Trail Blazers at Atlanta Hawks: Game thread
- Larry Drew is using the “big” lineup with Jason Collins at center. Marcus Camby plans to suit up for the Blazers but Nate McMillan said he’s an emergency option. Hawks nemesis Kurt Thomas will start at center. “It’s a good matchup with Kurt Thomas who plays a physical game, Twin who plays a physical game,” Drew said.
- Tracy McGrady (back) said he’s good to go.
- Jamal Crawford on how things ended with the Hawks: “I feel like they had over a year to make something happen. I was part of their core and I was the only one that wasn’t under contract past last year. Teammates, coaches, the city, the fans—it’s all good. No hard feelings. But kind of deep down inside last year I knew it was the end of the line for me. I had a feeling.”
- Crawford on his slow start with the Blazers: “I’m still figuring things out a little bit. It’s similar to when I first came here. Eventually I got it and the same thing will happen here. It’s hard when you go to a different team, a different system,. Everything is already in place. It will come.”
- Drew on Crawford: “I will remember always having that guy when we needed instant offense off the bench. He was a guy, once he got in the game, you knew there was a guy who could put numbers up in a hurry. When you go back and look at teams that have had success they have kind of had guys like that. Back in my day, I remember a guy like Vinnie Johnson. Once he got in the game, you knew it was going up, you knew he could get in a groove, get in a rhythm and turn bad starts into good starts.”
- Drew on not having that kind of guy on the bench now: “When Tracy gets in the game, yeah, we run plays for Tracy. But we try to do things now that involve every player and just let them get what they can out of it. With Willie [Green], who can score the ball, he’s not a guy we run plays to, he just gets his in the offense. Vladimir [Radmanovic] is the same way. The way our team is structured now these guys kind of gets theirs with what we do, where with Jamal everyone knew we were running plays for him.”
- Crawford said he might “rope-a-dope” the Hawks and not look to light them up as L.D. has suggested. Drew is on the lookout: “That’s normal for any player that comes back to face his former team to be motivated to come back and play well. We don’t treat it any different than normal. We have a game plan and we have to go out and execute it. Jamal is a scorer and he can go out and score in bunches. Just like against any other scorer, you have to make sure you are prepared to defend him and have a backup plan.”
- Drew on Josh Smith’s free-throw slump: “Just keep practicing. He’s going to get fouled a lot. He’s just got to get focused on the free-throw line. With him, a lot of his free throws are long. From time to time I shout out to him, ’soft,’ so he can take a little bit off of it. It’s just something he’s got to spend more and more time with because he’s going to get to the free-throw line a lot and he’s got to step up there and knock them down.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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738 comments Add your comment
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:19 pm
Marvin is not going to carry this team offensively all game. Joe and Josh need to get going.
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:19 pm
Right on cue Marvin
BoneKollector
January 18th, 2012
8:19 pm
How is JJ being paid so much
Marvin is outplaying him
Hawks4Eva
January 18th, 2012
8:19 pm
Gotta give Twin credit on the screens he sets. thats 2
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:20 pm
“Hawks are doing a good job boxing out” says Bob. Say what you want about Twin, but he’s good at that.
J.J.M.
January 18th, 2012
8:20 pm
<<<watching espn
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:20 pm
Marvin with 6 points and 4 boards.
The haters must hate that.
Slimjr
January 18th, 2012
8:21 pm
its early, but C’mon Josh no more 3 pointers tonight pleassssssse!
WTF, need a win not a show off!
BoneKollector
January 18th, 2012
8:21 pm
Im watching espn also
Don’t feel like hearing Nique
Blast
January 18th, 2012
8:22 pm
Can we say low scoring game?
Portland’s starters are not better than Hawks 5.
Marvin trying to justify his starting spot. Must have been reading the blogs!
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:22 pm
I would probably watch ESPN if Hubie Brown was calling the game, but without him, I’ll stick to my long-established superstition of watching the local broadcast over the national one.
Slimjr
January 18th, 2012
8:23 pm
Marvin is paid to do what he’s doing thus far every time he’s laces up! Its about time!
BoneKollector
January 18th, 2012
8:23 pm
Good play
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:23 pm
Great drive and dish Teague!
Luke Cage
January 18th, 2012
8:24 pm
classy
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:24 pm
“Marvin trying to justify his starting spot. Must have been reading the blogs!”
Haha… they should hire Rod from College Park to be his therapist and yell at him like the guy in the Geico commercial.
J.J.M.
January 18th, 2012
8:25 pm
come on teague josh had crawford on him in the post
MattP
January 18th, 2012
8:27 pm
LD is clueless, no matter how good Marvin starts out he is the first to get benched. Tmac should have been in for Johnson.
Admiral Ackbar
January 18th, 2012
8:27 pm
ITS A TRAP!!!
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:27 pm
Good to see T-Mac get up for that offensive board. He didn’t look hurt on that play.
X factor
January 18th, 2012
8:28 pm
This is looking like another poorly coached game. The hawks may lose by 12pts, and come up 8 rbs short – LOL
Yeah Al was a real contributor. Hawks really gonna miss that 1 blk.
Blast
January 18th, 2012
8:28 pm
Hear you on that, Najeh. Will only watch the ESPN feed if Hubie was calling the game. He is smart and fair.
So you wanna watch ESPN, then do not complain about the play by play you get!
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:29 pm
Admiral Ackbar
January 18th, 2012
8:27 pm
ITS A TRAP!!!
******************
We’re 3 – 0 since you’ve been saying this. Keep saying “it’s a trap” ( even if it isn’t )
J.J.M.
January 18th, 2012
8:29 pm
uh oh
X factor
January 18th, 2012
8:29 pm
Admiral Sautee Ackbar Whatz up?
drmaryb.[*_*].
January 18th, 2012
8:29 pm
i like josh back to the basket post up game. he just schooled gerald wallace. very nice. marvin looking real good to-nyte … (bernie mac’s voice)
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:30 pm
Come on Joe WTF
J.J.M.
January 18th, 2012
8:30 pm
my god joe you suck
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:30 pm
LOL JJ . .come on man. Stop point shaving.
Slimjr
January 18th, 2012
8:30 pm
Aldridge has a nice jumper.Its Automatic….
Slimjr
January 18th, 2012
8:31 pm
How is this guy not an ALLSTAR? Wow…
BoneKollector
January 18th, 2012
8:31 pm
Josh please stop
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:31 pm
Aldridge is what Al would be if he had a back to the basket game.
J.J.M.
January 18th, 2012
8:32 pm
this is the worst 1st quarter iv ever seen
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:32 pm
LOL Josh with the pull up jumper. I have NEVER seen Josh do that off the dribble.
Stay within yourself man.
Katie
January 18th, 2012
8:32 pm
Am I the only person who thinks Janero Pargo sucks? Seriously, Kirk needs to hurry up and get better so we don’t have to send this guy out anymore.
The Monger
January 18th, 2012
8:32 pm
What confuses me the most and is downright mind-boggling is Larry Drew’s continued use of Jason Collins like he is ANYWHERE close to a legitimate NBA player. He in FACT is without a doubt the WORST player in the NBA today. HANDS DOWN!!! I mean he should not even be on a D-League roster let alone the Hawks. I don’t understand why he is even on the roster. let alone getting any playing time, let alone STARTING for the Hawks. He is terrible…I cant explain just how bad he is….He cant shoot AT ALL, Nothing, he cant make jump shots, putbacks, layups, 5 footers, nothing at all, he is slow, he cant defend, gets outrebounded nightly, turns the ball over every time he touches it, contributes nothing on offense, and just bogs the offense down. All i see him do is set half hearted screens, miss every shot he takes, dribble the ball off his foot, and then get beat down the court and out-rebounded on defense! Seriously, we can get a guy off the street to do that, why not play Pachulia and Ivan Johnson and NEVER use Collins unless absolutely forced to??
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:33 pm
And that’s why Willie Green is a better player than you Jamal.
Blast
January 18th, 2012
8:34 pm
Off the bench, Jamal is playing the point, though.
Luke Cage
January 18th, 2012
8:34 pm
@X Factor
Nobody said was Al was the savior of the Hawks, just that he helps this team, we have no superstars so we have to win games as a team, I would feel the same no matter who goes down.
X factor
January 18th, 2012
8:34 pm
Nuttz!!!
Damn these hawks play better now that Al’s gone…
BoneKollector
January 18th, 2012
8:34 pm
Why hasn’t Ivan played yet
Slimjr
January 18th, 2012
8:34 pm
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:32 pm
“LOL Josh with the pull up jumper. I have NEVER seen Josh do that off the dribble.
Stay within yourself man.”
He’s on National TV, He’s pulling out something new! lol
Sautee
January 18th, 2012
8:35 pm
T-S, you are wrong again, my friend. I’m only me.
But keep trying, it’s entertaining.
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:35 pm
Zaza has played well, so no Ivan yet. Marvin has played well, so no Vlad yet. That would be my guess.
X factor
January 18th, 2012
8:36 pm
Luke every player on the team helps. Whats your point?
mountain_jim
January 18th, 2012
8:37 pm
Just happy it’s on ESPN as SportsSouth blacked out here in NC for me.
Hope Joe wakes up soon.
northcyde
January 18th, 2012
8:38 pm
LOL @ The Monger ( haha @ that name )
I agree 80% of the time. Collins’ worth to a team is in setting screens and defending low post scoring big men. That’s when his true worth is showcased.
IN a game like this however, he shouldn’t even play. Aldridge isn’t going to do a lot of scoring down on the blocks. Kurt Thomas is hardly a scoring threat at all. If Collins could at least rebound the damn basketball, he’d be a nice option at center on most nights. But he doesn’t even rebound. He’s just . . . . . there.
If Collins was an NFL player, he’d be a 4th string blocking TE. A guy that gets no passes thrown his way, with his main function being to block for the RB in short yardage situations . . and be the blocking TE on the field goal and extra point team.
Najeh Davenpoop
January 18th, 2012
8:38 pm
T-Mac: the Hawks’ weapon against the zone.
Luke Cage
January 18th, 2012
8:38 pm
And yeah we could use that 12pt 8rb 1blk, who couldn’t??