Atlanta Hawks Squawks Game 2: Magic 112, Hawks 98
ORLANDO– “Almost need the perfect game to beat this team,” Woody said. If that’s true, “almost perfect” for the Hawks does not include things like a 15-point fourth quarter, allowing a 35-point third quarter when they had control of the game and getting scorched for 56 percent shooting.
– “We know we can play in this arena and we can play with these guys,” Smoove said. “We just have to establish ourselves. We have to look at the bright side. We played hard and we didn’t just let them roll over us.”
–The Hawks lost by 14 points despite being nearly perfect from the line, seeing only 39 minutes of Dwight Howard due to foul trouble and a bloody nose and holding the Magic to 17 points in a quarter. “You have to look at the positives,” Jamal said. “We came in their place and were down one entering the fourth quarter. That shows you we are right there.”
– I understand the Hawks have to maintain that positive state of mind but it’s little solace if they are actually trying to win this series. Is this the really the best they can do at Orlando? Take a lead at halftime, spit the bit in the fourth quarter and lose by double digits?
– “I think we are good enough to play with anyone in the league,” Al said. “We have to keep improving and build on how we played in the first half.”
– The Hawks were a model of offensive efficiency in the second quarter: 9 of 21 shooting, 10 of 10 free throws, six offensive rebounds for eight second-chance points and five assists. The first quarter was good, too. “I think we had more movement going around instead of keeping the ball on one side and playing isolation,” Al said. “We were moving the ball and just sharing it. When we play like that, we are at our best.”
– They didn’t play like that in the second half: 41 points, 12 of 33 shooting. J.J. and, to a lesser extent, Jamal were the culprits. The Magic are a good defensive team but the Hawks make it easier for them when the ball stays in one place.
– You had to figure Al would start making jumpers. When he does, it usually means the offense is flowing and Dwight is away from the basket, and both of those are good things. “Al Horford, it seemed like he didn’t miss any shots tonight,” Howard said. “I was upset that he was just on fire.”
– Bibby played just four minutes after halftime, none in the fourth quarter. Maybe having him out there would have improved the flow but, considering the way he defers to Joe, maybe not. Jamal had the Hawks playing faster. He went hard to the basket, too, getting six free-throw attempts.
– “Mike will be back in there Saturday ready to go,” Woody said. “That’s not my worry. It’s all about trying to win. I thought Jamal was playing pretty well but we just didn’t have that in the fourth quarter.”
– You know what you are going to get when Jamal is running the show. The shot distribution was out of wack in the second half: 11 for Jamal, 7 for J.J. and only 5 for Al. So were the minutes: only 5 for Zaza and 4 for Mo.
– VC, Jameer Nelson, Pietrus, and Rashard Lewis combined to make 27 of 51 shots. I still think the Magic just has too many good perimeter players and the Hawks have too many bad matchups out there. That’s something that needs to be addressed in the offseason.
– If the Hawks are going to take the “let Dwight get his” approach, they have to find a way to control all those shooters. Dwight got his and so did Rashard, VC and Jameer. No one is saying it’s easy to do both but that’s what it’s going to take for the Hawks to win this series. “The idea is to put pressure on them,” VC said. “You want to come in as many waves as possible.”
– The Hawks survived Dwight’s 18 points, 6 of 6 shooting and 6 of 9 free throws in the first quarter. He only had 10 over the final three yet the Magic still won going away. “We tried doubling him,” Woody said. “We tried playing him straight up. He got to the free-throw line quite a bit in the first half, but I don’t think that really hurt us. Their threes coming down the stretch were huge in terms of our rotation. We were slow there and they were able to knock down shots there.”
– The Hawks had a 57-49 lead at halftime and then almost immediately gave it back. They started the quarter by coming up empty on five consecutive possessions, including three turnovers. “We just fell apart to start the third quarter to give them momentum to get back in the game,” Woody said
– The Hawks didn’t let it get away from them at that point. The lead changed eight more times over the last nine minutes of the period, the last time on Nelson’s running, banked-in 3-pointer at the buzzer. “I think we relaxed and that’s a big momentum shot for them going into the fourth quarter,” Woody said.
– The Hawks were down just 88-87 early in the third. Then the Magic ripped off runs of 10-0 and 9-0 as the Hawks missed 8 of their next 9 shots, including four in a row by Jamal. “We just didn’t have anything left in the fourth quarter,” Woody said.
– At least the Hawks didn’t stay down once they got down like they usually do on the road. “I think we realized that we had to play harder than what we did [in Game 1],” Al said. “We got away from our game plan in the first game and we learned from that and moved on. We tried to put a full game together tonight but just couldn’t do it. We just have to go home and handle our business and win at home.”
– I’m out, Hawks fans.
MC
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120 comments Add your comment
slim
May 7th, 2010
2:57 pm
Rick Sund please put down the pipe dude you mean Danny Granger with his great ball handling and pure shooting skills. J-Smooth will never have that game because he’s not wired that way.. Trade J-smooth,Marvin Williams plus throw in Mike Bibby for Chris Bosh!!!!!!!!!YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!
Section 303
May 7th, 2010
3:00 pm
slim, thanks for those original comments. Might be the first time ever I have read on here that Joe should not get a max deal, Marvin should not have been a lottery pick, and Josh Smith shoots too many jumpers. Very insightful stuff.
slim
May 7th, 2010
3:01 pm
C. Barkley said it best with the Hawks terrible playoff road record for the past 3 years the Hawks are nothing more than a pretender than a contender!! If JJ does not put them over the top than he does not deserve max money from the Hawks. BYE-BYE JJ…….
VenomSpitter
May 7th, 2010
3:03 pm
Who remembers when lil Nate Robison torched the Hawks for 41 pts this year. I DO
Who rememebers THE ROOKIE Stephen Curry ABUSING Joe constantly lol. I DO. Joe got spanked LMAO.
If we could I would sign and trade Joe for Stephen Curry who is already better than Joe.
slim
May 7th, 2010
3:07 pm
This City has never one a Championship or even won a conference final in 40 plus years and we are tired of thesSorry ass GM’s who continue to give us crap S303……….We will continue to point out the obvious…..
MustangSalley
May 7th, 2010
3:13 pm
I couldnt believe how Woody tried to cover up for his teams lackadaisical performance last night against the Magic. The Hwks had complete control of the game and then during a 6:00 minute stretch in the fourth quarter the hawks had six straight turnovers (3 by josh smith) AND two 24-second violation infractions; a total of 8 turnovers which cost us the game. If we had scored on each of those priceless possessions the final score would have been 114-112 hawks advantage. But it wasnt meant to be as the Hawks began to completely unravel and simply handed the game over to the Magic on a silver platter, negating the wonderful effort the Hawks made in the first half. What a wasted effort. If Woody is ok with saying to media “WE HAD NOTHING IN THE FOURTH QUARTER”, tell me whose responsile for his team showing some kind of effort at all in the fourth quarter. Isnt it the coaches responsibility to have his team prepared. Woody tells reporters–look we had nothing to give in the fourth quarter so we could have literally walked off the court after three quarters and called it quits. That speaks volumes to me because the players take on the coaches character. Woody should have been ANGRY AND FURIOUS at his team for the plethera of consecutive turnovers and lack of hustle in the fourth and woody should have said, ‘THE EFFORT THAT MY TEAM GAVE IN THE FOURTH QUARTER IS UNACCEPTABLE AND DOES NOT SHOW PROFESSIONALISM WHATSOEVER.” In fact is is more of a pee wee league than the nba and those players will be accountable the next time they perform like that. Woody was simply saying, look man, we couldnt win the game because we shut the lights out after three quarters; so another team would have had to come in here and finish off the Magic because we were too inept to compete. But isnt that what he said. Thats what he meant when he said, we gave ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the fourth quarter so we really didnt think we could compete and felt it more comfortable to sit back and watch the Magic stomp us and run us off the floor. WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT.
O'Brien
May 7th, 2010
3:19 pm
Northcyde,
An that’s where sund comes in. He has to find a way to improve our roster, even if JJ stays.
And I think jj will get a Max offer from Chicago (if lebron, Wade and bosh turn them down). And I think jj gets a Max offer from the Knicks.
And as a result, if the hawks want to keep him, they will have to offer him a Max contract too.
But he should not be thinking about that. He just needs to go out and play his game.
Clyde
May 7th, 2010
3:20 pm
BRING BACK TERRY STOTTS
Bob Sura, JT, and Stephen Jackson played hard each and every night when they were with the Hawks. Stotts had half the talent but he had his team playing twice as hard.
FIRE WOODY
Grandad
May 7th, 2010
3:28 pm
northcyde:
I’m trying real hard ‘not’ to sound harsh.
But your knowledge of basketball, although filled with data,
comes across as superficial.
You obviously are well read on the subject but your depth of
understanding leaves me curious?
Example, when I used this post from ‘Najeh’ quoting ‘CB’:
[argueing against Iso-Joe] You never seemed to comprehend his point.
“The problem with the isolation is not the actual isolation,” Billups said. “It’s the lack of movement.” According to Billups, the Nuggets need to do a better job off the ball to help maximize the one-on-one advantages they have against Utah. “A lack of [movement] just lets one guy play against three or four.”
As for Joe being a playmaker:
*Joe is a complete player.
**Joe is not a play-maker!
***Joe is not an Alpha Dog
****Joe would benefit from playing with:
[either/or] a play-maker/Alpha Dog.
This is the stat line of a winning playmaker:(Suns 111/Spurs 102 gm 1)
Steve Nash, PG [37 13-19 2-4 5-6 0 3 3 10 0 0 6 3 +18 33]
Once again I’m trying to understand why you have such a one track mind on Joe, when people like myself admire him, but are able to see him for what he is. Which ain’t bad. Kinda like you.
slim
May 7th, 2010
3:29 pm
Mustang Salley I agree with you. This team is an embarrassment of HUGH PROPORTIONS!!!!! Mike Woodson’s bags have been packed for a while!! His coaching record is over 60 odd games below .500 over 6 yrs. He was a bad hire from day one!!!! But Billy Knight takes the blame for this coach hire. I dont blame Woody because he can’t coach, its not his fault.. He’s probably a nice guy after work???? Josh and Marvin should be shopped immediately following being swept by Orlando…..Josh just shame on you dude for that attitude you displayed last night..You have not grown up yet I guess???? Remember Josh “your attitude determines your altitude” or in your case your game…..
CoryBoulder
May 7th, 2010
3:34 pm
JJ SHOULD GET A MAX OFFER. HA-HA. IN MY OPINION, HE IS THE BEST PLAYER IN BASKETBALL PERIOD. HA-HA. END OF STORY. HE IS BETTER THAN KOBE, MORE SKILLFUL THAN LABRON, FASTER AND CAN LEAP MORE BUILDINGS AND IS MORE POWERFUL THAN D-WADE AND CARMELLO. HA-HA JJ IS DYNOMYTE JUST LIKE THE JJ ON THE TV SITCOM GOOD TIMES. THAT IS ABOUT HOW GOOD JJ IS. HE IS NO BETTER THAN JIMMY WALKER (JJ ON GOOD TIMES). JOE JOHNSON STINKS AND SHOULD BE RELEASED AND RELIEVED OF HIS JOB RESPONSIBILITIES, JUST LIKE JAMARCUS RUSSELL WAS YESTERDAY. THROW THE BUM OUT OF TOWN.
Grandad
May 7th, 2010
3:40 pm
Would G.S. give up S.Curry & filler for Josh + Marv + _____?
[they may even want to unload Biedrins *(inj) salary]
JeJe
May 7th, 2010
3:42 pm
RESIGNING JOE JOHNSON DOES NOT MAKE THE HAWKS ANY CLOSER TO COMPETING WITH ORLANDO OR CLEVELAND FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP. EITHER SHAKE UP THE CORE O S&T JOE FOR DWYANE WADE AND OVERPAY IF U MUST
LEBRON AND DWIGHT AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE
northcyde
May 7th, 2010
3:47 pm
Clyde
May 7th, 2010
2:51 pm
Jeff you got a good point. The Iso Joe show cost us the game. That’s why I say FIRE WOODY all the time. Woody is the one that calls that crap to be run. If we had a offensive system in place we could run it and get good ball movement to get a easy shots.
FIRE WOODY
********************
How did ISO-JOE cost us the game . . . when ISO-JOE only took ONE SHOT ( a shot that he made ) during the 21 – 3 run that the Magic used to blow that game wide open?
A lot of you guys just get stuff iingrained into your heads . . or you focus on one thing . . but never look at the big picture.
northcyde
May 7th, 2010
3:53 pm
Hawks went 1 – 10 FG during that 21 – 3 run that blew the game open
( Crawford 4 misses . . Smoove 3 misses . . Horford and Marvin 1 miss apiece )
ISO-JOE made the only shot. . . off of a set play in which he caught the ball and immediately went into the lane and shot a pull-up 12 footer.
JJ’s problem is that he needs to get more shots up in rhythm, not that he’s shooting too much. SMH @ Bibby being ( – 18 ) in 14 minutes. A lot of that was because of the 1st quarter that Howard had . . but still. ( – 18 )?
northcyde
May 7th, 2010
3:54 pm
That trade is a pipe dream Grandad. The Warriors would trade everyone on that team before Curry. They’d gladly dump Monta Ellis on us. Then we could really have a fast squad, with two gunner guards that look to shoot first.
Christoph
May 7th, 2010
4:54 pm
I really think that some of you are making too much of this, without looking into the details of what occurred late in the game. The Hawks did not “fall apart” or “lose focus”. They may have failed to get into their correct defensive sets coming down the stretch and were a bit lax in transition defense, but overall, the Hawks really did not deviate from the game plan all that much. A lot of the shots which the Hawks missed in the fourth quarter (particularly Jamal) were good open shots, they just didn’t drop. Also, you should know by now that no matter how good a defense is, skilled offense is still going to generate points. The three-ball is Orlando’s bread and butter, they are bound to hit around 10 threes per game, whether they are contested or not. Sure, contesting shots helps, but after you have been running drills for so long, it almost just becomes routine once you get to your sweet spots. Listen closely to the press conference comments. Even Van Gundy mentioned that most of the problem for the Hawks in the fourth quarter was that they simply missed shots. Some tighter transition defense and change of luck on open shots and this game could easily have been a Hawks win. That’s the way it goes in the NBA sometimes. On a positive note, the Hawks know that they have a strategy that works (no, I’m not talking about the ISO plays) and when they execute it correctly, they will always be in a position to defeat the Magic, regardless of where they play.
northcyde
May 7th, 2010
5:00 pm
LOL@ Grandad. I’ve played basketball on the high school, AAU, and small college level ( as a reserve ). A former PG at that. My knowledge of basketball is EXTENSIVE, and not just based off of watching the game on TV.
Hell, I personally know two current NBA players ( because I used to ball with them in the summers when they made visits home ), and talk a lot of hoops with them as well.
JJ is a playmaker for HIS TEAM. There is no denying that. He’s a playmaker from the 2-guard in the same mold as Brandon Roy is for his team. But at least Brandon has the luxury ( even though he’s having a hard time adjusting ) of playing with a true PG like Brandon Roy. JJ doesn’t even have that.
The 2 PGs that he plays with, are shoot first guys that JJ has to get shots for as well. Outside of maybe Josh Smith, there’s not a single person that sets JJ up for his shots. That’s left up to him.
And how silly of you to bring in a guy who doesn’t even play the 2, and is one of the top 5 playmaking PGs of all time in Steve Nash. That doesn’t diminish my argument about JJ being ( or expected to be ) a playmaker for the Hawks.
The fact is that because JJ is the focal point of the offense, he needs to make the right decisions with the basketball. But he also has to get his points, by any means necessary.
The main problem with his ISOs, is that he’s waiting a little too long for a possible double team to come to him. Personally, I’d wish that he would think score first, but keep his eyes up on the floor to possibly get someone else an easy look ( seeing that he IS the defacto PG on this team ).
Make no mistake Grandad, we need 20 ppg+ the rest of the way out of JJ, in order to win this series, or even make it competitive. And I don’t care how he gets it, whether it be out of set plays, screens, or ISOs.
Regardless . . . he needs to get up more shots for us to be successful.
But once again . . ISO-JOE didn’t lose that game. Defense lost that game. JJ just didn’t shoot well and was nowhere near as aggressive as he should’ve been, so he does get some blame for our fate last night.
It’s just funny that the 4th quarter meltdown started almost IMMEADIATELY after he left the game to get a few minutes rest.
northcyde
May 7th, 2010
5:09 pm
And JJ is also the ALPHA DOG on HIS TEAM. He may be smaller dog, when you compare him to the superstars in the league. But for the Hawks, he is the Alpha Dog.
If he wasn’t, so much negative focus wouldn’t beon him to perform.
LOL . . when a team and it’s fans expect a player to score 20+ ppg – grab at least 5 rebounds – and dish out 5 assists – and shoot at least 45% FG and 80% FT – plus play defense on PGs, SGs, and SFs . . .
. . . you better believe that people consider him the ALPHA DOG, even if they don’t say it or necessarily believe it.
slim
May 7th, 2010
9:09 pm
Josh offensive talent does not nearly match his GIANT EGO. This dude is toxic down the stretch in “crunch time”. I have been watching b-ball for awhile. He just does not have it and never will. He has not received the memo yet. If I were GM I would look to ship this guy outta here asap!! Cant help him with his ego????? Marvin”s the best “WNBA” player I have ever seen..MVP!!! He’s like the “tin man”. Has no heart….He didn’t get the memo either. Two Stiffs on offense, especially in the 4th qtr!! Coach Woodson has left Marvin on the bench in alot of games during the 4th qtr. Marvin needs to see the wizard!! I’d shop him also quickly!!!!! #2 lottery pick! What a freaking joke on Atlanta…