Atlanta Hawks at Pacers: Game thread
Indianapolis–At shootaround Tracy McGrady said he was feeling good. Not so much tonight: He’s a late scratch with back spasms. It wasn’t announced until after the locker room was closed to media types so don’t have details.
- Danny Granger (ill) and George Hill (back) are active for the Pacers after missing Monday’s 96-86 loss at Philly.
- Yes, Larry Drew showed the players clips of Charles Barkley’s criticisms of the Hawks during the loss to Miami. I’ve never liked reacting to what Barkley says because smack talking is his schtick and I don’t think it makes much of a difference. Plus, while the loss to the Heat was a bad one it wasn’t enough to draw a conclusion about this team. Don’t get me wrong: I love Barkley. He’s fun and entertaining. His act is good for fans and talk radio (and Web hits, apparently) but has no real bearing on basketball so I tend to just laugh it off.
- And, sure enough, word is Hawks players aren’t going around talking or thinking about sticking it to Barkley. Nevertheless, Drew thought it might do some good for players to hear Barkley’s barbs, so he replayed some of them before the Hawks played at Charlotte Friday. “I wanted them to know, wanted them to hear what the perception is. Most guys take it for what it’s worth and say that’s what he gets paid to say. Those that want to change the perception, they will step up.”
- However, L.D. extended the lesson beyond Sir Charles’ smack talk into areas I think are relevant: “With the officials, if you whine a lot then people will start to say you are a soft team. If you don’t play through adversity, then you will get the label of a soft team. I want guys to play through adversity, when things aren’t going good. I’ve always said it’s easy when things are going good.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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540 comments Add your comment
Najeh Davenpoop
January 11th, 2012
8:29 pm
Free throws are free.
Wabe
January 11th, 2012
8:29 pm
how bout a timeout?
MattP
January 11th, 2012
8:29 pm
never he is in. lol
Sautee
January 11th, 2012
8:31 pm
“[I believe the plural for focus is foci [sp.]; correct me if I’m wrong.]”
LOL, I’ll leave that for Dept of Unintended Irony
Andrew
January 11th, 2012
8:31 pm
oh sure put him in when we down by ten Im going to have to agree with Barkley on this one.
northcyde
January 11th, 2012
8:31 pm
Teague: 2 – 7
Vlad: 1 – 6
Not good
Big Lou
January 11th, 2012
8:31 pm
How the Frick are the Hawks missing so many free throws? For something that has caused us two games this year, you would think a competent coach would make them practice hours on it.
Strick
January 11th, 2012
8:32 pm
Cmon josh
northcyde
January 11th, 2012
8:32 pm
Good foul Ivan
n-trigue
January 11th, 2012
8:32 pm
Josh cant do everything!!! Joe is playing selfish pass it to teague let him run the offense!
Najeh Davenpoop
January 11th, 2012
8:32 pm
Teague’s gotta know better than to pass to Josh instead of taking the shot.
northcyde
January 11th, 2012
8:32 pm
Both of those “chokers” are having pretty good games so far.
Wabe
January 11th, 2012
8:33 pm
This ish is pretty much done…
northcyde
January 11th, 2012
8:33 pm
Josh doing a little too much. Be aggressive, but smart
Big Lou
January 11th, 2012
8:33 pm
Here come the wimp, butt-hurt Hawks. They gave up.
n-trigue
January 11th, 2012
8:33 pm
Refs calling bad calls!
john doe
January 11th, 2012
8:34 pm
josh wants to be the focal point of the offense, then when he gets the chance, with no horford in the way, he completely folds.
Wabe
January 11th, 2012
8:34 pm
you’re relying on JJ and Josh alone to make something happen offensively…
and Hibbert’s owning Zaza
Big Lou
January 11th, 2012
8:35 pm
Why the heck is Zaza in? He can gaurd Gilbert.
Grandmaster JeJe
January 11th, 2012
8:35 pm
Hawks are hurt and people will use that as an excuse if we lose, but no one here will mention Miami was without LBJ and Wade last Thursday when they beat us
O'Brien
January 11th, 2012
8:35 pm
Hawks cant buy a bucket. What happened this quarter?
JaeEvolution
January 11th, 2012
8:35 pm
No size at all, Roy is just too big.
BoneKollector
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
zaza=most untalented hawk
john doe
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
once again, hawks have no energy from the start and drew is screwing up the lineups.
BoneKollector
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
zaza suucks
Wabe
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
What exactly does Zaza do well?
Jesse
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
Another game where they don’t care. Granted, no Al, or T-Mac…. and dare I say Marvin, but still, they know what they should do on the floor…. they just don’t do it all the time and that’s what drives the fans nuts.
northcyde
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
LOL zaza
O'Brien
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
I think Rick Sund needs to float a ZaZa trade rumor out there to see if he can turn it up some more.
And wat happened to our offense?
Runner-
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
……………………..
kevkat
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
Sorry Big Lou..ZaZa can’t guard anybody..he can get in the way of someone though…
Najeh Davenpoop
January 11th, 2012
8:36 pm
Collins > Zaza
BoneKollector
January 11th, 2012
8:37 pm
zaza may be in the running for worst player in the NBA
Runner-
January 11th, 2012
8:38 pm
why the HELL is LD going with this lineup against one of the bigger Centers in the game?? What purpose does Collins serve then!!! Why did we keep him?? Is his sole purpose really to guard Dwight Howard?? It’s games like this that we need to use him!!
JaeEvolution
January 11th, 2012
8:38 pm
Timofey Mozgov is only a phone call away…
kevkat
January 11th, 2012
8:38 pm
Sorry O’brien..trade rumor wouldn’t work..even ZaZa knows no one’s interested in him….
Grandmaster JeJe
January 11th, 2012
8:38 pm
Great effort, Hawks!
Ivan, WTF are you doing out there?
john doe
January 11th, 2012
8:38 pm
josh plays hard vs the wizards and bobcats. but turns into a girl scout against the no name pacers.
northcyde
January 11th, 2012
8:38 pm
Jesse . . . it’s not that they don’t care, they simply aren’t converting anything.
Teague can’t make a layup and is turning the ball over left and right
Vlad’s shots aren’t falling
Zaza can’t catch a pass.
It is what it is
Sautee
January 11th, 2012
8:39 pm
Where is niremetal to tell us that Zaza is the best backup center in the league?
MattP
January 11th, 2012
8:39 pm
Fire Sund
Fire LD
Amnesty Joe
Runner-
January 11th, 2012
8:39 pm
IJ
Najeh Davenpoop
January 11th, 2012
8:39 pm
Good play Ivan. That’s why you are on the floor.
Big Lou
January 11th, 2012
8:39 pm
Al Horford doesn’t make this much of a difference. It’s all mental. LD messing up this crap. Look at Ivan, that dude got heart and it took all this crap to play him!
Grandmaster JeJe
January 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
Marvin would’ve gotten stripped on that play – no homo
Runner-
January 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
I. Johnson makes it look so easy. Why can’t they all play with the same toughness as him?
EmirS.
January 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
@Indy420 Gunja
Barely making in as 8th seed? Dude seriously? Like are we looking at the same standings? Even after this game?
Scroll baby scroll.
Anyways,
Wtf are we doing out here!?
BoneKollector
January 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
vlad is streaky as hell
Najeh Davenpoop
January 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
“Where is niremetal to tell us that Zaza is the best backup center in the league?”
LMAO Zaza isn’t even the best backup center in this game. Foster has been doing what Zaza is supposed to do more consistently and for a longer time.
Runner-
January 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
man we needed that 3 Vlad…