No Horford, No Problem for Hawks

Losing an All-Star center usually spells doom for a team that considers itself a championship contender but the Atlanta Hawks have gone 5-1 since losing center Al Horford to a torn pectoral muscle injury over a week ago. While this is a promising start there are still a lot of games left to play this season.

Still, the Hawks were able to take down the Cleveland Cavaliers by a 27-point margin on Saturday beating them 121-94. The Hawks are primarily a shooting team but without their primary low-post scorer they become even more one-dimensional.

What has helped the Hawks this season though is the fact that they are playing outstanding defense. The Hawks have always been a good scoring team but this year they have stepped up their defense and are outscoring their opponents by seven points-per-game.

They are actually outscoring opponents by a 9.5-point margin during the six games that Horford has been out. Atlanta’s offense seems to flow better when they don’t have to worry about feeding the post.

Zaza Pachulia has taken over the center position in Horford’s absence and he has done an admirable job. The Hawks don’t really call any plays for him but he is very good at scoring points off putbacks and tip-ins. He also runs the floor well and hustles to make plays for the team.

Josh Smith has also stepped up his defense in the post. Smith has always been the defensive anchor of the team with his ability to block shots and guard people one-on-one but Smith has also upped his rebounding from 8.5 boards-per-game to 10.7 per game since Horford has been out.  

In previous years an injury to one of their stars would have been a major setback but Atlanta’s depth has been a tremendous asset for them this season. In the past two years there was a huge drop off in production once you got past the Hawk’s sixth man but this season the Hawks have shown the ability to get production from as deep as the 11^th man on the roster.

And that is before you consider the fact that Kirk Hinrich has been out all season. Once Hinrich comes back their backcourt becomes deeper and more versatile since Hinrich can play both guard positions equally well.

But the best thing concerning Horford’s injury was the timing of the injury. You never want a player to get hurt but if a player is going to get hurt it couldn’t have come at a better time than right before a four-game home stretch.

With this season’s compact schedule it’s hard to get practices in but being able to play four straight games at home gave Atlanta the ability to adjust their offense and defense to offset Horford’s loss.

Regardless of how deep or talented a team is it’s hard to lose a player like Horford. At the same time it can benefit a team by giving minutes to a player who wouldn’t normally play as much like when Jeff Teague was forced to start during last year’s playoffs.

Teague made the best of his minutes and is now the Hawks’ starting point guard. The Hawks are going to need someone else to step up this season if they want to go deeper in the playoffs. At least this year they have more options to choose from.

Roosevelt Hall is an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2 and also writes for Shatter The Backboard. He can be contacted at RHall@shatterthebackboard.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.