Rockets at Atlanta Hawks: Few fans focused on Falcons?
It will be interesting to see how the Hawks come out for this one . They are facing a sub-.500 opponent but one that can score and has penetrating guards. The sparse crowd figures to be distracted by the happenings across the street. And it’s the end of a weird, weather-afflicted week for the Hawks.
This probably wouldn’t be a good time for the Hawks to fall back on their make-some-shots, play-a-little-D and pull-out-a-W approach.
“It may be a case tonight where especially at the start that we are going to have to generate our own energy,” L.D. said. “That’s just the way it is. We can hope that we get a crowd out there at the start of every game that will get our players pumped up and jacked up and motivated to play but the [reality] is that’s not always going to be the case. So we have to learn our own energy, particularly at the start of the game.
“We can’t wait for crowds to try to do it for us. I want our guys to eventually be self-driven, and driven to point they can start a game, don’t care if all the seats are empty, they can generate the energy right at the get-go.
Working in Atlanta’s favor: The Rockets aren’t exactly feeling chipper, either, after blowing one against the Hornets last night.
Etc.
Marvin is still out. L.D. says he’s progressed to shooting jump shots but there’s still no timetable for his return.
The starters tonight: Bibby, Mo, J.J., Smoove and Al. J.J. draws Battier and Mo gets Kevin Martin.
MC
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93 comments Add your comment
hawks_4_life
January 15th, 2011
8:41 pm
NOT A JAMAL FAN AT ALL……DO HE KNOW HOW TO PASS?
hawks_4_life
January 15th, 2011
8:43 pm
AND HE PLAYS NO D
Jeremy
January 15th, 2011
8:47 pm
We should really bench Jamal right now. He’s not scoring and not really contributing anything possible at this point. We could use the defense over offense right now.
Val
January 15th, 2011
8:48 pm
Wow, Jamal is really hurting us right now. His selfish play is becoming a big problem in this game. I agree that he needs some time on the bench in favor of more defense.
Najeh Davenpoop
January 15th, 2011
8:49 pm
Houston is getting too many cheap points. At least make them work for it.
hawks_4_life
January 15th, 2011
8:49 pm
I swear they went on the run whrn he checked in
Rev in Tampa
January 15th, 2011
8:51 pm
Hawks seem disinterested
Najeh Davenpoop
January 15th, 2011
8:53 pm
The Hawks are looking like the team that went to sleep at 2:45 AM.
Rev in Tampa
January 15th, 2011
8:53 pm
OUCH!
Paradise Lost
January 15th, 2011
8:54 pm
They tryin to finish so they can get across the street by half-time.
Jeremy
January 15th, 2011
8:55 pm
Look at that. After Josh is placed back on Scola, Scola immediately scores. Things are getting ugly now. One of the biggest problems is Jamal. His lack of defense and selfish play on a long string of possessions caused a lot of trouble, and L.D. has continued to keep him in. I don’t like that at all. I also don’t like Josh’s shot selection in the fourth. He was playing smart on the offensive end for most of the game. Now is a really bad time to start being an idiot. I hate the matchups with Jamal and Josh out there right now. I’m not feeling very confident with those at all.
Rev in Tampa
January 15th, 2011
9:02 pm
No defense to stop brooks drive to the basket
Rev in Tampa
January 15th, 2011
9:04 pm
That’s the ball game
Eldridge Recasner
January 15th, 2011
9:05 pm
Joe Johnson is a BUM
Jeremy
January 15th, 2011
9:07 pm
I put a big part of the struggles tonight on Jamal. When the game was close, he was awful on both ends and his selfish play let things get out of hand.
superiorblogman
January 15th, 2011
9:10 pm
Drew is a horrible coach and the Hawks do not play to there strengths all the time. Those 2 factors are why they lost this game. Changing lineups every game means that you are trying to matchup with the other team instead of forcing your personality on the other team. The Hawks are garbage. They can’t handle success and are poorly built for true success which is winning championships. I am done with this team until they get a real coach, a real PG and a real C.
Najeh Davenpoop
January 15th, 2011
9:11 pm
That was a game the Hawks should have won.
Najeh Davenpoop
January 15th, 2011
9:11 pm
Can’t win games when you get killed on the boards and you play no defense.
hawkfan
January 15th, 2011
9:15 pm
man if we had won this game we would much closer to the heat and the standings in the east since either the bulls or the heat will lose tonight and would still be ahead of magic, oh well maybe go on another win streak will do, go hawks!!!
northcyde
January 15th, 2011
9:17 pm
Exactly Najeh. They didn’t stop the Rockets all night. Oh well. At least there weren’t that many eyes on this game tonight.
Ron
January 15th, 2011
9:17 pm
Really disappointing letdown tonight. Right when the Hawks were starting to go on a nice run and gaining major ground in the east, they lay an egg against a subpar team. This one really hurt, especially when you consider how important these games are with respect to the difficult upcoming schedule.
At least there are some positives from this. Al was amazing tonight, and was by far the best player in the game. Joe seems to be completely back to his star self, with nice shooting and he’s really being more of a team player and willing passer. Josh, for most of this game, played great also. He was selective with most of his shots and was big on the glass.
The negatives are that after showing improvement on the defensive end for many games, the Hawks looked like they’d regressed in this one, giving up a lot of points. Also, I didn’t like the way Jamal played at all tonight. He was a culprit on both ends of the floor and did little to help the team at all. This team is just too inconsistent to really judge at this point. You can never tell when they are improving or regressing since they basically are up and down constantly. No significant improvement has been maintained for long stretches yet. At least we still have the fact that Marvin is out with injury to fall back on. His defense is definitely something that we are missing on the perimeter. No Marvin has caused us to play both Bibby and Jamal at the same time way too often, which has really hurt us badly on the defensive end. I just hope the Hawks regroup well from this.
With the upcoming schedule, we need to put together a very big winning streak (several of them actually) in order to have a shot at homecourt in the playoffs this year. The east is better than it’s been in a long time this year, and we are just at the top of the second tier teams in the conference. We need to make a push to get into that top-tier, and these types of letdowns are a big reason why we get very little respect.
SteveW
January 15th, 2011
9:29 pm
Uh! That was ugly. And JJ is not a bum. But we did seem disinterested tonight, from the Coach with his rotations on down.
superiorblogman
January 15th, 2011
9:35 pm
Seriously, what is the Hawks identity? It is not offense because they are middle of the pack in the NBA and it is obviously not defense if you watch them, the have no presence to deter anyone at the rim, Josh does not block shots on the regular, and no perimeter defense to add to that fact. So,what is the identity of this Hawks team that they keep selling you people on that they are so in love with and you should be in love with?
Andrew
January 15th, 2011
9:36 pm
I hope that this game is an eyeopener to people in regards to Jamal Crawford. I like him as a person and as a player, but I’ve always felt that he is less valuable to the team than most people think. He does provide “instant offense” when he has it going, but he’s just too one-dimensional for my liking. This game is a prime example of the fact that he contributes almost nothing to the team when he isn’t scoring. In fact, when he’s not scoring, he hurts the team more than helping the. Our best players (Joe, Al, and Josh) are complete players in the sense that they are able to still contribute and have a significant positive impact on the game even when they are not scoring because of their defense, assists, etc. We just don’t have that with Jamal. It’s nice to have that sort of offensive spark coming off of the bench, but on a team which already struggles with perimeter defense and has abundance of guys who can score, I think we would be better suited with a defensive-minded pass first guard (obviously, a play-making point guard who plays defense is the ultimate dream for this team) . I think it’s very apparent now that we should try and shop Crawford the closest thing we can get to that.
Jamal is sort of the odd-man out when you think of how replaceable his contributions are. More shots for Al, improved play from Marvin, and a solid rotational player off of the bench makes up for Jamal’s contributions. We have enough scorers as it is, heck, we even have a young clone of Crawford in street clothes (Jordan Crawford) on our bench each night. This team needs to make a move to improve our perimeter defense and our PG position to take the next step forward, and Jamal is one of most easily replaceable pieces, as well as one of our most attractive trade chips amongst non-”core” players.
JeJe
January 15th, 2011
9:44 pm
LOL @ this team playing no Defense vs. a team that LOST in overtime the NIGHT before. The Hawks had THREE days off and FOUR days off before that
Worst defensive effort I’ve ever seen.
LD should be ashamed of himself
Ron
January 15th, 2011
9:45 pm
There’s another positive from tonight’s game that I forgot to mention. L.D. is improving as a coach. You can see it in his in-game adjustments. He was smart enough to put Al on Scola to shut him down when Josh was getting abused. Also, he was smart enough to take Jamal out of the game when he realized that Jamal simply didn’t have it on the offensive end and was hurting the team defensively. I think that last adjustment came a bit too late, but at any rate, I like the fact that L. D. is starting to make smart in-game adjustments. Under Woodson, we almost never saw adjustments to counter mismatches.
Ron
January 15th, 2011
9:47 pm
On the flip-side of L.D.’s positives though, there are the negatives surrounding the facts that he played Bibby and Jamal together for long stretches, and that really got the perimeter players going for Houston.
JeJe
January 15th, 2011
9:52 pm
LOL @ LD hoping we could outscore them. I guess he forgot that K.Mart didn’t play much either.
Pathetic.
IT’S YOUR JOB TO MAKE SURE WE PLAY DEFENSE. GOD.
JeJe
January 15th, 2011
10:00 pm
Mike Bibby is a joke.
His defense is worse than if we had a statue standing there as him. He couldn’t even stay in front of Kyle Lowry who isn’t even fast. All he does is take contested shots. ALL he does is take contested shots
PLEASE trade for Lowry
dap01
January 15th, 2011
10:13 pm
You will not win in the playoffs if you rely on long jumpers and little perimeter defense. This is simply not a recipe that works in the NBA playoffs. This style will be fun to watch at times but….
Jamal was not too interested in passing tonight. Their was more ISO tonight. We are going into the playoffs without developing anyone to play defense on the perimeter.
O'Brien
January 15th, 2011
10:24 pm
GB is hosting a clinic. Wow. Falcons D look worse than the Hawks D.
northcyde
January 15th, 2011
10:25 pm
I’m not a Falcons fan, but it is kind of sad for them to go out like this. I forget what commentator it was, but one of them kept asserting that the Falcons really hadn’t had a quality win.
Oh I think I know who it was. It was Skip Bayless on First Take. And he had been saying it all year.
So understand tis about the Hawks. If we don’t start beating these top level teams on a regular basis, we may see the same result this year, that we saw last year.
Wow . . Aaron Rodgers looks like Dan Marino tonight.
Clyde
January 15th, 2011
10:28 pm
People always talk about the fans in ATL but what about the teams? The Falcons had everyones hopes up tonight and get blown out at home. The Hawks lose to a mediocre team at home and have no chance at a championship.
Can you blame me for not wanting to show up to the games when all we do is lose?
Clyde
January 15th, 2011
10:29 pm
Hawks defense > Falcons Defense
Najeh Davenpoop
January 15th, 2011
10:39 pm
“People always talk about the fans in ATL but what about the teams? The Falcons had everyones hopes up tonight and get blown out at home. The Hawks lose to a mediocre team at home and have no chance at a championship.
Can you blame me for not wanting to show up to the games when all we do is lose?”
Exactly.
Clyde
January 15th, 2011
10:42 pm
Free Jordan Crawford
Let him play point. Anything is better than Bibby at this point.
Rich
January 15th, 2011
10:43 pm
I guess Matt Ryan’s 2 int’s had nothing to do with it huh.
O'Brien
January 15th, 2011
10:46 pm
LD said our defense was lacking tonight. But yet all season long, he has been all about offense.
Isnt that why he consistently plays Bibby over teague? Isn’t that why he gives Jamal so many minutes (sometimes over Marvin)?
isnt that why in the ASG letter to fans, they said they are pleased with LD and his new offense?
The bottom line is, the Hawks dont have the personnel to be a good defensive team.
And defense and rebounding is what wins in the playoffs. Tonight, Houston shot 54% from the field, and outrebounded us by 13.
Clyde
January 15th, 2011
10:55 pm
Yall can call Horford an allstar all you want but in my opinion allstars are good on both ends of the floor.
northcyde
January 15th, 2011
11:03 pm
LOL O’Brien. It’s almost like if they talk about the offense enough, that they’ll convince us that we really don’t need defense.
The crazy thing though is that the offense is maybe a B . . sometimes a B-. It’s not like we have a Grade A offense or something, that is so efficient, that we don’t have to stop people.
So we got a B/B- offense . . and a defense that fluctuates from a B to a D at any given time.
Trade for Nash or trade for Iguodala.
slimjr
January 16th, 2011
12:56 am
it was a horrible pick
Marvin just take the rest of the season off. You wont be missed…
slimjr
January 16th, 2011
12:56 am
Matty Ice had a melt down……
slimjr
January 16th, 2011
12:58 am
Josh or Marvin for Andre Iguodala