Atlanta Hawks: Hawks 101, Wizards 83
- The Hawks held another opponent to lousy offensive numbers but this time Larry Drew sounded so-so about the effort. “There were parts of the game where we lacked defensive intensity,” he said. “You’ve got to put teams away, especially a team like that. They never stop playing. I never felt we had a total grip of the game even when we were up 20. A team like Washington, you have to take away hope.”
- The Wizards do a pretty good job of that on their own. At times you could see John Wall’s frustration as he tried to make plays for his teammates only to see fail to help. Even Nick Young’s 21 points on 6 of 12 shooting were pretty empty since he started 5 for 5.
- Neither the Nets nor the Wizards are sharp offensive teams so it’s tough to judge Atlanta’s defense right now. The Hawks know that, too. But there’s no denying that the talking, helping and energy have all looked good so far. “It’s two games, but I do see some good things,” Al Horford said. “We are starting to trust each other more on the defensive end.”
- Wall got to the basket when he wanted. “It’s tough to guard somebody that has freedom like that,” Jeff Teague said. “At any time he can take off and do what he wants to do. But when it’s like that if we can hold everyone else down we can get wins.”
- Wall met some resistance at the rim, particularly from Josh Smith, who got one of his two charging calls against Wall. Most of his six turnovers came when he got out of control.
- Young buried some 3s. Pogo stick JaVale McGee gave Josh and Al some problems when he got free around the basket. Otherwise, though, the Hawks pretty much held down the Wizards.
- When Marvin Williams (eight rebounds) helps on the glass, the Hawks can do things like hammer the Wizards 45-32 on the boards. Josh and Al had 10 boards each. “He’s being very aggressive on the offensive boards,” Al said. “We need that from him at that position.”
- It was another Marvin Blueprint game: rebound, make the open shots when they come and get to the free-throw line. “Knock on wood, he looks pain-free,” Drew said. “He’s really shooting the ball well when he gets his feet set. When teams double on the block he has to be able to hit those shots. Last year when he caught the ball at times he wasn’t even looking at the rim. Now when he’s catching the ball in his shooting range he’s looking to score.”
- “I just feel better,” Marvin said. “Sometimes before on a back-to-back it was tough to recover. Tonight I felt perfectly fine.”
- Atlanta’s offense benefited from some of their long 2s turning into 3s (9 of 23). Tracy McGrady’s effeicient effort was another positive: 11 points on five shots and four rebounds in 19 minutes. But all of Atlanta’s reserves except late sub Ivan Johnson ended up with negative plus-minuses.
- A lot of that was because the Hawks gave back most of their 15-point lead in the first half as Jannero Pargo missed his first four shots. Both Pargo and Willie Green still look a bit lost. “They are not comfortable yet with what we are doing,” Drew said. “As soon as they get in a comfort zone, I’m confident they will play the way they can play.”
- Teague’s ankle still isn’t 100 percent: “It’s getting better. I can’t jump like I want to but I can play.”
- The Hawks missed their first 11 shots of the fourth quarter but Washington wasn’t doing much scoring, either. The Wizards had five misses and a turnover over their first 11 possessions of the period. Al scored on back-to-back scores at the basket to calm things down. “That’s when we rely on our defense to bail us out,” he said. “We held the lead and hit some key shots.”
- “We got comfortable a little bit,” Teague said. “It happens in games but we recovered and got the win.”
- You can see Al trying to score around the basket more often. He had some success backing McGeee under the rim to neutralize his length and leaping ability.
- Jordan Crawford played just 21 minutes as Young stole his thunder and Joe took him to school. Jordan tossed up a half-hearted airball at the buzzer and quickly scurried off the court.
- As promised, Crawford engaged Teague in some trash talk. “That’s my man,” Teague said. “We held him in check tonight but I know next time we see him he’s going to try to be better.”
- The Hawks get the day off tomorrow.
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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111 comments Add your comment
Rufus1
December 29th, 2011
11:21 am
I don’t if this quote was posted…
” I’ve got my body in better shape, and I feel better. I was never going to make excuses, but my back was bothering me the last two or three years. I had a discectomy [June 8]. Basically, I had a disk pressing up against a nerve and it was making my leg numb. A lot of times I would be out there, and my leg would just start tingling. Man, [the NBA lockout] was a blessing for me. A lot of other guys wouldn’t say that, but having that much time to get healthy really helped.”
– Marvin Williams.
Rufus1
December 29th, 2011
11:21 am
Know^^
kwooden
December 29th, 2011
11:25 am
Steve, I agree with you on Horford. Someone wrote earlier about him doing a better job of setting-up his drives with his jumper. But I think the play of Marvin on the boards is really helping him. There have been months, if not years that Al was the only guy on the boards, I think that really began to wear on him as the season went on. These last few games Marvin has been getting his hands on balls which is making other guys really worry about him, give Al more time to rest. Al has more energy on the offensive end. He’s also making quicker decisions.
I have to comment on Pargo and Green. I think the blog has gone over board on these guys. Pargo and Green had bad games but nothing more. Those guys play hard and are NBA quality bench players. Pargo and Green had tough matchups and overall I think the bench was a little fatigued from playing so much the night before. Those guys are professionals and will bounce back tomorrow night. I really like what our bench brings to the table and they are probably the only advantage we have over Miami and they matches up well enough against Chicago. Chicago’s bench is deep and Gibson can dominate, but Vlad can make him stay on the perimeter.
GO HAWKS!!
zachdahater
December 29th, 2011
11:31 am
Things to work on
REPLACING WILLIE GREEN AT THE SG POSITION!!! Nick Young lit him up SOOOooo easily, and he doesn’t make any shots.
He has a decent teardrop though!! Let him teach the teardrop to Jeff Teague and LET HIM GO! Well, we eventually have to upgrade here, I would’ve rather had PAPE SY behind Joe because he’s athletic, he’s aggressive, and GOOD ON DEFENSE!!
YES I BE YELLING WHEN I CAPITALIZE, AND YOU SHOULD IMAGINE A SAMUEL L. JACKSON VOICE WHEN YOU READ IT!!!!!!
Anyways, WE ALSO NEED A BACKUP CENTER GUYS!!!!
I do not want ZAZA PACHULIA getting injured playing garbage minutes! He was out there too freaking long. And I also don’t want that old fart Jason Collins out there injuring himself either.
(What if we got Twin’s twin Jarron Collins on the team, lol)
But we do need a 2nd backup rotation center. I’d LOVE to get Etan Thomas back as a backup for that position. He’s a thug on the boards, and plays aggressively.
BESIDES THAT, GO MARVIN!!!! This is what I’ve been saying he needs to do, HIT OPEN SHOTS! He’ll be open. Make your 3 pointers and that’ll help us MONUMENTALLY!! Our defense is CRAZY as far as the starting lineup. Tracy’s great on defense too. NO MORE EASY PENETRATION from Jamal or Bibby, and if they get through, they’ll get stopped by Smoove and Horford. We our VERY balanced and built to potential beat the Heat who have weaknesses. We should be 3rd in the East this season, screw whoever was on this blog and said the Knicks will be better, NOT WITH BIBBY LETTING THE DEFENSE SLIPPING BY, I saw them last night.
GO HAWKS!!!!! BUY MY BEER!!!!!!!!
KevinM
December 29th, 2011
11:33 am
Nothing needs to be said about the team taking care of business. Drew is going 10 deep into the rotation, trying to save guys for the next game. He is handling the rotation well.
Seeing T-Mac at the point may tell you how we will look if JT gets into foul trouble. I don’t mind that big lineup, but it might not be successful during long stretches. And kudos to JT for having 2 good games out of the gate against Deron and Wall.
Did anyone mention how JC2 looked last night? He did not appear to be into the game at all. You would have expected more from him against his buds.
Looking back on last year, I wanted to see how Marvin did during our 6-0 start last year:
@ Memphis – 15pts/7reb in 31 min
@ Philly – 6/5
Wash – 0/4
@Cleveland – 22/4
Detroit – 11/8
Minny – out with a bruised knee
He has had 2 consistent games for the 1st time in recent memory, and I give him accolades for showing aggressiveness so far this year. As I said earlier, he is the key to the success of this team.
Bench was more the norm against the Wiz, but they gave us 29 points for playing 1/3 of the game. So far, Jamal has not been missed.
A true test of this team will come next week with CHI and MIA in place.
We will know a lot more about this team after that stretch.
KevinM
December 29th, 2011
11:35 am
Thumbs up Rufus; I had never heard the details of what Marvin was playing with. I gotta think he stayed out of the lane more than he should have last year.
Good energy this year.
Ken Strickland
December 29th, 2011
11:37 am
HONEST ABE-You’re not so subtle dig at me isn’t unexpected. You putting words in my mouth is, because I’ve never compared Pargo to anyone. I said he was the 1st backup PG we’ve had with the speed and quickness to provide the kind of pressue that Teague provides for our starting unit. You also CONVENIENTLY ignored the fact that he just joined the team, he’s rusty, as is WGreen, and is still relatively unfamiliar with his teammates and our OFF and DEF systems.
Come on ABE, you’re acting like a troll cruising the blog looking for any lame excuse to create an argument, or bash a blogger, or a player you don’t particularly like, and that’s not you man. I did notice how you waited until after the Wizzard gm to voice all of this about Pargo, rather than making it an issue after his performance against the Nets. No player is perfect, and we’ve managed to do pretty good with him so far. He’ll improve as his conditioning improves, and he becomes more familiar with his teammates and our OFF/DEF systems.
He’s on the active roster now, and last nights gm was his 2nd gm with the team. You should know as well as anyone that it’s foolish and a total waste of time to make an issue of a veteran player being on the roster at that point. He’ll likely remain on the active roster until Hinrich returns, so what was your point?
Rufus1
December 29th, 2011
11:39 am
@KevinM
Who wants to REBOUND or ATTACK the RIM, with a bad BACK….
zachdahater
December 29th, 2011
11:44 am
Actually, Keith Bogans would’ve been a better backup, but I’m not really losing sleep over the SG position. Green can pretty much hold his own for now. Pargo’s a good replacement for Hinrich and a reliable 3rd backup for when TEAGUE EVENTUALLY TWISTS HIS ANKLE AGAIN, you KNOW it’s gonna happen! But no matter what, we are so deep that no injury should hurt us anymore. We are at least 3 deep at every position. NEED A CENTER THOUGH!
Man…..the CELTICS SUCK!!! Guys, this is our moment. We are built to beat the Magic, the Celtics have a WEAK bench and their starting 5 isn’t athletic enough to keep up with us. We are clearly a top 3 team in the East this year. We CAN beat the Bulls, WE CAN beat the Heat, in fact I feel we’re the best team for that job in the East. This could be a great year, to early to tell though, but I’m excited!
Go Hawks man
Michael Cunningham
December 29th, 2011
11:48 am
new blog is posted. shutting down this thread.
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