Atlanta Hawks: Hawks 139, Jazz 133 (4 OT)
- Because my blog people (bless your hearts) like to accentuate the negative, and I’m willing to humor you because I’m cranky, I’ll start with what I’m sure are two of your burning questions after this stirring W.
- Larry Drew on riding his starters in the four overtime periods: “I know they were tired. I know they were out of gas, because I was out of gas. But the guys said they wanted to stay in and stick it out. They wanted to play it out, and I rode them.”
- For all you persistent and vocal Tracy McGrady fans who want an update on his status every five minutes . . . I’m not holding out on you. Drew on T-Mac’s DNP-CD: “I’m keeping an eye on Tracy, he’s been having some problems with his knee. I hope to spot him some minutes in the next few games.”
- But Drew added that McGrady not playing tonight was “more of a matchup thing” because of Utah’s speed on the wings. So T-Mac has a knee problem, he may play a few minutes in the upcoming games, but maybe not if the matchup isn’t right. Got it? Good.
- If you have more burning questions, they will just have to wait because my deadline and a freakin’ 3 hour, 17-minute game meant there wasn’t a lot of time to ask questions. Deal with it.
- Just kidding. Sorta.
- Now, with that out of the way . . . this was quite a victory for the Hawks. Maybe you are tired of hearing about their resiliency and determination and all the things you think they should have, anyway, but try to at least enjoy the fact that they seem to be developing these traits now.
- Drew: “That was something. It’s all happened to us this year thus far. We’ve gone through injury, we’ve gone through emergencies with families. We’ve gone throudh scheduling, zig-zagging across all the states, 11-, 12-day trips. And now we go through a back-to-back-to-back and we have—what was it? Four overtimes?”
- Yes, four.
- “This team, it just doesn’t have any quit in it,” Drew said.
- It may not have taken all that time for Atlanta to win if not for yet another rough start to the third quarter. Atlanta’s offense stalled as the Jazz blitzed Joe Johnson and, with Josh Smith on the bench in foul trouble, no one else could score.
- “We came out sluggish in the third,” Drew said. “Give Utah credit. They took it to us. We were stuck in mud. I don’t know if it was because of the back-to-back-to-back. Our zone helped us out, disrupted their rhythm and got us going.”
- Drew waited a while to get Josh back in the game after he sat with four fouls but I’m thinking it paid off because Josh had some legs left for the fourth quarter. Over the final nine minutes of regulation he had seven points on seven shots, five rebounds, one block,, one steal, one assists and one turnover. The guy was tired but he competed.
- Joe had some sloppy turnovers but he also made so many big shots when the Hawks needed them. None was bigger than that step-back 3 he made to force the third overtime. My seat is directly behind where Joe took that shot and, from my angle, it looked like Jefferson blocked Joe’s view so he couldn’t see the rim when he let it go.
- “We were going to make Joe the option of most everything we did,” Drew said. “We ran a pick-and-roll with [Jeff] Teague that got us a couple things but we came back to Joe. I know Joe was tired. I asked him if he wanted a blow, he said no, so I was going to ride him.”
- Kirk Hinrich has been playing much better of late. He said he tweaked the same hamstring that kept him out of the Chicago series last year but that it’s not serious. “Kirk, he actually was complaining about his leg a little bit,” Drew said. “I didn’t really see where it was slowing him down. But he had hit a point where he was running out of gas.”
- Willie Green replaced Hinrich. He had the freshest legs late in the game and it showed.
- Teague was looking for contact when he went to the rim and was 10 of 11 from the line. That’s how you score 18 points when you shoot just 4 of 14 from the field. He’s learning and getting better.
- Ivan Johnson had another strong effort. He hit the boards as usual and was under control on offense. Ivan is learning and getting better, too.
- Zaza Pachulia had trouble handling Al Jefferson’s effective offensive game. No shame in that, and Zaza held his own with 15 points on 11 shots, 20 rebounds and three (!) blocked shots. Drew: “He was a warrior to play against Jefferson, he’s a really good big man, to go out and battle him he way he did. He’s been doing everything we’ve asked him to do. His performance tonight was typical of what he’s been doing.”
- The Jazz dropped to 1-16 in road games in which they trailed after three quarters. “We showed a lot of character and fight,” Tyrone Corbin said. “That’s what we need on the road in the second half to win.”
- The Hawks are now 5-2 this season in overtime games.
- “In the fourth overtime, the starters we were sitting on the bench and we were talking about, ‘Let’s finish the deal,’” Zaza said. “We weren’t sure we were going to win but we wanted to do right thing from the get go. That’s what we did. We executed out offense, Willie’s 3 was huge and we made free throws. Willie’s energy off the bench was huge and helped us because I think starters were kind of tired.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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191 comments Add your comment
Buddy Grizzard
March 26th, 2012
4:28 pm
Round the clock tebow coverage on espn… Breaking news… He’s now a backup!
Slimjr
March 26th, 2012
4:29 pm
The New York Knicks play the Bucks at 7:30pm tonight!
Woody going for 7-1!
Hire Woody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rufus1
March 26th, 2012
4:29 pm
LD coaching for the WAR not the BATTLE….
Kirk- When the playoffs come Kirk will be more valuable than Green/Pargo…His skills are equal to both players and he is a better defender, so he had to get him into game shape….Even with those players playing better at the time.
T-MAC- He is here for 4th qt playoff games and LD is trying to keep him healthy for those moments.
Collins- I got nothing..
Offense- The playoffs are a “GRIND” and he has turned this team into a tough minded, half-court playoff OFFENSE.
Defense- Top 5 in points allowed and Efficiency…Enough said!!!
Bench- 8,9 or 10th players don’t deserves consistent playing time. They are there for match-ups, injuries or a change of pace.
The playoffs are a WAR, and the team I watched is ready FOR THE WAR.
Astro Joe
March 26th, 2012
4:49 pm
Rufus, funny line about Collins. I do hope that LD gives Dampier a few consecutive games of PT. Hakws need to know if Collins (heaven forbid) or Dampier will be the best option behind Zaza. Ivan can play against smaller line-ups, but when we need to give Zaza a rest against Spencer Hawes, Hibbert or D12… either Twin or Dampier need to be ready. It would be hard to believe that Dampier can’t be better than Twin.
O'Brien
March 26th, 2012
4:52 pm
Sautee,
Surely LD must have been tempted to leave Hinrich in, but he saw that Kirk was gassed..
From MC’s blog;
He said he tweaked the same hamstring that kept him out of the Chicago series last year but that it’s not serious. “Kirk, he actually was complaining about his leg a little bit,” Drew said..
If the guy is complaining about his leg, and it looks like he is running out of gas, it does not take a good coach to realize that he should sub for him.
I give LD “some” credit. But I agree with Najeh and vava. Too many of his moves were by circumstance, not by choice.
When we play a good team, LD has his chances to make strategic moves. And we havent seen that. And to that point, I think there is some merit to what Rod is saying.
In the playoffs, good teams will double JJ, and entice Josh into taking alot of jumpers. When that happens, it will be interesting to see how Hawks respond.
O'Brien
March 26th, 2012
4:53 pm
Rufus,
T-MAC- He is here for 4th qt playoff games and LD is trying to keep him healthy for those moments..
LD is also big on matchups (when it comes to TMac). So what happens if the team we play is not a good matchup for TMac (in the playoffs). Will LD play him?
O'Brien
March 26th, 2012
4:54 pm
Hawks up to 7th in Marc Stein’s power rankings;
When you go four OTs in the last game of a back-to-back-to-back set and pull out a win against the league’s hottest team, that’ll generally get you some notice from Team of the Week selectors. Also notable: Joe Johnson is only averaging 23.3 ppg and shooting 51 percent on 3s in 11 games since returning from injury..
Slimjr
March 26th, 2012
4:56 pm
“In the playoffs, good teams will double JJ, and entice Josh into taking alot of jumpers. When that happens, it will be interesting to see how Hawks respond.”
This scenario will make or break Larry…
Its coming Larry.Hope you got a plan worked out?
Rod from College Park
March 26th, 2012
5:14 pm
“In the playoffs, good teams will double JJ, and entice Josh into taking alot of jumpers. When that happens, it will be interesting to see how Hawks respond.”
When this happens in the playoffs, unless Josh starts knocking down those jumpshots at a high rate, we will be depending on the Willie Greens, Vlads, and Pargo’s of the world to win playoff games for us. This is where all these Jamal Crawford haters (or similar players to him like JR Smith, Lou Williams…) earn their money. Hope all the Willie Green is better than Jamal fans are still posting at that time.
Rufus1
March 26th, 2012
5:25 pm
AJ,
I HOPE he is trying to get Collins in game shape, but I agree Damp is better.
OB,
If T-Mac’s knee is healthy, I think he will play him….Also he can PF in the playoffs.
I think LD is a solid coach(not bad, not good), who knows his job is about playoffs success…every decision he make is about the playoffs.
PS. I think the injuries to Kirk and Al have made LD a better coach and will change the fortunes of this franchise in the near future.
Ray
March 26th, 2012
5:47 pm
Okay I got to see part of last night’s game. While it all sounds good I still have one gripe.
Joe Johnson himself I still think people make him out to be more than he really is he is still a better SG than most other players, but the thing is how many SG’s are actually relevant besides Kobe and D-wade like that?
I still stand by something I’ve said a while back Joe benefits too much from Iso plays never from plays involving everyone. Plus he also doesn’t win the big games for us always the mediocre to sorry games. I will give him the Jazz game cause Jazz are actually pretty good, but Josh has done much more than any Hawk on this team this year.
Still I just saw Joe being named Conference player of the week my question is where is Josh Smith player of the month or anything really?
doc
March 26th, 2012
5:51 pm
i hope that dampier is a secret sauce that ld is keepng under wraps to spring at the last moment. twin is probably agreat guy that needs to stay put in a seat behind the bench.
tokyo tom gets my voice of reason vote for the day. nuff said and ill leave it at that.
still dont know why marvin has not had more play time at four except he has nothing for nads thus far. he was drafted supposedly to be the new and improved version of al harrington he has been miscast and type cast wrong all along. i think this was a woody thing gone wrong and perpetuated into a contract.
Grandad
March 26th, 2012
5:54 pm
for … SlimJr
Kudos to Mr Jr for his refreshing new take on Capn`n Kirk.
_____________________________________________
O`B … & … others:
LD;
has made many good coaching moves, decisions, stategies;
only we tend to parse out the ones we deem ‘`stupid`’ ;;
which is only in the eye of the beholder anyway.
LD;
* runs many good plays after TO`s; (something Wdsn never did)
* changes defenses at opportune times
* has pre-game strategies; (once again, never apparent under Wdsn)
* The Orlando / d.howard strategy
* and there are many, many things coaches do which are
unbeknownst to the public:
** the T-Mac situation, which maybe? gained Ld respect
within the lockerroom
** ind plyr relationships
** coaching staff chemistry
** and honestly, other than T-Mac, the rest of the team
appears to listen and follow his lead.
** patience
______________________________________________
No; he is not COY, but neither is he as moronic as Rusty suggests.
______________________________________________
Rusty
You are unfair to the point of being mean spirited and simple minded.
Slimjr
March 26th, 2012
6:01 pm
Marvin has got to work on his Core big time..Millsap gave him a chicken wing on a pivot move in the post as Marvin tried to deny him on the initial move and Marvin went flying 5 feet sideways out of the play…Millsap only weighs about 230 if that much..? Marvin weights close to 250…..
Buddy Grizzard
March 26th, 2012
6:02 pm
“Did you happen to notice how the game last night turned when LD replaced Hinrich with Willie Green.”
Sautee you are trying to give LD credit for leaving Kirk in until he re-injured his hamstring? You and I have a very different idea of what good coaching is. Good eye slimjr.
vava74
March 26th, 2012
6:07 pm
Slimjr
March 26th, 2012
4:10 pm
A really good coach does not need to listen to his players to realise that he add some scoring punch to the line up up Josh out and Marvin not being remotely considered as a proven offensive force good enough to replace Smoove’s offensive output.
doc
March 26th, 2012
6:08 pm
yeah, but grandad he would never want to “appear” like a hater. well act differently; sometimes it is about how one acts not appearances.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 26th, 2012
6:12 pm
“In the playoffs, good teams will double JJ, and entice Josh into taking alot of jumpers. ”
Hopefully they preempt this by running the offense through Josh, so that Josh is the one getting double teamed and passing to open teammates.
Buddy Grizzard
March 26th, 2012
6:12 pm
I see O’Brien caught it as well… No free passes today!
Big Lou
March 26th, 2012
6:17 pm
“leaving Kirk in until he re-injured his hamstring?”
Re-injured and hurting is two different things. He could just be exhausted. Either way, he needs more rest against MIL and CHI. If it was re-injured, he’d be out the rest of the season.
Rod from College Park
March 26th, 2012
6:18 pm
“Marvin has got to work on his Core big time..Millsap gave him a chicken wing on a pivot move in the post as Marvin tried to deny him on the initial move and Marvin went flying 5 feet sideways out of the play…Millsap only weighs about 230 if that much..? Marvin weights close to 250…..”
Anyone who really watches the Hawks and knows basketball knows along with his many other flaws, Marvin is extremely weak. He gets moved around in the post like he’s not there. He does play good position defense, and uses his length well defensively at times, but he would get destroyed on a regular basis defending most 4’s. He matched uo well with Milsap, but as you stated, Marvin is bigger than Milsap. The Amare’s, Bosh’s, Aldrige’s, Love’s, Randoph’s, and Griffen’s of the world would eat his lunch. He is not physically strong enough to play the 4 regularly like Josh is. He can guard some stretch 4’s, and 4’s around Milsaps size, but he really has to get in the weight room if we will be depending on him to guard 4’s.
Big Lou
March 26th, 2012
6:21 pm
“Still I just saw Joe being named Conference player of the week my question is where is Josh Smith player of the month or anything really?” Ray
Not to take anything from Josh, but the reason why JJ got so much attention is the game winning shots/his play in the fourth quarter. That’s when most people are watching.
Rod from College Park
March 26th, 2012
6:28 pm
“Hopefully they preempt this by running the offense through Josh, so that Josh is the one getting double teamed and passing to open teammates.”
Hate to say this, but if I’m coaching against the Hawks in the playoffs, I am going to make Josh Smith beat me. Nique says it all the time. I don’t know why teams continue to leave Joe Johnson open, or play under screens with him. These adjustments will be made in the playoffs. You won’t see those double’s on Josh as much as you see during the regular season because when they look at tape, they will see that it is most of the Hawks offense. I would force Josh to shoot his low percentage double Joe, and live with the results. If Teague becomes that aggressive Teague that he was in the playoffs last year, he can help a lot, but those fringe guys mentioned will really have to step their games up.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 26th, 2012
6:30 pm
Rod,
I wonder if when Marvin gets to full health, let’s say Hinrich sucks one game….Will LD abandon everything and start Duck again?
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 26th, 2012
6:31 pm
“If you are “Sy what I did there?” in the fantasy basketball league, please update your team.”
Lol.
Disgusted
March 26th, 2012
6:33 pm
Nothing aganst the athletes but I’d rather have what is in Winnipeg.
Does Joe still not care if the fans do not show up. I have to give credit for Josh Smith for him becoming the player he has become.
Still not spending a dime of my money as long as this ownership is around. Phillips arena is dead to me.
How about throwing a Thrashers jersey on the court HA HA.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 26th, 2012
6:33 pm
drmaryb
“Some days I just read the novels on beat up material to ad nauseum = a migraine from Ground Hog Day.”
What you trying to say?
I could care less what people think about my opinions and ideas. I am one of the few people on here who actually wants to win a championship, who understands the flaws of this team, and who keeps it real every single time I post.
#MeAgainstTheWorld
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 26th, 2012
6:38 pm
“Following a team that has no intent on pursuing a Championship because they have bit off way more than they can handle”
-SlimJr
Pretty much summarizes every single post I have made on this blog
DawgNole
“but temper your enthusiasm with a liberal dose of reality. It will ease your pain should they fail us yet again–I promise.”
“It’s only a blog.” That’s the classic excuse of those who can’t write/spell/communicate effectively on here. Will the world come to an end if you display your grammatical ineptitude and related excuses on a blog? Absolutely not. Will your mistake-filled posts reveal that you’re too ignorant and/or lazy to “get it right”? Absolutely”
My new favorite poster on here is DawgNole. Kills it every time!
The Truth
March 26th, 2012
6:45 pm
LOL, IDK what’s been more amusing, watching these Hawks win in thrilling fashion OR reading some of these bloggers re-positioning views. I think the latter.
Nonetheless, valid points have already been made about the Hawks new founded MOJO. If you are a true Hawk fan, you have to be pleased with their effort as of late. I am particularly pleased with the grit and the “never die” attitude they’ve shown in the heat of adversity. This display makes a mockery out of Charles Barkley comments about these Hawks being “Soft” which brought a raft of comments from me (and others) in rebut.
Having said that though; last week victories against lottery-bound teams were actually expected; The Utah victory was a joy since they usually struggle against the western teams. Yes, Utah is a struggling road team but a win is a win in the NBA; having broken their “hot” 6-game winning streak is an accomplishment, so Kudos to the Hawks.
But in order to make “playoff fans” believe, these Hawks must beat Philly and Boston at least one game to feel good about any likely playoff scenario match-up they might face. The injury excuse can only go so far, since all teams encounter that problem in this condensed schedule.
We Shall See
Melvin
March 26th, 2012
6:50 pm
Frank Isola: Amar’e, who injured his back last April & couldn’t play for 3 months, is having an MRI today for similar injury, Daily News has learned. Twitter
Let’s see what the Knicks and Woody made of now….
Grandad
March 26th, 2012
6:55 pm
doc
check & mate
vava74
March 26th, 2012
6:56 pm
Rid,
Tell me something. Apart from the first round where we faced a team we beat in the regular season without Jamal last year AND again this year making it now – as you well said a couple of days ago a potentially good match up for us – where did Jamal’s offensive prowess and that will be sore rely missed, help us against the Bulls?
You said that we will lose in the first round because we will miss Jamal BUT at the same time said that the best possible opponent for us would the very same team which you use as the measuring stick of Jamal’s playoff worth?
I say that Jamal’s playoff worth was what he showed against CHI.
Streaky guy who had one good game another decent/good in six whilst being thoroughly beaten by every guy he faced from Rose to CJ to Brewer to Bogans to Korver.
Jamal was no more the focus of the defense than were Al, Josh and JJ. That’s what CHI does to win games. THEY PLAY D.
And that is what we are now playing even when we have sub-par talent on the floor.
That is how we beat CHI, MIA and OKC this season. With D not by Trying to out score those teams.
CHI and MIA rely heavily on D and none of these two ball clubs give substantial minutes to completely one dimensional players.
Yes, guys like Jamal, JR Smith, Louis Williams can be effective and important but you cannot rely on them. Reliance on D is paramount for playoff success then you need brilliant coaching to use offense only players in the right usage levels.
By the way – Jamal seems headed yet again to an early holiday and playoffs on TV and got NO interest from major players at the deadline even with POR shopping him hard.
By the way, if we fall on the first round it will not prove anything about Jamal. If that happens the reason will probably be Josh eventual regression / re-emergence of his immaturity.
Just Joe
March 26th, 2012
6:57 pm
This team doesn’t stand a chance in the playoffs because of poor rebounding. We hang our hat on a top 5 defense, but guess what, 7 of the top 8 defensive teams in the league are Eastern conference playoff teams. We are an average playoff team at best. Our only shot is if Al Horford shows up ready to play, not ready to suit up, but ready to play. Without that depth up front, it will get ugly. We’ll get an example this week against Chicago and Philly.
vava74
March 26th, 2012
7:02 pm
Sorry for typos and repetitions. iPhone makes it a bit difficult.
Grandad
March 26th, 2012
7:03 pm
The Truth
-I admit-
I`m confounded by the Hawks.
The Hawks and their emotional leader [Josh]
has more personalities than *’`DitchWeed`’* … AKA … *[t s]
*[t s] … my friend & cohort
DawgNole
March 26th, 2012
7:05 pm
Sautee
March 26th, 2012
3:45 pm
“The way the Hawks have struggled with the dregs of the league so far, I look for the team’s upcoming opponents to be anything but relatively weak.”
Really? Hawks record against -.500% teams: 21-4
Struggled? Sometimes perception is NOT reality.
_____________________
Read my post, Sautee. I said “struggled with”–not “lost to.” And struggled with the dregs they have indeed–win or lose.
Ken Strickland
March 26th, 2012
7:07 pm
Even though I give LD credit for keeping the Hawks focused and playing hard, I still see too much of the WOODY INFLUENCE from him. Dampier is just as tall, big, and strong as JCollins, and he appears to be more athletic and a better rebounder and help defender. Yet, LD continues to call on Twin and ignore Dampier even when Twin is ineffective, which is most of the time.
You can also see him push KHinrich over Teague whenever he has a chance, even when he’s ineffective. When/if Horford returns, he’ll likely come off the bench. That will give us a pretty solid and really productive top 5 off our bench with Horford, Marvin, Ivan, Green. I hope TD isn’t stupid enough to keep Collins over Dampier. I wonder which 3 additional bench players he’ll keep for the playoffs?
E43
March 26th, 2012
7:08 pm
soullrenaissance- I would understand if Pargo was the one in McGradys shoes because Pargo can receive anything between 30seconds and 30mins and you wont hear him complain about having too few minutes or too many minutes.T-Mac gets the minutes he deserves. LD didnt invent resting him on a back to back nor did he invent limiting his minutes to keep him fresh. T-Mac put himself in a hole with all his preferences since he left Houston. He cliche’s the media then says a totally different thing to the coaches. He needs more playing time to be effective but will be gassed in 20+minutes. Cant have it both ways. There’s a reason why teams didn’t bust down doors to sign McGrady.. More of the same would happen even if he played for the Lakers. If anything… He would be buried on the bench in LA until injuries pulled him out.
DawgNole
March 26th, 2012
7:16 pm
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
March 26th, 2012
6:38 pm
DawgNole
“but temper your enthusiasm with a liberal dose of reality. It will ease your pain should they fail us yet again–I promise.”
“It’s only a blog.” That’s the classic excuse of those who can’t write/spell/communicate effectively on here. Will the world come to an end if you display your grammatical ineptitude and related excuses on a blog? Absolutely not. Will your mistake-filled posts reveal that you’re too ignorant and/or lazy to “get it right”? Absolutely.”
My new favorite poster on here is DawgNole. Kills it every time!
___________________________
Thanks for the props, GM. As you posted previously, we’re among the few on here that believe success–after 45 years, at least–should be defined by championships. Sadly, the Hawks have no titles to show for their time in ATL. Doesn’t mean we don’t pull hard for the players and want very badly for them to win–I know I do–but perhaps it does mean that we don’t let our hopes get too high following modest winning streaks and inspirational, OT victories.
The Truth
March 26th, 2012
7:19 pm
“The Hawks and their emotional leader [Josh]
has more personalities than *’`DitchWeed`’* … AKA … *[t s]
*[t s] … my friend & cohort”
LOL, Grandad, your honesty has always been your strength.
Michael Cunningham
March 26th, 2012
7:20 pm
new blog posted. shutting down this thread.