Atlanta Hawks at Rockets: Clinching seed is the carrot
There’s a juicy carrot out there for the Hawks tonight.
Beat the Rockets and they clinch the No. 5 seed in the East. Clinch the No. 5 seed and then all of their tired bodies and minds might get a break over the final five games.
“I want to clinch before I even think about doing that,” L.D. said.
That’s some pretty good incentive.
“It should be for the guys,” Drew said. “A couple of weeks ago we were talking about it but kind of looking at how we were playing, looking at the schedule, it wasn’t a sure lock. Here we are with an opportunity to clinch it.”
No one can be blamed for not trusting the Hawks. A season’s worth of questions were not suddenly answered by two good efforts that included likely outliers like J.J. getting to the line, Josh draining tough jump shots and Zaza wrecking the team he likes to wreck most.
What L.D. thinks can most be duplicated is the focus and determination that allowed the Hawks to win ugly against good opponents.
“Probably the grind-em-out presence that we played with in both games,” Drew said. “Against Orlando, I thought we did a really good job in matching their physicality. I thought we did a good job in playing physical. Those type opponents, that’s the type of effort you have to have against them. I thought it was the same thing against Boston. Both games turned into half court games, we turned them into grind-em-out games and we played with a physical toughness.”
Game notes
- “Regular” lineup for the Hawks: Hinrich, J.J., Marvin, Smoove, Al.
- The Rockets seemingly were done after they traded away Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier at the deadline. Instead they’ve surged and are desperately trying to make the playoffs. Henry Abbott at TrueHoop reported that the Rockets are motivated to stick it to fans, media, and the team’s front office, and I’m wondering if that might work for the Hawks, too.
- The Rockets are a better offensive rebounding team than the Magic and Celtics. Impressive work considering they aren’t a big team.
- “Scola bangs inside, Hayes bangs inside, Hill comes in and bangs inside, Patterson comes in and bangs inside,” Drew said. “They play extremely fast, they get up and down the floor, but yet they play with a physicality. I am hoping that the way we played the last couple games will carry over into tonight’s game.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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418 comments Add your comment
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:34 pm
Magic lose. Hawks are within 3 of the Magic if they win.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:34 pm
Al got the ball in a position to go up and get fouled, and passed it out to Marvin…
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:35 pm
Good drive Smoove. Hawks needed that.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:36 pm
Al getting punked by 6′6″ Chuck Hayes again.
Rev in Tampa
April 3rd, 2011
8:37 pm
Rockets commentators still talking about teague. They are wondering when he will get back on the floor since he and Jamal were the catalysts for the big lead in teh second quarter. I wondering when we will see teague again myself. Maybe LD is resting Teague for the playoffs. SMH
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:38 pm
Seems like the Hawks can either play well on offense or on defense in this game, but they haven’t done both at the same time for more than maybe three minutes.
Art Vandelay
April 3rd, 2011
8:39 pm
This offense is pathetic.
Art Vandelay
April 3rd, 2011
8:40 pm
Scola has been ownin the paint ever since the 3rd quarter it seems like.
drmaryb (*_-)
April 3rd, 2011
8:40 pm
Houston is moving w/o the ball on offense.
The Hawks need to do some of that too.
Teague has looked spectacular from what I have seen.
Hawks defense is nowhere near what is was all week long, Houston is definitely controlling the pace of this game.
Hawks may want to look at a defensive effort if they want to get out and run or get some stops and play half-court, if they care to move w/o the ball and run some double screen, pick and rolls or back door cuts. But, don’t just let Houston do whatever they want!
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:41 pm
Al, QUIT PASSING UP SHOTS YOU CAN MAKE JUST SO SOMEONE ELSE ON THE TEAM CAN TAKE A 3
Prison Mike
April 3rd, 2011
8:41 pm
Man they are settling for jumpers
cp
April 3rd, 2011
8:42 pm
a bunch of and 1 dribbling by Jamal
Rev in Tampa
April 3rd, 2011
8:42 pm
Scola flop alert
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:43 pm
Chuck Hayes is dominating this game.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:44 pm
Doesn’t matter who the Hawks throw at him either. It’s been Al more often than not, but Smoove and Zaza haven’t really had answers for Hayes themselves.
Rev in Tampa
April 3rd, 2011
8:44 pm
“This offense is pathetic”
Actually 81 points before the 4th quarter is not too shabby. Defense needs more effort tonight.
doc
April 3rd, 2011
8:46 pm
did someone see the charmin around these parts?
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:46 pm
Iso-Jamal. Ugly.
O'Brien
April 3rd, 2011
8:46 pm
ZaZa giving up the and one. I will never understand why we just dont foul him hard.
Melvin
April 3rd, 2011
8:46 pm
Terrible 3rd qtr….
Prison Mike
April 3rd, 2011
8:47 pm
Chuck Hayes is a free agent sign this guy to back up center.
cp
April 3rd, 2011
8:47 pm
smdh Zaza and Jamal thinks he’s hot sauce
bigdave
April 3rd, 2011
8:48 pm
so Lowry had ZaZa shook to where he didnt want to foul him hard.. giving up the and 1.. smh.
O'Brien
April 3rd, 2011
8:48 pm
doc,
So much for Hawks defense. Like you said, the key has been to hold opponents to under 90 points. Rockets have 86 through 3 quarters.
Bad defense by the Hawks. We gave up 33 in the second, and 32 in the third. Does that mean we give up 31 in the 4th? Hmmm…
hawkZ
April 3rd, 2011
8:48 pm
Can anyone give me a live streaming link of the game? Thank You!
Sautee
April 3rd, 2011
8:48 pm
doc,
It’s an insult to Charmin’ to compare it to these softies.
bigdave
April 3rd, 2011
8:49 pm
Al offensive weaknesses being exploited.. if he wants to play out there teams will continue to crowd him and make him pass or put it on the deck in score. he tried to score that 3rd quarter and it looked plain ugly.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:49 pm
Teague coast to coast. Lowry has had some legitimate gripes in this game though.
cp
April 3rd, 2011
8:49 pm
good play Teague
Sleepy
April 3rd, 2011
8:49 pm
We need to pick up our aggressiveness on both sides of the floor
Art Vandelay
April 3rd, 2011
8:49 pm
@ Rev In Tampa
Yeah, I guess I was talking about at the moment of the comment.
They weren’t in rhythm on offense, the Rockets were playing good D, and we weren’t playing any at all.
Wabe
April 3rd, 2011
8:50 pm
Josh Smith needs to quit setting the pick and stepping out for the jumper. All he needs to do is pick and roll.
Leave the pick & pop to Horford.
hawkZ
April 3rd, 2011
8:50 pm
Can anyone give me a live streaming link of the game? Please and Thank You!
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:50 pm
Al has been invisible in this game.
bigdave
April 3rd, 2011
8:50 pm
a foot outside his range..
Wabe
April 3rd, 2011
8:50 pm
Horford’s struggling.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:51 pm
Now it’s Patterson’s turn to make Al his bitch.
Prison Mike
April 3rd, 2011
8:51 pm
Chuck Hayes played horford 2 feet to his right, smart player.
cp
April 3rd, 2011
8:51 pm
who the hell is defending Patterson
Melvin
April 3rd, 2011
8:51 pm
Rockets are simply outworking the Hawks….
bigdave
April 3rd, 2011
8:52 pm
thats bs.
get mad Joe..
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:52 pm
Seeing as how defensive intensity is needed, maybe playing Damien on Kevin Martin for a few possessions wouldn’t be a bad idea?
Art Vandelay
April 3rd, 2011
8:52 pm
Hayes got in Horford’s head.
Can’t even hit “his” shot wide open.
bigdave
April 3rd, 2011
8:52 pm
poop is that really you?
and you said i was harsh..
Sautee
April 3rd, 2011
8:53 pm
bigdave,
Exactly.I was sceaming “DRIVE’ at the tv just now.
I don’t get it.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:54 pm
“poop is that really you?
and you said i was harsh..”
Haha, well, your words have been pretty prophetic as far as this game is concerned. Normally even when his offense isn’t there he at least crashes the boards. He has 3 boards in 32 minutes today. That is Bargnani-esque.
bigdave
April 3rd, 2011
8:55 pm
now it wasnt the same spot Nique.. thats his spot.. Hayes had him moving farther out..
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:55 pm
atdhe.fm for live streams.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 3rd, 2011
8:56 pm
Zaza’s turn to take it up the ass from Chuck Hayes now.
Prison Mike
April 3rd, 2011
8:56 pm
Chuck Hayes is limited but he’s great at what he does. Sign this mofo.