Hawks-Heat game thread
Greetings, all-
Hope all are well. Ken here. A few notes, some Mike Bibby quotes and we’ll get it rolling.
1) Larry Drew said it’ll be the big lineup. Jason Collins, Al Horford, Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, Kirk Hinrich.
2) Drew didn’t say he was committed to starting Jeff Teague with the “regular” lineup. He said it was still to be determined. It sounded like Teague would be the designated starter against teams with small, quick point guards.
3) Drew said he wants the team to be more committed to running, particularly after the rather sedentary effort against Denver. Other keys: defending the 3-point line, not letting the non-Bosh/James/Wade guys go off, rebound well, force Miami to defend.
4) Drew on Horford: “We definitely have to get him more shot attempts, we’ve got to get him more touches and we’ll try to get him back on track tonight.”
5) Some Bibby quotes:
On buying out his Washington contract: “It is (a risk), but you never know if there’s going to be a lockout or not. There’s a lot of talk about that. I just felt that being here would be a better situation for me as far as giving myself another chance to even get another contract. I just felt it was a better decision for me to be here.”
On the trade: “This is a business. They felt they needed to change the point guard position and that’s what they did. Somebody’s trash is somebody else’s treasure.”
On coming off the bench: “I don’t mind that. I like to win games regardless of how things go down. I don’t worry myself with points, shots, stuff like that. I just do whatever it takes to help win the game.”
Enjoy the game…
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608 comments Add your comment
SteveW
March 18th, 2011
10:17 pm
LD could not under any circumstance play Teague against Bibby when it mattered. It would have exposed his idiocy for the first 2/3’s of the season for not playing Teague regular minutes.
rusty
March 18th, 2011
10:18 pm
Nortcyde I don’t understand you, you say jt has been playing good lately ( for his standards). Tell me has your buddy jj been playing good lately( for his standards).
superiorblogman
March 18th, 2011
10:18 pm
Tom Izzo, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, Sam Cassel, Bill Laimbeer, or bring Woody back?
Samuel
March 18th, 2011
10:19 pm
78 Gremlin
SteveW
March 18th, 2011
10:19 pm
Please fire LD Sund and Gearon. It’s our only hope now.
drmaryb (*_-)
March 18th, 2011
10:20 pm
“I wanna see Pape Sy…”
__________
That’s easy, look on the bench. He’s the guy down the far end of the bench, umm … He was wearing a gray suit and a peach colored shirt
with a white collar. He looked very, very nice.
Nique's Revenge
March 18th, 2011
10:20 pm
listen up hawks fans. we all love our hawks, as a concept. or what they kinda used to be some time in the past.
but it might be time to realize our team is never going to be a contender.
Clippers, Warriors, Hawks, etc.
nuggest and mavs improved a lot, but still…
Stern has worked decades so very hard for this cash cow. Don’t try and mess it up.
Enjoy your substandard pro ball with so many lopsided scores, obvious collusion among players so always perennial good and bad teams, so many players who grew up wanting to be Jordan but never took time to learn fundamentals, love for the game, or to learn that will is the most important stat. but they are athletic so the scout gets ‘em in, but can’t dribble, can’t pass, no J (insert hawk here) heh
Jordan is gone. 70’s – 90’s ball is gone.
NFL is still worth it.
Oh, and like I said over 15 years ago, GET RID OF STERN
Samuel
March 18th, 2011
10:20 pm
So I guess the rest of the season is all about excuses.
Loserville USA
March 18th, 2011
10:21 pm
Larry Drew = Eddie Haas
SteveW
March 18th, 2011
10:22 pm
Teague – good at Portland
Good at Bucks
Good at Nuggets
DNP until garbage time. LD’s modus operadii for JT. He’s gotta be thinking of a way of getting his son here to play or something weird like that.
Samuel
March 18th, 2011
10:23 pm
Dr. Mary,
Of course he’s wearing Gray. His only other choice is black. LD don’t allow no other. Getting ready for the funeral I guess. LOL!!
Wabe
March 18th, 2011
10:23 pm
Dude, Woody was garbage too.
Why are people even mentioning this guy’s name?
We got whopped in the playoffs two seasons in a row with him at the helm. I don’t care if our regular season win total was going up, because true success is measured in the playoffs. And, when your the 3rd ranked team in the eastern conference, you have no business getting whopped by 20+ points in every game against a team seeded one seed higher than you.
Drew is stubborn, and so was Woody.
Woody’s switching defense didn’t always work, but when it didn’t, it wasn’t the switching defense at fault, it was the players lack of energy.
Woody’s ISO ball didn’t work, but when it didn’t work, it wasn’t the ISO strategy to blame, it was the players lack of energy.
You can blame the lack of talent, because true, we don’t have the talent of a championship caliber unit. But, that shouldn’t stop a coach from making adjustments. That shouldn’t stop a coach from tweakin his approach to better suit the talent that is on the roster. That shouldn’t stop the coach from developing the young talent that is on the roster to bolster the talent level on the roster.
Woody was a joke.
LD’s proving to be a joke.
This franchise is a joke.
northcyde
March 18th, 2011
10:24 pm
Boo . .. Drew needs to go with the lineup that will win him games. Either put your best 5 on the floor, or put the guys who will play their role to the utmost ability on a nightly basis.
I still say if Horford and Smith are going to play on the outside, you start Zaza. Don’t EVER start Collins, unless he’s defending a center that has actual offense being ran through him ( i.e. – Dwight Howard ). Otherwise, the guy isn’t going to give you those critical offensive and defensive rebounds that a team needs. Zaza will at least give you that.
Or just go back with Marvin as a starter, which would make Horford and Smith get back closer to the rim to gather up rebounds.
It’s like O’Brien alluded to last night about the Hawks having some sort of statistician on staff. There are DEFINITIVE INDICATORS that tell you what combination of players work and what doesn’t work. There are stats that show just where people are effective and ineffective. ( i.e. Jamal not being effective at PG )
So Drew and his staff need to start looking at EVERYTHING. If Teague plays well alongside JJ, maybe we might want to play him more alongside JJ, even if he doesn’t start. If Jamal is garbage at PG, maybe we shouldn’t play him at PG. If Collins is ineffective when he’s not guarding a scoring center, maybe he shouldn’t be playing.
Ish like this is obvious to even casual fans. So you do have to question the coaching and the organization, when we keep sending ineffective lineups and players out on the court.
But in the end, the players simply need to man up.
Booo!
March 18th, 2011
10:24 pm
BILL LAMBIEER HAS WON 3 WNBA TITLES AND TWO WITH THE DETROIT PISTONS, MAYBE WE SHOULD GIVE HIM A SHOT. WHAT ABOUT MARK JACKSON? DAN MERJLE, ELSTON TURNER? JEFF VAN GUNDY? JERRY SLOAN? SOMEBODY? HUBIE BROWN?
SOMEBODY!
Samuel
March 18th, 2011
10:25 pm
SportsSouth’s last image of the night. LeBron and DWade clowning us on the bench. LOL!!
Samuel
March 18th, 2011
10:26 pm
Jerry Sloan aint comming to Atlanta. Too many black folks. LOL!!
rusty
March 18th, 2011
10:26 pm
Nortcyde you can’t judge Wilkins on one game,hey your buddy jj eatsvcrap
Jae Evolution
March 18th, 2011
10:27 pm
Bring in Jeff Van Gundy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nique's Revenge
March 18th, 2011
10:28 pm
Sloan would beat the hawks players with his walker. He has no patience for the type of garbage the hawks put out
Wabe
March 18th, 2011
10:28 pm
who cares if lebron and dwade clown us on the bench?
does anybody care if two clowns are clowning others?
Samuel
March 18th, 2011
10:29 pm
Hubie Brown is 80 years old with a career 42% Reg season and 36% playoff record. What the heck he gonna do with this team.
Nique's Revenge
March 18th, 2011
10:30 pm
speaking of a clown and lebron… well… it’s just good for him he’s rich.
heh
Samuel
March 18th, 2011
10:30 pm
Evidently SportsSouth does.
Nique's Revenge
March 18th, 2011
10:30 pm
Well, Hubie would also beat the hawks with his walker.
drmaryb (*_-)
March 18th, 2011
10:31 pm
“Dan Reeves doesn’t mean Dan Reeves was good.”
____________
Najeh, I agree with your entire post, but this one analogy?
Ugh … Dan Reeves gave us “The Dirty Bird” dance on the only Super Bowl stage we Falcons have ever known, ever.”
But, that preacher dude, Eugene Johnson, literally fkd it all up, when he tried to get a female officer to suck his “gat” down on the strip in Miami.
I’m just sayin’ (*_-).
Speaking of that … I’m headed down to Charles Allen St. (In Midtown), right now, can I get you anything from the store while I’m out?
Shake Something
March 18th, 2011
10:31 pm
Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!, Bill Laimbeer!!!
Coach of the Year!!
Booo!
March 18th, 2011
10:32 pm
northcyde, I agree with your logic, but from now on, Im taking the Hard stance that Jeff Teague needs to start every game permanetly. He is our best shot at any kind of improvement in the playoffs because other theam him, nothing else has really changed. I agreethat every other spot should be analyzed.
Pape needs to be playing, i’d rathe have him out there with the good D, than jamal chucking brick after brirck.
northcyde
March 18th, 2011
10:32 pm
Rusty . . JJ has been playing like garbage for his standards. So that means he needs to man up and play better. I’ve never shyed away from that.
But at some point, this team has to start playing like a legit basketball team, and not like some fantasy team where everyone deserves equal shots and equal treatment.
We’re not going to win with JJ taking less than 14 shots a game, whether he’s red hot or ice cold. If he’s the 126 million dollar man, we need to give him 126 million dollar man responsibilities.
That means that people might have to live with him having a game like Jordan Crawford had tonight . . with him going 12 – 27 FG. But if we have people that will rebound his misses like they did tonight with McGee ( 12 rebs ) and Trevor Booker ( 13 rebs . . . who also had 5 offensive rebounds and scored 26 points ), then maybe this team will be better off.
We got outrebounded tonight 50 – 27.
That’s not on JJ. That’s on the two frontline players.
What’s on JJ, is that he only took 8 shots in a game in which Lebron looked to dominate right from the jump.
JM
March 18th, 2011
10:39 pm
Najeh,
As long as the Mets win the season series against the braves, I’m cool. But now that I think about…Let’s go Falcon’s…wait, might not be a season. Um, lets go Tiger? Sheesh, I don’t know. All my teams suck and the two that don’t might not have a season next year. Damn Hawks!
Najeh Davenpoop
March 18th, 2011
10:40 pm
“My thing with a Woody coaching change, is that I wanted a guy who was BETTER than Woody. Not a lateral move or a “new voice”.”
So did I. But we knew what the Hawks’ ceiling was with Woody, and it was getting blown out in the 2nd round. Do you really think the Hawks would be making the second round this year if they had Woody? I sure as hell don’t.
They had to get rid of him and see if someone who could rectify his plethora of weaknesses would take this team farther. LD has rectified a couple of his weaknesses, but his own weaknesses have overshadowed any of that progress.
I mean, that is, unless you were willing to see this team get blown out in the playoffs — likely in the first round now that the East is stronger — indefinitely. Maybe you would have been willing to see that, but I can assure you most of the fans wouldn’t.
N.D.T.K.A.
March 18th, 2011
10:42 pm
Miami played a D-league squad tonight.
Drew has lost this team and it really doesn’t matter what he says, we have heard all the cliches just get a new coach.
There is no player developement here, no strategy and no leadership.
Sad to say but get a new coach and move a few guys or just blow it up.
rusty
March 18th, 2011
10:42 pm
Nortcyde jt played great oh I forgot that was in garbage time against a bunch of scrubs
Booo!
March 18th, 2011
10:44 pm
Since Bibby’s departure, one of our top 5-man floor units has been:
Teague-Johnson-Williams-Smith-Horford
That lineup has 6 wins and 1 loss (85% winning percentage) with a +/- of +33
Via 82 games.com
Najeh Davenpoop
March 18th, 2011
10:44 pm
Honestly, I don’t see the difference between getting our asses kicked in the playoffs with Woody and getting our asses kicked in the playoffs with LD. Y’all act like the Hawks should have kept Woody because LD sucks. Give me a break. Either you’re an improvement over Woody or you’re not. I will never second guess the Woody firing. We knew what we had with him. He wasn’t going to improve upon himself.
Worldwide Clyde
March 18th, 2011
10:44 pm
I wouldn’t go to a Hawks game even if someone offered me a free ticket.
Booo!
March 18th, 2011
10:45 pm
Start Jeff Teague
Trying Hard To Be A Fan
March 18th, 2011
10:46 pm
Man its a JOB trying to be sports Fan in Atl. I cant wait till this LOCK OUT is over with. The HAWKS are starting early. The Chemistry is gone with this group. Jamal wouldnt give a rats azz if they won or not.
Josh wants to fight everyone. Joe is burned out AGAIN and Marvin well …. After this lockout BLOW it ALL UP!!!! I say we can afford Chris Paul and D Howard. He needs to come home anyway. Atlanta has the FAN base, just put a quality product on the floor and in the coaches seat.
rusty
March 18th, 2011
10:47 pm
Well we did something right this year, we made two of the worse decisions in the NBA ,hiring ld. & resigning jj
Paradise Lost
March 18th, 2011
10:47 pm
The Celtics are sitting on the verge of a rare loss…Houston up by 20 with 2 minutes left in the 4th.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 18th, 2011
10:49 pm
“Najeh, I agree with your entire post, but this one analogy?
Ugh … Dan Reeves gave us “The Dirty Bird” dance on the only Super Bowl stage we Falcons have ever known, ever.”
In fairness, it wasn’t his coaching that was the problem as much as the fact that he had control over personnel decisions, and he was absolutely horrible at that part of his job. He deserves credit for taking the Falcons to the Super Bowl. He also showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he didn’t have a superstar carrying his team he couldn’t get them to do anything.
northcyde
March 18th, 2011
10:49 pm
Najeh . . all Woody did was win 53 games with Mike Bibby as his defensive PG.
How many games would he have won with Kirk Hinrich as his PG?
There is no doubt that we lost historically to Orlando. That still doesn’t mean that the lack of talent and depth on this team wasn’t one of the major issues with this squad.
Woody gave JJ superstar responsibilities, even if he wasn’t a superstar.
Woody tried to force Smith to play close to the rim, which he finally did last year
Woody tried to force feed the ball to Horford in the post, so that he could develop his low post game
What Woody didn’t do, is adjust well throughout the game
Nor did he even give some of the players on the bench a chance to impact games
But all Woody did, was go with the best 8 players he had on the team, and had them playing at a high level . .until they ran into the Orlando buzzsaw.
But who knows what the ceiling of this team would’ve been, had we gotten an upgrade at PG over Bibby . . or if we’d got a decent defending big man.
Woody gets partial blame in my eyes, but definitely not the most blame. He does not have an x-Box controller to control the movements of those guys. And he played his most successful lineups as much as possible.
Contrary to popular belief, he did more things right than he did wrong around here.
JM
March 18th, 2011
10:52 pm
I knew we lost this game when LD refused to put Teague in to pressure Bibby in the 2nd. If you got rid of Bibby because he could handle fast guards, why keep your fast guard on the bench when he’s out there. And as i stated on this blog before, I’m a Bibby fan, so I’m not bashing him but come on LD. WTF!
Paradise Lost
March 18th, 2011
10:52 pm
@Trying Hard – It is a job, you’re right. Agree the fan base wouldn’t hesitate to get behind a winning team…IF Atlanta ever gets one. I would also be in favor of moving the arena out of the city as some have suggested as I agree traffic and parking have an affect on weekday attendance (oh, and the losing by blowouts thing, too).
JM
March 18th, 2011
10:53 pm
As much as I hated Woody inability to make adjustments, I think the team tried harder under woody.
rusty
March 18th, 2011
10:54 pm
Nortcyde I wish you would go out & get drunk might knock some sense in you
Najeh Davenpoop
March 18th, 2011
10:54 pm
“all Woody did was win 53 games with Mike Bibby as his defensive PG.
How many games would he have won with Kirk Hinrich as his PG? ”
No, he won 53 games with Jeff Teague — who he refused to develop — as his defensive PG.
How many games would he have won if he developed Jeff Teague?
How many games would he have won if he had the foresight to play Jason Collins against Dwight Howard?
How many games would he have won if he had a Plan B when his Plan A of Iso-Joe got annihilated?
How many games would he have won if it didn’t take him three games to counter-adjust every time someone solved his switching defense?
I can assure you this: there is no way in hell he would have won 53 games with this team this year, in the stronger Eastern Conference, even if he had Kirk from day one. Not a chance.
Shake Something
March 18th, 2011
10:56 pm
northcyde
March 18th, 2011
10:49 pm
Najeh . . all Woody did was win 53 games with Mike Bibby as his defensive PG.
How many games would he have won with Kirk Hinrich as his PG?
There is no doubt that we lost historically to Orlando. That still doesn’t mean that the lack of talent and depth on this team wasn’t one of the major issues with this squad.
Woody gave JJ superstar responsibilities, even if he wasn’t a superstar.
Woody tried to force Smith to play close to the rim, which he finally did last year
Woody tried to force feed the ball to Horford in the post, so that he could develop his low post game
What Woody didn’t do, is adjust well throughout the game
Nor did he even give some of the players on the bench a chance to impact games
But all Woody did, was go with the best 8 players he had on the team, and had them playing at a high level . .until they ran into the Orlando buzzsaw.
But who knows what the ceiling of this team would’ve been, had we gotten an upgrade at PG over Bibby . . or if we’d got a decent defending big man.
Woody gets partial blame in my eyes, but definitely not the most blame. He does not have an x-Box controller to control the movements of those guys. And he played his most successful lineups as much as possible.
Contrary to popular belief, he did more things right than he did wrong around here.
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AMEN Brother!!
drmaryb (*_-)
March 18th, 2011
10:56 pm
Lock Up Raw!
It’s like that prison show on MSNBC. I say lock all these fake NBA players out. Let them take their lazy, rich azzes overseas and learn some fundamental team worthy skills in that damned trapezoid paint they got over there. When they return? Hopefully they will have a jumper from all areas of the floor, floor spacing so they can see each other, passing capabilities, learn to dribble bilaterally, post up in the paint, finish strong at the rim, play defense and win.
I heard this college coach on the radio last week. He was complaining about why The TNT crew of Ernie, Charles and Kenny were hosting the day time NCAA Tournament games this week. He lamented, they don’t know anything about the college players.
Charles went off, called him a jack ass and said, “you’re prolly right, I don’t know the names of any players, but I can read (that’s debatable) their names off a sheet of paper and I know the game of basketball, its just basketball!” LOL!
Who ever, that college coach was, had no viable response to charles calling him a jackass. But, he did have a parting shot for David Stern.
He basically said, “David Stern and The NBA has ruined and decimated the game of college basketball. And, that these one and done players who leave school early have NO NBA fundamentals whatsoever and are in no way ready for the big stage. Sure, you may have one or two here or there, but they have no Seniors worth anything to play at the collegiate level!”. He said, “Stern has totally ruined the NBA game with game with players that have no business being there!”. He called David Stern The Devil!”
________________
Just Wow! I think all those players he talked about, play for the Hawks!
Najeh Davenpoop
March 18th, 2011
10:57 pm
“That still doesn’t mean that the lack of talent and depth on this team wasn’t one of the major issues with this squad. ”
I never said it wasn’t. I dislike Sund and the DASG a lot more than I disliked Woody. That doesn’t mean Woody didn’t take this team as far as he was capable of taking it. As long as the Hawks continued to roll with this core, they owed it to themselves to find out if some other coach who could rectify Woody’s problems could take them farther.
The fact that they chose the wrong coach doesn’t change the correctness of the original decision to make a coaching change.
Worldwide Clyde
March 18th, 2011
11:02 pm
Just wait till JeJe and Slim Jr. start posting. We’re going to need a new blog up tonight MC.