Utah Jazz at Atlanta Hawks: Still happy, together?
L.D. called guys out during the Thursday video session and apparently some feelings got hurt. When the team huddled up after practice, he told them: “This is no time to be sensitive. I’m willing to admit when I’m wrong and you have to be able to look in the mirror. There is going to be accountability.”
Smoove and Al, who got into during a timeout huddle in the Bucks game, both said the team remains together.
“It took a game like that to wake us up to doing things the right way and staying together,” Smoove said.
“I think for a moment there everybody kind of went their own ways on the court,” Al said. “We came back together [Thursday] solid. We have to make a commitment to each other to always try to stick together even when the going gets tough.”
Wednesday night’s debacle was reminiscent of Atlanta’s meltdown against Orlando last spring, but L.D. said he’s fine with some healthy disagreement:
“It kind of comes with the territory any time you lose. The most important thing is that we don’t fragment. I want those guys upset. I want them mad that they didn’t play well, they didn’t play the way capable of playing. I want them them jawing at each other but do it in a constructive way and allow that frustration to transfer to [Friday] night’s game and let’s take it out on the Jazz. I think it’s healthy for a team if it’s done in the right way. But it it causes any kind of problems among the players, then it’s a problem. I embrace that, especially if it’s done the right way.”
Crucial conflict
At Hoopinion, Bret LaGree succinctly sums up L.D.’s dilemma when it comes to his reserves:
Larry Drew’s commitment to using his bench both to develop depth* and not to exhaust his starters is theoretically sound. Practically, he lacks the personnel to accomplish either goal without suffering in-game consequences. Jamal Crawford** and Zaza Pachulia are his only (healthy) quality reserves. There are very good reasons why Josh Powell, Jason Collins, and Etan Thomas have not been rotation players in the NBA for years and the drop-off from All-Star starters to sub-replacement level reserves will cause conflict between Drew’s desires and the realities of winning basketball games.
**Jamal Crawford is still a valuable offensive contributor to this team but, as he reverts to his career norms following a career year and has to fit into a team concept which does not suit his particular skills as well as the absolute scoring freedom Mike Woodson gave him, his weaknesses become more apparent with each passing game.
And the consequences of the conflict for Drew that LaGree desribes, which has been exacerbated by injuries exposing Atlanta’s unbalanced roster, lead to the kind of things you saw in the Bucks game: Guys are playing out of position, not suited for their roles or simply not good enough, and suddenly the whole thing falls apart and everyone’s frustrated.
Mo is back tonight (L.D. said he would come off the bench) and Marvin is close so perhaps when those players return and the rotation gets back to normal things won’t be so out of whack for the reserves.
“I like our bench,” Zaza said. “We have great guys. We’ve got bigs, athletic, shooters, quickness. I feel confident about our bench. We just need to make it more consistent.”
MC
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254 comments Add your comment
Hawks Still Suck
November 12th, 2010
9:31 pm
4 in a row Losers!!!!!!!!
cheshire
November 12th, 2010
9:33 pm
whatever the opposite of clutch is, that’s what the Hawks are. what a choke job this game was.
Hey ASG, why should i bother spending $$ to watch this team again?
Najeh Davenpoop
November 12th, 2010
9:33 pm
Game over.
Same Ole Hawks
November 12th, 2010
9:33 pm
pointless timeout, why even extend the game at this point?
Hawks Still Suck
November 12th, 2010
9:33 pm
Choke choke choke. Thank God I didnt waste more than 20 minutes watching these losers.
0 for 4 against playoff teams
November 12th, 2010
9:34 pm
damn, smoove was open for a 3 …. hahaha
bigdave
November 12th, 2010
9:34 pm
good game Josh..
good game Joe..
Mike Hunt
November 12th, 2010
9:34 pm
Hawks will lose 45-50 this year. Team is going nowhere.
cheshire
November 12th, 2010
9:35 pm
i love how the announcers are acting like the Jazz just pulled off a miracle. like it’s THAT hard to beat the Hawks… or any team that misses half it’s free throws.
J.J.M.
November 12th, 2010
9:35 pm
i bet josh wants to be traded now…smh 7 home loses last season and already 2 so far
Najeh Davenpoop
November 12th, 2010
9:35 pm
Maybe Joe played well in the first half, when I wasn’t watching, but he was pretty sh-tty in the 2nd half. Missed fast break opportunities, stupid Iso-Joe bricks, bad turnovers, the works.
Smoove is the only Hawk who played consistently well in this game.
Teabagger Johnson
November 12th, 2010
9:36 pm
Al Horford was the goat . . . at least make 1!
YoDaddy
November 12th, 2010
9:36 pm
They aint no worse than the Heat or the Magic though…
6-4 Hawks
5-4 Heat
6-3 Magic
Mike Hawk
November 12th, 2010
9:36 pm
That’s actually 3 home losses now, J.J.M. So, the Hawks are now below .500 at home (2.-3). Pathetic.
bigdave
November 12th, 2010
9:37 pm
Joe was consistent..
scored.. found open shooters, moved the ball, all while doing a good job defensively on an all NBA PG.
Melvin
November 12th, 2010
9:37 pm
All I can do is SMH…
cheshire
November 12th, 2010
9:38 pm
agreed Scott… falling apart would be the best thing that could happen to this team. unfortunately in the NBA, it’s better to be horrible and get a potential lottery pick than to be decent.
sorry, but if an NBA team can only hit half it’s free throw in a game, that’s an embarrassment. i’m glad i only tuned in to the last 5 minutes.
Sautee
November 12th, 2010
9:38 pm
I think Horford would be the first to say he choked. But we lost the game on the glass. 15 offensive rebounds for the Jazz, many in crunch time. Plus, we had FEWER fast break points than the Jazz, who don’t really look to run.
We HAVE to refocus on rebounding.
Najeh Davenpoop
November 12th, 2010
9:39 pm
“They aint no worse than the Heat or the Magic though…
6-4 Hawks
5-4 Heat
6-3 Magic”
History says the Magic will get better. The Heat are a wild card right now, who knows what happens with them, but they have too much talent to only win 56% of their games this season.
The Hawks, on the other hand, are in trouble. 6 wins against sh-tty teams and 4 losses against good teams — including 3 home losses — is the mark of an average team. Right now the Hawks are a 7 or 8 seed.
superiorblogman
November 12th, 2010
9:39 pm
Larry Drew the career backup coach blew this game with the gameplan. I said it all night that building the gameplan around Josh Smith dominating the ball would lose the game because he is not someone that you can go to in the clutch. Al and Mike never got into any groove tonight and it was LD’s fault. I am awaiting the postgame hopefully Al calls it like it is, he never got into any flow tonight
GA Boss
November 12th, 2010
9:39 pm
Big Dave, “Good Game Joe”. Are you blind, he and Al blew the game in the final minutes. 170 plus million buys you a fake #1 player who can’t or won’t take over the game in the 4th qtr and a guy who can’t hit free throws with the game on the line.
Wabe
November 12th, 2010
9:39 pm
Alright…
So JJ, you’re getting your $120 million to close out games like this.
It’s early. I’m not trying to let my frustration get me ranting with no thought to my comments. But, it’s hard. This team has lost 3 games at home – and none of these teams we’ve lost to aren’t championship contenders. The Jazz have beaten the Magic + Heat, but, still – the Hawks have to close this game out.
People might point the finger at Drew. That’s something I won’t do. I actually like the guy – but, this team is just flawed – thank ASG.
Najeh Davenpoop
November 12th, 2010
9:41 pm
“building the gameplan around Josh Smith dominating the ball would lose the game because he is not someone that you can go to in the clutch. ”
I don’t know what game you were watching, but the Hawks actually played best when Smoove was getting the ball and creating for others. They went away from Smoove and went to Joe and Al in crunch time and lost.
Ramon
November 12th, 2010
9:42 pm
JJm this was the third lost at home. Phoenix, Milwaukee, and tonight!
Mike Hawk
November 12th, 2010
9:44 pm
It’s becoming very difficult to watch this team now. I love the game of basketball, but I find myself feeling disgusted way too often when I get my hopes with the Hawks. They are such a mysterious team, there’s absolutely no consistency. Early on, they looked better than last season. Now, they definitely look worse. And, just because the Heat and Magic have been losing also, it doesn’t make it okay for the Hawks. The Hawks have not only been losing, they have been losing to inferior teams and showing no signs of growth. Tonight’s game was competitive, but last year the Hawks really had no problem at all with the Jazz at home. This is very disheartening.
Samuel
November 12th, 2010
9:45 pm
52% from the line.
Fire Mark Price
JTeague+9 min
JCrawford DNP
Fire Woody
0-4 against playoff teams
Hawks=1st round talent
Sautee
November 12th, 2010
9:45 pm
Y’all who know me know that I’m a big Horford fan. But 19 rebounds in the last THREE games is pitiful.
PITIFUL. Get on the glass, Al.
Clyde
November 12th, 2010
9:46 pm
Dam I need to crank thangs up early in the season. I was trying to wait until December to get on the Hawks. Let me know when your ready JeJe.
IlliniDawg
November 12th, 2010
9:47 pm
Same ole sorry-a$$ Hawks! For the first time all season I had a chance to watch them play, having heard all the hype about their hot start. Gosh these guys suck bad. Gutless performance – total choke. Maybe it’s time to sell both the Trashers and the Sparrows and focus the city’s sports dollars on the two teams that really matter – Braves and Falcons.
kwooden1
November 12th, 2010
9:48 pm
I hate these kind of losses, but I think I’m calm enough to make a good assessment of the this game:
Good
1) Nice work on the boards, Milsap didn’t dominate us
2) Much better showing by the bench
3) Mo and Marvin made a big different on the defensive end
Bad
1) Didn’t finish down the stretch
2) Free throws (ALL GAME)
3) Still not trusting the offensive
There are no moral victories, but that also goes for not feeling to good about yourself when you win. The HAWKS are still trying to find themselves on offensive and in terms of maturity. This game came down to mental toughness at the end and we didn’t bring it. But my point is it didn’t have to come down to the end. The HAWKS took to many 3’s out of their offensive and didn’t get enough shots at the basket. We definitely need someone to drive and get fouled. Marvin is that guy but I don’t think he can always finish. I’m more disappointed than frustrated with this game.
GO HAWKS!!
YoDaddy
November 12th, 2010
9:48 pm
@Mike Hawk
Magic just lost to the Raptors
The Jazz are a good team…they beat Magic and Heat as well
Give some of these other teams some credit. The Hawks are still a good team as well…they laid down against the Bucks but the rest of the games they lost could’ve went either way including this one.
Clyde
November 12th, 2010
9:49 pm
I know why Joe is playing so bad. He really wanted to have a child but he found out the baby wasn’t his. #shouldhavesignedwithanotherteam
lukas
November 12th, 2010
9:49 pm
I don’t mind that Horford choked, but i DO mind that he gave a half-effort at rebounding. When he came from Florida he was this NBA-ready kid that rebounded, blocked shots, played big every day, hustled, was afraid of no one. Hell, he even chased down TJ Ford and accidentaly sent him to the hospital. Where is that guy?? now i see an “all-star” that watches everybody rebounding and get out of the way if someone, not his guy, is going to score near him.
Brady
November 12th, 2010
9:50 pm
Sautee, to Al Horford’s credit, the rebounding hasn’t been entirely his fault. Tonight, I saw three boards that should have been credited to Al and weren’t. Twice, josh tipped the ball and Al secured the rebound, but the rebounds were credited to josh. Also, late in the fourth quarter when Al got an offensive rebound over Millsap and the ball was later stolen by Kirilenko, Al wasn’t credited for the rebound either.
Also, in the Milwaukee game, Al didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter, and didn’t play a lot of minutes overall. In the Orlando game though, 5 rebounds was mostly his own fault.
At any rate, I’d like to see Al step it up on the glass as well. I’m not sure what’s up with him, he’s usually a top-10 rebounder each year.
TruthSeeker
November 12th, 2010
9:51 pm
So we’re 6-0 against bad teams and 0-4 against good teams?
Well, at least we know early what we are.
exhawk
November 12th, 2010
9:51 pm
Mike Bibby and Marvin Williams are the two most worthless players in the NBA. They need to turn in their uniforms and head back the recreation dept. leagues. LD is in over his head also, he is the captain of the ship that has no direction. This is a pittyful team that hasn’t changed from last year. No wonder there are so many empty seats in the arena. I wouldn’t pay a penny to watch that band of misfits play.
YoDaddy
November 12th, 2010
9:52 pm
Even having said that…the reason we lost was because of free throws and inability to get a defensive rebound.
The Defensive rebound is the last part of defense. Forget the fast break we need everyone crashing the boards because every team we’ve played has gotten way too many offensive rebounds especially at the end of games.
cp
November 12th, 2010
9:54 pm
Horford has forgotten how to fight for boards. Team cant hit free throws. Marvin is still soft and cant finish at the rim… Jamal doesn’t attempt to play d and takes whatever shot he wants. Bench is terrible. Teague does nothing when given minutes.. Somebody tell Sund to earn that check. Its time to shake this up…… Watching Deron Williams ball like that in a Jazz uniform instead of a Hawks uniform tonight makes me sick. How BK chose the invisible man over Deron Williams is almost mind boggling.
YoDaddy
November 12th, 2010
9:55 pm
Also I still see JJ and JC1 breaking the offense a little too much but that comes with the new offense…knowing when to go 1 on 1 and when to run the offense.
But anyhow it’s game 10 of the reg season…we have 72 more games to figure it out
Brady
November 12th, 2010
9:57 pm
I can’t believe that the Hawks have statistically been the worst team in the league this week. =,(
Joel
November 12th, 2010
9:58 pm
I wish I could go into the locker room and talk to the players to figure out what is really going on.
YoDaddy
November 12th, 2010
9:58 pm
Magic just lost to the Raptors at home….
Peter
November 12th, 2010
9:59 pm
How about a legitimate center, and yes Marvin Williams was a super choice at draft time…..HA HA HA…….Deron was great as usual……we really know how to pick talent….as I watch our new point ride the bench, and think Bibby needs a wheel chair.
What a sorry team, and good thing we paid JJ all that money, would he actually start on every team in the NBA ?
Some day when the franchise gets sold, we will have owners that are smart and a GM worth his salt.
In the mean time we will be a 2nd tier team, and maybe even less.
The signing of JJ has ruined our chances for years !
Peter
November 12th, 2010
10:02 pm
Hey we have a streak going…….. I wonder how long will it last ?
Randy
November 12th, 2010
10:03 pm
This may sound a little bit crazy and I could be totally off here, but do you think that Al’s lack of rebounding lately has anything to do with him being worried about picking up too many fouls? In the majority of the games so far, L.D. had been taking him out early when he picked up just a couple of fouls That was a bad move in my opinion. I don’t know if that would affect his psyche at all, but maybe he is being less aggressive so that L.D. keeps him in the game. Just a thought, it sounds kind of crazy to me though.
BraveFalconHawk
November 12th, 2010
10:05 pm
Hopefully they can go back to playing the weaker teams cause it’s obvious they can’t beat any of the good ones. I knew there wasn’t anything to get excited about. THIS TEAM HAS NO LEADER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Harry Hawk
November 12th, 2010
10:20 pm
We’re a mediocre team, folks.
We lost seven home games all last season. We’re already up to three and we’re only ten games in.
Uh oh.
Moses
November 12th, 2010
10:22 pm
One of the things that really bothers me about this also is the fact that the players probably won’t even be that disappointed by this. I know Al will be mad about his performance, but will anyone else be. They’ll probably be happy that the game was competitive.
Also, even though this game was going pretty well up until the end, I saw some things that I didn’t like. Too much of Joe dominating the ball. Joe converted on a lot of those plays, so it made it look like everything was alright, but I think down the stretch the Hawks didn’t get the ball to Al and Josh enough. There were too many long jumpers and almost no post-ups or plays for Al and Josh. Also, I think we need to address the point guard position via other means besides developing Teague. I know he’s young and hasn’t played much, but the guy just isn’t showing any signs of being a great, or even a good point guard. Almost any point guard will look good in garbage time, but when it counts, I’m just not very impressed with Teague. Bibby’s defensive ability is only going to continue to decline, and most likely his offensive ability will continue to as well. When that happens, we will have no point guards at all. Teague looks very confused out there, and his jumpshot is worse than Rondo’s. Heck, it may even be worse than Collin’s shot. We need complete players, guys who play both ends of the floor, and right now, we only have 3 proven players like that (Al, Josh, and Joe). Marvin and Mo at least play tenacious defense and are okay offensively, but outside of that, there’s really no one else with a complete game. I’m ready to part ways with Jamal, Teague, Zaza, Bibby, and Collins if it means getting some more complete players.
Peter
November 12th, 2010
10:23 pm
Hey JJ is the leader we paid him to be the leader…….would he start on every team in the NBA ?
drmaryb
November 12th, 2010
10:23 pm
kevin Love
28 pts 31 rebounds! damn! can we get some Love?