Kirk Hinrich has been rehabilitating his left shoulder after having a surgical procedure performed on it in early November. He was cleared for all non-contact drills after a January 3 check-up in Chicago, and hopes to be back in uniform at some point during the Hawks current five-game, nine-day road trip.

When Hinrich returns, the Hawks will have another option in a backcourt that has received contributions from many sources already this season. Before last Friday’s game with the 76ers, Larry Drew talked about the challenge of having increased depth this season:

Meanwhile, Al Horford underwent surgery on his torn pectoral muscle on January 17. Horford was re-examined by Dr. Xavier Duralde on Saturday, and it was determined that he could begin strengthening work in six weeks.

- Marvin Williams (ankle) did not travel with the team for their two-game trip
- Tracy McGrady (back spasms) did not dress for the game at Indiana
- Al Horford (sprained shoulder) left Wednesday’s game and will be re-evaluated on Thursday in Atlanta

The good news… None of the injuries seem to be serious.
The bad news… With the condensed schedule this season, even small injuries can cause players to miss 5-10 games.

Most seasons a player will play through minor injuries with one eye on an upcoming break in the schedule. This season the Hawks will be 50 days into the season before they get consecutive days without a game.

As mentioned earlier, none of the injuries seem to be serious. Both Marvin and Horford had x-rays that came back negative, and no specific incident has caused McGrady’s back pains. Still, an added measure of caution must be taken this season, when time to heal is at a premium.

Here’s hoping that the troops are back from the inactive list as soon as possible.

AP Recap – Box Score – Photo Gallery - Highlights

The Hawks handed the Heat their first loss of the 2011-12 season and improved their own record to 4-1 by posting a 100-92 win in Miami on Monday night. Tracy McGrady, now in his 15th season in the NBA, may not have the athleticism he had when he entered the league as a teenager, but on this night he showed that he can still knock down the 3-ball in clutch situations.

Atlanta executed Larry Drew’s game plan extremely well through the first three quarters, save for a few spurts where they let the Heat get out in transition for easy baskets. In the halfcourt the Hawks forced Miami to settle for perimeter shots with a mix of zone defense and more switching on ball screens than they typically employ. To keep the Heat from getting out in transition the Hawks had solid shot selection and only committed nine turnovers in the game.

All of the Hawks efforts set them up for a clutch fourth quarter by McGrady. T-Mac played all 12 minutes of the final period, scoring 13 of his 16 points while hitting all three of his attempts from behind the arc. For good measure, he added five rebounds and four assists to help Atlanta turn a four-point deficit into an eight-point win.

Joe Johnson also hit a big 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, helping him finish with a team-high 21 points, while Al Horford added 16 points and nine rebounds. Jeff Teague had another solid game at point guard, consistently breaking down Miami’s defense and getting into the paint while taking good care of the ball. Jeff hit six of his first seven shots while scoring 13 of his 15 points in the first half to keep the Hawks within striking distance.

LeBron James finished with a game-high 28 points and Chris Bosh added 19, but the Hawks did a great job of keeping Dwyane Wade out of the lane and settling for jumpers. Wade had 10 assists and scored 12 points, but he shot just 4-of-17 from the field.

The real story of the game was the clutch play from McGrady. With the condensed schedule and T-Mac’s injury history the Hawks shouldn’t plan on counting on these kind of heroics every night, but I think tonight proved that he still has plenty left in the tank to make a big contribution this season. He is definitely not afraid of stepping in to take the big shots.

GAME NOTES FROM HAWKS PR:

– On the strength of 21 points from Joe Johnson and a solid 16 off the bench from Tracy McGrady, the Atlanta Hawks knocked off the previously unbeaten Miami Heat, 100-92 Monday at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

–The win was Atlanta’s fourth in five games, and dropped Miami to 5-1.

– Al Horford also finished with 16 and Jeff Teague turned in a smooth, 15-point, five-assist and four-steal night.

– The Heat led by as many as 10 early, and took a 23-19 lead after one.  Atlanta narrowed the margin at the half, behind Teague’s 13 first half points, 50-47.  The Hawks took advantage of nine Miami turnovers, converting them into 14 points.

– Atlanta trailed by four heading into the final quarter (71-67), and completely dominated the home team in the fourth, outscoring them 33-21.  The Hawks shot 60% in the fourth, making 9-of-15 FGs and held the Heat to 37 percent shooting.

– McGrady had 13 of his 16 points in that crucial fourth, drilling three three-point FGs.

– Atlanta wraps up this three-game road trip Tuesday at Chicago at 8 ET (Sportsouth HD, NBA TV, 680 AM and 93.7 FM).

JOE JOHNSON –
Joe is serving as the Honorary Chairman of Arkansas Baptists Church’s HoopJams this weekend in Little Rock. Joe grew up playing in a similar event in Arkansas called Hoop Fest, and views his appearance at the competition as a good way to give back.

“It’s a chance to give back a little and show my appreciation for what the state and the city of Little Rock have done for me,” Johnson told Lindsey Millar of the ArkTimes.com.

AL HORFORD –
Horford definitely has a busy summer planned and is currently on the opposite side of the globe making appearances for the NBA in China. Al is scheduled to promote Tsingtao Beer (an NBA China partner) and possibly participate in a community event or two. Track all of his activity by following his Twitter feed: @Al_Horford.

Once Al is back stateside he is going to host two youth basketball camps in late June. One will be held in Atlanta at Emory University from June 25-26, and the other will be in Lansing, Michigan, from June 28-29.

JOSH SMITH –
Smoove is also spending some time abroad, working with the NBA’s 5 United Tour. Josh will be making at least two appearances in Spain this month and will join other NBA stars Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose in supporting the tour.

Smoove also has a camp scheduled for this summer (July 8-10) here in Atlanta.

JEFF TEAGUE –
Jeff Teague is hosting a pair of camps in the burbs around Atlanta next week. The first one is at Salem H.S. in Conyers, and the second is at Wheeler H.S. in Marietta.

DAMIEN WILKINS -
Wilkins recently visited the “Star Student” at a local elementary school. (Click Here to watch the video) He is scheduled to join Teague tonight at the Buckhead Bottle Bar (owned by teammate Zaza Pachulia) for a NBA Finals viewing party and Hawks Appreciation event (invitation only).

ZAZA PACHULIA -
Speaking of Big Z, Pachulia will be appearing at the Hawks Youth Basketball Camp early next week at Life University. Zaza is extremely excited for the end of the summer though, when he will lead his native Republic of Georgia in their first-ever appearance in the European Basketball Championships (Aug. 31 – Sept. 18, 2011).

JOSH POWELL –
Powell recently joined up with fellow Atlanta native Dwight Howard and his D12 Foundation to help families in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa whose homes were damaged by this Spring’s tornadoes.  The duo then had a light-hearted moment as they headed for home: rap video.

Keep up with all of JP’s charitable activity on Twitter @jp21reasons.

“We have to do things with energy,” said Al Horford following this morning’s shootaround. “That’s something that needs to be there all the time. We just have to do a better job collectively as a team.”

“It’s basically just energy and effort,” echoed Joe Johnson. “Putting forth the effort and making the mindset that we need to box our guys out and also, us guards getting down there, helping our bigs rebound the basketball.”

One way that Larry Drew is looking to help balance out the rebounding totals is by increasing the minutes of Jason Collins and Zaza Pachulia. Collins brings some added size against the Bulls’ frontcourt and Pachulia always brings energy and effort that helps frustrate Joakim Noah and his assult on the offensive glass.

Still, the Hawks know that it will take a total team effort to win the battle of the boards against this Chicago team.

“They’re just hard workers,” said Horford. “Deng always goes under the radar in the things that he does. Rose, he tip-dunked one in the other day after his own miss. Nobody had a chance to react. They’re rebounding from all different positions.”

MORE ON GAME 5
Handling the double-teams:
Joe – “I know in order for us to be successful as a team I have to score the basketball. If I have to press the issue at times I’m gonna do that. Like I said, I’m gonna try to be as aggressive as possible.”
Jamal – “Just doing what the play dictates, you know. If you get two people on you, you have to find the open man and hope that we finish and take advantage of it. That way they won’t do it. The times where they’re not two people, that is when you have take advantage and go one-on-one or whatever it is you feel like you have to do. Besides that, you just have to play the game. Sometimes try to test it and see how far they go with it.”

In the days leading up to Game 1 it was hard to tell if Teague was “focused” or “nervous” as he attracted bigger and bigger crowds when the team was available to the media. On Monday night I think that question was clearly answered.

“I thought he played a heck of a game,” said Coach Drew after the game.  “He was phenomenal and played like a seasoned vet.  His attack mode and ability to get into the paint, he played like someone who had played a lot of minutes for me.  He stepped up big with the assignment he had tonight.  When he came in the locker room I gave him the game ball.”

Teague also got a lot of glowing reviews from his teammates:

Jamal Crawford: “I thought Jeff was awesome. From Start to finish he came out with a lot of confidence. That’s hard for a guy to play nine minutes in the playoffs and then come out and have to go against Derrick Rose, but Jeff did a great job. He was somebody that led us and we will continue to lean on.”

Al Horford: “Jeff was great. He kept his composure the whole game and played smart basketball.”

Going into the game a lot of the focus was on Teague slowing down Derrick Rose (which he did with help from his teammates), but Jeff also turned in a solid performance on the offensive end. He was the Hawks third leading scorer with 10 points and only committed one turnover.

“Before we went out there he told me to be aggressive, play my game,” said Teague of his instructions from LD. “You can’t get focused on being defensive, defensive, and not being able to attack on the offensive end. He told me to make sure I was aggressive in trying to get to the rim and things like that.”

All in all, it was a great debut as a starter in the postseason. If Atlanta can get similar production from Teague throughout the series it will be a huge lift in an area that was viewed as a big question mark prior to last night.

• This is the first time the Hawks have held a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series since the opening round of the 1970 NBA Playoffs. Back then there were no conferences and only eight teams made the playoffs, so the opening round was the Western DIVISION semi-finals. The major difference in that series was that the Hawks were the heavy favorites as the top-seed from the Western Division, and they held a 3-0 lead before winning the series in five games.
• On Sunday, Jamal Crawford became just the third player in the past 20 seasons to score 20 or more points off the bench in four consecutive playoff games. Kevin McHale did it in 1991 and the other player that did it is none other than Hawks’ Player Development Instructor, Nick Van Exel. “Nick the Quick” averaged 30.5 ppg over his hot stretch in the 2003 NBA Playoffs while helping the Mavs to the Western Conference Finals. Neither McHale or Van Exel was able to score 20 in the fifth game.
• Jamal’s 24.0 ppg in the playoffs is on pace to be the highest average for a reserve in the past 15 years.

Quotes:

• Al Horford:
  This is the first time we’ve been in this position, being up 3-1. You know, we are a different team. They’re coming out and they’re going to give us all they have, so we have to make sure we come out ready.
• Coach Drew:
  (On putting the series away earlier rather than later) It’s very important. I think with this team particularly, I’m always talking about this team growing. To me, them positioning themselves as they are right now, to go into Orlando and to finish this thing off… that’s a huge step in our growth process.
  (On  deciding minutes for the guards) It’s really hard. I actually have a dilemma. There did come a point in the game in the second quarter where I wanted to get Joe back in the game, but yet both Kirk and Jamal were playing really well. Actually, just showing you the kind of person that Kirk is, and the pro that he is, he came over to me and he said ‘we gotta get Joe back in there.’ We left Kirk in there another minute and then we got Joe back in. It’s a nice problem to have. I like having that problem.
• Josh Smith:
  It’ important to get the win. No matter if it’s 7 games… 5 or 6 games. We want to get it done tomorrow, but if not we will have another shot at it at home… we really want to get it done tomorrow.

True, the Hawks did steal home court advantage in Game 1, but in a lot of ways they are victims of their own ambition. Coach Drew stated numerous times before the series started that the goal was to win both games in Orlando. His team split the pair, but even the loss should serve as encouragement that they are using a winning strategy.

For all of the negatives that surfaced in Game 2, the fact remained that the Hawks were a basket away from tying the score in the final minutes.

“We gave up 20 offensive rebounds,” said Drew after the game. ” I don’t see us giving ourselves much of a chance to win a game giving up that many offensive rebounds.”

Except that they did have a chance to win.

One reason for all of the offensive boards (16 of the 20 were in the first half) was the absence of Al Horford in the first half when he was limited to 2:10 of action after picking up two quick fouls.

LD acknowledged that the team missed Horford. “When we lost him in that 1st quarter it changed things dramatically. we just had to try to buy some time until we got him back.”

“By the time I came in in the second half, it took me awhile to get going,” Horford admitted after the game. “It was tough because I was out of rhythm.

One Hawk that never seemed out of rhythm on Tuesday night was sixth-man Jamal Crawford. Crawford hit three more shots from behind the arc on his way to a team-high 25 points. After the game he expressed he summed up the Hawks’ feelings moving forward in the series.

“It is a game of chess,” Jamal said. “They made their moves tonight and we will make ours on Friday. We did what we needed to do and now we have home court advantage.”

Al Horford decided that the trip was “bitter sweet” before adding that the team was “in position to win this game tonight and couldn’t do it.”

In summary, I am in complete agreement with Jamal’s final thought.

“I think there is a positive in every negative,” he said.

I’m pretty sure he would agree with my other thought this morning too. This hotel is definitely strange.

Josh Smith:
A couple of guys went to Universal… went to the movie theater. Me personally, I stayed in my room, I really didn’t do too much. Watched a lot of games yesterday and the day before. I’ve really been enjoying my bed and getting as much rest as possible.

Al Horford:
Yesterday (Monday) me and a couple of the guys went and grabbed some dinner and caught a movie. That was kind of what we did. It took most of the day. We went to see “Source Code” with Jake Jake Gyllenhaal… It was good. I liked it. (Al explained this next part with a big grin on his face.) Zaza thought it was a little too complicated. I don’t think he understood the whole movie in general, but I thought it was good. It was entertaining.

Other than that the Hawks have been seen keeping things low-key around the team hotel and enjoying the Florida weather without getting too much sun.

Game 2 is tomorrow and then it is back to ATL where the players will be happy to get back to their own beds.

Update from Orlando: Watching and Waiting

In some regards, you can’t blame them. Last year Atlanta was emphatically swept by Orlando in the second round, and many of the key pieces are the same for each team. Still, there are plenty of reasons for Hawks FANS to be optimistic. Here are five of them:

1 – Motivation.
Last year is last year. The Hawks have moved on, but they haven’t forgotten.

Revenge… Redemption… Payback… These are all words that have floated around the locker room each time the Hawks faced the Magic in the regular season, and have surfaced again leading into this postseason series.

“”Now we have a chance to kind of redeem ourselves,” said Joe Johnson on Wednesday. “We just have to go out there focused, confident.”

2 – Physically Ready.
Last season the Hawks were forced to go the distance in their first round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, while the Magic were able to rest and prepare.

This season the Hawks are rested. Coach Drew made a concerted effort this season to manage the minutes of Atlanta’s key players. A lot of coaches make that claim during training camp and then can’t resist keeping the starters on the court. LD made the claim and stayed true to his word.

• Joe Johnson averaged 35.5 mpg this season, his lowest since he became a full-time starter for Phoenix (2002-03 season).
• Josh Smith averaged 34.4 mpg, which is his lowest since the 2005-06 season.

Add in the fact that the Hawks haven’t given the starters their normal rotation of minutes since they locked up the fifth seed on April 5 (vs. Spurs) and Atlanta should be plenty fresh as the 2010-11 Playoffs begin.

3 – Defensive Strategy
Last year the Hawks focused on stopping Dwight Howard. Plain and simple.

This year the Hawks want to LIMIT Dwight and keep everyone else off the 3-point line.

A lot of focus is on the “Bigger Line-Up” that LD uses against the Magic, but people forget that the Hawks went big last postseason too. The difference is that Atlanta still dropped down to double-team when they went big last year, and now they put their faith in Jason Collins’ ability to guard Howard one-on-one.

The strategy’s success in the regular season is well documented as Howard’s shooting percentage against the Hawks was well below his season average, and the Magic shot below 25% from behind the arc in three of the meetings.

4 – Offensive Benefits of Going Big.
When the Hawks go big everyone focuses on the defensive benefits, but there are distinct advantages on offense as well.

Horford probably benefits the most as he is able to get off the block and roam out to his sweet spot (15-18 footers) and not worry about banging with Dwight.

Smoove also gets to face a smaller defender and should have more success on the offensive glass.

Even Joe should benefit since it takes away the option of moving Turkoglu over on him and letting Jason Richardson match-up with Marvin.

Speaking of Marvin, with him moving to a reserve role, it gives the Hawks a potent one-two punch when he and Jamal come off the bench. Throw in the recent play of Zaza and the bench could be one of the Hawks biggest advantages in this series.

“Jamal’s been huge for us the last two years, and obviously I’ve tried to contribute when I have been moved to the bench this season at times,” said Marvin after practice on Thursday. “I know what’s expected of me whether I’m starting or coming off the bench. I’m just gonna go out there and do it.”

5 – Ready to Attack.
In past season’s Dwight’s presence in the lane really got inside the Hawks’ heads. Even when he wasn’t blocking shots he was making people miss or make bad decisions simply by being in the area. This season the Hawks seemed to figure out a way around the big man.

“We just trying to be aggressive and make plays,” said Johnson. “If you get into the paint you gotta know that he’s coming to try and block your shot, so you gotta have dump off passes or try and get contact and get him in foul trouble.”

“You can’t just settle for jump shots,” Coach Drew agreed. “You have to attack the rim even though they have probably the most potent defensive player in the league. You still have to attack the rim. You can’t have a fear about it. ”

There you have it, “Five Reasons to Be Optimistic”.

The simple fact is that the Hawks have shown this season that, if nothing else, they can compete with this Orlando team. As the series approaches everyone in the locker room is saying the right thing. (At least six different players used the “one game at a time” cliche.) When the ball goes up in the Playoffs, words don’t mean a thing.

Personally, I can’t wait until 7pm tomorrow. It should be fun to watch.