Atlanta Hawks’ lackluster effort vs. Orlando leaves door open for Magic comeback: Fan reaction

As an Atlanta Hawks fan, I was hoping that Atlanta would be able to close things out in Game 5, but historically this franchise has always had trouble putting teams away.

In the Orlando Magic's 101-76 blowout win over Atlanta, all the bad habits of the Hawks were on full display and it seemed the Hawks were out of the game from the very beginning.

When one talks about on-court bad habits and being undisciplined, the first person to come to mind is Josh Smith(notes)

The game started ominously with a Josh Smith 22-foot jump shot— an ill-advised bad shot that the Magic will gladly let him have all night— and he missed. Then, it got worse because he went on to miss another jumper and two free throws in the first quarter.

Plus, Marvin Williams(notes) turned the ball over in the first quarter twice which led to easy transition points and it seems the game was over at that point.

Coach Larry Drew's decision making becomes a concern and his choice of inserting Jamal Crawford(notes) earlier in the first quarter was not a catalyst , but added fuel to the fire along with Marvin Williams' miscues.

Jamal Crawford's shot wasn't falling and his defense was lacking. This helped to continue leave the door to a second wave of Magic momentum led by J.J. Reddick who scored eight points in a pivotal first quarter.

Coach Drew continues to ignore using Jeff Teague or a Damien Wilkins(notes) who could have been inserted in the lineup to provide a better defensive effort to contain the Magic.

Dwight Howard(notes) got into early foul trouble, but the lack of effort and energy by the Hawks' starters was very disappointing and shows the type of flaws that were exposed during the regular season.

With the series going back to Atlanta, it is definitely a must-win game for the Hawks. Hopefully, Coach Drew is able to reclaim his team because it seems like the Hawks 'quit' on him and themselves on Tuesday night.

If Drew sees Josh Smith taking bad shots, he needs to yank him or if Jamal Crawford is missing shots and isn't getting back on defense, he has to ride the bench.

Game 6 will tell us how the Hawks deal with on-court adversity.

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