Wiedmer: Could Hawks be Spurs Lite?

You could call the Atlanta Hawks "Spurs Lite."

In style and determination it wouldn't necessarily be inaccurate or faint praise. Especially since second-year Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was on Gregg Popovich's San Antonio staff for a total of 18 seasons. Only trouble with the comparison is that the Hawks were better throughout the regular season just concluded than the defending world champs, their record (60-22) five games north of San Antonio (55-27).

Budenholzer even sounds a lot like Pops, only less biting. Just listen to this quote to TNT on any changes he might make during the playoffs: "We built our habits during the season. We're just going to go out and play."

And that's just what they did in Sunday's 99-92 victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven, first-round playoff series.

It could have been an easier win, of course. Especially when the Hawks led by 12 after three periods. But after being the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs a season ago, Atlanta appeared to be trying a bit too hard to validate its fans' chants of "We're No. 1" in that final period, the conference's No. 1 seed uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball.

Said the Hawks' Kyle Korver, who led the winners with 21 points, including hitting 5 of his 11 3-pointers: "We kept turning it over. But we kept our patience and pulled it together at the end."

And considering the distraction of Thabo Sefalosha's off-court incident with New York police that resulted in a broken leg and will keep the valuable reserve out of the playoffs, all in all not a bad effort.

Granted, this is but one game. The NBA playoffs are so long it seems as if Tolstoy drew them up. The Old Testament may have covered less time, given that the first postseason games were played on April 18 and the Finals won't begin until June 4.

It's almost enough to make you wonder if the NBA wouldn't love to have its Finals end a day or two before Major League Baseball's All-Star Game. That way, the Finals MVP could quite possibly throw out the first pitch a night after hoisting the championship trophy.

Yippeeee!

But are these Hawks capable of not only reaching the Finals, but also winning it all, something they've never previously done since leaving St. Louis nearly half a century ago? Are they capable of delivering the Big Peach its first major professional championship since the 1995 Braves won the World Series? And should that happen, how long will it take the Hawks to follow the less successful current Braves and Falcons from demanding a new home, with at least 5,000 luxury boxes, all manned by Hooters waitresses and at least one Usher performance for every three home games?

But sticking to basketball only, a close look at this team reveals more than a few similarities with those marvelous Spurs teams. Much like the smallish, outrageously quick and savvy San Antonio point guard Tony Parker, Jeff Teague works similar magic with the Hawks, getting under both the skin and chests of bigger, more physical defenders, using both leverage and speed to score with ease.

If Al Horford isn't quite Tim Duncan down low, especially on defense, he is nevertheless the quiet, steady portrait of professionalism and servant leadership that most championship teams possess, regardless of the sport.

Nor is wing DeMarre Carroll _ a one-time Vanderbilt player before transferring to Missouri _ the same freakish athlete that Kawhi Leonard is, but who is? He still plays tough defense, gets garbage baskets inside and hits the occasional long ball to leave defenders shaking their heads.

As for Korver, he's not the overall player that Manu Ginobili is, but he was the best 3-point shooter in the league this year at 49 percent, and much as Parker's quickness forces switches that free Ginobili and Danny Green for uncontested triples, Teague's talent often frees up Korver for open looks.

Then there's Paul Millsap, who can score six points _ as he did on Sunday _ or 20, depending on the need of the day.

This isn't to say the Hawks are yet the Spurs, who may be the best-run franchise in professional sports when considering their history both on and off the court. The biggest reason San Antonio was 2-0 against the Atlanta in the regular season may be that the Spurs are simply better, regardless of each franchise's overall regular-season mark.

But the East also appears easier than the West. If San Antonio somehow survives all that youth and talent and coaching to reach the Finals, it will almost assuredly expend far more energy than the Eastern Conference champ.

And should the Hawks meet LeBron James and the Cavs, they were 3-1 against King James during the regular season. If Teague can hold his own with Kyrie Irving and Horford can dominate Kevin Love statistically, Atlanta just might have enough to thwart James.

Again, what happened Sunday night inside Philips Arena is just one game. And Horford dislocated his right pinkie finger, which certainly seemed to hinder him in Sunday's final minutes.

But only the Spurs would seem to have a coaching equal at this point to Budenholzer, whose bachelor's degree from prestigious Pomona College focused on philosophy, politics and economics, which just might be the most perfect trio imaginable to deal with today's professional athlete.

Said the Hawks coach to TNT over the weekend: "We're incredibly fortunate to have a lot of really good players. All five of our (starters) can make a play, make a decision, make a read."

If that doesn't sound like the Spurs, nothing ever will.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.