Atlanta Hawks: Blazers 97, Hawks 77
2:17 am February 19, 2012, by Michael Cunningham
Portland–The Blazers were desperate for a W and played like it. The Hawks were just sort of out there once their shots stopped falling. “I thought we were a step slow on pretty much everything tonight,” Larry Drew said.
The Blazers are not a particularly good offensive rebounding team. Nicolas Batum is not an especially good rebounder. Neither of these things were apparent tonight, when Portland collected 15 offensive rebounds and scored 18 second-chance points.
It seemed as if the Blazers corralled every loose ball or got enough of them that they bounced off Hawks players out of bounds. Portland got a pretty good percentage of their offensive boards that way. “The bounces weren’t going our way but that’s when we have to be a little bit more desperate,” Josh Smith said. “They were making shots early on. Then we played some good defense and we have up long rebounds. That’s when we have to gang rebound.”
Josh and Zaza Pachulia each had 10 rebounds. The rest of the Hawks had seven. That’s seven total. “A lot of it is on the guards,” said Joe Johnson, who had three rebounds in 38 minutes after collecting three total in the previous four games. “We have to come down and help the bigs. There was a lot of long rebounds.”
Batum replaced Wesley Matthews in the starting lineup and went off for 22 points on 15 shots with eight boards in 35 minutes. “He’s been playing terrific this year,” Josh said. “This kid you have to respect especially when he’s making that jumper like tonight. He’s a streaky shooter but when he has it going he’s pretty tough matchup, especially with his length. He’s an outstanding defender, as well.”
LaMarcus Aldridge is a tough matchup, too. Josh was challenging Aldridge’s shots early but Aldridge was shooting over him anyway. Aldridge ended up needed 19 shots for his 19 points. “Aldridge got going earlyt, he made some jump shots, which was not very discouraging,” Drew said. “As long as he’s taking jump shots we are content with that.”
Raymond Felton was struggling until tonight. Jeff Teague missed 10 of 11 shots and Kirk Hinrich was 0 for 4.
I’m thinking Josh was referring to Teague when he said this: “This team is a long basketball team. Long and athletic just like us but a little longer. They have Marcus Camby who can still contest shots at a high rate. LaMarcus Aldridge is 6-11. Gerald Wallace, Batum flies around.When you get into that paint you have to be a distributor and drop some of those passes off, that way they will be reluctant to contest the shots and that’s when you have your easy running floaters or your layups. The first game we moved the basketball around and get easy looks for each other. After that first quarter, that was kind of nonexistent.”
It was late in a game the Hawks weren’t going to win but Josh stayed on the court and tried everything he could to get another assist for a triple-double. He didn’t get it when Ivan Johnson made a move before scoring after a feed under the basket from Smith, who was still lobbying for that assist after the game.
Willie Green was part of Atlanta’s only stretch of sustained offense in the first half. Joe managed 19 points on 17 shots despite missing 6 of 9 3-point tries.
Marvin Williams was making shots but only provided two rebounds in 25 minutes on a night when the Hawks badly needed boards.
The Hawks got in trouble when they tried to pass inside or across Portland’s zone. The Blazers got their hands on lots of those passes, leading to run-outs.
More and more Tracy McGrady goes inside looking for calls that aren’t coming. He ends up stuck and turning the ball over. Still, the Hawks needed some offensive flow and rebounding so they might have benefited from more than four minutes of T-Mac especially with Vladmir Radmanovic going 0 for 3 with one rebound in 23 minutes.
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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319 comments Add your comment
Astro Joe
February 20th, 2012
2:36 pm
northcyde, would you have started Hinrich at 2 or TMac at 3? Isn’t Brewer starting for the Bulls these days? Maybe LD figures that Willie won’t give up too much offense against someone like that.
Najeh Davenpoop
February 20th, 2012
2:37 pm
Hawks drop to #17 in the ESPN power rankings and #17 in Hollinger’s automated power rankings.
drmaryb.[*_*].
February 20th, 2012
2:40 pm
Bye Bye Birdie!
First of all to fix the Atlanta Sports Town passion, I would say good-bye to the following people:
John Abraham
Brent Grimes
Michael Turner
Thomas DeCoud
Curtis Lofton
Ovie Mughelli
Jerry Peria
Sam Baker
Those two def guys we brought on late for corner and line backer/safety: uggh … Kelvin Hayden and the other extra.
Ray Edwards is a best against the run, on crushing the QB from DE? ‘Nam talent there whatsoever! Ray Edwards is NOT a DE – period. Matty Ice BETTER step up his pocket non-mobility game top extend plays and MAKE things happen on offense – HE HAS NOT DONE THAT! He van go too! IMHO
Michael Tyrner is washed up IF, he can’t find inches on 4th downs. Bye Bye Birdie! Give Javquezz the damn ball and back him up with our back up running back to Michael, his name slips me, but he runs hard. Get a new FB and move Dunta to FS. Throw every FA Dime @ Super – Mario Williams and replace Grimes with Dominuge Franks and draft a CB in rounds 4 to 5. Get a big name OL and Run that hyrbrid 3-4 and 4-3 defense : that would make us unpredictable on defensive schemes.
We’l fix the Hawks after we get UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.
Najeh Davenpoop
February 20th, 2012
2:41 pm
Condolences to Marvin.
Starting Green is stupid. Joe now has to guard the bigger Deng on the other end of the floor since he will be playing SF. Starting T-Mac instead of Marvin would be the obvious choice. Green’s instant offense is best suited to coming off the bench.
I hope this isn’t LD’s way of sticking it to T-Mac for spouting off to MC.
Grandad
February 20th, 2012
2:44 pm
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
I believe Pekovic is much Bigger !
K.Love = only 6-7.75 w/o shoes; 260+
Nikola Pekovic = 6-11; 290
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When Tibor Pleiss gets to be 21 or 22 yrs old and makes the OKC squad;
we can all say: ” we had him for 2 min ”
Ain’t it Grand to be an ASG fan [ 'scuse me / hawks fan]
_____________________________________________
The precedeing Euro analogy was brought to you by G-dad.
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Najeh Davenpoop
February 20th, 2012
2:44 pm
Props to LT for being the first one to mention that Marvin is out today. I checked on Twitter after he mentioned it and couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe the blog actually has an inside source now, other than Tyrone’s cousin BooBoo.
ryan
February 20th, 2012
2:46 pm
We drafted Paul Gasol remember then traded him to Memphis and saw how great he became what could have been keep Gasol and drafted Chris Paul probably would have NBA championship by now just shows how stupid this ownership is .
drmaryb.[*_*].
February 20th, 2012
2:51 pm
Drew does seem like a guy who enjoys mind-Fkg his players. I will NEvER understand not starting Tegue last year after trading Bibby? Kirk is better off the bench due to his fragile body. FREE JEFF foremost, then make Josh give the rebound to his PG. Start Marvin and bring Tracy behind him @ SF Point. GIVE tmac his minutes!!!
Plant Josh in the paint like Mr. Woodson had accomplished. Play Ivan more and bench Vlad Rad until, he finds his shot. And, that is just a start to coaching 101. LOL
darrell starks
February 20th, 2012
3:00 pm
Najeh Davenpoop IF LD STARTE GREEN OVER TMAC TODAY IM DONE WITH COACH LD.
GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hawkville
February 20th, 2012
3:05 pm
Stop blaming ZaZa for everything that’s wrong with this team. Once in a while he will have a bad game like every one else on this team, but overall, he’s played good ball with Al out. (I would like to see him and Al playing together with the ball moving like it does SOMETIMES now). The Hawks are getting killed on the glass because they miss about 70 shots a game. Shooting is killing the Hawks. Not ZaZa.
darrell starks
February 20th, 2012
3:09 pm
Starting Green in backcourt along with Teague, and Joe at SF is so dum that it’s like if LD have no clue at all, your getting out rebounded and dominted in the paint almost every game with no height at all starting green make no sense, TMAC give you quality min and also your best rebounder on the team beside Zaza.
GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
tyger
February 20th, 2012
3:17 pm
T-Mac doesnt have to start…
He has to play, the game will dictate the minutes…
Green deserves a start, he and JS best players…
Spotting JJ up in corner is best, that’s what he did w Nash…
T-Mac will see plenty action w/o Marvin…
If he doesn’t, then YES, LD is sticking it to him…
Can’t say that b4 the game is played.
Grandad
February 20th, 2012
3:21 pm
Play for next year.
Makeover not rebuild.
““ -this is only my 1st plan- //// -I have more- !!!!
________ ________ ________ ________ ________
*Joe + (2013 1st round pick) for Melo
*Josh for Rondo
*Marvin, Kirk, Teague, *filler (2012 both 2nd round picks) for Gasol
*filler = T-Mac ? or Ivan ?
2013:
[1] Rondo
[2] draft pick / Willie Green
[3] Melo
[4] Al / Gasol
[5] Gasol / Al
*6th man – Willie Green
-rest of bench-
Zaza
T-Mac or Ivan
V-Rad
_________________
draft pick = John Jenkins Vandy = best pure shooter in draft
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Who wouldn’t pay to come watch that team ? (with a new coach)
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Arranging the roster so that a [2] guard is a position of need
and JJ (what are the odds) will be the best available player
is a stroke of genius.
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Astro Joe
February 20th, 2012
3:23 pm
Funny, I think I would have started Ivan and moved Josh down to the 3 today. Let Ivan punk Boozer into one of his vintage 3-11 games with 4 rebounds. Bulls have terrific rebounders and after the Portland debacle, getting off to a good start on the boards should be a priority.
Grandad
February 20th, 2012
3:27 pm
ryan
I think the previous regime + ownership
screwed up the P.G. draft.
B.K. was even on the Memphis side.
He has screwed us on both ends.
Didn’t even bother to use K-Y jelly, neither.
Melvin
February 20th, 2012
3:36 pm
I’m surprise Vlad is not starting. He did a good job when he filled in for Marvin earlier in the season.
honest_abe
February 20th, 2012
3:41 pm
Who wouldn’t pay to come watch that team ? (with a new coach)
- grandad
I would! If Sund could pull off those moves I’d nominate him for POTUS. That would truly be some amazing sh*t.
Mac-Town (#maconchevyrider)
February 20th, 2012
3:45 pm
Below the Wolves in the Power Rankings?
therut
February 20th, 2012
4:42 pm
Kevin, now you got it. Put T-Mac in for 25-26 min the next five or six games and see what happens. He is the best passer this team has ever seen.