DeMarre Carroll says the Hawks took their foot off the gas down the stretch

The Atlanta Hawks who got swept out of the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers looked nothing like the Atlanta Hawks who won 17 straight games and didn’t lose once in January. Heck, that January team was MIA the final month of the season and most of the playoffs. The uniforms were the same, but aside that it felt like two different teams.

What happened? Injuries were a part of it, but DeMarre Carroll said it was more on the Hawks not being focused. Carroll was on the Sports Radio Talk Show “Go For It”, hosted by former ESPN employee Paul Gant (you can follow it here) and was honest about the Hawks shortcomings.

“I just think that towards the season we knew we were the number one seed we never been in this position before,” Carroll said. “I think we probably took our foot off the gas and I think we learned this season we can’t take the foot off the gas and the good teams can easily play at a high level for a long period of time.”

Carroll on what happened against the Cavaliers, and his knee injury that he played through.

“I think the first game we kind of let it slip away from us,” Carroll said. “We came out the first half really aggressive and I think the second half we didn’t come out wight he same energy and then after that everything started going downhill as far as me being injured, Kyle Korver too, Al (Horford) getting thrown out the game, Shelvin Mack gets injured. So there was a lot of obstacles against us, but you we gotta look forward to next year...

“I was limited big time but the same token many people did not know it was my knee but also had turf toe so it was all on the same leg. Basically, I was just out there on one leg at the same token I got out there I gave it my all but at the end of the day we still came up short as a team.”

Carroll said he thought a healthy Hawks team would have beaten the Cavaliers, adding they really missed Thabo Sefolosha (who missed the entire series after his run in with the NYPD). Not sure what else you would expect a competitor like Carroll to say.

As for Carroll’s pending free agency, he danced around that question.

“You know Atlanta played a big/major role in my life, major part of my family life so it would always be good to get back to Atlanta its a great system that I grew up in and you know kind of excelled in,” Carroll said. “But, on the same token, my options are open and hopefully its Atlanta they will and have, they will be one of my best options but like I said before my options are open and Mark Bartelstein my agent he will handle all that process. He just told me to sit back and enjoy the ride.”