Cavaliers at Atlanta Hawks: Sitting On It (UPDATE: Marvin to play, other starters to sit)
Cavs coach Mike Brown said today at shooataround that LeBron and Shaq
won’t play tonight. Woody said he hadn’t made up his mind: “Game-time decision.” But chances are Hawks starters won’t play or get only token minutes considering the Hawks can’t improve their playoff seeding and that’s the way Woody approached last season’s finale under similar circumstances.
(EDIT: In pregame, Woody said Marvin would start alongside Teague, Joe Smith, and Zaza.)
The consensus among Hawks players is they’re fine with sitting.
“If anything, it helps after such a long season, Al said.
These two will watch the game tonight. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
For Brown, the main motivation behind sitting LeBron and Shaq is to avoid injury. “That had a lot to do with it,” he said.
This will be the fourth healthy scratch in a row for LeBron. Shaq just recently was cleared to return after missing six weeks with a thumb injury.
The Cavs will enter the playoffs with their full lineup of LeBron, Shaq, Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker having played together for just three full games. Brown wasn’t ready to say that’s not a worry because his team is so veteran.
“You worry,” Brown said. “As a coach you worry about a lot of things. You hope your worries don’t come true.”
After the shootaround, LeBron joked about whether his Atlanta fans want to see him play. Yeah, they do, and by the way does he feel for fans who bought tickets to games to see him as the main attraction? He shook his head: “I’ve played in every arena this year.”
That’s true, though I doubt it’s much solace for his fans who picked the wrong game to buy tickets. Some advice for those fans: If you want to see a star player on a good team, and his final visit is scheduled within the last week or so, best to catch him the first time he comes to town.
– There’s a feeling among the Hawks that the Heat might not go all out to beat the Nets tonight because Miami would rather face the Hawks than the Celtics. That’s not hard to believe. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says manipulating the seeding would be “messing with the basketball gods” but, depending on how many lines you want to read between, the Hawks’ suspicions can be confirmed by looking at this Miami Herald story by Izzy:
Jermaine O’Neal, who missed one game and started only five against the Hawks (in the playoffs) last year because of a concussion, said the difference between the Hawks and Celtics is predictability.
“[The Hawks] can put you in a tough situation, especially in Atlanta,” O’Neal said. “They play at another level. But you never really know what to expect with those guys. But with Boston, you know it’s going to be very physical, it’s going to be a grind-out type of a game, every-possession-counts type of a game. So it’s kind of like, pick your poison, really.”
Of course, even if the Heat tanked it would need the Bucks to beat Boston tonight to “secure” the No. 6 seed. That should happen since the Celtics are likely to rest their starters, too, but you never know. Maybe the Bucks want the Hawks, too.
MC
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543 comments Add your comment
Najeh Davenpoop
April 14th, 2010
8:43 pm
Jason Collins makes me long for the glory days of Esteban “Steve” Batista.
VenomSpitter
April 14th, 2010
8:44 pm
See where are the teague haters. Like that dweeb Northcyde
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
8:44 pm
lmao ay mo williams do look like john legend
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
8:44 pm
Mario West wants to get a dunk so bad
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
8:47 pm
Woodson is an idiot for letting Collins and Randmo get minutes tonight. Now the Cavs can get an idea/strategy against our secret plans we had to stop Shaq/Z/and that tall Brazilian woman
Blast
April 14th, 2010
8:47 pm
The bar in the NBA as per how many wins you need to get to the playoffs has been increasing every year. 2 years ago, Hawks squeaked into the 8th spot with a 37 win season. Last year they secured the 4th spot by winning 47. Now in the East, you need at least 41 wins to make the 8th seed in the East, and in the West, you must win like 50 ballgames to even make the 8th spot. Crazy, huh?
Just shows the NBA is getting better. Lots of new, young and good blood coming into the league. The OKC team is a perfect example. Young guns making big noise.
Big Ray
April 14th, 2010
8:48 pm
Right on, Najeh .
Batista was one tough SOB. I remember him fighting Shaq in the post a few years back. Dude was very tough and scrappy. I’d take him over Cheeseburger Collins and RandMo. Cest la vie…
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
8:49 pm
I dont know how much more of this game i can take lol
Melvin
April 14th, 2010
8:50 pm
Will Woody play Teague all 48 mins tonight?
O'Brien
April 14th, 2010
8:50 pm
Ray,
I thought Collins was injured too.
Melvin,
Agreed. Teague’s biggest weakness is his jump shot. If he starts making those more consistently, I think Woody will increase his PT. Because in the open court, he is unstoppable, and his defense will improve.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 14th, 2010
8:51 pm
Props to the Philips Arena organist for playing “Notorious Thugs”, one of Biggie’s most underrated songs.
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
8:51 pm
“better have my donuts”
Lacsho
April 14th, 2010
8:52 pm
Mel he needs too!!!!!
Mel
April 14th, 2010
8:53 pm
Melvin..
Woody’s making up for the last 80 games on Teague lol
Big Ray
April 14th, 2010
8:54 pm
Blast ,
Good post.
Blast
April 14th, 2010
8:54 pm
Actually, Jason Collins has made two jumpshots, both without getting off his feet. That’s why Hawks bench were laughing.
Mel
April 14th, 2010
8:55 pm
Man if Marvin lets Evans lead the team in scoring!! WTH this is your time to shine… take some aggressiveness into the playoffs and he’s letting his backup show him up
Lacsho
April 14th, 2010
8:56 pm
What it do Big Ray?
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
8:56 pm
there goes that “hot date” music again
Big Ray
April 14th, 2010
8:56 pm
LOL.
Morris shows Collins what happens when you put the cheeseburgers down: you can get rebounds. Morris- 3 rebounds, Collins- 0 rebounds, both with identical time played.
Big Ray
April 14th, 2010
8:57 pm
Lacsho ,
What’s up, my brutha?
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
8:58 pm
lol is Randmo already about to foul out?
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
8:58 pm
dang 4 fouls already
Big Ray
April 14th, 2010
8:58 pm
Figured Mo Evans would bring it for this game. He should lead the way in scoring.
Blast
April 14th, 2010
8:58 pm
Big Ray,
Appreciate, man, but what post were you referring to? I believe I’ve dropped a couple of decent post tonight.
RandMo is a walking foul magnet.
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
8:59 pm
mo evans is showing off for next season since hes opting out
VenomSpitter
April 14th, 2010
8:59 pm
Damn Marv that was sorry
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
9:00 pm
lmaoooooooooo@marvin
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
9:00 pm
Varejao looks exactly like a character named “Andore” from that old video game called “Final Fight”
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NErvggDZ8Ag/SMbm4l5-wAI/AAAAAAAAAEg/vlFTHjl3Jzk/s320/andore.png
VenomSpitter
April 14th, 2010
9:01 pm
How is Marvin the worst player out there?
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
9:01 pm
man marvin sucks
Najeh Davenpoop
April 14th, 2010
9:01 pm
Sideshow Bob is still the best Varejao lookalike out there.
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
9:02 pm
lmaoo
VenomSpitter
April 14th, 2010
9:02 pm
LOL @ Mac
I remember when I was in high school there was this one girl who looked like blanka off of street fighter.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 14th, 2010
9:02 pm
Organist plays “We Fly High” by Jim Jones, and Joe Smith hits the side of the backboard right around the time Jim Jones would say “Ballin!”
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
9:03 pm
CLEARLY Mo Evans is more useful than Marvin
J.J.M.
April 14th, 2010
9:04 pm
I bet Varejao hair smell like hyena burps
tiger woo
April 14th, 2010
9:04 pm
Working on that “broke” jumpshot should be a high priority for Mr. Teague in the off-season.
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
9:04 pm
lol blanka was that dude
lewis
April 14th, 2010
9:04 pm
yeah i’m really going to miss mo evans. we coulda won 3 more games this year had he been getting more minutes earlier on in the season
Melvin
April 14th, 2010
9:05 pm
OB,
Delonte can not shake free of Teague. West normally killed the Hawks but not tonite with Teague guarding him…
tiger woo
April 14th, 2010
9:06 pm
“we coulda won 3 more games this year had he been getting more minutes earlier on in the season”
Woulda, coulda – who knows? Speculation, at best.
VenomSpitter
April 14th, 2010
9:06 pm
Man if only Teague got more mins throughout the season.
Sautee
April 14th, 2010
9:08 pm
Three dunks now for the Cavs. All Horford’s fault, of course.
terrell
April 14th, 2010
9:08 pm
Is anybody still holding onto false hope when it comes to Marvin’s game? Seriously. If so, speak now.
Blast
April 14th, 2010
9:08 pm
This is a crazy game, man! Bench/sub bench vs bench/sub bench! Which bench will prevail?
Cavs seems to be getting their rocks off with the few highlights they’ve got so far.
VenomSpitter
April 14th, 2010
9:08 pm
U seriously cannot tell that Marvin is a starter. He is that bad.
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
9:09 pm
Mo Williams = lebron n*t hugger
o.O-Mac-Town -Macon, Georgia- Westsider-O.o
April 14th, 2010
9:11 pm
lmao@marvin tried to go behind the back
WOMP WOMP WOMP
VenomSpitter
April 14th, 2010
9:11 pm
DAMN MARVIN SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSSS