Updated: Atlanta Hawks at Cavaliers: Game thread
Vivlamore reporting from Cleveland. Just arrived at Quicken Loans Arena.
We start with the Hawks ever-growing injury report. Add Jannero Pargo to the list of injured who will not play Sunday against the Cavs. Pargo has a stomach virus, according to coach Larry Drew. UPDATE: Pargo was sent to the Cleveland Clinic for further tests and will have surgery for appendicitis Sunday night. Will miss at least several games. The Hawks will also be without Willie Green (hamstring), Marvin Williams (hip flexor) and Vladimir Radmanovic (back) versus the Cavs. That’s the bad news.
The loss of Pargo leaves the Hawks thin at guard and Drew must continue to monitor the minutes he gives Joe Johnson, who missed six games with left knee tendinitis.
“I will keep an eye on it,” Drew said. “We have to continue to monitor Joe as far as his knee is concerned. He hasn’t said anything about it as far as experiencing any more discomfort. I will have to pay particular attention to that. We have a back-to-back and play again tomorrow. I can’t pile the minutes on him given the schedule.”
Johnson said following Friday’s win over the Wizards that is knee “feels 15 times better.”
Jason Collins, who missed the past 21 games with a sprained left elbow, will return today. That’s some good news, although Drew is not sure how much he will use the center.
Collins said he is looking forward to returning to the lineup but needed to let the injury fully heal. He was told by doctors that if he did further damage to the elbow surgery could have been required and that would mean a 6-9 month recovery time.
“It’s a ligament tear and you have to let scar tissue form in there and really let it heal,” Collins said.
The Hawks will see a familiar face with the Cavaliers as they have signed Donald Sloan. The guard who broke camp with the Hawks before being waived on Jan. 26. The Cavs signed Sloan on Friday for the remainder of the season.
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141 comments Add your comment
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 18th, 2012
4:38 pm
FIRE LD
FIRE SUND
FIRE WOODY
FIRE GEARON
ntrigue
March 18th, 2012
4:39 pm
Why do we refuse to put josh on the block!
Admirable Snackbar
March 18th, 2012
4:39 pm
tyger
Oden on a minimum??!
If healthy Oden would be better than Twinky.
Melvin
March 18th, 2012
4:44 pm
Another 3rd qtr meltdown by the Hawks
Admirable Snackbar
March 18th, 2012
4:44 pm
josh is jumper happy and ref yakkin again. don’t succumb to the dark side, josh. it’s a TRAP!!!
Big Lou
March 18th, 2012
4:46 pm
Is LD going to leave his starters out all game? Don’t they have a game against a better team tomorrow? Fire LD!
High-sider
March 18th, 2012
4:47 pm
Joe Johnson – you can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him
DawgNole
March 18th, 2012
4:47 pm
I must’ve missed Nique declaring the Hawks have this game under control. That’s what usually precedes these kinds of collapses.
ntrigue
March 18th, 2012
4:47 pm
Josh is shooting more jumpers because his coach has him playing on the perimeter! Put him back on the block like we were doing in the last 5 gms! Fire drew please!
Big Lou
March 18th, 2012
4:50 pm
LD looks drunk. Again..
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 18th, 2012
4:52 pm
Astro from Fantasy League:
“I plan to pick-up Mike Bibby just before the Fantasy playoffs start since Woody will be playing him 30 minutes/game in a few weeks. ”
ROFL
DawgNole
March 18th, 2012
4:53 pm
Wonder what he looks like when he really is drunk?
Big Lou
March 18th, 2012
4:53 pm
JJ going for back to back 30 games? Nice.
Big Lou
March 18th, 2012
4:54 pm
Come on refs!
Melvin
March 18th, 2012
4:58 pm
Teague/Kirk/Joe >>> Teague/Joe/Marvin, Kirk/Joe/Marvin/, Kirk/Joe/Jamal, Bibby/Joe/Marvin, Bibby/Joe/Jamal
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
March 18th, 2012
4:58 pm
Big Ivan For President
Admirable Snackbar
March 18th, 2012
5:02 pm
Ivan’s got my vote!
Big Lou
March 18th, 2012
5:04 pm
LD played the starters too many minutes. Bad coaching.
Big Lou
March 18th, 2012
5:08 pm
Go for 30, Joe!
brigadierjerry
March 18th, 2012
5:14 pm
Been watching Ivan Johnson all year and realizing he is going to be making a lot more money next year and he might be priced out of ATL. If the Hawks have the LLE, lower level exception might not be a bad idea to use it on him because i see him getting more than the league minimum.
Melvin
March 18th, 2012
5:14 pm
Good win by the Hawks. I will take it…
brigadierjerry
March 18th, 2012
5:18 pm
Tomorrow is a big game against Boston. Boston is like the gnat you cant get rid of they keep coming back
drmaryb.[*_*].
March 18th, 2012
5:18 pm
Oden was done before he started. He has the bone debsity of a 98 year old man. His face looks like Robert Parrish does now. Smoke weed everyday!!!!
High-sider
March 18th, 2012
5:23 pm
Smoove and Z-Pack were a combined 6-26 from the field. OUCH!
Blast
March 18th, 2012
5:29 pm
To me, this game was nothing but a tune up for tomorrow’s big game.
Aside from that 3rd quarter when Josh was jacking up missed Jumpers, every Hawk played well.
Joe is back smoking!!!!!
Jeff was huge on both ends of the court.
Kirk delivered, solid game.
Zaza was big as usual, minus a few fumbles.
Tracy and Stack finding their shots and legs.
Ivan is a beast and a pest and a menace. Great! Hawks need that toughness.
Team played well, moved the ball, except for that lull in the 3rd.
Nice practice game. Now let’s see what we can do vs the Celts. Hawks beat Celtics, and they might just go on a crazy win streak.
Doing it short handed.
Go, Hawks!!!!!!!
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 18th, 2012
5:32 pm
We should dominate our schedule this week. Win tomorrow, beat Cleveland Wednesday, NJN Friday, WAS next Sunday.
We don’t play any elite teams until the Bulls on the 28th. We should go on a winning streak AND NOT CHOKE AT HOME VS WEAK TEAMS PLEASE
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 18th, 2012
5:33 pm
Tomorrow will be tough, but given how many home games we have blown, I think we are due to win
FIRE LD
northcyde
March 18th, 2012
5:44 pm
Whoa. I didn’t see from like the 9 minute mark in the 3rd on. What happened to Josh? He shoots 3 – 15 AND didn’t get his triple-double?
What the hell happened?
tyger
March 18th, 2012
5:50 pm
Nothing like a couple back to back lackies…
Other than doing what they are supposed to do…
these were two glorified scrimmages…
Real test, how they play against Boston…
Will they rise to the occassion and run the old farts out of town…
Or, as usual, feel content to ride high on two victories…
drmaryb.[*_*].
March 18th, 2012
5:50 pm
I sure hope Pargo is ok? We got a MASH unit right now. I can’t even keep up with who’s hurt. Willie, Vlad …
northcyde
March 18th, 2012
5:55 pm
brigadierjerry
March 18th, 2012
5:14 pm
Been watching Ivan Johnson all year and realizing he is going to be making a lot more money next year and he might be priced out of ATL. If the Hawks have the LLE, lower level exception might not be a bad idea to use it on him because i see him getting more than the league minimum.
****************
I agree. The Hawks need to prepare to offer Ivan either a 3 mill contract, or a contract for multiple years. Dude has a solid all around game. He has a nice offensive game. He can rebound. And he can play decent on the ball defense.
But the Hawks are so worried about money and the Luxury Tax, that we’ll lose him to someone else.
And that’s my main beef with trading away all of those 1st round picks. At some point, you have to see if you can get big time play from lower level contracts. The 8+ year guys playing on vet minimum contracts are pretty much going to give you modest play. It’s the young guys on smaller contracts that can sometimes give you star level play, if a team overlooked them.
This team would be sitting pretty good if we had talents like Kenneth Faried and Jordan Crawford on the team. Faried is like a souped-up Ivan, with Josh’s energy . . while Jordan is a loose cannon, but capable of explosive offensive games ( similar to his loose cannon namesake out in Portland ). Young guys like that are valuable to teams, because they may develop far more than expected.
San Antonio understands this perfectly.
Chris Vivlamore
March 18th, 2012
6:11 pm
Pargo will remain in Cleveland to have surgery for appendicitis. Will miss at least several games.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 18th, 2012
6:31 pm
ROFL @ Joe 2.8 rpg per Northcyde’s post.
He is playing so well but cannot rebound a damn basketball. He is by far the strongest SG in the league and is as strong as any SF besides maybe LBJ, yet he gets 2 rebounds a freaking game
Ken Strickland
March 18th, 2012
7:05 pm
If you’ll remember, I’ve been advocating we switch JJ to SF for over 2yrs, and now everyone can see why. And although he’s lost some foot speed and quickness, and has trouble covering some SGs, he’s a load for almost any SF on OFF, and still has enough foot speed and quickness to defend the SF position.
doc
March 18th, 2012
7:28 pm
pargo out 4-6 weeks depending on approach and how bad it is. 2 weels would be best if done with lap appy and no infection and minimal inflamation. hopefully he is getting it done right now if not done already. no reason to wait.
Slimjr
March 18th, 2012
7:32 pm
Some trucker cracked my windshield today on my 6month old car! That totally sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Slimjr
March 18th, 2012
7:33 pm
Never crack a windshield up North? WTF??????????????????????????????????????
Slimjr
March 18th, 2012
7:36 pm
Looks like Larry discovered his new Allstar 3!
But guess what he’ll screw it up with All Flu i-dic returns to action!
Slimjr
March 18th, 2012
7:37 pm
Pargo out for weeks? It’s definitely a trap now?
Sautee
March 18th, 2012
7:55 pm
I was disappointed when they held on to Kirk at the deadline, but we’d have been up sh!t creek if we HAD dealt him with Pargo now gone.
I wonder if LD has the imagination to use T-Mac for some minutes at the 1. Of course, you’d have him guard the 3 on D with Kirk guarding the 1 and JJ the 2.
Sautee
March 18th, 2012
8:18 pm
Poor UNC. Kendall Marshall with a fractured wrist.