Although the Eagles lost to the Bucks 2-4 in the Eastern Conference Finals and failed to make it out of the Eastern Conference, no one would think that they were losers. On the contrary, they have been a very successful season for the Eagles. However, this season’s The process has not been smooth sailing.
Before the start of the season, the Eagles introduced strong veterans such as Gallinari, Bogdanovic, Rondo and Dunn. They are also considered to be one of the big winners of the offseason. Their book strength has improved significantly. He thinks he will play something in the new season. They started with a wave of three-game winning streak. The first five games won four games. It looks like you have a great momentum and you seem to have the momentum to rise to the sky. However, after five games, the situation for the Hawks has taken a turn for the worse.
They quickly suffered a four-game losing streak, losing five in seven games, and to make matters worse, Bogdanovic suffered a right knee avulsion in the loss to the Hornets on January 10, 2020. Fractures, accompanied by tissue inflammation and bone contusion, Gallinari also suffered an ankle sprain, and Rondo also stopped due to injury, Dunn is a long-term high-hanging free battle card, four major new aids At the same time getting into injury troubles, this also gave the Eagles a head, not only seriously affected the team’s running-in, but also greatly reduced the team’s strength.
In the losing streak brought about by the injury wave, the aspiring Eagles also broke out internal contradictions. The Eagles once held an origin meeting, but in the meeting, the internal conflicts within the team were made public. The inside general Collins publicly questioned Trey Young’s play style. He believed that Yang did not participate enough on the offensive end and he felt that he should reduce it. Unnecessary shots, as well as reducing one person’s singles, and then other teammates are standing outside watching the scene, he hopes that the team will let more teammates touch the ball when attacking. However, Chu Yang disagrees with Collins’s “nomination-style” criticism, and even dislikes it. During the meeting, Yang didn’t express his attitude. Afterwards, Yang and other teammates stated that he strongly opposed this evaluation.
The Eagles’ internal and external twins are openly disagreeing, which has also greatly hurt the unity of the team. After mid-January, their record has always been ups and downs, with fewer wins and more losses. As a result, the team fired coach Lloyd Pierce and righted assistant coach Nate McMillan as the acting coach. It was this change of coaches that brought miraculous effects. They quickly played a wave of eight consecutive victories. The disagreement between the two was resolved, the conflict between the generals and the generals was gradually resolved, coupled with the return of the wounded, the Eagles finally embarked on a regular basis.
After experiencing a period of five games and four losses, the Eagles won 11 strong rebounds in the next 14 games. At the end of the regular season, they even ended with a wave of 7 wins and 1 loss. The record has been promoted to fifth place in the East. In the playoffs, the Eagles played even better. They easily eliminated the Knicks 4-1, and beat the 76ers 4-3 upset in the second round to enter the Eastern Conference finals. In the Eastern Conference finals, they faced the powerful Bucks. They were not at all shocked. Not only did they win the first game, they were also tenacious. To tie the score, it was only after Trey Young suffered an injury that he lost two consecutive games and was eliminated.
The biggest reason for the Hawks’ success in the playoffs lies in their defense. In fact, since McMillan took office, the team’s defense has improved to a notch. In that wave of eight consecutive victories, the Hawks’ defensive efficiency (105) is the highest. Second in the league, second only to the 76ers, averaging 43.5 points per game to limit the opponent’s internal score, ranking 8th in the league. On the outside, the Hawks also effectively suppressed the opponent’s three-pointer. Their offensive efficiency is also ranked 7th in the league with 116.4, which can be described as both offensive and defensive.
In the playoffs, they limited the Knicks’ scoring to more than 100 points in three of the five games in the first round, averaging only 97 points per game, and they used targeted defense to lock Randall. , It succeeded in strangling the lifeblood of the Knicks. In the second round, facing the powerful 76ers, the Hawks also designed a highly targeted defense, fiercely attacking Embiid on the inside, venting Simmons on the outside, and using hacking tactics to let Simmons give up martial arts. At the same time on offense, they are fully blooming under the tandem of Trey Young. These are largely due to the outstanding performance of acting coach McMillan.
Just because of this, the Eagles quickly used a four-year contract to get the acting head coach McMillan to become regular immediately after the end of the Eastern Conference Finals series. In the middle of the season, the Eagles management reached a consensus early, that is, leaving McMillan to be the ball. The team’s primary task, it can be seen that the team management also believes that McMillan is the biggest treasure they have unearthed this season and the biggest reason for their success.
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