Hawks coach Larry Drew played his best hunch Monday night, opting to start young point guard Jeff Teague in place of the injured Kirk Hinrich.
Drew could have opted to deploy veteran Jamal Crawford, known more for his offensive prowess coming off the bench. But Drew said he had faith in the 22-year-old Teague to do a better job defensively on Bulls All-Star Derrick Rose.
The plan worked for the Hawks in the first half as they held a 51-50 lead. Rose missed his first seven shots before ending the half 2-for-10 from the field, including a three-pointer, for five points.
Through third quarters, Rose had 13 points on 6 of 18 shooting. Teague was 4-for-8 for eight points with two rebounds and three assists entering the fourth.
“You know, before we got Kirk in the trade right after the All-Star break, we started Jeff four games and he did a magnificent job,” Drew said before the game. “These are just situations that do come up. And I have always had faith in this kid and I am not going to change now with us being in the playoffs.
“He brings a unique package to the table for us. And certainly he is in a position where he has to step in and play a lot of minutes. And I have all the faith in the world in him.”
While Teague had the primary responsibility of trying to keep Rose in check, his Atlanta teammates also were needed against one of the premier guards in the league.
“He has guarded (Rose) before, this isn’t anything out of the ordinary,” Drew said. “Jeff has guarded some tough guys. This is just the situation being in the playoffs. You don’t go into it trying to change a whole lot. First of all, Rose is tough to defend by anybody. It’s not going to take one guy to stop him. It’s going to be a collective team effort.
“We will approach this situation very similar to a regular-season game. We prepare a game plan; we have to go out and execute our game plan. If we don’t do that, then we are not going to have success.”
Hinrich, known as one of the top defenders in the league, is not expected to be available this series because of a hamstring injury sustained in the Magic series.
Asked before the game if he would offer advice to Teague about defending Rose, Hinrich said: “I kind of just want to leave him alone. If there is something during the course of the game that I feel I can help him with, I’ll try to do that. But right now I just try to leave him alone. I think the staff is doing a good job making sure everyone is prepared. He’s probably real excited.”
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