No news = good news?
You can bet Matt Harpring, Jerry Sloan and the Jazz will be ready to go against the Hawks tonight at Philips Arena.
HAWKSVILLE – The status of Hawks starting small forward Marvin Williams hasn’t changed since yesterday. He’s still sidelined indefinitely with a lower back injury that could ultimately cost him the rest of this season.
But as of game time Wednesday night at Philips Arena, Williams and the Hawks are still awaiting word from specialists at Duke University before they announce any further information. It still sounds like it’ll be the end of the week, and perhaps even a bit later, before anything certain comes to light in regards to Williams.
What should be a heck of game is being overshadowed by the ongoing story surrounding Williams. The Jazz showed up tonight sporting a 12-game win-streak, the NBA’s longest current streak of the kind.
These two teams also have some interesting bad blood leftover from a couple weeks back, when Josh Smith whacked former Marist and Georgia Tech star Matt Harpring on a hard foul and was ejected from the game the Hawks lost in Utah Feb. 23.
Smith promised before the game that anything that happened that night was in the past. I’ll bet the Jazz coaches reminded Harpring and everyone else in their locker room about what went down. Those are the sorts of things that a hard-nosed bunch like the Jazz won’t forget.
They’ll be ready to rumble. So the Hawks better be as well.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
427 comments Add your comment
dmortone
March 14th, 2009
3:42 pm
Luckily, the heat decided OT would be a good time to stop playing defense
dmortone
March 14th, 2009
3:53 pm
Spoke too soon, double OT…
BA
March 14th, 2009
4:12 pm
No blog= we’re still on the Utah blog
Ken Strickland
March 14th, 2009
4:17 pm
BIG UMP-what some of us HAWK FANS realize about the annual increase in the number of wins is this:
(1)When you start out with just 13 wins, how much coaching does it take to increase that total the following yr?
(2)When you have a GM(BK) that annually drafts talented young players, despite the ones he missed, that are quick, fast and athletic, like Smoove, Marvin, Horford, Solo, Salim and Acie, who work very hard in the off season to improve, an annual increase in wins would be a natural occurance as these players progressed.
(3)When your GM(BK & Sund)add a sprinkling of talented Vets like Zaza, JJ, Bibby, Evans and Murray to the mix, how can you not improve and increase your wins along the way?
(4)The annual increase in wins is more a result of maturity, individual player improvement, chemistry, attitude and added talent, NOT COACHING.
A-Coaching would either have us comfortably entrenched as the 4th seed instead of having to look over our shoulder at Miami.
B-Coaching would probably have us higher than the 4th seed.
C-Coaching would make us a far more consistent team, especially at this juncture in the season.
D-Coaching would allow our bench players to be more productive and lessen the load on our starters, especially JJ, who’s currently 2nd in the NBA in mins played.
E-Coaching would have our younger less experienced players, like PG ALaw, G MWest C/PF’s SJones and RMorris much further along in their development and contributing much more to the teams success.
F-Coaching would have us employing an uptempo style of OFF and using our speed, quickness, youth athletism and depth to RUN TEAMS INTO THE GROUND.
NO BIG UMP, IT’S NOT THAT I’VE FORGOTTEN WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED UNDER WOODSON, IT’S JUST A MATTER OF I DON’T RECOGNIZE, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. However, due to circumstances, Woodson has been doing a much better job of coaching, over the last 4 gks, in almost every aspect, and we’ve seen the drastic improvement. In fact, the contrast in play over the last 4 gms, to the previous 4, has shown us how much better we can be as a team when Woodson actually makes an effort to be a coach, instead of a disciplinarian. Imagine, all season long all it took to make us a better and more consistent team, and make it a lot easier to overcome the loss of a key starter(Marvin), was for Woodson to make some adjustments and utilize players that he’s previously ignored for most of the season. WOW!!!!!! BUT AREN’T THESE THE ISSUES WE HAWK FANS HAVE BEEN MAKING ON THESE BLOGS ALL SEASON LONG, TO SAMUEL’S CHAGRIN?
dmortone
March 14th, 2009
4:20 pm
Dammit, the Jazz had the Heat beat. Up 8 with less than a minute left and they let the Heat take them to overtime. I’m glad we have such a long homestand, Miami won’t lose
gypsyjoe
March 14th, 2009
4:22 pm
I can not believe the Jazz lost to the Heat. D-Wade will not let that team go down. It’s going to be a dog fight to the end. GO HAWKS
dmortone
March 14th, 2009
4:25 pm
One thing I will say though, from watching this game, we do have a distinct advantage over the Heat. They’re incredibly good at getting into the passing lanes and causing turnovers, and the Hawks don’t pass the ball unless they get double-teamed, so that’s one positive about our iso “offense” we have going for us if(most likely when) we play the Heat in the first round.
Chea
March 14th, 2009
7:22 pm
Great post Mr. Strickland. You couldn’t have said it any better.
terrell barron
March 14th, 2009
7:32 pm
Damn you D-Wade! Miami is still creepin.
ant banks
March 14th, 2009
9:20 pm
ken, you definitely get MVB-MOST VALUABLE BLOGGER for the month! (Awards will be handed out in December). that was very though provokin’ and well worded.
despite your comments, i don’t see sund gettin’ rid of woody.
this summer will be very telling. i am waitin’ til august to renew my season tix. i want to see what moves the hawks are goin’ to make. it seems like we are ONE, 1, Uno, Un, player away from bein’ an elite team. i am really curious to know if the hawks will try to go the cheap route or will spend a li’l bit to get to that next level.
ant banks
March 14th, 2009
9:24 pm
jj will be an FA after 09-10 season. i think that gettin’ one more good player will keep him here for another 3-5 yrs.
the way that the hawks are playin’ now, i feel very good goin’ into the playoffs. miami has 9 games on the road, while we have 9 at home. i like that odds of us keepin’ the 4th seed.
i am worried though about miami losin’ the 5th seed. i would much rather play miami over 7 games. it would be more excitin’ playoff atmosphere with miami than with detroit or philly.
ant banks
March 14th, 2009
9:30 pm
i personally owe a big apology to b knight. i ripped him for pickin’ marvin over derron and cp3, but had he picked either of those guys, we would not have horford. I LIKE HORFORD!!
b knight’s insistance on pickin’ a team full of athletic forwards have us in th position that we are in now. these 6-9 6-10 guys create match-up problems on a night in night out basis.
b knight’s great moves- smoove, jj, horford, law, childres, solo, marvin
b knight’s bonehead moves-sheldon williams, speedy claxton,
i think that we all have to re-evaluate our assessment of knight’s tenure.
rms
March 14th, 2009
9:54 pm
Woodson=COY
RLP
March 14th, 2009
10:35 pm
From Mark Stein of ESPN re 8th seed in the East which was discussed here recently:
“A leftover from last week’s Weekend Dime that didn’t quite make the cut — an Eastern Conference scout discussing which teams will grab the seventh and eighth playoff spots in the East:
“Without deeply analyzing the schedules, I’d go with Philadelphia and Charlotte. Milwaukee has too many guys injured even though Scott Skiles has them playing really hard. And I like Charlotte more than Chicago or New York or anyone else down there. They play together. They defend. They seem to be buying into [Larry Brown's] stuff.
“The way [Boris] Diaw plays has helped [Emeka] Okafor. You have to go out on the perimeter to guard him because he can shoot 3s, but he can drive by you, too. Larry likes guys he can play through and he can play through Diaw.
“But it’s mainly because they’re a team that, to me, seems to be pointing up. I can’t say that about a lot of teams around them.”
doc
March 14th, 2009
11:02 pm
your quote samuel:
doc, “You got to be kidding me about Outlaw. You oviously don’t really know how the game is played with that comment. There are plenty of players in the league with these “learning disabilities”. Hell, half the students in the public school system are diagnosed by you guys with some kind of disability.
Has nothing to do with him on the court, trust me. You can have your scholarly “heady” guys and i’ll take the SPED players and beat you by 50.”
no samuel, i wasnt kidding, here is the article describing how heady guys saved the kid outlaw and how the portland organization from the gm to the head coach and assistants have done something pretty special in there commitment to their young players. just no dog houses there. they have committed themselves to teaching the young guys to succeed. i applaud it. truly hope you take the time to read it. here it is and again, no, i am not kidding:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-outlaw121807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
it has everything to do with how outlaw is on the court doesnt it? i really hope you took time to read it as you may stop your constant anti-intellectual theme for lack of a better way to say it and realize there are some folks out there where it is more about who you help to succeed rather than the other way around. i dont expect it because your beliefs are pretty ingrained.
also not too sure what you meant by the “you guys” comment. if i read it right you seem to be implying or inferring something about me that is truly sad. i think most that really know me would say you are so far off base it is shows where your heart, uh no, mind, really is on just about every argument. do you really generalize that much on “us guys”? sad, truly sad.
just the same i am pulling for woody and our guys tomorrow, expect to be there yelling loud.
doc
March 14th, 2009
11:55 pm
interesting stats, the team is:
2-0 when jj out
0-2 when bibby out
7-0 when williams out
6-7 when josh is out
6-8 when horford is out
11-1 when mo starts
guess we can do without jj and marvin. heh heh not but maybe marvin especially if it puts jj there for exteded minutes even if it means it opens the baseline for him to drive. he has been very efficient in his scoring in recent games.
ray
March 15th, 2009
1:05 am
RLP,
My pick has, and remains….Charlotte. And for pretty much all of the reasons you mentioned.
Big Ump,
I feel you on that. It’s usually the same ones over and over.
Doc,
That was totally amazing, huh? Somehow, your assertion that Nate McMillan is a better coach than Mike Woodson turned into “you guys” being responsible for the diagnosis of half the children in public school. Wow, and all this time I thought you were a retired trauma surgeon.
One would think most of the “learning disabilities” children experience come from either insufficient input/help at home…or the occasional simple-minded moron that the public school system was obliged to hire and retain.
On another note, you’d think that such a wealth of knowledge about how the NBA game is played and coached would at least result in a coaching job in the NBA, right? Okay, how about an assistant coaching job? Um, a collegiate coaching job? Uhhh, how about as an analyst for one of the sports networks? Assistant analyst? No? How about the guy who makes the coffee and holds the microphones up in the background? No? Okay fine….middle/high school gym coach it is….
As for the Woody issue,
There is a difference between hating Woodson and not agreeing with the idea of him being coach of the year. Some people need to figure this out and stop all the exaggerating, posturing, and other nonsense. Of course, it would probably be easier to tell a fish not to swim, or the wind not to blow. Oh well, keep walking blind if you insist…
I’m glad the Hawks are winning. I don’t see Woody as “COY” and I stand by that. We’ll see who gets the votes at the end (and no crying foul when he doesn’t get it). If he gets it, I’ll clap like anybody else.
I will say this much: if we make it to the second round of the playoffs, he probably gets an extension. If we bow out in the first, he’s most likely out of a job. And for the upteenth time: we’ve seen winning coaches lose jobs after a winning season. Woody isn’t immune. Make of that what you will…either the guy will stay, or he won’t.
happyhawk
March 15th, 2009
1:24 am
i have a strong vibe that rick adelman might win as COY by the end of the season.
happyhawk
March 15th, 2009
1:50 am
ray, i just want to make adelman as an example. He got fired by the Maloofs after bringing the short-handed and not so talented kings team against the spurs and they gave them a tough series. I’ve always thought that rick did a great job and deserves to keep his job but we all know what happened. After getting signed by houston, he turned the inconsistent team into contenders not to mention the making an nba record for winning 20+ consecutive wins. Its kinda depressing as talented as our hawk team and yet we can’t win consistently. I’ll be really surprised if woody wins as COY. Even if he wins it i still don’t think that he deserves it.
Lacsho
March 15th, 2009
10:16 am
Great article Doc
terrell barron
March 15th, 2009
12:17 pm
I hope none of the guys hit the clubs last night. It’s almost gametime. lol!!
terrell barron
March 15th, 2009
12:37 pm
I didn’t know the Rockets picked up Kyle Lowry?? They gave up a 1st?? Wow! I thought they were going with Aaron Brooks.
terrell barron
March 15th, 2009
1:27 pm
Woody needs to leave JJ at the 3 for the rest of the year. Let Marvin back him up if he comes back. Let Flip/Mo run the 2.
Ken Strickland
March 15th, 2009
1:35 pm
DOC-the was an informative article. Anyone that can’t appreciate the significance of that approach might need some of that special attention and understanding. I hate to beat a dead horse, but couldn’t you just visualize Woodson when they mentioned how some of the diehard old schoolers would react in this situation. Just look at the treatment most of our young players have received from Woodson, and he hasn’t had to deal with the problem McMillan has successfully dealt with.
terrell barron
March 15th, 2009
3:08 pm
Best overall game I’ve seen from this team in a long time.
terrell barron
March 15th, 2009
3:11 pm
Why is Flip Murray still in the game????????
doc
March 15th, 2009
4:22 pm
tb agree with your thoughts there about jj and the team. the worst thing about the game was the seats were not full. great overall game today by everybody.