Hawks squawks: Hawks 93, Bobcats 92 (OT)
What’s up, folks?
Ken Sugiura sitting in again for MC. He’ll be back Sunday.
It’s always interesting reading through the game thread after the game is over (which I just did). It looks like most of you (understandably so) did not see the game going the way it did, although, to your credit (I guess), you didn’t flip-flop completely. There was some measured acceptance of the win, but some “We can’t play like this.”
Some points – The Bobcats have the Hawks’ full attention. Or at least they do now. Mike Bibby, Joe Johnson and Mike Woodson all noted how hard Charlotte plays and how well they defend. You might not know that Charlotte has taken three of four from Cleveland and had won seven of their last eight, including wins over the Lakers and the Magic. This isn’t a bad team.
Said Joe, “They play hard for 48 mintes. They don’t back down to anybody. Give them a lot of credit. Larry Brown had those guys rolling.”
I think some of that went into how the Hawks looked offensively, though I would not say it accounted for all of it. The Hawks turned it over 17 times and I wouldn’t pin that on Charlotte’s defense. Josh Smith was unusually loose with the ball with a seas0n-high six turnovers.
- Rebounding was not great. I was surprised to see the Hawks actually had more rebounds, 51-49. Gerald Wallace had 16 rebounds. But Marvin Williams had a solid game after his clunker against Toronto – 14 rebounds, 12 points on 5-for-10 shooting.
- The last shot of regulation. I’d say what killed the play was the botched handoff between Jamal Crawford and Joe. It forced Joe to retrieve the ball near midcourt, which gave the defense more time to get into him. It’s not clear to me why Josh was the bail-out option in the corner.
Woodson: “They sucked in on Joe and ‘Smoove’ was open. He’s got to take that shot. It looked good when it left his hand. That wasn’t the shot we were looking for, but we were forced into taking that shot.”
- Smith had a great will-imposing stretch in the third. In the third quarter alone, he had 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting, five rebounds, two steals and an assist. That’s pretty dang impressive. Only two other Hawks scored in the entire quarter, Marvin and Al Horford with two each. He basically kept the team in the game. (He also had three turnovers.)
- Horford came alive when the Hawks were down 10, 76-66. He was doing all the small things, setting screens, getting rebounds and hustle points. Here’s what my notes say. Down 76-66, he made a free throw, missed the next, but got the putback by rushing the basket to make it 76-69. He forced a turnover on the next possession and then set a screen for Jamal on the ensuing possession, leading to a basket. On the Hawks’ next possession, he set another screen for Jamal, who hit that fadeaway rom the right side over Raymond Felton that hit the front of the rim and fell in to make the score 76-73. On the ensuing possession, he foiled an alley-oop to Wallace, who was soon after whistled for three seconds. He hit a jump hook to make it 78-75.
Al: “Fourth quarter is kind of clutch time. I felt like I needed to be a little more aggressive and get after it and make plays when the team needed them to be made.”
- Al on playing in front of Michael Jordan: “I saw him in the second half. I was pretty excited about it. I’ve never actually met him. I don’t know him personally, and even though it’s his team and all that, it’s still exciting knowing that he’s there taking the time out of his day to watch us. You definitely want to look good in front of Mike.”
- In a way, that amazes me, that a highly successful professional athlete would be that excited about who’s in the audience, but in a way it doesn’t. It just shows how revered Jordan still is.
- Joe said it took him a while to get his rhythm, having rested for five days. I was listening to the radio broadcast on the way home – 790 had the Georgia Tech broadcast during the Hawks’ game – and at the start of the second half, Dennis Scott said it looked like Joe was “in a daze,” which is about right. He dribbled into traffic a few times and just looked lost. But, obviously, he found the range, making 7 of his last 12 shots.
On the game-winner: “I knew I had 3.8 on the clock. I knew I could take a few dribbles and try to get to a sweet spot on the court where I could get a good look.”
- For what it’s worth, Joe commented Friday morning on an ESPN report that cited an unnamed league source saying that any team that wants LeBron James should go after Joe, because LeBron apparently wants him as a teammate.
Joe kind of laughed and then looked like he didn’t know what to say, then said, “I haven’t heard anything about that. I haven’t seen it. Right now, my main focus is with the Atlanta Hawks ballcub and what we’re trying to do here as a team. We’re really trying to do something special. We’ve got the pieces. Now it’s about us as players going out and executing and getting wins.”
- Have a good weekend!
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89 comments Add your comment
northcyde
March 20th, 2010
3:30 pm
That’s what’s great about the tournament. A guy can actually play himself into the 1st round or the lottery with a great performance. Sahman may do just that, if he can play well in the South Regional.
O'Brien
March 20th, 2010
3:35 pm
Lots for me to get to.
First of all, good win for the Hawks tonight. Our players hung in there, and battled back in the fourth when it would have been easy to give up.
Great game by Marvin, 12 pts, 14 rebounds. I just wish we could get these kinds of games from him more often.
Great job by the bench, and props to Woody for only playing Bibby 15 minutes.
Joe was Joe. He struggled, but came through in the end. And to think, some people think the Hawks should let him go. We need JJ more than he needs us.
Hawks had 2 plays in the Sportscenter top 10. Dunk by Josh, and JJ’s game winner.
My (constructive) criticism is:
Woody has to realize that there are certain teams against who the switching defense has not been effective. Charlotte is one of them, so why do we continue to switch? Especially at the end of the game. And I wish Woody would make better use of his timeouts.
Some bad turnovers by Josh trying to make the Jason Kidd passes. Fortunately, they didnt cost us.
However, Charlotte helped us out too. If Jackson makes both FT, we’re down 4, and in trouble. Also, Felton went too quickly on that last possession, so that gave the Hawks 4 seconds to score.
But overall, great job winning this game, and we made enough plays to win. Bring on the Spurs.
Grandad
March 20th, 2010
3:42 pm
TP:
Are you serious?
Thanks – bigdave.
I love the tournament.
Greatest sporting event on earth. [opinion/hyperbole]
If we lose Joe…we better figure out how to move up
in the draft, high enough, to select Xavier Henry!
Grandad
March 20th, 2010
3:46 pm
Even if we don’t lose Joe, we need to figure out how to move up
in the draft, high enough, to select, Xavier Henry.
Probably can be had @ around 6 to 8, right now.
Clyde
March 20th, 2010
3:57 pm
I say let our starters rest and tank the rest of the season. JJ and Smooth need the rest and our bench needs the playing time. Lets look toward the future instead of focusing in on day to day. We can’t finish no worse than 4th and no better than 3.
FIRE WOODY
cp
March 20th, 2010
4:16 pm
I’m glad we won the rebounding battle but the Hawks still do a poor job of boxing out. Too many of the players rely on their athleticism instead of using proper fundamentals. I hope they get it together in time for the playoffs. Those possessions are even more critical during that time.
rusty
March 20th, 2010
4:22 pm
jj is highly over rated. he finally came thu for us even tho he was 7-21 with 5 turnovers. this team plays better with out him. the ball movement is much better he slows us down with all of his damm dribbling. also jc does not play well with him often deferring to him to much. jj just bogs down our offense. woody is just very stupid never plays the bench or makes good substituions. he is so damm inflexible. our iso offense & switching defense just stinks.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 20th, 2010
4:40 pm
“As for King James wanting JJ, I think the NBA has created a spoil brat who thinks he can just make a statement, snap his fingers and get what he wants.”
I think you are placing the blame for this in the wrong place. The LeBron-to-NY rumors, and all the bullsh-t associated with it, are directly a result of ESPN, other major sports media outlets, and their inherent big-market bias. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the entire “LeBron wants JJ” rumor was fabricated. If you notice the tone of the rumors from the start of the season, they have slowly shifted from treating Lebron-to-NY as an almost certainty, to involving other players like Wade in the rumors in the event LeBron doesn’t go there, and now to enticing LeBron with other lower-tier free agents, specifically Joe Johnson. All this tells me is that the NYC media, which includes ESPN, is getting more and more desperate. They see that it is increasingly unlikely that any superstar would want to hitch their wagon to an organization as devoid of talent and direction as the Knicks, and so they are progressively lowering their expectations as the season goes along. It would actually make a lot more sense for a free agent who wants to play in the nation’s biggest market to go to the Nets, a team with a lot more young talent, just as much cap space, and a top-3 draft pick in this year’s draft.
I’m not ruling out the possibility that JJ may want to sign elsewhere, although I can’t see why a guy who came here specifically to be the alpha dog would want to leave this situation. But my guess is that LeBron re-ups with Cleveland, JJ either re-ups with Atlanta or goes somewhere other than NYC in a sign-and-trade, either Wade or Bosh goes to some team like the Clippers or Nets with cap space, high picks, and a brighter future, Carlos Boozer and Rudy Gay get nice, fat contracts with the Knicks this summer, and everyone at ESPN commits mass suicide.
Grandad
March 20th, 2010
5:34 pm
Najeh:
Great insight.
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
March 20th, 2010
6:13 pm
lol@people acting like what Joe Johnson did last night was the norm.
I WANT TO SEE WHATEVER IT TAKES FOR THIS TEAM TO BECOME ELITE.
I want all of the players to be the best that they can be, but calm down. Joe Johnson has choked more in the clutch than he’s came through.
I’m impressed by LAST NIGHT and I wish Joe could perform like that LATE in games more often, but I wont be impressed with him AS A CLUTCH player until he does it on a consistent basis.
As gifted of players as they are, Joe and Josh have took us out of games in the 4th quarter with horrible shot selection.
IMO, the performances we gave late Vs. CHA and MIL and got wins wont cut it if we plan to compete with ORL and CLE. CHA and MIL are both mediocre and gave us time after time to right the ship after we screwed up several times. We wont get those same chances against ORL and CLE.
northcyde
March 20th, 2010
6:24 pm
From Kevin: Can you ask Woody why he locks himself into a final rotation with 9-10 min left in the game? (With the exception of a West substitution.)
Kevin . . question for you. If the bench players you have in the game aren’t producing at that point in the 4th, do you leave them in the game, just for the sake of getting your starters rest . . . regardless of what the game situation is?
I don’t get it. It was the group of Crawford – JJ – Marvin – Smoove – Horford that enabled us to get back into the basketball game when we fell down 10. When Zaza and Evans were in the game late in the 3rd/beginning of the 4th, they were ineffective.
I guess this is about Teague getting playing time though. The fans just have to understand that Teague is NOT going to play in the 4th quarter, if the Hawks are losing by a decent amount. On most nights, we have an outstanding 6th man who can play both the 1 and the 2 ( Crawford ), so he’s going to get the nod at the point over the rookie.
Blast
March 20th, 2010
6:33 pm
Basically, Hawks won last night the same way they lost to Toronto. A 1 point game. Game was a nailbitter, but all these close games can only fine tune Hawks for the playoffs.
Did somebody say tank the season? WTF?
Go, Hawks! Win as may games as possible.
In a great, close win versus a very good team, MJ in attendance, some ‘fans’ still have stuff to complain about. Wonder what they would have said if Hawks had lost.
Oh, same ole thing.
wasahawkfanuntilJJhatingtookover
March 20th, 2010
6:36 pm
It’s funny how JJ haters have become Crawford lovers, like he does nothing wrong. He Isos more the JJ. He goes 5-18 last night, shooting worst than JJ and gets a free pass. Well, when JJ says screw yall next year, we’ll see how much yall love Iso-Craw and when teams start double him, his career stats and shooting percentage will surface and the Hawks will being fighting for that 7th and 8th seed again.
Ken Strickland
March 20th, 2010
6:39 pm
LEWIS-JJ leads the team in assists, so he obviously does a better job of getting others involved than anyone else on the team. And what sense does it make to let JJ go just for the purpose of adding more depth if the HC refuses to consistently use more than a 7man rotation?
I’ve noticed a flaw in what JJ does when coming off screens. Instead of coming off a screen and immediately taking a jumpshot or driving to the basket, he holds the ball and waits for everyone to clearout and goes ISO. Having our Bigs clearout so JJ can go ISO makes it very hard for them to get into position for OFF rebounds.
THESE ARE SOME OF THE LITTLE THINGS THAT CAN HELP OR HURT A TEAM, AND YOU’D CERTAINLY EXPECT YOUR HC TO NOTICE THEM, WOULDN’T YOU? I loved the way Woodson benched Bibby as soon as he realized he wasn’t going to get much production from him.
Sautee
March 20th, 2010
8:28 pm
Hey truth-serum,
Take that race baiting B.S. outta here. No place for that on the Hawks blog.
RA
March 20th, 2010
9:41 pm
One last thing about last night’s game, my father is dying of pancreatic cancer. The very first thing he asked me when he woke up this morning was if I’d seen Joe Johnson’s last second buzzer beater. For the first time in days, he was happy. You know I gripe and complain sometimes about how the Hawks play, even said a few choice words earlier about the defense last night, but regardless of whatever else they do or don’t do for the rest of the season, they gave my father one moment of light against a backdrop of darkness, and regardless of where Joe Johnson ends up, I’ll always be personally very grateful for that.
HawksFan11
March 20th, 2010
9:47 pm
The Truth
Glad you asked. I’m going to bombard all the local newsteam sportscasters and let them know that the eyes of every basketball fan in America are on the Atlanta Hawks; all except Atlanta that is.
We all know that Georgia is SEC/ACC country, but there is another sports team on the cusp of greatness and with just a little support from the home crowd, might just feel like they have something to play hard for.
This team plays hard at Phillips Arena because the crowd is behind them and that motivates them to never give up, as evidenced last night. Let’s all get behind this team and help push them over the finish line.
Again, who’s with me on this?
HawksFan11
March 20th, 2010
9:48 pm
Amen RA
bigdave
March 20th, 2010
10:08 pm
good for Pops RA…
blessings…
bigdave
March 20th, 2010
10:14 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv5F4KnrBPM
Ken Strickland
March 20th, 2010
10:25 pm
RA-Thanks to both you and your father for putting the Hawks and their accomplishments into proper perspective for a lot of us. While some of us complain and find fault in what did or didn’t happen, someone else was able to find joy in the results. Sometimes some of us get so caught up in complaining about our own trivialities we lose perspective on the real life issues others are facing.
THANKS FOR SHARING THAT INFORMATION, AND MANY MANY BLESSING TO YOU AND YOUR FATHER!!
Ken Strickland
March 20th, 2010
10:29 pm
HAWKSFAN11-I don’t know if you are aware of it, but your last post, which said “AMEN RA”, is the actual name of the ancient Egyptian/Nubian Sun God.
Section 303
March 21st, 2010
12:19 am
Nice post RA.
Hope Joe gives him many more great moments, both this season and next!
gwite
March 21st, 2010
1:50 am
Anyone notice how fast(and strong) Gerald Wallace’s hands must be?
I’ve replayed the games a couple of times, and on at least 3 occasions, a Hawk seemed to clearly have control of the ball in their hands, and then as if by magic, Gerald has the ball(twice from Josh), or the ball is flying out of Horford’s.
Wierd. Guess that’s also why he is such an uncanny rebounder. His hands just get to the ball befor all others.
Clyde
March 21st, 2010
4:04 am
RA My prayers my prayers are with your father too. I wanted JJ to sit out and rest for the playoffs but now I’m glad he played. May the Lord bless you and your father.
Big Ray
March 21st, 2010
4:07 am
People are fooling themselves if they think what Joe Johnson does this summer is up to the Hawks. It’s up to Joe and his agent.
All the Hawks can do is offer him the most money that he can get on the market, due in larger part to the ability to offer him an extra year. Whether Joe re-signs or not is AGAIN…up to him and his agent.
As far as “why would Joe go somewhere else?”, keep in mind a little something: Joe left Phoenix right as they were on the cusp of being able to get to the NBA Finals. He left that team to come and “be the man” in Atlanta. But he also left two athletic forwards (one of whom was playing center…sound familiar?) and one of the world’s best point guards.
So if he didn’t have a problem doing THAT, why would he have a problem leaving two rising athletic forwards (one of which is…can you guess it…playing center) and a pg who isn’t even the best in his own division?
Don’t kid yourselves. It’s not about Hawks management.
Big Ray
March 21st, 2010
4:08 am
RA,
Very sad to hear that, but glad your pops got to see that game-winning shot.
Sautee
March 21st, 2010
10:20 am
RA,
In my dad’s dying days he took great comfort in a small winning streak by the Braves (even though they weren’t going to win a title).
Good perspective for us all. Thanks and we’ll keep your dad in prayer.
terrell
March 21st, 2010
10:43 am
3 tough games coming up, and Boston is on a roll.
Fundamentals
March 21st, 2010
10:50 am
CP said it right. We’re not focussing on simple fundamentals at times. We think we can outshoot and out jump anyone. Sadly we learn most other teams have equal talent and athleticism. It comes down to using your head, playing your game and focussing on the little things – FUNDAMENTALS!
Our playoff hopes ride on focussing on the little things….every night, every play.
I called it months ago – we’re playing for the 4th seed. We never really intended or really thought we could catch ORL. A few lapses have made the 4th seed decision inevitable!
terrell
March 21st, 2010
11:41 am
We’re playing for the 3rd seed Fundamentals. Why would we want the 4th seed, and have to face Cleveland in the 2nd rd?
gwite
March 21st, 2010
12:09 pm
FUNDAMENTAL Basketball:
The All-American Basketball Alliance
Coming to a “small southern town” near you.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2010/01/19/nba_563760.shtml
FANtastic.
KevinA
March 21st, 2010
12:12 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoNqIgeNhD0
KevinA
March 21st, 2010
12:17 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyzfABv7Vus
bigdave
March 21st, 2010
1:33 pm
check Chilly out…
that 1st one was nasty…
gwite
March 21st, 2010
2:04 pm
Josh Childress is officially, Euro Trash.
Grandad
March 21st, 2010
2:10 pm
RA – You and your father will be in my prayers. God bless.
cp
March 21st, 2010
2:59 pm
my prayers go out to you and your family RA..
Ive been watching the Bulls lately just to see how Law is doing. The kid looks like a totally different player. He is playing with confidence and is decisive with the ball instead of playing not to make mistakes. I liked Law when he was here and wanted to see him succeed so its nice to see him play better. Hopefully they still give him consistent minutes when Rose comes back.
Ken Strickland
March 21st, 2010
3:12 pm
After watching these clips on Chills, it made me wonder. Suppose Sund had a change of heart and tried to convince Chills to resign with the Hawks. If Woodson is still the HC, do you think he could/would make a commitment to starting him and benching Marvin, or would he refuse to abandon his tradition of not sparking change?
We all know Chills has the ability to consistently produce offensively without having plays called for him. He has the ability to be a facilitator, create his own shot, and his presence would go a long way towards preventing those far too many 4th qtr scoring meltdowns.
Starting Chills at SF and Teague at PG, with Marvin, Bibby, Zaza, Mo Evans and JoSmith coming off our bench, would make us a deep, solid and versatile team, provided we hired a HC with the guts and ability to utilize what we have. Also, I find it very hard to believe JJ will resign with the Hawks after the season. Without JJ, we can’t afford to continue starting and/or giving major mins to inconsistent, limited producing players like Marvin and Bibby.
If Woodson is rehired, we’ll be forced to replace JJ with a veteran player. To draft a replacement with Woodson as our HC would be a waste of a draft pick and unfair to the player.