Hawks 90, Bobcats 85
Greetings, all
Ken Sugiura sitting in for MC again. Michael stayed up in the northeast rather than bounce back down here for one game. He’ll be back with the team Sunday for the much-anticipated tilt with the Nets. Hmm, Sunday game at 1 p.m. I wonder if anything else will be on TV at that time?
The story, obviously, was the return of your favorite four-time All-Star. Joe Johnson surprised everyone when he showed up to the arena and wanted to give it a go. In recent days, Johnson had been working out and shooting on his own and was not feeling pain, which was encouraging to Larry Drew. Still, he wasn’t anticipating this quick a recovery.
Actually, the Hawks had their walkthrough before the game Friday without him. But he was shooting 3-pointers without pain, and he shot so well against assistant coach Nick Van Exel Thursday that he joked about getting on a plane to play in Boston. When he told Marvin Williams before the game Friday that he wanted to suit up, Williams didn’t believe him.
You can say what you want about him, but it was fairly clear to me talking to him and others how much he means to this team. He sounded very sincere in his desire to get back to the court as quickly as he could, and teammates like Williams and Mike Bibby sounded very glad to have him back, not just in a way they’d be glad to have any teammate back, but to have their leader return.
“That was another main factor why I wanted to come back,” Johnson said of the team’s recent downturn, “to help these guys. We’re all we’ve got in this room.”
I don’t anticipate a relapse on the injury. He got banged around a bit and held up fine.
- Which brings us to Jamal Crawford, who sat out his second game in a row with a back injury. Drew said he was told it was a disc problem, Crawford said it was spasms. He said his back locked up against Detroit and he tried to play through it without success.
He said it was feeling better and that he anticipated getting back against New Jersey or Orlando at the latest. Obviously, though, a back injury is not to be trifled with and something that can often get re-aggravated. Hopefully, some rest will be helpful for Crawford. The Hawks have some testy matchups coming up — Orlando on Monday, at New Orleans Dec. 26, at Oklahoma City New Year’s Eve — and it wouldn’t hurt for them to be at full strength.
- One positive the Hawks got out of Crawford being sidelined, though, was the play of Jeff Teague. I think MC might have covered this after the Boston game, but Teague said that with both Crawford and Johnson out against Boston, he felt responsible to pick up his game and play aggressively. I’m planning to cover this in a story for Monday’s paper.
He kept at it tonight with a real strong finish in the third quarter. I was watching him fairly closely, and I think this is a fairly accurate rundown of the possessions.
- Screen from Al Horford, finds Josh Powell alone under the basket, who gets fouled.
- Drives the lane, fouled by Derek Brown. Same possession, pick and pop with Horford, who hits from the free-throw line.
- Screen from Horford, Teague hits from free-throw line.
- On Charlotte’s ensuing possession, stays in front of shaking-and-baking D.J. Augustin, preventing him from driving. Augustin passes off to Tyrus Thomas, who chucks up a 3-point attempt airball as Charlotte has a 24-second violation.
- On final possession of the quarter, gets inbounds pass, dribbles upcourt, goes behind the back and pulls up for a buzzer-beating jumper over Augustin.
And then in the fourth quarter, he had that ridiculous block against the glass of Derrick Brown. He was in for 15 minutes total. I’m going to guess his 40 minutes back-to-back might be a career-best for him with the exception of games he’s started and then final regular-season game against Cleveland last year.
- Some numbers: Charlotte’s 18 offensive rebounds were the most against the Hawks this year, but the Bobcats only had nine second-chance points. Hawks had 27 fast-break points. Hawks went to the line just 13 times, fewest in the past six games.
Zaza Pachulia had a two-minute stint early after Horford got in foul trouble, got his own two quick whistles and didn’t go back in. All the Hawks starters were in double figures. Former Hawk Boris Diaw had 22 points, almost double his season average. Looks like he’s put on a little weight.
Hawks never trailed. Hawks took 25 3-pointers, the second-highest total of the season, making only six. Josh Smith, Mo Evans and Johnson were a combined 1-for-12. Hawks had eight blocks, one below season best. Teague had two, Smith and Horford had three.
- This isn’t exactly new territory, but it’s hard to believe Kwame Brown was once a No. 1 overall pick. I talked with someone within the past year who knew Brown in high school – I forget who but I’m not making it up – and he said basically that Brown just never was that into basketball. I imagine that can be something of a disadvantage in the pursuit of a professional basketball career.
I was looking at his Wikipedia page. Did you know about the incident in which he allegedly threw a cake at someone? Kind of funny, though strange. Rather interesting that Michael Jordan would sign him again after drafting him in Washington, and also that Brown wanted to go to Jordan’s team, although perhaps the options weren’t many. That’d be like if Billy Knight got a job somewhere and signed Shelden Williams.
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360 comments Add your comment
Sautee
December 18th, 2010
8:08 pm
Ramon,
You keep forgetting the salient points here:
1. Sund is Mike Gearon Jr’s hand puppet.
2. Mikey LOVES our core.
therefore:
3. Trades are not likely to happen.
Wish it was different, but it just “ain’t”.
And all my wishin’ and your wishin’ and Grandad’s wishin’ ain’t gonna mean squat.
Ramon
December 18th, 2010
8:09 pm
Grandad, if Nash goes to NY, I hope Atlanta can get involved to land Felton then.
Ramon
December 18th, 2010
8:11 pm
Why Magic Johnson doesn’t want to buy the Hawks?
lukas
December 18th, 2010
8:15 pm
Grandad,
If the Knicks pull that off they’ll score 120 points, but will receive 140 since those guys don’t play defense.
Grandad
December 18th, 2010
8:27 pm
Ramon;
supposedly, Felton for Nash???
Grandad
December 18th, 2010
8:30 pm
lukas
Paul Westhead’s wet dream.
Miles D
December 18th, 2010
8:32 pm
Man I tell you…stuggling with the BOBCATS! We will NEVER be winners if we don’t make some changes now! And I hear that Pheonix just landed VC, Micheal Pietrus, and Gortat from Orlando for really…NOTHING! Man I tell you…if we would have picked up someone like Gortat that would have made us hella better…but ya know thats the HAWKS for ya! Everybody in the east is trying to improve but us! I’m sick of it! They need to sell the whole damn franchise to another city or something cause we’ll never be anything but mediocre at best with the guys we have now! It’s like a house on a poor foundation and with no guts in it! Or, like a relationship gone bad and all its about now is self-preservation! This team SUCKS!! Let me know when we get some REAL ball players down here with some HEART! Its check out time ya’ll!!!
ryan
December 18th, 2010
8:33 pm
How can the ASG even continuing owning the Hawks when this team makes no money Thrashers are not selling out tell me how can long can ASG survive with no revenue why can we not get rid of this cancer ASG .
lukas
December 18th, 2010
8:33 pm
Grandad,
Yup!! but Nash is no Magic and Amare is not near Kareem. But D’antony can dream about a title.
Ramon
December 18th, 2010
8:35 pm
Grandad, the life of a Hawks fan. Gearon talks about needing more support before going into luxury tax. But the true FANS of the Hawks, have been more faithful and loyal than all 3/4 owner groups that have come in town. We’ve lasted through 3 playoff teams that could only get to the 2nd round. Years of rebuilding, and countless losing (magically we’ve never had the number 1 pick in the last 20 years through all of that losing).
lukas
December 18th, 2010
8:37 pm
Guys,
This won’t be the last trade you’ll see. I suspect major shake ups are coming in several teams, thanks to Miami and Chicago summer. The question is: will the Hawks be one of them? unless Sund finds a Jamal’s type of trade (where you get a player by giving 2 scrubs), i won’t get my hopes high.
Grandad
December 18th, 2010
8:39 pm
Sautee;
a philosophical question?
Supposedly Minn. T-Wolves covet Josh Smith and would do a
K.Love for Josh trade.
Logistics aside, would you do that trade?
My son and I have bandied that about all day.
I would prefer K.Love [intangibles].
My son says Josh [more diverse production/defense].
What say you?
Anyone else, just for fun, of course.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 18th, 2010
8:44 pm
Go to a Timberwolves message board some time and see what their fans say about Kevin Love’s defense. Yeah, he’s a better rebounder, but Smoove is far, far better at every other aspect of basketball.
Ramon
December 18th, 2010
8:45 pm
Grandad, I take Josh. Josh and Al together (though undersized) gives you more than Al and K. Love (still undersized). With that frontline you have to get out in transition, and I’d rather have Josh on the break than Love. And on the defensive side, Josh has proven that he can consistently guard 4 positions on the court from 2-5. That and also, I read Josh outplayed Love terribly so two seasons ago in the USA tryouts.
bigdave
December 18th, 2010
8:45 pm
Otis Smith isnt done..
when teams are serious about winning they do what they need to do in order to improve the team. i wouldnt bank on them staying thin on that front line. these arent the Hawks we’re talking about.
watching Magic/6′rs now.. they only dressed the minimum and are down to 7 w/ J Will going down to foot injury. they looked gas.. hopefully they lose and we get em’ Mon.
ryan
December 18th, 2010
8:48 pm
All i can say Go Falcons Aurthur Blank seems to be best owner in Atlanta if only these other guys can take some lessons from Blank Hawks and Thrashers would be model franchises .
Grandad
December 18th, 2010
8:55 pm
Ramon:
“I read Josh outplayed Love terribly so two seasons ago in the USA tryouts”
Not arguing but why did Love make the team?
Your…..^…above…^…..comments are well taken.
Tyrone
December 18th, 2010
8:56 pm
I just heard from my cousin BooBoo again, here’s the deal Portland trades Pryzbilla to Phoenix for Josh Childress, then the Hawks trade Marvin and a 2nd round pick for Childress; and finally, Jamal, Bibby, Mo, and the Hawks’ first round pick for Steve Nash and Pryzbilla.
Portland and Phoenix are clearing cap space for next year. The deal will happens this week.
BooBoo knows the deal.
Ramon
December 18th, 2010
8:58 pm
Grandad, because he was younger, and had a better jumper.
Ramon
December 18th, 2010
8:59 pm
Grandad, its the same Mike Miller and Michael Redd made the team but Joe Johnson didn’t.
Ramon
December 18th, 2010
9:02 pm
Watching Hinrich play against the Heat. Anyone who said he was the answer, CLEARLY didn’t know what the question was, lol.
mattjones
December 18th, 2010
9:05 pm
ASG = Rankin Smith. Falcons didn’t become winning franchise until the Smith’s sold the team. Likewise the Hawks will not be a winning franchise until the ASG sells the team.
It was not a bad pick
December 18th, 2010
9:09 pm
i would love to get Nash, but no way should Marvin be in the deal…If i am not geting a 7 ft center that can play, no way im trading Marvin.too much talent…As long as we play Collins against Howard we will be ok..Marvin will eat Hedo old a$% alive…the Hawks just need to share the ball and we will be ok..
ryan
December 18th, 2010
9:12 pm
If the Hawks do make a trade for Steve Nash i will take back what i said about Sund i just hope this not a rumor if the Hawks are working the phones right now .
mattjones
December 18th, 2010
9:14 pm
Is Mr. or Ms. It was not a bad pick Marvin’s Dad or Mom? Relative? Press agent? Come on Marvin is a bust as a 2nd pick, perhaps a 22nd pick and that would be pushing it. We should get whatever we can for him if for no other reason than to dump his contract.
ryan
December 18th, 2010
9:29 pm
It would good to see Nash and JJ reunited because Joe played better with Nash and they went deep in the playoffs with the Suns .
ReddJonn68
December 18th, 2010
9:29 pm
New York is also trying to aquire Pryzbilla to give Amare some help down low.
bigdave
December 18th, 2010
9:31 pm
Magic about to drop one against Philly going 3-9 this month..
w/ us .. dallas.. san an.. and leprechauns up next.. yikes.
Jae Evolution
December 18th, 2010
9:32 pm
The East is finally cooling down, if Washington makes their FT’s they will put away the Heat. Bulls are down 8 to the Clippers at halftime, and Orlando lost to Sixers, yes I know they only have 8 players a loss is still a loss.
Blast
December 18th, 2010
9:36 pm
The Wiz needs to win this game. If they do, President Obama would have missed a dandy.
bigdave
December 18th, 2010
9:36 pm
bonehead foul from Chalmers in a tie game sending Kirk to line for go ahead 2.. kirk blows the 1st.. will he choke?
O'Brien
December 18th, 2010
9:37 pm
It was not a bad pick,
If Damien Wilkins gets Marvin’s 30 mpg, I think he would average 10 and 5 like Marvin does. Like you said, marvin is the 5th or 6th option.
So if we can trade marvin for an upgrade at PG or Center, I would do it in a NY minute.
ReddJonn68
December 18th, 2010
9:38 pm
If Orlando is panicking & shaking up their roster & we have a worst record than them, what should we do?
bigdave
December 18th, 2010
9:38 pm
lol @ washington being washington
Blast
December 18th, 2010
9:39 pm
Kurt was fouled on that last play. Of course it’s the Heat, so no call. But then again, the Wiz gave this away, adding to Miami’s confidence.
bigdave
December 18th, 2010
9:39 pm
and kirk being kirk.
keep him where he is.
SteveW
December 18th, 2010
9:50 pm
Kudos for JJ for coming back early. Hope it’s not too early, he needs to be fully healed. Give Mo’ 2 weeks off and let his knee get rested.
Be careful on the trades guys, we might get what we asked for, and not like it.
Jeff Teague, I am sold on him as a basketball player, but not necessarily as a PG. That was the knock on him out of college, great athlete, not a pure PG, but too undersized for the 2. We’ll see how it pans out, but he’s getting some serious PG training from Bibby, Drew, and Van Exel.
Magic trade – where’s the beef for the Magic inside beside Dwight (C) and Bass (PF)? Richardson’s a FA after this year, no way the Magic have the money to re-sign him in the new CBA unless there is some type of ownership provision. Arenas is signed for like 5 years at around 20 mill. per. Bad knee also. Hedo has a terrible contract also. They may win a ring this year, but they have damaged themselves in the long term if you ask me.
O'Brien
December 18th, 2010
9:51 pm
If it was D-Wade who took that shot Kirk took, he would have been given 2 FT.
My biggest complaint about JJ is that he doesnt initiate contact like D-Wade or Pierce, or LeBron or those guys. JJ needs to force the refs to call the foul and send him to the line.
SteveW
December 18th, 2010
9:51 pm
The Magic have swung for the fence, we’ll see if they hit a homer, or strike out, not much middle ground for them.
O'Brien
December 18th, 2010
9:53 pm
SteveW,
After this season, Arenas has 3 years, $61 mil left on his deal.
Plus in 2 years when his contract is 1 year away from expiring, he will be a huge trade chip.
Blast
December 18th, 2010
10:00 pm
And now, New York is gonna lose to Cleveland.
I guess the President is a smart man after all, though I always knew he was. He knew the Wiz would not beat the Heats tonite, so he bailed out.
YoDaddy
December 18th, 2010
10:03 pm
Who the hell is BooBoo?
Idk about giving up Marvin, Jamal, Bib, Mo and all picks this year for Steve Nash & Joel Pzybilla
That’s an awful lot….take Marvin Williams out though and you’ve got a deal
JeJe
December 18th, 2010
10:04 pm
Get Nash and Chillz for Bibby Jamal and a 1st and I’ll f’ing be on Cloud Nine
COME ON SUND
Our WINDOW IS 3 years
Nash is underpaid at 10M or so per year. Chillz is a solid 6th man
Do it, Sund If we could throw in Mo too that’d be great
Get Damien to back up Joe and Chillz to back up Marvin or even start Chillz when healthy
It was not a bad pick
December 18th, 2010
10:04 pm
O’Brien
if we trade Marvin and and get Nash, who becomes the 5th option..Josh? Would he be ok with that?
Big Ray
December 18th, 2010
10:05 pm
Hawks teammates and coaches share Bibby’s appreciation for Teague’s speed and energy. Drew has waited for more nights like Thursday and Friday when he puts those qualities to use.
“I think that’s something that a lot of young players struggle with, especially on this level – how to bring it every single night,” Drew said.
Would have much preferred to see this last season when Bibby was struggling like hell, and we needed this type of explosion. But no. We “didn’t need to throw him to the wolves.”
And you wonder how the devil Charles Barkley can defend Mike Woodson in the same sentence that he extols Larry Drew for actually playing Teague in more than just garbage minutes. Comic relief is hard to come by these days, I guess.
JeJe
December 18th, 2010
10:10 pm
http://twitter.com/#!/search/nash%20atlanta
Well, there’s been a lot of Nash-To-Atlanta speculation. All the experts think there’s no way Nash is traded. IDK what he’ll accomplish in PHX though. I don’t even see how that team is rebuilding. They still got a few players. They have money this offseason probably to flirt with a few players.
We NEED a PG
I’d take Andre Miller too if we are not going to run the ball as much
SteveW
December 18th, 2010
10:10 pm
80 million – That is Orlando’s salary committment in 2012-13! And that’s if they let Richardson walk away in Free Agency.
Ken Strickland
December 18th, 2010
10:15 pm
RAMON-Where did you come up with the idea I said anything about Boston, or whether they were, or were not, better than Orlando?
ROD FROM CP-You seem to have serious issues with comprehension, or you just love making yourself appear to be a victim. I said, “I CAN REMEMBER EITHER SAMUEL OR ROD FROM CP”. “EITHER” means ONE OR THE OTHER, NOT BOTH. If you didn’t say it, then COMMON SENSE should have told you I wasn’t referring to you.
WHY WAS THAT SO HARD FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND?
With Orlando adding at least 2 new starters, and losing 2 valuable bench players, I see them going through some adjustment problems. With DHoward being foul prone, they’re going to find it hard to be effective without an adequate backup center. And in case you haven’t noticed, they has become smaller and less physical.
I don’t see these trades making them a more competitive team, especially against teams like Boston, Miami or LA. I see Arenas potentially having the same issues in Orlando that he had in Washington. With Wall running the team and controlling the ball, he was asked to play effectively without the ball in his hands, and he couldn’t.
Now he’ll definitely have to play without the ball, on a team with PG JNelson and point forward HTurkoglu. Giving up Petrius and Gortat is going to weaken their bench and overall DEF.
JeJe
December 18th, 2010
10:16 pm
I hope we can win our next 3 games (NJN, home vs. ORL, Cle) and then get 4 days of rest til we play NOH on the 26th.
I know this team HATES winning after having extended periods of rest (over 2 days), so I’m not getting my hopes up, but we have 3 winnable games coming up and then all our hurt guys (Mo, Marvin, Joe, and Jamal) can hopefully rest up a bit
GO HAWKS
Big Ray
December 18th, 2010
10:16 pm
Grandad ,
Josh Smith for Kevin Love? Reasons to do it:
1) Love is a far more effective and consistent rebounder. In fact, a phenomenal rebounder.
2) Love plays with intelligence consistently, rarely making a dumb mistake.
3) Ability to consistently play the high/low post game with another pivot player that can be his polar opposite.
Reasons not to do it:
1) Defense. Josh is capable of changing a game on this side of the ball. Love is not. Not even close. Love’s defense can be described as adequate on a good day, less so on a bad one.
2) Love can’t play the 3, and isn’t really a 5. Guess what? This also describes Al Horford, but if you have Horford and Love, it would be insanity to have a lineup that didn’t feature both guys as starters. That places either one of them at the 5 (where neither one truly wants to be), and if going with a bigger big like Collins, one will have to come off the bench. Why? Because neither can play the 3 by any stretch of the imagination. On the flip side…..Josh can.
3) Combining Love and Horford does wonderful things for the offense and for rebounding. But neither can overcome defensive deficiencies. Horford is easily superior to Love on defense. Also consider the team concept. If this team struggles to defend with a mistake-erasing dynamic talent like Josh Smith, what will they do with yet another guy who isn’t committed to playing defense all game long, let alone every game?
I’d do the trade under one condition: If I was absolutely convinced that it would make us a better team, and that we’d be a better team without Josh Smith. Otherwise……nope. But I’m open to an intelligent counter-argument.
3)