Campaigning for Acie Law

So MLT, understandably, turned off the Hawks game against the Knicks before the brief 3-minute stint by Acie Law in the last 3 minutes of the game. Woody called a timeout with 3 minutes left to play with the Hawks down by 15. I decided to stay with the Hawks game for two reasons. One, you never know if you can come back against the Knicks. Two, Woody might actually put in Law, who had not played the whole game.

Teams score the easiest against the Knicks when you can penetrate from the perimeter. They're not so great on the help defense. Bibby, while a great outside shooter, cannot beat his guy off the dribble. Law, on the other hand, was all about the dribble penetration in college (I refer to college because Woody hasn't let him play enough in the NBA to reference any of his deeds in the pros).

So what happens when Law finally enters in the game against the Knicks? He goes buck wild. More than likely Woody thought the game was out of reach, so he didn't bother trying to call "plays" (these "plays" usually include people running around aimlessly with no one getting open for 3-4 seconds and then isolating for Joe. Why we need a timeout to set this up is beyond me). With this freedom Law drove past his man on pretty much every offensive possession and either gave to Al for an easy bucket or kicked to an open shooter on the perimeter. He even hit an open 3 of his own. He got 4 assists in that brief 3-minute stint. Then he made a great defensive play on Duhon on the sideline that caused a turnover with 8 seconds to play with the Hawks down by only 4. Law almost single-handedly caused an 11-point swing.

At this point I am praying that they just inbound the ball to Law and let him continue to do his thing. Instead Woody calls a timeout and tries to call one of his patented "plays." The result? Joe throws up an airball from 3. Sad when I feel like the Hawks have a better chance to score when the coach has nothing to do with the play.