Time To Heal Injuries kept the 2006-07 Hawks from making the leap to a long-awaited playoff series but did not break their spirit. By Jon Cooper 当一支球队以三十胜五十二败结束一个球季，人们谈论的焦点不会集中在 他们错过了季後赛，而是选秀、重建、交易与遍地野火，但老鹰的目标自 始自终都是季後赛。在你笑之前，想想他们这个球季所遭遇的困境，不要 告诉我季後赛遥不可及。 Woody 说道；「今年的第八种子不过赢了四十场比赛」喔喔，虽然他的球 队年年有进步，也还差了十场比赛。「你不可能说服我，当这支球队的每 位成员都能保持健康，他们也不可能多赢那十场比赛，所以对於未来我非 常乐观。」 美好的时光虽然短暂，但确实存在。每位球迷都记得开季四胜一败、大西 洋龙头、东区第二种子的战绩。那时的老鹰击败了魔术与骑士，两支後来 闯入季後赛的球队，排名甚至超过今年的大西洋组冠军暴龙。 然後？伤病狂流席卷全队，先後带走了十位球员，核心球员无一幸免。他 们总共缺席了163 场比赛，联盟排名第十三；闯入季後赛的球队中，只有 勇士、火箭、热火与篮网排名超越老鹰。 老鹰尤其在控卫的位置上面临严重的困境，去年季後我们所获得的最重要 球员 Speedy 缺赛 39 场，老将 Lue 不惶多让，27 场。 Chlliz 提出他的看法：「我认为无法让Speedy 健康出赛是最大的问题， 因为我们一直想要加快比赛的节奏。」这瘦竹竿也好不到哪去，今年他的 两只脚都曾骨折，十一月因为左脚的伤势而缺席 19 场，季赛的尾声又换 成右脚，让他错过最後8 场赛事。「那不是我当初所期望的，没有人希望 它发生，但我们还是必须克服。」 他们也的确尽力了，为了保持竞争力，Woody 不得不常是多达 21 种不同 的先发组合。 老鹰曾击败六个分区冠军中的五支球队，而要不是他们在面对爵士的那场 比赛中於第四节搞砸二十分的领先优势，他们应该有机会全部拿下（过） 的。老鹰甚至创下自00-01 年赛季以来最长的五连胜纪录，也在一次西区 客场之旅中击败西区球队，是的，那是自 1998 年後未曾有过之事。这支 球队更加强韧，六年来他们第一次能够在下半场与对手来回缠斗，跨越双 位数的落後劣势。 但是年轻与伤病终究毁灭了这支球队。 连自 02 年二月就未缺赛过，已经统治铁人界的 JJ 都被击倒了。去年十 二月十日，铁人的连续出赛纪录中断在376 场。右小腿的扭伤让他缺席了 四场比赛，随之而来的挫伤让他错过了本季最後 21 场比赛。 When he was healthy Johnson was dynamic, finishing tied for 10th in the NBA in scoring (25.0 ppg) and second in minutes per game (41.4). He led Atlanta in points, minutes, field goals made, three-point field goals made, three-point field goal percentage and was tied in assists. Johnson, who is already fifth on the Hawks’ career list for three-pointers (247), set a record by scoring at least 25 points in the Hawks’ first seven games, then was chosen to play in his first All-Star Game, becoming the first Hawk to be so honored since Shareef Abdur-Rahim in 2002. While Johnson again was the team’s unquestioned first option, unlike his first season in Atlanta, this year’s Hawks helped him shoulder the load offensively. But his supporting cast really stood tall when Johnson was hurt. “When Joe went down about two months ago, it put guys in a different light, where they didn’t have to really rely on Joe Johnson,” said Woodson. “That’s to Joe’s advantage. Because now there’s going to be a lot more trust in guys like Josh Smith and Marvin and Childress to be able to make plays and it relieves Joe from all the pressures of having to make plays all the time to get us over the hump.” Despite Childress’ foot injuries, he put up career-highs in points (13.0 points per game), minutes (36.8 mpg), rebounds (6.2 rpg) and assists (2.3 apg) and led the team in field goal percentage for the third consecutive season. Josh Smith retired the “superstar-in-the-making" label he wore his first two seasons and became a leader and go-to guy in Johnson’s absence. Smith, the team leader in rebounding (8.6 rpg) and blocks (2.33), raised his defensive game even higher, earning the right to be considered a candidate for the NBA All-Defensive Team. He was one of three players in the entire League to be in the top 20 in rebounds, steals and blocks, joining Chicago’s Ben Wallace, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, and Phoenix’s Shawn Marion. But Smith really came on offensively. Besides hitting for a team-high 32 double-doubles (he missed his first triple-double by one point,) Smith raised his scoring average every month of the season. While more attention was paid to the occasions that his emotions got the better of him late in the season, “J-Smoove” is determined to get people’s attention by getting the Hawks to the next level. “I’ve been to [playoff] games, it just eats me up inside because I want to be there so bad,” said Smith, who was second on the team in scoring (16.4 ppg) and steals (1.40). “I had a good year this year and I’m looking forward to an even better year next year.” The rest of the Hawks’ kiddie corps also improved dramatically over the course of the season and got a better feel for the NBA game. Marvin Williams showed he could handle the three, averaging 13.0 ppg, including back-to-back-to-back 20-point games in April and 12 20-point games overall. “[This season] has got to be a learning process for all of us,” said Williams, who had the first 20-point/10-rebound game of his career, while setting a personal single-game high of seven assists. “I’m going to go back, hit the weights as hard as I can, try to work on my lateral movement and come back a better defensive player for next year.” Fellow-second-year pro Salim Stoudamire showed tremendous firepower at the end of the season before a right ankle sprain ended his season six games early. Stoudamire averaged over 16 points in his final nine games, shooting .519 from the field, .488 from three and .944 from the line. He set career-highs with 37 points and three-point field goals made (seven). Meanwhile, in the paint, the future looks bright after watching the play of rookie power forwards Shelden Williams, who won NBA Rookie of the Month for April, when he averaged 11.6 points, 7.2 rebounds in 30.4 minutes, and Solomon Jones, who scored 7.2 points, pulled down 4.3 boards and swatted 1.2 shots in April. The duo gave the Hawks quality play inside and gave a much-needed hand to the steady — and steadily improving — Zaza Pachulia (a career-best 12.2 ppg, and 6.9 rpg). Though there is still a lot of work to be done, the message Woodson is trying to get across appears to be getting through. “A lot of these guys have gotten better. If they hadn’t gotten better then I would ask management to let me go because it’s defeating the purpose of what we’re trying to build here,” he said. “As a young group they have gotten better and they will continue to get better. As the years go by, they will continue to get better because they are competitive, young men that like playing basketball.” That competitiveness has the young, eager Hawks itching for next season. “I feel we’re going to be a pretty exciting team [next year],” said Williams. “We have a good core of young guys and we’re all excited to play with each other. If we stick together and continue to play the way we’ve been playing, we’ll have an exciting year next year.” “I think last year you just saw everybody out there just playing free, no mental setbacks, just out there playing their game and that’s a good gauge to see what guys can do,” said Childress. “With the addition of the guys that were injured, if we play that same style, we’ll be very hard to deal with.” “There are a lot of variables going into winning,” he added. “A lot of times we had a couple. We have to just stay together and make sure guys know that this isn’t acceptable.” Woodson stressed that while the group is going its separate ways, they shouldn’t get too far apart and that the unit that started to come together under the duress of the season, needs to use the off-season to strengthen that bond under more relaxed circumstances. “I’ve stressed that this summer has to be spent bonding, the core guys bonding together as a unit, playing basketball together in different areas of our country,” he said. “Spending three- and four-day cliques together where they play and work out and eat dinner together and start building chemistry that way so when we get to veterans’ camp, everybody is in shape, ready to go and feeling good about themselves. “I know these guys are hungry,” he concluded. “They knew that they were very, very close to making the playoffs this year. But we didn’t get it done. I can’t wait until we get back to veterans’ camp.” 原文转载 http://www.nba.com/hawks/feature/Hawks_0607_Season_In_Review_042607.html --

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