Atlanta Hawks at Bucks: Too Much Fun Preparing For Games? (UPDATE: Crawford out with toe injury)
Woody's mad and Jamal is hurting. (AP Photo)
Milwaukee–(EDIT: Jamal Crawford (toe) is out. He said he hurt his right toe late in the Wizards game when (he thinks) big JaVale McGee came down on his foot while challenging a shot. He said he had turf toe during his New York days but that injury was “much worse” than this one. Crawford hopes to play Wednesday vs. Cleveland even if the game has no bearing on seeding for the playoffs.)
Tense scene at Hawks shootaround today. Woody was going over the Hawks’ defensive rotations and he felt some players were taking the lesson too lightly. So Woody told them in salty terms he didn’t see what was so funny considering opponents had been exploiting the Hawks’ in that very situation late in games.
Woody headed for the bus without talking to reporters. (Edit: In pregame Woody said: “That’s my time. That’s time for me and my staff. I don’t want to have to keep repeating myself because that means you’re not listening.”)
Clearly he’s not happy with the Hawks’ focus with game No. 81 tonight.
“That just comes with having a young team,” J.J. said. “Honestly that’s something we need to work on as players is locking in and having more attention to detail. Because that does come back to haunt us late in games.”
These things happen over the course of a long season, of course, but the circumstances had to bother Woody.
The Hawks are still playing for the third seed in the East. They aren’t a very good road team and have a tough task against the Bucks tonight, especially if with Jamal (toe) sits out. Leaving shooters open due to lax rotations has been an issue for much of the last half of the season–you only need to look back to the Wizards game Saturday to see how the Hawks can be nonchalant about rotating and closing out.
The Hawks seemed to take Woody’s blowup in stride.
“It can be tough late in the year like this,” Al said. “You don’t want to look ahead but you can’t help but look ahead at the playoffs. We have to do a better job as a team trying to key in and finish the right way.”
– The Bucks are 3-1 in games without Bogut. Old pro Kurt Thomas is picking up most of Bogut’s minutes and as pointed out by Charlie G., my old colleague at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Bucks are adjusting on the fly without Bogut:
“Bucks coach Scott Skiles has to do a balancing act with his lineup now that Bogut is absent and the team is relying on a center trio of Thomas, Dan Gadzuric and Primoz Brezec. At times, Skiles has elected to go with a smaller lineup, as he did in the fourth quarter Saturday with Brandon Jennings, Luke Ridnour, John Salmons and Jerry Stackhouse combining with 6-10 Ersan Ilyasova.”
Thomas is in his 15th season. Obviously there’s a dropoff from Bogut to Thomas in production, skill and size. But Thomas still is a pretty good pick-and-pop shooter
and a tough rebounder and post defender.
“He’s a very solid vet that knows how to play,” Horford said. “That’s the kind of guy you like to have on your team.”
Look for Al to take Thomas out to the perimeter, where he should have little trouble zipping by him.
– The only thing that can be settled for the Hawks in the playoff picture tonight is eliminating Charlotte as a potential foe. That happens if Miami wins at Philadelphia tonight to draw 3 games clear of Charlotte with each team having two more to play. Both the Bucks and Bobcats would win a tiebreaker over the Heat.
Jon Newberry at Hawksbasketblog breaks it down: “(T)here are too many possible scenarios of how things could shake out to go through them all. The simplest scenario is if we win our last two games against Milwaukee and against Cleveland and Miami wins their last two game. In that case the matchups would be ATL (3) vs. MIL (6) and BOS (4) vs. MIA (5).”
– THHB has a poll up at Peachtree Hoops asking who Hawks fans would rather face in the first round. So far it’s the Bucks in a landslide.
MC
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339 comments Add your comment
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:16 pm
But the guy the Bucks really can’t handle is Joe Johnson.
He’s a straight killa right now. And he will be all series long. Love it!
BONEY
April 12th, 2010
10:17 pm
Ree has a point – Jeff Teague has a +/- of -9 when he’s in the game — Bibby is + 15
J.J.M.
April 12th, 2010
10:17 pm
smh come on marvin
VenomSpitter
April 12th, 2010
10:17 pm
Marvin’s butt got a offensive foul
joBjo
April 12th, 2010
10:18 pm
dam Marvin. get your butt off your shoulders.
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 12th, 2010
10:18 pm
I hope we face this team in the 1st round though, they are lost in the post. lmfao no way Kurt Thomas is goin to get the job done.
drmaryb
April 12th, 2010
10:18 pm
Hawks put that SPIRIT hawk on the plane to Milwaukee?
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:18 pm
Jody ,
So true. Thanks for bringing the common sense.
Meanwhile, looks like even Woody is having a bit of fun on teh sideline.
Salmons will continue to be a problem for us. If we don’t find ways to defend him on the perimeter, then he’s going to keep our PF and C in foul trouble.
joBjo
April 12th, 2010
10:19 pm
Bibb cleaning the boards.
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:19 pm
drmaryb ,
I hope they did. I’d let it loose on all those Bucks fans who keep playing around with those noise makers.
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 12th, 2010
10:19 pm
Salmons = their only hope
HawksFan11
April 12th, 2010
10:19 pm
See you at Phillips this weekend
Blast
April 12th, 2010
10:20 pm
Despite the non calls by refs, Hawks are going to prevail.
J.J.M.
April 12th, 2010
10:20 pm
yea salmons is their only consistent player. Jennings will have to step it up
cp
April 12th, 2010
10:21 pm
Brandon Jennings might have the worst shot selection in the NBA.
Jody
April 12th, 2010
10:21 pm
Big Ray,
Salmons is a really nice player and if he’s a free agent after the year, I would love for the Hawks to find a way to go after him.
HawksFan11
April 12th, 2010
10:21 pm
Joe would not be denied tonight and the rest of the team just fed off of his leadership.
GO HAWKS!
J.J.M.
April 12th, 2010
10:23 pm
only thing i like about salmons over joe is that salmons drives the ball a little more
Nique's Revenge
April 12th, 2010
10:23 pm
jj’s shoes remind me of mookie’s moonshoes circa 1995
cp
April 12th, 2010
10:23 pm
BONEY, Bibby had a minus of that just the other game sooooo whats you’re point? And what exactly has Bibby done since the first quarter?. Life is a lot easier as a pg when you are playing with guys like Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and Horford and not guys like Joe Smith.
drmaryb
April 12th, 2010
10:24 pm
Snakes on a Plane
Did the Hawks put that SPIRIT Hawk on the plane to Milwaukee?
Blast
April 12th, 2010
10:24 pm
Sweet win!
Love Joe’s play tonight!
cp
April 12th, 2010
10:24 pm
Did Skiles forget he had Stackhouse on the bench?
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:25 pm
Kurt Thomas can use his toughness and veteran wiles in the paint, but it should be all but a physical impossibility for the Bucks to stop us in the paint.
The only way we lose that type of battle is through lack of effort/desire.
Nique's Revenge
April 12th, 2010
10:25 pm
that’s one ugly azz goatee
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:26 pm
Jody ,
Hard to argue that one. Some might prefer him to Crawford. He plays better “D”, I know that….lol…
Ree Roe
April 12th, 2010
10:26 pm
@ Big Ray,
you’re the resident Teague defender. Why would Woody give the rookie extended minutes, watch him play well & then decrease his minutes? I kno you LOVE to use that 5 game stretch to justify Teague being something more than what he is, but I just find it odd that YOU can’t fancy a reason why his minutes would go down. Especially if Woody is as high on him as we’ve been led to believe.
I guess when you have to use 77 games as opposed to your 5 game sample the conclusion you MIGHT reach is that the Rook AINT READY & shouldn’t see the court. If Woody only gives you 5 mins it’s probably for a reason. He’s not gonna not play a player he really likes even if the plan was to bring him along slowly.
@ cp, stop lying.
-pREEview of Roe!!!
Blast
April 12th, 2010
10:27 pm
Salmon is one ugly dude. With that beard, he looks like a mid eastern terrorist.
joBjo
April 12th, 2010
10:27 pm
Hawks played some D tonite.
BONEY
April 12th, 2010
10:27 pm
cp,
Nice all around game by Bibby tonight . . .
VenomSpitter
April 12th, 2010
10:27 pm
good game
terrell
April 12th, 2010
10:27 pm
Decent game from Marvin tonight.
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:28 pm
Win #52 !
Good job by Woody, good job by the team.
Go Hawks!
cp
April 12th, 2010
10:28 pm
Good win. The Bucks are a good team even without Bogut. They really have to get Brandon Jennings to take better shots. He really hurt them tonight.
VenomSpitter
April 12th, 2010
10:29 pm
Once again Ree Roes Signatures are gay as hell
cp
April 12th, 2010
10:31 pm
Bibby was hot the first quarter other than that he didn’t do much but if you say so. Roe nobody is lying . Its funny how you disappeared after the Bucks made a run on the starters. I guess you don’t know in the NBA teams make runs regardless of who is on the floor. The funny part is you blamed Teague earlier yet the Hawks were still winning the game. The team did not give up the lead so I still dont know what the blame was for.
BONEY
April 12th, 2010
10:32 pm
52 wins! Way to make a statement on the road – and they still want to fire Woody. Go figure.
drmaryb
April 12th, 2010
10:33 pm
Blue-Ray
(Picture Perfect)
Marvin played Spirited game (no pun intended ) BUTTT (no pun there) He got HOT!
Were gonna need that every night in the play off!
His game is so streaky? I’m gonna call him FLASH Gordon. Can’t call him FLASH – Shaq gave that name to
DWade! LOL!
52 WINS!
Great Job Coach ! Staff! Athletic Trainer! Jamal “JQuick / JCross cheering from the bench!
The Owners & Spirit Group (sans belkin)!
Great Job! Thank GOD for our health!
pinoy hawk
April 12th, 2010
10:33 pm
cp, the hawks offense doesn’t allow pgs to control the flow of the game. usually its the sg (jj or jc) that controls the tempo of the game. don’t blame bibby or teague, blame woodson for being a one-dimensional arrogant potatohead!
BONEY
April 12th, 2010
10:35 pm
cp,
Bibby didn’t have to do much after the 1st quarter as Joe took over from there.
drmaryb
April 12th, 2010
10:35 pm
Marvin speaks very inteligently.
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:35 pm
Ree Roe ,
I can’t help your ability to see either the big picture or the small details. I was also the resident Josh Smith defender for the last few years, and people just like you were saying the same things about him before he finally began to mature. That was a painful 5 years. Pardon me if I see more in him than you do. Never once did I refuse to acknowledge his weaknesses.
Fancy the idea that YOU can’t fathom his minutes going up. What did he do to deserve that 5 game stretch of 20 mpg? Surely if he sucks that bad, Woody must have been crazy to play him over anybody on the team, right? It must take those other 77 games where his minutes were up one game, then down the next to justify your position. In fact, why would Woody give him 12-15 minutes in one game after giving him just 2 minutes (or a DNP) the night before. I’ll wait while you try and explain the ever so odd increases in minutes from game to game. It should be easy. You already have the decreases figured out….right?
kwooden1
April 12th, 2010
10:36 pm
GREAT WIN!, I really didn’t want to loses this game, especially if we end up playing the Bucks in the Playoffs. I don’t no what the tight breaker is with Miami, but if we win out and Miami wins out we play the Bucks. That is the scenario I’ve been hoping for because I would much rather play Milwaukee than Miami. I think Miami would actually rather play the Celtics than us, because they realize if we’re making outside shots they have little chance of winning. The Celtics play a similar style to them, so they should be in every game.
GO HAWKS!!
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:36 pm
CP ,
He doesn’t like it when the facts smack him in the mouth. I should have guessed by the tag line which I used to find funny.
About 4,297 posts ago, that is….
BONEY
April 12th, 2010
10:36 pm
“blame woodson for being a one-dimensional arrogant potatohead!”
Blame Woody for the 52 wins as well !!
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:37 pm
drmaryb ,
I ain’t tryin’ to ignore you gal, I’m just caught up in blog trash talk.
I’d love some consistency out of Marvin these days, but I am certainly not going to begrudge him some praise when he is playing well. And we needed what we got from him, especially with Jamal out.
BONE
April 12th, 2010
10:40 pm
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL MILKY SUCKS, MIAMI SUCKS, BUT SO DO HAWKS
Ree Roe
April 12th, 2010
10:40 pm
Very proud of the effort tonight. We actually executed in the 4th, got great work from ZaZa & Mo, Marvin was solid & Joe was great. Glad to see Woody stick with what was working…well coached Woody. Good to see northcyde & BONEY are on the right side of the Teague debate
-REEligiously Roe!!!
BONE
April 12th, 2010
10:41 pm
LOL @PHONEY BONEY
Big Ray
April 12th, 2010
10:41 pm
Post game, Mike Woodson on Jeff Teague:
” Rook came in and controlled the game a little bit. He made a few mistakes, but most of them were because guys weren’t ready to deliver the ball when he was making moves and getting open.”
I’m sure we can find a language to translate that into “Teague Sucks”. Some people will…