Atlanta Hawks: Wizards at Hawks
There’s one topic that is always sure to prompt an eye roll from L.D.
“You just had to ask me, didn’t you?” he said.
Well, Smoove keeps taking long jump shots, he keeps missing them (2 for 11 from 16 to 23 feet) so, yes, the question still gets asked.
And L.D. keeps having the conversation with Josh where he tells him: Yes, I know your stroke looks better but you are a good post player so don’t settle for jumpshots, particuarly early in the shot clock.
“I told him I am going to stay on him about it,” L.D. said. “He can’t put himself in those type situations. He’s got to learn from it. The one thing I want him to do going into every game is I want him to establish himself inside first. He’s got the script flipped. I will continue to work with him on it.”
But how does L.D. reconcile his wish for Josh to stop taking jumpers with that 3-pointer he buried to help put away the Sixers last night?
“How can you? I’m going to be honest, I have no idea,” Drew said. “That was a huge shot that he hit because he had somebody running at him and he hesitated and he knocked it down. The basketball gods were with us.”
Mo better
Mo got his knee drained yesterday. An MRI was negative and he said he should be back in about a week. The knee bothered him a bit before the Memphis game but Mo decided to play and then take care of it after.
“It feels a lot better,” he said. “I had a lot of fluid in there. It’s from the irritation and grinding and stuff after the surgery.”
Wiz worries
Arenas is out for the Wiz but “that doesn’t mean they are going to be an easy team to beat,” L.D. said.
John Wall is in the house and he’s working on his jump shot, former AJC Hawks beat guy Michael Lee writes: “Dwight Howard mentioned that the scouting report on Wall is that he likes to go left and score in the paint, so the Magic devised a plan to push Wall to go the other way and dropped off him nearly every time he prepared to go left, forcing him to take a shot that Wall has practicing but has yet to get confidence in. ‘They were giving him the 15-footer,’ Coach Flip Saunders said of the Magic.
Follow me
Follow me on Twitter, tell others to do the same, and possibly get some tickets to the Pistons game Wednesday. Hey, the bosses judge me on this so, yes, I’m shamelessly self-promoting.
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
100 comments Add your comment
ignition
October 30th, 2010
8:50 pm
Al Thorton going off.. Marvin may be good on D but he aint great and offensively he still plays scary. I’m not sure if there is anything we can do with this guy.. I just hope he completely devotes himself to defense cause he’s not what we need him to be right now.
ignition
October 30th, 2010
8:52 pm
Marvin is a tremendous disappointment.
lukas
October 30th, 2010
8:55 pm
Tonight i officially have lost any hope on his development. He is mentally weak and has no desire to be a player.
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
8:55 pm
Teague is just amazing. What skills did he have in college that made Sund draft him as high as he did? I just dont get it.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 30th, 2010
8:55 pm
The Wizards seem to have figured out how to attack Teague — right now he seems to have no clue how to fight through the screen. Might be time to zone it up to start the 4th.
Rev in Tampa
October 30th, 2010
8:56 pm
Zaza should have used that last contact with Wall to put him on the floor hard.
truthspitter
October 30th, 2010
8:56 pm
This is the reason the NBA is unwatchable they totally create superstars. Wall is just running to the rim getting every call.
Hawks Fan In New Orleans
October 30th, 2010
8:59 pm
Najeh Davenpoop
you jinxed us – Wall went bonkers that 3rd quarter.
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
9:04 pm
Nice defense Joe. Was this not the same Wizards that lost to Orlando by 40 points couple nights ago?
Rev in Tampa
October 30th, 2010
9:09 pm
It seems to me that the Hawks simply don’t have their legs under them since this is their 3rd game in 4 nights. But that’s part of the game… So let’s go Hawks!
Ramon
October 30th, 2010
9:09 pm
If Thornton and Nate Robinson played the Hawks 82 games a season, they’d be All NBA players, lol.
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
9:12 pm
If Wall played Hawks 82 games a season, he be the best point guard of all time
ignition
October 30th, 2010
9:12 pm
We were fine when we were going in to the paint, it when they start jacking up perimeter shots that we lose focus and lose leads..
Sautee
October 30th, 2010
9:13 pm
LD waited one possession too long to bring he starters back.
truthspitter
October 30th, 2010
9:13 pm
Seriously this team looks a little better but the same problems persist they should have put the Wiz away by now. They are gonna mess around and lose this game because the Wiz are getting every call.
Rev in Tampa
October 30th, 2010
9:13 pm
Hawks need to force Wall to his left. Everything he’s done has happened after initially going right.
Ramon
October 30th, 2010
9:14 pm
Josh without the headband?!? What happened?
ignition
October 30th, 2010
9:15 pm
Where was the motion on that play..???
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
9:15 pm
Yi must have the coolest name in NBA
Rev in Tampa
October 30th, 2010
9:20 pm
JJ’s legs just returned.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 30th, 2010
9:22 pm
Someone here is rocking the Antoine Dotson Halloween costume. I am amazed at how much staying power that guy has had.
Ramon
October 30th, 2010
9:23 pm
I’m glad the Wiz weren’t smart enough to put McGee back in the game with 4 minutes left, lol.
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
9:24 pm
I love the heart and souo of this team, Josh and AL. LOVE THEM
Najeh Davenpoop
October 30th, 2010
9:24 pm
Smoove is the engine that makes this team go.
Ramon
October 30th, 2010
9:25 pm
Najeh, someone is rocking an NBA player costume. Oh, my bad, that’s Marvin. lol
Najeh Davenpoop
October 30th, 2010
9:26 pm
“Where was the motion on that play..???”
The commitment to the new offense today has been sporadic at best. Some credit should go to the Wizards’ zone defense.
Ramon
October 30th, 2010
9:28 pm
Najeh, I think the motion went away because of it being the 2nd night of a back to back. Motion takes a lot of energy to run, as well as legs.
truthspitter
October 30th, 2010
9:34 pm
The Hawks are the ultimate a win is a win team right now. We are shaky gentleman
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
9:36 pm
truthspitter, yes a shaky win at best. But Drew needs to really have a talking with Marvin. At this rate he is lucky Jordan Crawford is not playing for him
Rev in Tampa
October 30th, 2010
9:40 pm
My wife is glad that NBA League Pass is ending is free games before the Hawks play again.
Leon
October 30th, 2010
9:41 pm
Nice win for the Hawks. It wasn’t the prettiest offensive outing, but the Hawks got the job done in the fourth quarter. They continue to show maturity over last season. Joe tried to isolate a lot in the 4th quarter, but there was still some ball movement Joe managed to come through on those 1-on-1 plays. More importantly, the team didn’t panic or fall apart when the game was close, and Al was huge down the stretch playing good defense, playing strong on the glass, and scoring in clutch situations. I’m really impressed with Al, once again. He didn’t even play at all in the second quarter and still finished the night with 21 points and 10 boards. There are obviously still some things that the Hawks can improve on, and this wasn’t their best performance, but it was a good win, nonetheless. Way to keep the moment going with a 3-0 start to the season. Let’s keep it rolling, Hawks.
hawks_4_life
October 30th, 2010
9:49 pm
=)
nothing else to follow that
truthspitter
October 30th, 2010
9:58 pm
Marvin played over 20 minutes and did not get a single point. We really need to trade this guy ASAP
jlewis
October 30th, 2010
10:05 pm
Tiger Woods if you must constantly put players down, dont do it under a real athletes name, have a nickname or abbreviate your own. Nothing worse than a coward that puts people down under someone else’s name, man up.
Big Ray
October 30th, 2010
10:11 pm
From Bradley’s blog:
Richbrave ,
Why did the Wiz look good against us?
Hawks haven’t played good team defense yet this season, for one thing. The Wiz’s 95 points are the LEAST amount they’ve allowed in the first three games.
Secondly, the Hawks struggle against good point guards. The reasons are obvious:
1)Bibby will give the effort, but lacks the foot speed.
2)Teague isn’t ready, partially because he was not “thrown to the wolves” last season, but the defensive effort is clearly there. Unfortunately, defending at the point comes with a learning curve. He has learned that he can stay in front of most quick guys (like Lou Williams), but there are other tricks to the trade, and he gets into foul trouble with those (reaching in, or pump fakes). His other problem is that he’s not playing with that fire that’s needed. He better figure out how. Or, we’re back to the drawing board at the pg position….since we failed to get the situation addressed years ago.
3) Jamal sucks on defense. There is absolutely no other way to put it.
Marvin had his first “disappearance” game of the season, which allowed Al Thornton to have his way with us. I’m hoping Marvin isn’t getting back into that habit again, but I also realize he’s not going to play great in every single game. Not having Mo Evans forced us to play Joe at the SF, since Marvin wasn’t getting the job done.
Other than that….we let them shoot 50%, we barely shot much over 40%, and we won the game by shooting (and making) more free throws, and outrebounding them.
The two tall guys playing for the Wiz (6′11″ Blatche and 7′0″ McGee) had 25 points and 15 rebounds between them. Josh and Al had 33 points and 20 rebounds. And that was with them taking 5 fewer shots, combined.
Just sayin’….
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
10:11 pm
jlewis my name is TigerWoods. I have a club ready for your dumb head if you need. If you have a point, bring it otherwise….
Big Ray
October 30th, 2010
10:14 pm
Ramon ,
I’m glad the Wiz weren’t smart enough to put McGee back in the game with 4 minutes left, lol.
McGee had 5 fouls and 5 turnoves. He would have as likely fouled out as not. What was he gonna do in the last 4 minutes to win them the game?
richbrave
October 30th, 2010
10:16 pm
richbrave
October 30th, 2010
10:11 pm
The two tall guys playing for the Wiz (6′11″ Blatche and 7′0″ McGee) had 15 rebounds between them. Josh and Al had 20.
Thanx BIG RAY. I’m thinkin’ along those lines too. The WIZ ain’t that great, so the HAWKS played just well enough to win and live to fight another day, huh? O.K., I’ll exhale.
And BTW McGEE keeps growing. He’s now officially 7′1+”. If his game ever catches up to his body, well, we’ll save that for some other time ’cause he sure ain’t caught up yet.
Big Ray
October 30th, 2010
10:20 pm
TigerWoods ,
Teague is just amazing. What skills did he have in college that made Sund draft him as high as he did? I just dont get it.
Sund drafted him 19th. He was the 7th point guard taken. That beats taking Acie Law 11th, wouldn’t you say?
Teague was a beast in college, and he played with a LOT of fire (dunked on guys a lot, just check out Youtube). I’d like to know how he’s going to light that fire back up. If it can’t be done, then we have to go another direction, and that’s all there is to it. In the meantime, it’s a wait and see situation.
I have hopes for Teague, and I see he has some skills, but he has few games where he really attacks people. Nothing against Teague, but if I’m Larry Drew, I let Jordan Crawford play both spots in practice. All the time. Because Crawford DOES have that fire, and the Hawks aren’t going to fix their pg woes any other way, anytime soon (unless somebody has a magic beans trade like the one that brought Jamal here).
richbrave
October 30th, 2010
10:22 pm
Follow me on Twitter, tell others to do the same, and possibly get some tickets to the Pistons game Wednesday. Hey, the bosses judge me on this so, yes, I’m shamelessly self-promoting.
So does that mean those of us with no cell-phone are going to be left out as technology moves forward? It’s all an old man can do to be THIS technologically savvy. I ain’t going anywhere else. Refuse to be hounded every minute by electronic clap-trap like my grandson’s.
Gotta’ play SOUL BALLET’s A Smooth Jazz Classic to feel better. Excuse me.
O'Brien
October 30th, 2010
10:26 pm
“Josh without the headband?!? What happened?” Ramon .
As he walked off the court at halftime, he threw it to the floor somewhere.
In 3 games, Marvin is averaging 7 points, and 6 rebounds per game, and he is 0-4 from 3. I know its early, but he really needs to get it going.
This being our third game in 4 nights, maybe the hawks were tired. The important thing is we won, but we still need to work on our defense, and cut down on our turnovers.
The bench played well, and JJ brought us home in the fourth. LD and the Hawks are 3-0. Yes.
Big Ray
October 30th, 2010
10:26 pm
Richbrave ,
McGee has talent, no doubt. How is his basketball IQ? I don’t really know, and that can be an issue. If it’s not very high, he has to learn the kind of basic skills that he can be successful with. He’s superbly athletic and can block shots, but if he can’t do more than that, he becomes a limited role player. His work ethic may be the biggest thing for his game right now. If he’s a willing, hard worker, he’ll be trouble for most teams, on most nights.
Look at Marcus Camby. Even last season, he was STILL a top rebounder and shot blocker in the league, and opportunistic when it came to scoring.
If McGee isn’t willing to work and develops a problematic attitude, then he becomes Samuel Dalembert – a guy who is capable of averaging 10.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per night…but has only done that well once in his entire career, which is entering it’s 9th year.
TigerWoods
October 30th, 2010
10:29 pm
BigRay, Thanks for the intelligent response. Teague better than AC. But in same draft Collison was drafted and we know how that worked out ok. Since that is so far the highest Sund draft pick, I hold him responsible. I still believe Teague needed to stay in college at least one more year if not more. But the economics of NBA is too appealing to pass. I also understand Woody did not let him get any confidence and in a sense he is just starting. With all that…
I am disappointed at how he was not able to defend tonight as fast as he is. And his shot, is simply atrocious. As short as he is, taking it inside in NBA is just not an option, unless you are Iverson.
At this point, I still go with Bibby and Crawford as needed. What I dont want to see though, is Crawford and Bibby together in the backcourt, that is a really bad defensive line up. Lets see what happens with Teague, may be he can become Rondo like, but history of NBA is against point guards with no outside shooting skills
cp
October 30th, 2010
11:03 pm
It was ugly and sloppy but it was a win. I still don’t like the ill advised jumpers from Josh and Marvin is pretty much Marv from last season. I know its early but I’m seeing the same things out of him that I saw last year. Thornton destroys the invisible man every time he sees him matched up on him. Once again I know its early but if this is the Marv we are going to get this year then its time to think about moving him……I have hopes for Teague but I don’t see that attacking player I saw at Wake. Dude needs to get it together or LD might as well give the pt to Jordan.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 31st, 2010
12:07 am
“McGee has talent, no doubt. How is his basketball IQ? ”
Based on what I saw tonight, compared to Andray Blatche, everyone else on the court was a basketball genius. The Wizards fan next to me was yelling out “Noooo!” every time Blatche took a jump shot, the same way I did for Smoove — except I only yelled once, whereas he was yelling the whole game.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 31st, 2010
12:12 am
“Teague was a beast in college, and he played with a LOT of fire (dunked on guys a lot, just check out Youtube). ”
So did Acie, and Acie carried his team to a Final Four.
I still like both players.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 31st, 2010
12:17 am
In other news, I am watching the Hartford-Sacramento UFL game on Versus, and the quality of play is a million times better than any college football game I saw today. Daunte Culpepper looks like he could start for about 15 NFL teams. People hate on the UFL but it is really not bad football.
The Truth
October 31st, 2010
12:54 am
The problem with Teague is his inability to create plays for himself. That’s why he looked even worst in Woody’s ISO offense. I’ve notice when he’s in the game on offense, he basically stands mostly stationary and either waits for an opening from a defensive breakdown or he defers to others. Yes, some of that was because of the Wizard’s zone defense which greatly altered what the Hawks wanted to do in their motion offense. In Drew press conference, he said their “zone defense” forced them into playing a “zone offense”. So, perhaps this hindered Teague’s aggressiveness somewhat. But I don’t believe he is meeting LD’s expectation yet of attacking and dictating the offense the way he envision. Teague is still deferring too much to others. He doesn’t have to have a bully style of game like John Walls. He could still force the issue playing a playmaker style of game similar to Rondo. If I had to define Teague style of game at this point, I would base it on the biblical book of Job. Teague just waits and waits until he is blessed with an opening to the rim otherwise he defers. Maybe we are asking too much out of him. He really doesn’t have any wicked crossover or shake and bake moves. Even his jump shot is still a work in progress. Those attributes are not yet in his repertoire necessary to create is own shots. He just relies on his quickness which is fine in the open court but in the half court set, he needs more tricks which he hasn’t shown yet. But to fully understand Teague we have to first understand his background:
“Played two seasons at Wake Forest before declaring early for the 2009 NBA Draft; Speedy and versatile athlete who can played both the point and off-guard position … Saw the bulk of his playing time at shooting guard as a freshman but moved into the starting point guard spot as a sophomore after Ishmael Smith was injured in the preseason … Held on to the starting spot even after Smith’s return … Was one of the top scoring point guards in the nation in 2008-09 … Lightning quick first step allowed him to blow by defenders”
http://wakeforestsports.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/teague_jeff00.html
So playing only one year at the PG position at Wake qualifies Teague to be still somewhat “green” at the NBA level since his last year PT was extremely light. Unless Teague evolve and expand his game beyond his brief college days, he may not have the impact some are expecting of him. He may not be that kind of player. It doesn’t necessarily mean he will not have a successful NBA career, it may mean he’s just a good role player. We shall see
KevinM
October 31st, 2010
1:43 am
I know its all about winning, and being 3-0 is good for this team.
Knowing the schedule early, the Hawks should be able to establish themselves early. Its later in the season where the questions will be against the tougher part of the schedule headling into the playoffs.
Things that could be better:
1) Smoove and his love for the face up jumper. I still saw him try to dribbler just prior to the half in the middle of the court and just looked uncomfortable…still.
2) Marvin – enough said….while flipping the channels, I never saw him play in the 4th…apparently, LD has his final 5 figured out……….Bibby/JC1/Joe/Al/Smoove…so perhaps LD is sending a message to Marvin that its time to step it up.
And Najeh, we can only wish we had a John Wall on this team.
northcyde
October 31st, 2010
8:56 am
“If you can ball . . you can ball”.
Just remember that.