I don't really think you can call the Hawks a bad team.
Well they only won 45% of their games this season. That sounds like a bad team to me. They're a bad offensive team and a bad defensive team, that's not a team that's close to contending. That's a team that is a long way away and in need or serious restructuring. The only reason they're in the playoffs was because the East was so poor.
They didn't even have any injuries this season. This was their best effort with this game plan.
You guys have a lot of good defenders (Smith, JJ isnt bad), so I think lack of defense you guys have shown can attributed to the your coach.
Two good defeners isn't a lot. They have only one/two other average defender(s) in Horford/(Zaza). The rest of the rotation players on the team are all below average (Marvin, Childress) to abysmal (Bibby).
They're a bad defensive team because they only have one good perimeter defender and give up dribble penetration every single night. Check the game logs, 8 out of 10 opposing team's point guards desyroy this team.
They're a bad defensive team because they have no good post position defender. Josh Smith is a good help defender but he isn't much of a man-to-man defender just yet. Either is Horford. They're also terrible at protecting their defensive backboards ranking 5th worst in the league for percentage of defensive rebounds grabbed versus offensive rebounds given up. They regularly get beaten up in the paint because of their lack of size down low.
This is not coaching. This is personnel.