2) Limiting Turnovers
Prior to Game 1, Lionel Hollins stressed the importance of limiting turnovers against the Hawks. “You can blink and be down 10,” he added.
He may not have known how to prevent them, but he sure knew they were coming. The Hawks took their first double-digit lead fewer than seven minutes into the first quarter, and four Nets turnovers led directly to nine of Atlanta’s points.
The Hawks finished the game with 24 points off 17 Nets turnovers, which swung the game. “That’s a big number,” Williams said of the points off turnovers. “A lot of the games we played them in the regular season, it’s the same thing. Turnovers killed us. So the better we take care of the ball, the more efficient we’ll be.”
The Nets were 9-22 when they turned the ball over on more than 14 percent of their possessions this season, and 29-22 when they stayed under that mark. But the Hawks run a trapping defense that’s quick to recover and ready to swarm ballhandlers. The Nets weren’t prepared for it, and when Atlanta’s defenders eliminated the pocket pass between Williams & Brook Lopez, the Nets were stuck without another option. “We stayed away from some things that they would normally trap on, just for that reason,” Lionel Hollins said Monday afternoon at Nets practice.
“They do a good job with hands, getting their hands up, getting their hands in the passing lane,” Williams added. “If you’re driving to the lane, if you penetrate too far, you’ll have five guys in there on you. So we have to pass early, move the ball efficiently and then drive and put it back on the floor.”
Though Hollins wouldn’t directly say the type of adjustments they needed to make schematically, he admitted the team wasn’t executing their gameplan. “We’ve got to execute better on offense, and quicker ball movement, earlier passing, stuff that I talked about (Sunday) night after the game,” he said.
