Hawks Defeated by Heat in Preseason Matchup

By Morgana Kennedy

Hawks assistant coach Darvin Ham after the preseason game against the Miami Heat at Philips Arena, Oct. 18. (Photo Credit: Morgana Kennedy)

ATLANTA – Gerald Green and James Ennis scored 19 points each leading the Miami Heat to victory over the Atlanta Hawks 101-92 at Philips Arena, Sunday.

Hawks Mike Scott also finished with 19 points and lead the team in rebounds while tallying three assists in 25 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to take the Heat. Atlanta had a decent showing in the second quarter but they weren’t as strong in the third.

“In the third quarter, they played really hard. I thought they played with a lot of energy, and we turned the ball over a lot,” head coach Mike Budenholze said. “We only got 16 points and we gave up 31. Credit to some of their guys who came in that third quarter and they just played with great energy and great effort.”

The Heat scored 28 points off of 22 Hawks’ turnovers. Four of the Heats’ players scored over 10 points in contrast to only three of the Hawks.

Despite the loss the Hawks have had a strong showing in the preseason winning four of the last five games.

As they prepare to enter the regular season the Hawks are focusing on defensive rebounding.

“That’s something we’ve really put a lot of time and effort and focus on in the preseason, and in practice and in film sessions,” Budenholzer said.

“We feel like we can be a good defensive rebounding team,” he said. “It’s something we’re conscious of and we’re working hard to be good on the defensive boards.”

The Hawks have some new faces. They’re feeling out different players in rotation mixing and matching on offense, according to assistant coach Darvin Ham.

“It’s not so much about the wins and losses at this point in the year as it is trying to get better at things that we’re working on in practice,” Ham said. “During the course of this preseason, season and earlier at the start of the year we’re feeling different guys out…and seeing what they’re able to give us.”

Newcomer Edy Tavares joins the Hawks this season. As one of the best players in Spain he shows a lot of promise. With English as a second language he had a challenging start, but that doesn’t hinder his performance on the court. Tavares scored a total of eight points in tonight’s game.

“He’s feeling much more comfortable. Being on a new team is hard, new language, everything. It takes a little time. He’s coming along very fast. He’s starting to understand everything. He feels more comfortable out there. It’s up to us to make the game easy for him,” Hawks Al Horford said.

The Hawks didn’t quite click with each other as well as their opponent in this game, Horford said. This is something they’ll have to work on if they want to succeed this season.

“The biggest thing is making sure we’re comfortable playing with each other,” Horford said.

Overall the Hawks look good, and this loss may just be the result of less urgency to win due to it only being a preseason game.