Areas Of Improvement For Playoffs

Offensive consistency

The Hawks epitomize the mantra “live by the three, die by the three.” Their offense is predicated on moving the ball and exploiting mismatches in order to find an open shooter. Last year’s Hawks did a great job of this, pacing them to 60 wins. This year though, there is too much inconsistency on offense.

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Kyle Korver suffered through a difficult start to the season, but recently has turned his shot around, shooting better than 50 percent in the month of March. Though it’s great to see Atlanta’s best sharpshooter turn his game around, there are still periods where the offense cannot buy a shot.

Of course it’s part of the game. Teams buckle down on defense or no one’s shot is falling; but the Hawks have a distinct problem of creating offense when no one can make a jump shot. They are unable to try to create offense in the paint or try to get to the line when nothing is working.

Against the Raptors, the Hawks were not the recipients of favorable calls, demonstrated by the 23-9 free-throw disparity between the two teams. When the Hawks don’t get calls, the offense stagnates.

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This will be an issue in the postseason if the Hawks can’t shake off their frustrations. They have to do a better job of playing to their core competencies, even when their shots aren’t falling or when they aren’t the beneficiaries of foul calls.