Hawks still seeking focus, consistency

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Marvin Williams did his best to explain it to rookie Mario West.</p>

But not even a player as intimately involved as the Hawks' third-year forward can fully articulate what it is that makes these Hawks so unbelievably maddening, at times.</p>


After all, how could the same team give up 63 points in one half of a game and then come back in the second half and give up just 24?</p>

"Honestly, it's a lack of focus," Williams said. "That's the only thing I can think of, a lack of focus. That's why I was telling Mario on the bench, when we want to do something, we do it. Flat out. But when we don't, we give up 63 points in a half. But it's really that simple for us, focus."</p>

The Hawks focused long enough Saturday in Minnesota to rally for a win over the Timberwolves, pushing their record to 5-7 with Tuesday's game in Chicago next.</p>

And now comes the hard part.</p>

How do the Hawks make the inspired second-half effort they gave Saturday the norm?</p>

"It comes from making a concerted effort to play like that," Josh Childress said. "Focusing on the little things and the big things will take care of itself. But making sure you're in the correct defensive set and keeping guys off the glass, that's what's going to take us over the hump."</p>

Hawks coach Mike Woodson doesn't have answers that simple to questions that seem to be far more complex. He does agree, though, that the basics of winning basketball have been embedded in his players' minds after years of his barking.</p>

"I just thought our energy level picked up when we started to defend," Woodson said. "We let our offense dictate how we played defense in the first half and you can't do that in this league. We were missing shots and they were making shots and that's a bad combination.</div></p>

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution</p>
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If we played like we did in the 2nd half all game, who knows how good we'd be right now.</p>

 

A lot of it is the willingness to win and play. If guys like Marvin and Horford and Smith step up, the team will rally around that and play great defense. It takes leadership and like the article says, focus.</p>

We just all need to just pray we get a new coach, or Mike Woodson steps down and takes a different role within the organization.</p>