Atlanta Hawks Squawks Game 1: Magic 114, Hawks 71
This is how it looked from their perspective. (AP)
ORLANDO–The Hawks opened the East semis by suffering a historic beat down. it was their largest playoffs defeat since the team moved to Atlanta. The Atlanta Hawks lost 111-76 at Philly in ‘82 and the St. Louis Hawks lost 133-75 at Minneapolis in ‘58.
– The Magic’s 43-point victory margin was their second largest in postseason franchise history. Their largest lead of the game was 46; their largest lead during the regular season was 38 in that Jan. 9 game vs. the Hawks. They’ve won their last four home games against the Hawks by an average margin of nearly 32 points.
– Not surprisingly, the Hawks talked afterward about how this is just one game in the series. Yes, they said they can regroup. Yes, they can come up with a plan to beat Orlando.
– “Honestly, it would be harder if we lost by one point on a buzzer beater,” Jamal said. “A game like this, you shake it off and move on.”
– “It’s one loss,” Al said. “We can’t let it be a snowball effect. We have to figure something out and play hard.”
– “We’ll bounce back in Game 2,” J.J. said. “It’s a long series. Anything is possible. We just need to look at the tape and make adjustments.”
– There wasn’t much conviction behind their words. But what else can they say? That they don’t have the depth of personnel to deal with both Dwight and the Magic’s skilled perimeter players? That they can’t run an offense with nearly the same precision, speed and effectiveness as the Magic?
– How can the Hawks really believe they can beat the Magic, especially on this court? They can talk about the missed shots, but what about the way the Magic relentlessly shredded their defense, switches or no switches?
– The Magic privately have to be making plans for the East finals but they went along with the cliches for now. “We understand that it’s only one game and in order for us to win this series we have to dominate every night like we did tonight,” Dwight Howard said
– What’s to say they can’t do that? Certainly not the Hawks’ defense. Or their offense. Or much of anything about the Hawks in Game 1.
– “We don’t get discouraged,” Smoove said. “We are a team that perseveres and plays hard. We just have to play better on the defensive end and make it hard for them to score.”
– That’s true but do the Hawks hope to hold the Magic to 70 points? The 10-point second quarter was something that shouldn’t happen in the playoffs. The Hawks had seven turnovers and four field goals in the period. The Magic rebounded 11 of their 13 misses.
– The Hawks seemed to be clueless about how they wanted to attack the Magic. Shoot, there were times when Iso-Joe looked to be better than anything else the Hawks were trying. “We just have to stick with the plan,” J.J. said. “I thought in the first quarter the plan that we had worked pretty good. In the second quarter we just fell apart and never regrouped.”
– The Hawks were back to their “the shots just didn’t fall” explanations. “We haven’t had many games where Jamal, Joe, and Bibby just couldn’t make shots,” Woody said. “It puts too much pressure on you.”
– It happened just a few days ago, in Game 5 against Milwaukee. The Hawks controlled that game until the meltdown because they played respectable D. They didn’t come close to doing that against the Magic. Then again, the Magic ain’t the Bucks.
– “We have to come up with a different game plan because what we have been doing hasn’t been working,” Al said. “We have to figure something out and play harder.”
– They are back to the “play harder, come up with something” line of thinking, too. That’s never a good sign.
– When Al got his first foul, Woody replaced him with Jason Collins and later replaced Josh with Zaza. “That’s the coach’s plan,” Al said. “He felt Jason and Zaza in would be better. I have to deal with that.”
– “I didn’t think that hurt us,” Woody said. “That was towards the latter part of the first quarter. We came in with Jason and Jason picked up a few fouls, but I didn’t want Al going through the quarter with two fouls and now he’s got to be looking over his shoulder going into the second quarter. I thought we played it right. That had nothing to do with second quarter letdown.”
– The Hawks got frustrated with some of the calls, and there were some bad ones that went against them. But most of those came in the first quarter, when the Hawks actually were in the game. “The calls did not go our way but that’s not an excuse,” Josh said. “The refs are not going to help them beat us by 50 points.”
– Howard had a big game. The Hawks’ “no dunks” approach didn’t work. But the Magic might have won with Marcin Gortat playing Howard’s minutes considering how they punished the Hawks on the perimeter.
– At this point, I just don’t see a way for the Hawks to guard everything they have to guard while also coming up with a plan to score efficiently against the Magic to make this a series. “We’ve beaten them before,” Horford said. “We are the third seed so we knew we were going to have to play them. We put ourselves in this position. We earned this.”
– When you look at what Boston is doing in the Cleveland series, what happened to the Hawks tonight, and how they huffed and puffed against Milwaukee, doesn’t it start to look like they didn’t close that gap so much after all?
– “They embarrassed us but we have have another one on Thursday and we will get ready for that,” Bibby said.
– I’m out, Hawks fans.
MC
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196 comments Add your comment
Jokeman 4000
May 5th, 2010
4:10 am
Since Josh Loves To Shoot So Much Maybe They Should Sign Chris Bosh And Put Him At Power Forward Bench Marvin And Put Smith At Small Forward Lmao That Would Be The Funniest Line Up Ever. Bibby, Crawford, Smith, Bosh, And Horford
Bones
May 5th, 2010
4:37 am
Just out of curiosity, do you guys like Teague is an upgrade over Acie Law? He’s definitely more athletic, but Acie could actually shoot the ball moderately well when he came into the league.
jeff
May 5th, 2010
5:45 am
If ISO JOE doesn’t share the ball it will be four and done, All-Star or not, those other players on the court helped him become an all-star. If he would just pass the ball, he would get more shots than he thinks.
What a Joke!
jeff
May 5th, 2010
5:48 am
Jokeman- With ISO JOE on the floor it is 1 on 5. Everyone knows he is going to ISO and shoot when he gets the ball. Even Mchale said last night that Joe needed to pass the ball. No one can win 1 on 5 not even ISO JOE and his all-star status.
vava74
May 5th, 2010
6:13 am
Teague’s shot will be OK.
Last night he sunk 2/3 from 3 point land (the other was an half court shot at the buzzer).
He had two lay ups blocked and missed two floaters. Both situations are due to lack of experience, not a lack of shot.
vava74
May 5th, 2010
6:15 am
So, if you take the half court shot, he was 3 for 8 from the floor, which is just 1 shot away from being .500.
A modicum of improvement in his decision making at the rim and a little less jitters when going for his floater and he will be just fine.
If Teague is not starting next year, I would not even bother watching the Hawks.
vava74
May 5th, 2010
6:26 am
JJ’s problem is that he is being badly utilized by Woody.
We have no offensive system (set plays), no ball nor player movement and against a good defensive team, ISO-Joe, ISO-Jamal, ISO-Al, ISO-Josh gets exposed.
Heck, it does not even have to be a good defensive team, it enough that a team plays Zone D against us that our scoring plummets.
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
6:40 am
Salim Stoudamire > Jeff Teague
At least Salim could come into a game every blue moon, and make an impact.
Oh . . my bad . . Teague did show out in the final game of the season vs Cleveland, when he was basically given the green light to be “the man”. But he needs to learn how to be an impact player, while being a reserve.
You’re kidding right? Common now n-o-r-t-h-c-y-d-e (wanted to make sure I got it right this time), we get beat down by 40, and you come on this board picking on Jeff Teague?
If the guy did something last night, he would’ve been creditted for doing it in “garbage time”, which obviously means nothing to you guys.
Take Mike Bibby for what he is. At this point in his career, he’s a spot-shooter. Spot-shooter should be getting spot-time…
Don’t come at Jeff Teague for not “performing” to the level you’d like him to in a 45 point blowout after watching him get limitted minutes the entire season. That’s sad. You’ve been one of Teague’s biggest critics, but you never point to Mike Bibby’s performance. What “impact” did Mike Bibby have on yesterday’s game?
And you come on here pointing to Jeff Teague’s time on the floor in a 45 point blowout?
As a wiseman said in a youtube video:
“Get – the – F- out!”
No, but seriously, I don’t know where you’re coming from with that JT0 BS. It’s like, the starters dig us into a 45 point hole, and that’s what it takes for this kid to get on the floor…
Should you be complaining? You’ve been defending Woody for not playing the kid, even though the bar is as low as it is.
He’s not gonna get any better watching Bibby shoot 1-5 in 20 minutes for 2 points. Is that supposed to up his confidence? Watching Mike Bibby doing nothing and still know he can’t get in the game?
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
6:41 am
“Salim Stoudamire > Jeff Teague
At least Salim could come into a game every blue moon, and make an impact.
Oh . . my bad . . Teague did show out in the final game of the season vs Cleveland, when he was basically given the green light to be “the man”. But he needs to learn how to be an impact player, while being a reserve.”
That should’ve been in quotes. Not my words.
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
6:52 am
And *coach*,
Are you a career counselor? I believe being a “motivator” is just part of your job description. It’s as if, everytime we lose, we “lack the energy” or “the guys didn’t have the juice tonight”.
Seriously? I’m tired of hearing this.
You’re not a cheerleader. We better see a different approach as to how you defend Howard, because it’s obvious using up our fouls early left us in the position where we were forced to double, leaving the shooters open.
I know it’s basically “pick your poison”, but, let Howard try to get his 25 dunks for 50 points. If Howard scores a bucket, we’re basically taking jabs. Sure, they’ll hurt, but we won’t get KO’d as quick.
When you get the shooters going, you’re taking a flurry of blows. The doors are open for them to do their thing. It plays into what they wanna do. Get teams frustrated enough with Howard to open up the inside/out game. It becomes a barrage real quick.
You saw what happened when we opened the door for the shooters to get going. That’s what a flurry of blows does. We got KO’d, quick.
You better start motivating *coach*, seeing as though that’s all you seem to know how to do. Get the guys on some OJ, and hope they have more juice the next game.
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
7:00 am
And back to the JT0 real quick for northcyde.
Jeff Teague: 17 minutes played, 8 points, 1 assists, 2 boards, 2 TO’s.
Mike Bibby: 19 minutes played, 2 points, 3 assists, 0 boards, 1 TO.
And I’d like you to point something else out. Let’s say JT0 goes off last night in garbage time. Let’s say he makes “an impact” and goes for 20-10 in 17 minutes.
HE STILL WOULDN’T SEE THE FLOOR IN MEANINGFUL MOMENTS IN THIS SERIES.
What difference does it make?
VenomSpitter
May 5th, 2010
7:05 am
Northcyde shows once again he doesn’t know anything by trying to criticize Teague in a blowout loss.
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
7:07 am
Take this issue about “garbage time” out of the picture, since it means nothing to you, and tell me, hold up one second:
northcyde: “At least Salim could come into a game every blue moon, and make an impact.”
Who had the bigger impact? Just look at the stats.
Even if JT0 is struggling, you know he has other things to offer the team other than scoring. If Bibby’s not scoring, WHAT THE HELL DOES HE OFFER US? Even if Teague’s struggling, you know he’s still gonna run. You know he’s quick enough to stay in front of guys Bibby can’t. You know he’s a walking-assist.
I shouldn’t say “you know”, because you obviously don’t know.
Rock Preston
May 5th, 2010
7:07 am
I think we all know what needs to happen with this team in the offseason. We all are tired of this same song and dance mess. These cats never own up to being bad and unprofessional. All starts with the coach since the current GM didnt hire him. Bye Woody and Joke Johnson.
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
7:09 am
Let’s throw garbage time out of the picture, since it obviously doesn’t mean anything, and just take a look at those numbers. And tell me northcyde, one second:
northcyde: “At least Salim could come into a game every blue moon, and make an impact.”
Who made the bigger impact?
terrell
May 5th, 2010
7:18 am
Still tired from Sunday maybe???
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
7:21 am
Najeh
“With that being the case, I’d much rather give Teague a shot to play consistent minutes with the starters and build confidence to show what he’s got rather than seeing the corpse of Bibby letting every opposing point guard in the world treat him like Ben Roethlisberger treats college co-eds.”
Co-sign. That is too funny!!!!!!!!!!
Wabe
May 5th, 2010
7:23 am
Damn, I could’ve saved a whole lot of typing if I had just co-signed Najeh’s 3:50 post.
Oh well, co-sign Najeh. I’m with you 100%.
O'Brien
May 5th, 2010
7:42 am
First, the good. This still only counts as one loss. And we get to play them tomorrow night again.
The bad: Everything else.
JJ’s last 4 games: 6-16, 8-24, 4-14, and 4-11 tonight. You expect more from a player looking for a max contract, someone who said he wants to prove he belongs in the ‘elite’ conversation. Maybe he’s tired…
Once again, Crawford struggled against the Magic. 4-13, 4-14, 6-17, 4-14, and 1-11 in 5 games against the Magic. And we got outrebounded by 18.
Bottomline: Woody coached like crap, and the players played like crap.
@ northcyde,
You always point to the team, while seemingly ignoring Woody’s contributions to the problem.
““With the way this team is constructed, the guards MUST be able to knock down jumpshots.”
Najeh is right. It’s not how the team is constructed, it’s how the team is coached.
“Asking this team to simply do things that they are not comfortable with doing, is only going to make the situation worse”.
Why are they not comfortable doing anything else besides shoot jump shots? That comes back to coaching.
“We have to come up with a different game plan because what we have been doing hasn’t been working,” Al said.
A big part of that falls on coaching.
But hey, look on the bright side. The Hawks were #4 in offensive efficiency during the season.
Curious
May 5th, 2010
8:00 am
@Jokeman 4000 : Is that a computer program that capitalizes the first letter of EVERY word?
JOE
May 5th, 2010
8:02 am
SOFT !!!!!!!!!
Nacho
May 5th, 2010
8:03 am
I was thinking, why even play Bibby? Why not start Mo? Atleast he can play defense.
Has anyone ever seen an example of a team with out direction, without coaching, with out managing.
Woody should be fired!
Four More Years
May 5th, 2010
8:06 am
To be effective, JJ has to be the number 2 option. He has to be the guy that the ball is kicked out to after penetration, but he has to be guarded 1 on 1…(.the other team cannot double him because they have to double the number 1 option.) This means that the Hawks must have a #1 option to make JJ effective which they do not have. The only way to get a #1 option is to sign and trade JJ. Oh yeah…for anything to work, you must get rid of Woodson also.
LOL good luck with that.
Four More Years
May 5th, 2010
8:09 am
Oh yeah I forgot. They also must get a new ownership group. Once again….LOL good luck with that
Section 303
May 5th, 2010
8:33 am
Only good thing I can say about last night’s game is that it was so bad that it wasn’t bad. How can you, as a fan, even be upset when your team is so overmatched?
I really do not see this getting any better. The Hawks won’t lose by 40-something, again. They will probably lose each game by double digits, though.
Another sad effort. Like all of you, I’m getting sick of it. Team is just not as far along as I thought they were.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
8:45 am
Woody said “We didn’t play Atlanta Hawks basketball tonight”. Sure looked like the Hawks to me.
doc
May 5th, 2010
8:48 am
WOODSON IT AINT THE DEFENSE THAT IS KILLING YOU. YOU CANT WIN IF YOU CANT SCORE THE BALL!
IT DOESNT MATTER HOW YOU PLAY DEFENSE IF YOU COME UP THE FLOOR AND DONT SCORE. NOW WHY CANT YOU GET THE BALL IN THE HOLE AGAINST THIS TEAM?
SURE THE DEFENSE ISNT GOOD BUT THE OFFENSE IS DIV 3 LEVEL. HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT WHAT THEIR DEFENSE IS DOING TO YOU YET? DUDE IT AINT ALL ABOUT NOT MAKING SHOTS, WE CANT EVEN DRIBBLE AGAINST THEM!
tired of yelling.
did anyone else see the resignation in horford as he came out of the game?
could they make a tape of josh jumping up and down like a three year old and embarrass the h3ll out of him? josh grow up finally will you?
News and Notes from the Hawks Game One loss in Orlando | Soaring Down South | An Atlanta Hawks blog
May 5th, 2010
8:50 am
[...] Hawks Beat writer Michael Cunningham talks about the Hawks offensive struggles: – That’s true but do the Hawks hope to hold the Magic to 70 points? The 10-point second quarter was something that shouldn’t happen in the playoffs. The Hawks had seven turnovers and four field goals in the period. The Magic rebounded 11 of their 13 misses. [...]
JeJe
May 5th, 2010
8:58 am
CHARLOTTE GOT DWIGHT INTO FOUL TROUBLE BUT WE CAN’T!
LOL
ALL SVG SAID AFTER THE 1ST WAS: “OK GUYS YOUR RUST WAS WORKED OFF IN THE 1ST. LET’S DESTROY THIS TEAM.”
WHAT A JOKE. THE MAGIC SAY THEY HAVE TO FORGET ABOUT GM 1 AND COME BACK TOMORROW, BUT WE KNOW THEY THINK WE’RE THE LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE PLAYOFFS
JeJe
May 5th, 2010
9:03 am
WOW DID JEFF TEAGUE LOOK BAD LAST NIGHT
IDK IF IT’S CUZ HE SUCKS OR BECAUSE WOODSON DRAINED ALL HIS CONFIDENCE
EITHER WAY,
FIRE WOODY
Hawks get flushed
May 5th, 2010
9:04 am
Nice game did the hawks play are was it AAA players on court my Gosh n gravy on Biscuits. Jazz out man n and out classed n plays with gusto n so do suns what we play like are school girls I told u morons we lose 4-0 in series n we there say Bye to U stupid coach n GM to get Bobby knight as GM and get a top notch NBA fellow who brains not nose!
JeJe
May 5th, 2010
9:14 am
“Woody said “We didn’t play Atlanta Hawks basketball tonight”.
Go watch every Cav/Magic game from the last 2 years except for our wins (like 3/12) and we played the EXACT same way.
Again, all that matters is that we lose the last game of the series by 40. Whatever gets Woody fired
JeJe
May 5th, 2010
9:15 am
JOE JOHNSON U ARE A JOKE
DID U ALL SEE THE MAGIC GETTING MAD WHEN THEY WERE CALLED FOR FOULS UP 30
THEY WANT TO WIN
WE SUCK
jg
May 5th, 2010
9:28 am
two words: total embarrassment
The Truth
May 5th, 2010
9:32 am
Because Woody underutilized Collins during the regular season, he is now stuck in a “oh-sh!t” mode with very few options to counter the “Beat-Down”. Clearly Collins would be the best option to neutralized Howard because of his size. But since he hadn’t played much during the regular season with the starters, he looked “out of place” and rusty as a bench-warmer (which he is). He got no love from the Ref because they perceived him as a “nobody”. If he had played more minutes during the regular season, perhaps his status would have been elevated for these playoff games. Clearly those very bad calls made against him were due to his “nobody” playing status. We all should know that Collins claim to fame was his excellent defense against Shaq in the past. He is certainly strong enough to handle Howard in the paint but he needs more playing time to get adjusted. That did not happen and his utilization was aborted entirely the second half. When Al got in foul trouble and then Collins got abused by Howard clearly was the first turning point of the game and precipitated the “Beat-Down”.
When Cheryl Miller questioned Woody reasoning for putting Collins in the game so early instead of Zaza, he gave a political answer to suggest he was saving Zaza for later; as if to suggest that Zaza was his “Big Gun”. Well after Zaza performance against Dwight, it is safe to say the Woody is in an “oh-sh!t” mode right now.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
9:36 am
“Salim > Jeff Teague”. LMAO!
terrell
May 5th, 2010
9:39 am
Teague got maybe 10 sec a game in the reg season, and you guys expect him to come in a 2nd rd playoff, on the road, and play well? Dont blame Teague, blame your hero!
Josh
May 5th, 2010
9:40 am
The Hawks have no Heart!!!
Let JJ leave, he isn’t worth a max contract
FIRE Woody
terrell
May 5th, 2010
9:40 am
I meant a 2nd rd playoff game.
Najeh Davenpoop
May 5th, 2010
9:43 am
“You are 100% correct: Bibby is at this stage of his career strictly a spot shooter.
However, I think that 90% of the problem from his side is lack of effort.”
Maybe if our dearly beloved coach held EVERYONE on the team accountable, instead of benching his rookies after every mistake while letting his veterans show up overweight and give less than 100% effort, the team wouldn’t be getting blown out by 40 points in a playoff game on national TV.
FIRE WOODY
terrell
May 5th, 2010
9:44 am
JJ might not be worth max $, but if he leaves, we wont sniff the Playoffs next year. He’s struggling with his offense right now, but unless we want to go back to the gutter of the Eastern Conference, we have to re-sign him.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
9:45 am
Agreed Najeh.
terrell
May 5th, 2010
9:47 am
Najeh, I dont know about lack of effortr on Bibby’s part. He’s just too damn old. lol!
Najeh Davenpoop
May 5th, 2010
9:49 am
For the record, I’m not saying the Hawks should get rid of Bibby in that strongly worded post above. I am saying that he should be coming off the bench in short spurts to stretch the defense during the increasingly rare stretches when his shot is actually falling as opposed to starting. My post above is meant to criticize Woody for refusing to accept that he’s not a starter anymore, not Bibby for declining like everyone does eventually.
No id
May 5th, 2010
9:49 am
I was waiting for Woodson to pull a Mike Brown while talking with the press. Unfortunately he pulled a Mike Woodson with the same sorry quotes he says after every loss. “We just didn’t have it”, “They outplayed us”..This is has been repeated so many times that its not even funny anymore.
jeff
May 5th, 2010
9:50 am
re-sign him only if the incentives inculde 30 passes a game and 10 assists. Won’t make the playoffs? Is he the only player on the team? We can sign two or three quality players for his salary.
Ken Strickland
May 5th, 2010
9:53 am
It’s truly amazing how everyone seems to think Orlando’s DHoward is our only match up problem. While Orlando obviously has a match up advantage at C that it exploits, but against us it also has a big advantage at PG. Woodson continues to stubbornly think he can hide Bibby’s DEF liabilities on the court and Teague on the bench.
Having said that, I must also acknowledge the whipping we received last night was on the players, not Woodson. However, who do you blame when the HC complains all season long to the media about wanting and needing more ball movement, yet does and says absolutely nothing as the same player(s)s eliminate any ball movement with their ISO’s and one on one play? During the gm, Woodson has nothing to say whatsoever when JJ goes ISO and refuses to allow any ball movement, even when it results in nothing but turnovers.
There’s not much else that can be said about what happened last night. Let’s hope we get a much better effort from the players next gm.
GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bpullin
May 5th, 2010
9:54 am
Johnson and Smith are not superstars. They are Scotty Pippen types, and they don’t have their Michael Jordan. Neither one of them has the skill or the heart to lead a team to victory game after game. Neither one of them can step up and carry a team in the 4th quarter, like LeBron does.
Should be a very short series. I will be surprised if it goes past four games.
jeff
May 5th, 2010
9:55 am
Word is that the Hawks are going to dinner tonight to iron out their differences. lol
Gamer
May 5th, 2010
10:05 am
Only Game#1 folks. No post season team would have beaten Orlando last night..Not Lakers or Cavaliers..They ran the floor like generals..
Hawks players will find their will and make a way to win in Orlando..
MAKE BEDLAM HAWKS!!! STRIKE FRIGHT INTO YOUR OPPONENT!!!