spring in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the result was more the product of the John Wall injury and the erratic Washington frontcourt than anything the Hawks did.
It was a close call, of course — Atlanta did plenty of things to earn the series. Al Horford made the defining and decisive play of the six-game slugfest. His effort, not any deficiency on the part of the Wizards, won Game 5 and rescued the Hawks after Paul Pierce called “SERIES!” and put down another big shot to lift Washington to the precipiece of triumph. However, so much of Game 5 before Horford’s heroics was — like a majority of the series itself — a struggle.
Nerve-addled play marked by below-average shooting and poor situational awareness characterized most of Wizards-Hawks last May. Atlanta’s offense found fluidity and form for most of Game 4, and before Wall got hurt, the Wizards had the look of the superior team; in that sense, they weren’t deficient so much as unlucky. Nevertheless, given the circumstances presented to each team, most of that Washington-Atlanta encounter was hard to watch.
Atlanta, to its credit, showed a level of resilience that had not been required of the team to that point in the 2014-2015 season. The Hawks thrived in a 1-through-82 context last season; against Washington, they survived. It’s a skill, and an admirable one, but the quality of play in that series left quite a lot to be desired.
As these teams met each other again on Saturday — for the first time in the new season — everyone in the NBA wondered: Would the Hawks, without DeMarre Carroll, be able to continue their hot start against a team which had committed to a new way of playing with a younger lineup and a more emergent Bradley Beal? Pierce is a Los Angeles Clipper, and the Wizards are playing smaller and faster, with head coach Randy Wittman beginning to win some converts in the District of Columbia. Beal had been torching NBA defenses, and he smoked the San Antonio Spurs earlier last week.
The Hawks entered this season feeling more like one face in a large crowd instead of a standout team. This is partly because Cleveland’s not going to be 20-20 after 40 games this season, but it’s also because Carroll is such a valuable piece to lose. The idea that the Hawks would keep chugging along, regaining their regular-season form this autumn as though the 2015 playoffs never happened, was — from a certain vantage point — reasonable. That point being acknowledged, this team was still going to have to prove itself.
An early-November date with the Wizards represented just such an occasion, and after scoring only 41 points in the first half, with Washington effectively clamping down in a scenario that felt very familiar, the Hawks faced an early moment in their season.
The way they responded to it could plant the seeds of sustained excellence — not just over the next several months, but next spring, if these clubs happen to meet in the 2-versus-3 East semifinal (while Cleveland faces a fourth or fifth seed in the other half of the bracket).
*
It’s true that Kent Bazemore is not going to shoot 10 for 15 from the field in most games, or even 20 or 10 percent of his games this season. On that level, his performance is and will remain an aberration on Saturday. However, the ultra-efficient 25-point display could carry long-term resonance in that Bazemore is showing signs of becoming a much more complete two-way performer. The Hawks died on the vine against Cleveland — and nearly lost to Washington — because the Cavs and Wizards took away Kyle Korver, and forced other Hawks to hit perimeter shots. No offense should rely on perimeter makes, but when they’re conceded to certain players, those players have to take and make at a reasonable rate. When Atlanta’s “others” on the perimeter couldn’t tickle twine, the Hawks’ chances of penetrating and creating easy buckets dwindled. That’s why the Washington series was so hard and the Cleveland series disintegrated into a disaster.
Bazemore’s ability to lead the charge in a 73-point second half on Saturday against Washington — helping Atlanta to once again field a balanced offense — might not mean much come March or April or early May. This could be a brief flicker as the whole of the NBA settles into the season. When Washington plays Atlanta later in the year, the Wizards might see an entirely different version of this role player.
Yet — in tune with the nature of an “NBA moment” — what if this really is part of Bazemore’s awakening in Atlanta, an emergence into a player who exists at a higher tier on an everyday basis?
We don’t know if this is true or will be true, but it’s certainly worth asking: Was Saturday night the moment the Atlanta Hawks found (cultivated?) the more reliable piece which can adequately compensate for DeMarre Carroll?
If so, the Hawks could turn out to be better than we think, which also means they’ll come closer to meeting last season’s 60-win standard than many of us thought.
