Atlanta Hawks at Bulls: Game thread
Chicago–Regular lineup for the Hawks. All Hawks except Kirk Hinrich (shoulder) and Donald Sloan (inactive) are available. Ronnie Brewer is starting in place of Rip Hamilton (groin) for the Bulls.
- Hinrich had his eight-week checkup today. “Good news,” Hinrich said. “They are going to let me start doing all of the non-contact stuff with the team. A couple weeks from now, we will see how it goes from there. It’s one of those deals where I’m excited to do some things. Hopefully I can get my conditioning right and keep strengthening. I have some weakness. I need to get stronger before I get out there.”
- Larry Drew said he hasn’t decided on Hinrich’s role when he returns: “We will see how that goes with Kirk. We are certainly going to bring him along slowly. But as far as who is going to be the starter, I haven’t made a decision.”
- Drew doesn’t think a zone defense can be as effective against the Bulls as it was against Miami: “You are talking about two totally different beasts. With having to defend Wade and LeBron I think it’s totally different from having to defend Rose. With Rose I think he may be more explosive. Both LeBron and D-Wade are very explosive but Rose’s explosion is a little bit different. His ability to get into the paint is more of a havoc than LeBron and Wade. LeBron and Wade are more open court. Rose can get into the basket open court and half court.”
- Jeff Teague is back in the building where he started the best run of his young career. He said he’s not still drawing confidence from those moments against Rose, though: “I’m a confident player, anyway. I don’t really get into the matchup last year. He’s going to come back with something totally different.”
- Vladimir Radmanovic is 0 for 10 from the field in the last two games, including 0 for 4 on 3-pointers. He passed up a couple open attempts at Miami. Drew wants him to keep shooting. “We brought him here to shoot when he’s open,” Drew said. “He hasn’t had his typical type games but I am not going to instruct him to stop shooting. He’s got to keep putting them up.”
- Al Horford had a productive game around the basket against Chris Bosh. Joakim Noah is tougher by multiple degrees. “I think you have to try to match his energy as much as you can,” Horford said. “He is going to bring that every night and I think that’s what makes him such a great player.”
- Josh Smith was 1 for 7 on long 2s against the Heat before settling down. “He got into a jump-shot mode,” Drew said. “When he came out that first time, we spoke to him at that time. Then he just kind got it together and started putting it in the floor and getting to the basket, which is a strength of his because he’s long and he can elevate. He did settle down.”
- The Hawks are playing their sixth game in eight days. “We are doing OK,” Horford said. “At this point everybody has got something that is wrong with them. That’s just a part of it. Tonight is a big game for us so we are going to come out here and focus on tonight and tomorrow hopefully we will get to rest and recover.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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1,299 comments Add your comment
Section 212
January 3rd, 2012
10:33 pm
I meant “that” instead
hawks_4_life
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
Good night all, LD go play in traffic.
Chris
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
Easy Painter….u sound like a fool.
Luke Cage
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
He tried to ride the bench tooooooo long, once Rose was going and it was like a 9 or 10pt game he shoulda got the starters back in there it was obvious!!! Rose played the entire 2nd half, sometimes u gotta change things up to win, I know we played last night but thats no excuse to leave ALL 5 starters on the bench
Runner-
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
Finally a chance to show we were a force to be reckoned with… but once again choke
SteveW
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
I’m actually encouraged – last year we would have been blown out by 35
Hope TMac is ok – really needed him on the floor offensively.
superiorblogman
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
LD let the momentum get away and Teague might be a choker.
Spyro
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
Two things before I go into a basketball induced rage: missed free throws and THAT WAS OUR PLAY?!?! WTF?!?
Dont Brick It
January 3rd, 2012
10:34 pm
I’ve said it a lot of times.. those FT’s! Damn..
Marcus
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
Can somebody please kick Stacey King in the teeth?
dang, we gave this one away. We knew they were gonna make a run, but like C-Webb said, late in the game, we reverted to old habits vs. doing what got the big lead.
J.J.M.
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
this game will be mental on the hawks the rest of the season everything will go downhill the rest of the season becaise of this one game
truth
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
Joe dribble, dribble, dribble….hawks lose. Nothing will change until the non super star making super star money is dribbling the Hawks chances away….joe is a coach killa. Just like MV.
reality
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
LD better think about tMAC AT CRUNCH. Option to iso Joe for sure.
dsgb
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
Choke Johnson is a completed joke
yodaddybrother
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
The good thing about it is that they play them again on Saturday
TMACfan
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
People, the only reason the Hawks lost was because of free-throws. We missed SOOOOO MANY!
Luke Cage
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
Damn, Joe was 3/17, OUCH
stizz
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
painter,
Shutup jackass. It was a tough loss, but these aren’t the Hawks of the past.
SteveW
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
I think if Teague would’ve played Rose more in the 2nd half, he might not have gone off quite so much
Uncle Tom
January 3rd, 2012
10:35 pm
Joe Johnson 3 of 17 from the field, 10pts – wtf?
Mr.E
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
So this is how LD follows up a good coaching performance, typical…
Sautee
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
Yeah boy, the Hawks really stink. I mean we just played the two best teams in the East, beat one, and took the other to the wire. But let’s throw out the baby with the bathwater, since they didn’t win BOTH games.
Section 212
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
And they want respect from fans and the media….they need to make FTs in the clutch. Teague and Horford did not handle the pressure late in the game.
truth
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
TeamTradeJoshSmith TeamFireMarkRicht == Team dumb a$$
Section 303
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
What a bunch of f’ing losers.
oldbird
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
Good point SteveW
FreshFromATL
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
Rose with like 17 pts in the 4th. That’s your game story right there. Once Teague left the game, Rose got hot and brought them back. If we had Hinrich, who knows what would have happened. Also, Teague had a major learning experiece with the missed free throws. Oh well, rest up and suit up for the next one.
northcyde
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
The shame of this, is the same ATL radio stations that virtually ignored our great win over Miami, will clown the Hawks and especially Joe Johnson for the loss tonight.
This is what Gearon talks about, when concerning the Hawks.
JJ definitely deserves at least 1/2 blame for this game though ( Free throw shooting the other 1/2 ). He can’t shoot 3 – 17 FG . .and only shoot 2 FTs. It’s the fatal flaw in his game, and he needs to find a way to fix that.
Just wasted a great defensive performance for the first 3 quarters.
SteveW
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
We are terrible in crunch time with only JJ – Josh did come up big in the 4th tonite – way to go Josh!!
Section 212
January 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
Should not have come down to Joe having to make that shot.
tckr83
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
I’m about out of excuses for Joe Johnson… NEVER shows up in big games. 3 for 17 shooting and gave up the game winning basket on a simple switch that he blew with Deng.
But by all means… let’s let him take the last shot. Why?
worse that john starks
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
3 for 17
Uncle Tom
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
Each Hawks’ starter needs to shoot 500-1,000 free throws per day.
truth
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
TeamTradeJoshSmith TeamFireMarkRicht == toilet bowl skidmark
moboman
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
We lost because LD allowed ZAZA, PARGO, GREEN, VLADRAD, to give away the entire lead without putting his players back in the game. He let them get confidence back and never put any players back in to stop them before it was too late. Bad play by Teague not giving Joe the ball back immediately when the shot clock was off and we had the ball. Then he misses 2 FTs. Too much iso JOE. No excuse for taking this game and then GIVING IT BACK TO THEM.
J.J.M.
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
um teague couldnt keep up with rose…
Harry Hawk
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
T-Mac’s legs aren’t going to be up for the pounding 15-20 games this year. This was one of those games.
dsgb
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
Ld is f**king clueless
MattP
January 3rd, 2012
10:37 pm
This Off Season,
Don’t rehired LD, Hire an experienced coach.
Don’t rehired Sund, Hire someone that knows basketball and the Hawks.
Amnesty Joe
Trade Josh for a Center or a good SG to take Joe’s place.
Sign wisely in FA with the space Joe gave up.
Joe is not a clutch player and he is not always good on offense so why is still here.
yodaddybrother
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
LD bad coaching hurting Teague’s confidence before the game talking about Kirk coming back. Give Teague his vote of confidence and let the veteran be a backup.
hittman jamillion
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
IT DISGUSTS ME AS A FAN,TO BE UP TWENTY AND LOSE THE GAME,JUST THROW IT AWAY.BAD COACHING JJ WENT 3 FOR TWENTY AND SINGLEHANDILY BEAT US BY GOING INTO ISO JOE MODE. ARGH WTF IM PULLING MY HAIR
SteveW
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
Sautee – Away no less – with Chicago rested and us flying from Miami to Chicago last nite… Like I said, I’m actually encouraged
JSS
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
Dang it!!!
stizz
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
I guess it’s the jackass brigade on the blog tonight.
Teamtradejosh, painter. All decendants of phil.
Spyro
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
I sense our day “off” tomorrow is going to be filled with a lot of free throw shooting.
brigadierjerry
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
Was a tough loss. I think out of all the free throws missed the one with Hawks up 1 and Teague short on those two free throws killed the Hawks. Free throws missed and the fact that LD should’ve called timeout where there was too much iso. The worst part about is is Noah and Boozer did absolutely nothing. Hawks will have to learn from this but they match up well with Chicago. It did look like fatigue was definetely a factor.
SteveW
January 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
Rose knew he could punk Pargo – they played together until recently – Rose went off on him
Wabe
January 3rd, 2012
10:39 pm
who can keep up with rose?
truth
January 3rd, 2012
10:39 pm
TeamTradeJoshSmith TeamFireMarkRicht == loser
Smith.Leuer.Bogut aka Other Options?
January 3rd, 2012
10:39 pm
Keep heads up. We played hard. And teamuni