Horford, Noah go separate ways








The Hawks did not appear as motivated to avenge their 18-point loss in Chicago 11 days ago. But it wasn't a lack of effort that led to Atlanta's failure so much as a lack of options. The Hawks defended to the best of their capabilities in the first quarter but the Bulls made the majority of their shots nonetheless.

Once the respective benches got involved and Larry Drew proved reluctant to play reserve center Zaza Pachulia (with two fouls) or Jeff Teague (at all), things got out of hand. The Bulls scored on their first 13 possessions of the second quarter, the first 12 of which Rose watched from the bench. Chicago's MVP candidate -- the M-V-P chants started in the first quarter, even in Atlanta, and didn't end there -- built the early lead and the Bulls turned a 22-point second-quarter lead into a 29-point halftime advantage, and that into a 38-point lead at the end of three quarters.

But Rose's dominance was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the difference between the two teams.

Most telling, over the course of the competitive portion of the game, was that Rose led his team in field goal attempts while Horford, despite going 6-for-7 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the line, took just the fourth-most shots of the Hawks' starters. Josh Smith attempted as many jump shots as Al Horford attempted shots in this game. The Bulls are, defensively, constructed around Noah's skills but the Hawks are not yet committed to playing through their best offensive player.

That dichotomy doesn't account for the full difference between the teams but it does exemplify the difference between the team trending toward the conference finals and the one trending toward a first-round exit.

Read more from LaGree at Hoopinion, the TrueHoop Network's Atlanta Hawks blog