Coming up on Game 23
Hey, folks-
Hope all are well. A few things:
While some interesting things were said on the topic, I am going to completely not venture an opinion on the European players thing.
KevinA – thanks for the number crunching (the Hawks are 8-0 when they hit 22 or more assists and 10-1 when JJ has five or more assists) . I think this obviously says plenty about what makes them go. It’’s something that the players and Mike Woodson recognize, that they play their best when they’re unselfish and when they get out and run. Al Horford says this a lot.
This isn’t exactly the most insightful observation you’re about to read, but this obviously happens most when they’re defending and rebounding to start their transition game. It’s trite, but they have to defend well to win.
One thing I’ll say about Jeff Teague – even when he wasn’t playing much, he wasn’t having too much trouble getting to the basket. But he had a pretty low percentage on his drives. It seemed like 1 out of 4 shots in the paint was going in and the rest either bounced off the rim or were rejected.
I asked Jamal Crawford about this, and he said Teague had to figure out the angles he was taking to the basket and so forth. So maybe he’s figured out something. I think it might be a little premature to say he’s ready for a steady diet of minutes – I’d feel differently if he’d gone for 19 points, 15 assists, four steals with just three turnovers against, say, Miami and Milwaukee and not Chicago and Toronto and, too, I don’t know if the NBA is similar to baseball and the NFL where a rookie can have success out of the box but then the “book” gets out on him and he plateaus – but he may well have turned some sort of corner. He would make the second unit, and in turn the team, so much more dangerous.
Anyway, Joe Smith will not be playing again Sunday. Wednesday against Memphis might be the day.
Things I’ll be watching against the Nets:
1) How is Brook Lopez defended?
2) How are the minutes apportioned with the second unit?
3) Can Teague keep up his excellent run?
4) Can the Hawks play even better than they have the past two games?
Apropos of nothing, but Charlotte is in the No. 8 spot in the East right now. and Miami is just one game over .500 (11-10).
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245 comments Add your comment
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:26 pm
better than who?
vava74
December 13th, 2009
6:27 pm
The refs are killing Josh every single game now… he can’t get any calls down under!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:28 pm
Harris has to be to 5 in flops…
vava74
December 13th, 2009
6:29 pm
offensive foul there!
Boy
December 13th, 2009
6:34 pm
not much D being played by either side. we can’t let them hang around.
Boy
December 13th, 2009
6:36 pm
Josh needs to stop yakking at the refs and just play. refs are like elephants, they have long memories and the hold grudges.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:37 pm
wow… what a pass..
Boy
December 13th, 2009
6:42 pm
poor Bibby. he is trying but he just can’t play D anymore.
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:43 pm
Hawks are running away with this one.
vava74
December 13th, 2009
6:45 pm
I like what I see! Teague has very faassst hands!
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:46 pm
The Teaguer! Making steals and dunking on folks!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:46 pm
Coach bout passed out seeing Teague pick Trent’s pocket… like damn… i should be using this kid…
BONE
December 13th, 2009
6:46 pm
Teague will be starting soon like I said
Wabe
December 13th, 2009
6:47 pm
It ain’t fluke, the kid’s got some quick hands…
Loved the finish.
The Realist
December 13th, 2009
6:48 pm
The quality of this blog really has deteriorated.
You had Sekou, who couldn’t write properly. You have Sugiura who writes so sparingly and anemically that it’s less than noteworthy.
The arguments on here are about race + Europeans. What the hell is wrong with this blog? Time to go back to the Squawk
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
6:48 pm
Nets just roll over when they get hit. It’s like the Hawks 3-4 years ago…
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:53 pm
Hawks have scored 101 points in the 3rd!
doc
December 13th, 2009
6:53 pm
dont let the door slam on you the r.
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:55 pm
Take that New Jersey! Pow! Pow! For those two defeats last season.
Ken Strickland
December 13th, 2009
7:00 pm
TRUTH SERUM-is this Brook Lopez Horford is abusing the same guy you’ve been running off at the mouth about? Does he know there’s a gm going on? Does he know you’re his biggest fan? Exactly what does he does that’s so much better than Horford? Why would you want him instead of the man that’s currently whipping his ass? Hee, hee, hee.
Melvin
December 13th, 2009
7:06 pm
Bob Rathbun just said that Sean Williams is a forgotten man… Oh my, I hope Clyde didnt hear that…
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
7:06 pm
Sean Williams sighting! Someone get Clyde!
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
7:08 pm
How is Horford beating up on Lopez?
Lopez has 19 and 11. Horford has 16 and 9. Someone did not get a GED
Melvin
December 13th, 2009
7:08 pm
Look like Othello is trying to help the Nets patient their block shot stats…
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
7:10 pm
“Sean Williams is having a hard time finding minutes on a team that has won only 2 games”. Well said, Bob.
Good game Hawks. Even Hunter is seeing some PT.
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
7:19 pm
Lopez has 19 and 11. Horford has 16 and 9. Someone did not get a GED.
Horford played 27.5 minutes. Lopez has played 38. Someone didn’t make it past addition and subtraction.
Ree Roe
December 13th, 2009
7:20 pm
Good to see the guys on the bench cheering for our reserves. This is a team that pulls for everybody on the floor. RandMo is REALLY hitting that 10-15 ft jumper with some confidence. I don’t think we can look at his play as a fluke anymore. 130 pts with no Marvin or Joe Smith, gotta love it
-REEcently Roe!!!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
7:21 pm
Randolph tried to boom …
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
7:21 pm
Randolph with the hustle…
Blast
December 13th, 2009
7:25 pm
Now that’s how you open up a can of whoop azz on a struggling team!
vava74
December 13th, 2009
7:31 pm
Now that he last lost all that weight it is clearly visible that RandMo has excellent bball fundamentals.
This was already evident from his execution of exercises during the training camp’s media day.
For him to be a valuable big he only needs some fire on his belly…
vava74
December 13th, 2009
7:32 pm
I believe that someone in this blog made a bold bet and lost by a landslide… I wonder who it was…
cp
December 13th, 2009
7:33 pm
Great win. Nothing to complain about.Teague is improving game by game. Love what Mo gave us tonight. Everybody who played scored. Time to get ready for the net opponent.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 13th, 2009
7:54 pm
I gotta say I’m pretty happy the Hawks made me (and some others on this blog) look stupid for picking an upset in today’s game. I know they were playing a terrible team, but they are back to looking like their early season dominant selves.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 13th, 2009
7:55 pm
Sean Williams had three blocks today too, so everyone’s happy.
Alien in ATL
December 13th, 2009
7:56 pm
Northcyde: Kudos – triple shout-out!
I’m late on the blog, b/c just got home of some other b-ball games (daughters playing) so I am behind on the blog. But you hit the nail!! Most of the people on this blog predict/hope for a 50+ win season. So what games are they supposed to lose? If we don’t win against the top teams, we are losers. If we lose against lower teams we are losers. So when are we expected to lose those 25 – 30 games? But of course, it’s Woody’s fault to lose the games we don’t agree too!
D.carter
December 13th, 2009
7:58 pm
Randolph has better post moves than AL and Josh… Give the man some spot duty Woody!!!!! He has 6 hard fouls to give and plays better help defense than i thought
Sam from da Swats
December 13th, 2009
8:07 pm
Nice game Mo, much better flow in your game than terrible Marvin…
Najeh Davenpoop
December 13th, 2009
8:09 pm
I’m not gonna go so far as to say Morris deserves meaningful minutes, but he has improved by leaps and bounds since he first joined the Hawks. He is good enough that the Hawks don’t need to worry too much if Zaza gets injured.
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
8:11 pm
I am one blogger that talks about shared responsibility when it comes to team ball, cut down of the ISO and creating a balance between the bigs, swing and post players.
I have been critical of the coach and the guards. After the last game I said kudos to the guards for multiple games of improved performance and ball movement.
I once again have the pleasure of saying – great game.
Swing players 9-18
Guards 22-42
post players 18- 32
35 assists with 10 from our stat JJ.
Poor Al the most efficient player on the team finally got a few extra attempts. did he dissapoint? 7-12.
I agree with a few seasoned bloggers that it is early in the season and should not create assumptions. But you got to admit – this is a nice trend.
Benjamin
December 13th, 2009
8:13 pm
I do not understand y’all’s criticism of Joe Johnson. He’s not D-Wade, Kobe, or LeBron, but there aren’t many guards aside from those three that I’d deal him straight up for. The dude’s been awesome for us, and if he leaves this summer, we’ll have a hard time replacing his production.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
8:17 pm
my goodness… Rudy Gay has dropped 40 on the Heat with 7 left in the 4th…
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
8:17 pm
Rand Mo has earned my voice for his support. He has done well in his minutes. He deserves the same chance as Teague. He deserves the chance to prove there is no reason to pick a a big in the next draft or panic if Joe Smith decides to leave.
To be clear that does not mean that he has earned it but deserves the chance.
Big Ump
December 13th, 2009
8:18 pm
It’s funny how some bloggers complain about the switching D when the game close and don’t hear anything from them when they blowing out teams. If you really paided attention to the game instead of hatin on certain players, and the HC,you should be able to see they they played straight up sometime down and vice versa.Sometime straight up D don’t work either, that why the HC adjust and go with what’s working for them at the time. Haven’t heard too much about how the HC is a rookie PG killer, except for the very few who will say that he didn’t help Teague develop because Teague did it all on his home.
RLP
December 13th, 2009
8:21 pm
For those who made a prediction for Ken S. The actual record is 3 Wins 0 Loses. Seven games to go.
South ga boy in the atl
December 13th, 2009
8:22 pm
Najeh u r so right about Morris. I’m a lot more comfortable these days about a sustained injury to zsa zsa. He’s definately a different person than last yr, a 40 lbs different and it’s showing. He’s so much quicker and with these blowout wins he’s getting some burn that is giving him confidence. He ant crack the top 10 yet but a big kudos for his work ethic in the last yr. U know what they say “nothing breeds success like success”. He worked hard,he’s getting some burn, and having success. I see a real upside for him now that I didn’t last yr
Jody
December 13th, 2009
8:25 pm
How bout a round of applause for Mo Evans! Great game by him and loved how he stayed aggressive while he was out there. Overall, this was a solid win and I’m enjoying watching Jeff Teague improve and get more minutes as a result. Keep it up young fella!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
8:25 pm
Benjamin…
as Stinger said tonight, “Joe makes everyone’s life easy”…
Sam from da Swats
December 13th, 2009
8:26 pm
big Dave, wouldn’t you love to have that guy instead of Marvin? Marvin will never go for 40…ever!!
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
8:41 pm
Benjamin
Who are you refering to