Atlanta Hawks Squawks Game 2: Hawks 96, Bucks 86
– Well, what can you say about these first two games? The Hawks are just too good for the Bucks, who are competing but just don’t have the size, speed or offensive talent to keep up. Especially not at Philips, where they haven’t shown the ability to keep it together when the Hawks are defending, rebounding and running and the crowd is roaring.
– “They outplayed us in almost every spot up and down the floor,” Scott Skiles said. “We’ve got two or three days to get better.”
– The fans at Philip were hyped again. Say what you want about the Hawks’ troubles filling the arena with paying customers, but the people they do get in the building are doing their part.
– That’s 14 Ws in a row at Philips. “It’s the fans here,” Woody said. “The fans have been great the last three years. They really enjoy the product on the floor and how we play. They’ve been huge in the playoffs, like a sixth man.”
– It’s obvious the Hawks use that to fuel their big runs. I’ve maintained that the Hawks struggle to get up for games in front of sparse road crowds because they need a loud, packed house to generate energy. Woody dismissed my theory but I’m sticking with it.
– Al says the Hawks are ready to take it on the road for Game 3 on Saturday. “We’re on edge,” he said. “We can’t take anything lightly. I’m sure it’s going to be a tough environment. We’re fighting for our lives.”
– The Bucks once again can take solace that each time it looked like the Hawks finished them off, they showed some life. Then again, the Bucks also saw that when the Hawks decide they are going to play with passion for stretches the Bucks get left in their dust.
– That’s what happened when Milwaukee got within 80-72 in the fourth quarter. J.J. made a shot, he made another, Josh passed to Johnson in the corner for a 3-pointer, Al had a 3-point play, Smoove scored an alley-oop layup and Bibby made a jump shot.
– Just like that, it was 94-77 and the Bucks sagged. “We weren’t going to let them get over that hump,” Jamal said. “When a team like that can do that, it gives them life.”
– If you want to look ahead (because you can do that even if the Hawks can’t) you wonder if these offensive lulls will come back to bite the Hawks if they make it through this round and the competition stiffens. But the Hawks deserve credit for handling their business against an overmatched opponent. I don’t need to tell you that hasn’t always happened this season.
– Smoove was one assist short of a triple-double. He missed only two shots and on one of those he launched a jumper while trying to beat the shot clock. The thing I noticed is even when the Hawks made a bad play at one end he just sprinted back the other way instead of sulking.
– “I just have to give credit to my teammates for sticking with me,” he said. “They know whenever they pass the ball in the post and I get double-teamed, I’m going to make the right play. I was able to get it going early and sustain it throughout the ballgame.”
– J.J. was impressive, too. The Bucks couldn’t do anything to keep him out of the lane. He was noticeably spry off the dribble, shaking off Salmons a few times and slicing to the basket. J.J. was in control.
– J.J. also fared better checking Brandon Jennings. He can’t match the rookie’s quickness but he’s got six inches of height and about 70 pounds on him. He used those advantages and his vet savvy to make things difficult on Jennings.
– He got help from his teammates. The Hawks basically made Jennings a jump shooter and he wasn’t a very good one. “We wanted to give him different looks,” Jamal said. “Sometimes trap him, sometimes ‘half trap’ him, acting like we are going to trap.”
– Al was feeling it, too. It wasn’t just his efficient offense and his solid defense, it was the way his energy got the Hawks going. He’s a really smart player.
– The Bucks keep sending out bodies but they’ve got nothing for Josh and Al. At one point the Bucks put lumbering big man Primoz Brezec on Al, who easily got by him to draw a foul.
– Got to feel for Skiles. He’s got his team playing hard but he just can’t find a combination that works. You could see his frustration each time he slumped on the bench disgusted after J.J., Josh or Al got to the rim for scores. “They’re getting a lot of easy baskets,” he said. “if we keep handing out those easy baskets, it could be over quick.”
– The Bucks got more open looks in the second half, some of those on scrambles, but they didn’t look to have the legs to convert. That’s what happens when they spend most of the game chasing the Hawks into the lane and in transition.
– Teague looked lost during one sequence in the first quarter. Ilyasova shook free for a 3-pointer when Teague was slow on a rotation, then Teague didn’t seem to know the Hawks’ play and had to be shooed off by Jamal, and then he overdribbled and clanked a shot. That got Bibby back off the bench.
– The Hawks’ reserves didn’t contribute much. Jamal shot just 2 for 10 and then drew Woody’s ire by becoming gun shy. Zaza seemed out of sorts. Mo took just one shot. The Bucks’ bench players had 40 points to seven for the Hawks.
– Zaza and Woody had a blowup when Woody took him out of the game after Salmons kept going around him for layups. Zaza didn’t want to talk about it. “We won the game, that’s what’s important,” he said.
– Did you see Bibby crossover Ridnour and draw a foul? Then he threw a nice lob to Al for an alley-oop layup. Bibby was just 2 for 8 from the floor but found a way to contribute with seven assists and six free throw makes in six attempts.
– The Hawks are taking the day off on Wednesday. They will meet up on Thursday for practice and plan to leave for Milwaukee on Friday.
– I’m out, Hawks fans
MC
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
126 comments Add your comment
Sautee
April 21st, 2010
9:34 pm
Truth-serum,
Why can’t you at least acknowledge Al’s EIGHT blocked shots in two playoff games. If he had NONE you would be going on and on. Yet when he does EXACTLY what you’ve been hollering about, you say absolutely NOTHING.
And yet you are bothered when someone doesn’t give Woody the love you think he deserves.
Can you be fair?
Najeh Davenpoop
April 21st, 2010
10:00 pm
That RealGM link was Chappelle-level comedy. If the Hawks made any of those trades Sund would be fired, tied to a tree, set to float in the Atlantic Ocean, and never allowed to even listen to an NBA game again, let alone be a GM.
drmaryb
April 21st, 2010
10:16 pm
Najeh
Co-Sign.
LouFan
April 21st, 2010
10:53 pm
Mike is Back, one more thing….I am betting the reserves come out on Saturday and play well. They will have 3 and 1/2 days to hear about how bad they played last night. I think it will motivate them to come out and play well. Zaza, especially. He has to make ammends for his little temper tantrum last night. Thoughts?
@Section
He better play well. Who the hell is he to get mad… HE WAS HORRIBLE. He didn’t even play D. I totallt agree that they will come out swinging Saturday. Great coaching decision. This is how we sweep these guys. I expect a little laziness from the starters… but the bench got something to prove now. Expect a bench contribution game 3.
Wabe
April 21st, 2010
11:00 pm
Doesn’t it seem like Brandon Jennings gets swatted everytime he gets the ball to the rim?
What other rookie PG does everybody seem to hate on for not getting his shot up near the rim?
THEY’RE ROOKIES!
The lone difference between the two at the moment is one is getting the chance to play through his mistakes, while the other is playing for a team that can’t afford those mistakes at the time being. I have no problem with the minutes Woodson has allocated for JT0 here in the playoffs, we’re up 2-0. I’ve cryed for Woodson to experiment a little more with the rotation throughout the regular season. But, now it’s business.
What I’ll laugh at though is anybody who wishes to criticize the kids playoff performances, when they know damn well that the kid didn’t really get the minutes needed throughout the season to polish his game and get playoff-ready. We all have a feel for what the kid can do, but the coming years will tell us more as to whether the kid is the future. IMO, everything the kid has done with the limitted opportunites he’s had this year show me he’ll be a hell of a PG one day.
Wabe
April 21st, 2010
11:01 pm
the kid, the kid, the kid
Wabe
April 21st, 2010
11:01 pm
i know, it get’s annoying as hell after a while.
i’ll try and switch it up from here on out.
cp
April 22nd, 2010
12:31 am
Larry Brown is a hall of fame coach who got the Bobcats into the playoffs. I seriously don’t understand the sarcastic comments about him. Ya man crush wouldn’t have his ring if it wasn’t for coach Brown. His team is struggling against the team who other than one game this season, has pretty much did us the same way.
drmaryb
April 22nd, 2010
6:38 am
CP
& Larry Brown wouldn’t have his Ring w/o his players making plays or his Coaching Staff either.
It takes a total team efforrt & a great GM making the right moves too.
(However, Dumars did error by taking Darko Millicic over Car-Mello! Sounds familiar?
All GM’s miss on draft picks. Even Portland took Oden over Durant? Hindf-Sight is a Motha!
O'Brien
April 22nd, 2010
6:53 am
Tickets are still available for the games in Milwaukee. That’s good news for the Hawks
drmaryb
April 22nd, 2010
6:58 am
How many RINGS has Brown won anyway?
With how many different teams & Superstars?
His team led the magic with excessive turn overs last night.
No shot makers, except Iso-Wallace (A Great Player.), & Captian Jack, last night.
Personally, I thing proves a coach can’t win without a whole team, one through twelve players!
As CP said, “Yo man crush wouldn’t have a RING without Brown.”.
That is as TRUE as me saying, “Llarry Brown should have won a RING in Philly – He had a MVP player
& Super-Star , (voted by fans to All-Star Game in 2010).” BTW, the player never even bothered to show up for practices – Go Figure that one.
Or, that , ” Coach Brown, could have won a RING in New York with Star-Bury at PG and Al Harrington @ 3 or 4 spots.”. – Go Figure that one.
hawks_4_life
April 22nd, 2010
7:01 am
drmaryb
You are right, all GM’s make mistakes case and point:
1984 Draft Portland took Sam (freakin) Bowie over Air Jordan. Dumars also passed on Dwade.
victor
April 22nd, 2010
7:39 am
The Hawks will win the series in 4 games if they keep playing defense and the bench produces more than they did the last game. Woody will have to trust his bench to get it done because at the end of the day he doesen’t go very far in the playoffs without them.
red
April 22nd, 2010
8:14 am
i hope we can sign rick adelman as our head coach next season.
Mike Woodson
April 22nd, 2010
8:27 am
Thanks for the support, Hawks fans!
In this personal message to the AJC, I would like to campaign for a contract extension. We are a YOUNG ATHLETIC team with TREMENDOUS UPSIDE and have improved our record EVERY year since I took over as head coach.
Joe Johnson is an elite player — as good as, if not better, than Kobe, Wade, and LeBron.
Horford is an absolute beast on the boards.
In addition, we BEAT the Lakers (NBA Champions) this year — we are clearly one of the best teams in the league.
I have always let my offense take care of itself — I am a defensive coach. This is why I really vouched for us getting Mike Bibby. He is clearly still tremendously athletic, an incredible 3 point shooter, and a superstar defender.
Let’s Get ‘Em!
Samuel
April 22nd, 2010
8:42 am
Point is, you guys constantly criticize Woody for not being an offensive coach for no good reason IMO. It’s always about the players since 90% of the offensive plays in the NBA are the same. Either pick and roll, pass inside to a post up or isolation. The only difference is the ability and willingness of the players to either create, kick out and hit their shots. All this writing novels about this and that is a bunch of Bull.
Like MC says, the proof is in the pudding and the pudding says that Woody is 4th among all NBA coaches in offense. Thems the facts.
On COY, that’s also a bunch of BS. How can a coach who’s team finishes 8 and 9 games behind us get more votes than Woody?(CHA and HOU). Don’t give me that BS about injuries either. We never got a free pass for having a bunch of scrubbs on the roster all those years. You play with what your got and the results are the results. 5 of the 8 coaches who got more votes than Woody were looking up at us in the standings.
Hopefully, Woody and Company will crush the “Little General” and Company and rub it in his face. Take that Mr. Runner up COY.
Woody=COY
HawksFan11
April 22nd, 2010
9:15 am
Great posts all. We seem to be uniting around our Hawks at the time they need us most. I have to cosign with all of you who say that, in the playoffs, if a player is not producing, let him join Jason Collins. And yes, that includes Jamal. The coach does know his players like Northcyde said, but the players must know themselves and the game situation too. I’m surpried that none of you have mentioned the fact that Jamal took himself out of the game. When he recognized that he was hurting the team on both ends of the floor, he looked over at Coach Woodson, touched his chest and mouthed the words “get me”. Coach wasn’t exactly happy about it, but he made the swith to Mike Bibby and, well you know the rest.
Bottom line, sometimes you help your team by getting out of their way. That said, we’ll need Jamal to get the butterflies out, see a toe doctor, or whatever it takes to get back in his game. The Sixth Man of the Year earns that title at this time of year.
GO HAWKS!
Melvin
April 22nd, 2010
10:02 am
I got my broom in one hand and my shotgun in the other. I will Buckshots after we sweep Milwaukee…
TigerWoods
April 22nd, 2010
10:03 am
Hawks are getting me excited, i am signing up for more golf tournaments.
Wabe – are you kidding me? Wooden allowing this rookie to play so Teague can polish his game? Why did he leave school in the first place? is that not where he is supposed to have polished his game?
Plus, Teague has played for one year with JJ and Bibby and Jamal in practice. Don’t you think he should be polished by playing against that gang? I have seen zero progress in him.
Before you open your mouth and complain about why my friend Wooden does not play Teague, put yourself in Wooden’s position, this is a over 50 win team, fighting for playoff positioning, not just getting into playoffs. If GM drafted a player that is so unpolished, it is on the GM for having drafted such a work in progress in Teague. As Wooden has said, Teague may eventually get there one day, he is not there today. He should be happy he got a few minutes, but in those minutes Hawks went down hill.
Personally, i am not sure what Teague is. He is not really a good ball handler, he is not a good outside shooter. He seems to be able to drive to the basket. Except he is a midget, so he gets blocked most of the time. Ahh yes he is fast. If Hawks had a minor league team that is where Teague belongs. Hmmmm, development league, only that makes GM look really stupid.
Beautiful day, I need to get my clubs ready.
Wabe
April 22nd, 2010
10:51 am
Watch OKC.
Look at how Scott Brooks gets his team to excel on both ends of the floor.
Just because you’re a young and athletic team shouldn’t mean that you have to run 24/7 to get buckets. In the Hawks case, whenever they slow the game down, they’re putting themselves at a disadvantage.
What’s been the knock on the Cavs over the past couple of seasons after their playoff exit? They’re too PREDICTABLE on offense. Even Lebron James, arguably one of the two best players on the planet, couldn’t go one on five and get himself a ring. So, I ask, what makes you think the Hawks can do so with JJ and Jamal?
The knock on Woodson’s offensive scheme is he doesn’t have one. I said earlier to go watch OKC and how Scott Brooks has his young team playing. The reason I say that is because even though they have a budding superstar, they don’t just hand him the ball and ask him to go one on five. Brooks finds creative ways for Durant to get open looks by running him off screens. Now, I know the Hawks do some of this too, but nowhere near as enough. If we’re in need of a bucket in crunchtime, we’re not running JJ off screens – JJ’s going off the dribble, as he always does.
Would it hurt the Hawks to find more creative ways to get their guys open?
O'Brien
April 22nd, 2010
10:54 am
Woody is not as bad as some of us make him out to be, and he deserves credit for helping the Hawks reach where they are coming from (13 wins). Yes, the players have gotten better, but the coach plays a role in that as well.
However, Woody is not as good as some of us think he is either. Say what you want, but this team could have had 4 all-stars (JJ, Al, Josh and Crawford). So if you have the healthiest team in the NBA, and 4 possible all stars, then 50-55 wins is expected (in my opinion).
OKC won 27 games more than they did last year, and they did not sign any big free agents. I dont think anybody expected them to win 50 games (didn’t they beat the Hawks twice too?).
With Milwaukee and Portland injured like they were, their coaches exceeded expectations. When the Hawks had scrubs on their team, they did not exceed expectations. They played the way people thought they would play. Bad. So I dont think its a matter of giving a “free pass”.
COY is about teams who exceed expectations, and injuries play a part in expectations.
If JJ, Crawford, Josh and Al all missed 20 games a piece, but the Hawks still found a way to finish 8th in the East, does that mean Woody should NOT be COY because so many other teams finished ahead of the Hawks?
Wabe
April 22nd, 2010
10:59 am
And Tiger Wooden,
We can agree to disagree.
The only argument I ever hear when I mention the need for more minutes to polish his game is “he should’ve stayed in college.” Well, what happened to the last PG we drafted that actually finished four years of college? I remember we passed on Mike Conley Jr. and took Al Horford (good move), but we came back up and snagged Acie Law as well. Many “experts” claimed Law was the most “polished” PG (NBA-ready) coming out of the draft.
4 years of college doesn’t necessarily mean you’re NBA ready, and that proved to be the case with Law.
Understand that the Hawks wouldn’t have selected JT0 if there wasn’t a glaring need at PG. We’ve needed a PG in here for years. We’ve drafted 2 in a span of 3 or 4 years. What good does it do us to continue to draft a PG and then not give him the time needed to work on his game? This kid has the ability to do great things on the court, and we’ve seen flashes out of him. Why so many of you are so unimpressed, especially considering Bibby averaged 9 ppg this season while clocking 20+ minutes a night, just leaves me baffled.
Wabe
April 22nd, 2010
11:05 am
You really can’t have it both ways…
You can’t whine and cry about the kid making mistakes that all rookies mistake KNOWING that he hasn’t had the minutes on a consistent basis to work on his game.
Some of you argue back, “he gets to play in practice, if he played well in practice, then he’d play in games.”
Well, to those of you who say that, I’ll leave you with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exOxUAntx8I
Wabe
April 22nd, 2010
11:20 am
And by the way, I did mention that I was HAPPY with the minutes Woodson allocated for JT0 in the playoffs. I wasn’t really even expecting the kid to get in the game, so I’m happy he’s getting a little burn.
I get it’s the playoffs. The big stage.
I have no problem if Woody decides to keep the kid on the bench for the remainder of the playoffs. This isn’t the time to be worrying about polishing one’s game. It’s about winning. So I have no problem with Woodson maxing out the starters minutes, if it leads us to a W.
I think that may have gotten lost in all this JT0 talk.
There are WAY TOO MANY DAYS in between these games. Look at what the convo has drifted to. Playoff basketball, and we’re talking about a rookie who sees less than 10 mpg.
TigerWoods
April 22nd, 2010
12:20 pm
Wabe, you are so mistaken.
Look at AC now. Is he doing any better since leaving Hawks? I did not think so. It has nothing to do with Wooden. It has to do with lack of selecting well.
Now I am not saying Teague has no future, or even an equal future to AC in NBA. All I am saying, is he is not ready to be playing in prime time yet. Wooden is doing good with him, making him grow up slowly. Hawks can afford to do that. Do not compare OKC to Hawks. OKC has not been to playoffs. This is first year, so of-course they have to let their young players play, they had no other option. Hawks got to second round of playoffs last year. Do not gloss over that by putting that OKC example out there. Two different cases. It is not Wooden’s fault that Hawks passed on good point guards all these years.
My point, blame the GM of the past for passing, blame this GM for if you have a problem with Teague playing time. I have no problem with GM, because i think he drafted Teague for future, and Wooden knows that.
Now think about that before posting three straight in 2 minutes. Playing golf will let you have new insight.
drmaryb
April 22nd, 2010
1:14 pm
Tyger
Co-Sign your last post.
JT0 was a developmental pick for the future! PROOF? Bibby re-signed for 3 years!
JT0 should have stayed in school and earned a guarunteed College Degree, IF he needed to continur his development? Otherwisre, that’s what the NBDL is for. He can go there & play 48 mins/game.
Its ALL about Choices espec. @ the 19th pick!