Atlanta Hawks vs. Clippers: Game thread
Josh Smith didn’t want to talk much about tonight’s matchup with Blake Griffin.
He didn’t want to dwell on the Highlight Factory vs. Lob City.
“I’m not worried about the matchup,” Smith said following Tuesday morning’s shoot-around in preparation for the Clippers. “My main concern is winning the basketball game.”
Both teams have plenty to play for. The Hawks’ magic number to clinch home-court advantage is two. They can clinch tonight with a victory and a Celtics loss to the Heat. The Hawks must finish with a better record than the Celtics (by virtue of Boston holding the tie-breaker and winning the Atlantic Division). So they must either win both remaining games or win one and have the Celtics lose one to host the Eastern Conference matchup.
“We do have an opportunity to get home-court advantage,” Marvin Williams said. “It will be huge for us and I think everybody understands that.”
The Clippers are a half-game behind the Lakers for the Pacific Division lead and the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Hawks’ offense has been effective the past several games. They have shot over 50 percent in their last two games against the Knicks (54.4) and Celtics (51.4) and were very near the mark in wins over the Pistons (49.4) and Raptors (48.8).
However, it’s the defensive effort that is of concern for Hawks coach Larry Drew.
“I like the fact that offensively the numbers have been good,” Drew said Tuesday morning. “My concern will always be with defense. I don’t think I could ever be satisfied defensively. There are times when we’ve show major improvements in areas and times where we fall back into a lapse of defending. Going down the stretch, it’s about trying to get as fine-tuned as we can going into the playoffs and when you go into the playoffs make sure you dot every I and cross every T, particularly from a defensive standpoint. That’s going to be your staple in any playoff series, how well you can defend. We are going to have to go into these last two ball games, playing against two teams who are playoff bound, it’s a great opportunity to finish this thing on a positive note against two good teams. I’m always stressing and emphasizing defense. I’m a big defense guy. I want our defense to be ahead of our offense. As of lately, we’ve done a good job offensively but we have to get that consistency defensively.”
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467 comments Add your comment
damienwilko
April 24th, 2012
11:04 pm
I cant imagine how many more tight regular seasons games we would have won if LD would have played tmac in. The guy oozes calmness. Makes all the right plays needed that gets the job done. I guess he has finally got it. Touch wood !
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
11:07 pm
Nuff’ Said!
“I’m not worried about the matchup,” Smith said following Tuesday morning’s shoot-around in preparation for the Clippers. “My main concern is winning the basketball game.”
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
11:10 pm
13-21 against the winners does not generate much confidence Sir…So you can only hope that this night they get it done.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
April 24th, 2012
11:10 pm
As I said yesterday, we need Pargo, Willie, and T-Mac really feeling good about themselves come Playoff time. I almost feel like T-Mac is hiding stuff from us. His shots late in the game looked very crisp.
Hope Ivan keeps up this strong play.
And LOL @ Horford telling us not to rely on his defense. Dude, just don’t return. Let ZaZa return and play Ivan 30 mpg. We don’t need Horford’s one-dimensional jump-shooting
KevinK
April 24th, 2012
11:11 pm
I kinda like want to see this starting lineups in the playoff against the Celtics!!! Tell me guys what yall think??
Jeff Teague/Pargo-PG
Joe Johnson/Kirk Hinrich/Willie Green-SG
Tracy McGrady/Marvin Williams-SF
Josh Smith/Ivan Johnson/Al Horford??-PF
Zaza Pachulia/Jason Collins/Eric Dampier-C
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
11:11 pm
Deion’s Drama!
Deion tweets pictures of his children filling out police reports against his wife, Pilar. Pilar was arrested surrounding a divorce drama battle. Pilar ordered to stay away from the house for 61 days, she assaulted Deion in their bedroom.
Haven’t they been married for over 20 years. I thought they were divorcing many years ago, but, reconcilled? Let it go Sanders, that marriage is ova’.
A heady Deion for keeping his hands to himself.
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
11:26 pm
NBA TV airing an NBA Classic, 1993 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals: Hawks vs. Chicago Game 3 in the Omni! Nice!
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
April 24th, 2012
11:35 pm
“Doc, might be over coaching over there? Taking my Hawks and HC for granted? I sure hope so, we need every angle we can muster. Or, is that team that banged up and worried about their health for round 1?”
If Doc is over-coaching, wouldn’t he NOT be taking us for granted and wanting that HC?
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
April 24th, 2012
11:37 pm
drmaryb I learned at a early age that some women just ain’t marriage material.
Big Ivan needs play 20 mins or more a game in the Celtics series.
FIRE SUND
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
11:47 pm
new blog up..
Lacsho
April 25th, 2012
12:06 am
You people need to quit. Do you ever read over the blog after a game? First and foremost you have three suspects posing under 4 different usernames. Then you have the so called Doctor giving LD the head coach of the year award. Well Mary I will give you 10 reasons why LD should be fired:
1. LD does not have the respect of his players, since he shows so much favoritism to Josh, Joe, and Kirk.
2. He’s coached over or close to 200 hundreds games as a head coach, the man has four technicals, and he’s been thrown out 111111once, no he’s never been thrown out. Unlike a Great coach, Doc Rivers. Doc plays the refs that’s why the Cletics get most of their calls.
3. Question: Why do you think Josh always screams at the Ref’s? Answer: LD has know heart. Most of the time, a team will take on the coaches’ demeanor. Again I will allude to the top 10 west coast coaches and the top, well ever other coach in the eastern conference playoff race besides LD and Orlando’s crazy coach.
4. He’s never calls out his so-called best player aka Joe Johnson. Joe has blown more games than LD over the last couple of years. And, we will not discuss Josh’s antics. All of the good coach’s bench their star players: it keeps the players honest and the team balanced.
5. Why do you think the Hawks allow so many teams to come back? Answer: you saw it tonight. The Hawks had them down by 14 going into the 4th quarter. A great coach like Doc Rivers would’ve gone for the kill, and started his starters (everybody but Josh) in the 4th. Josh has had two bad games back to back. Again, Doc has done it to us plenty of times over the years.
6. He has this dynamic offense, but our power foward loves to jack up jump shots, instead of driving the ball and either dunking or getting fouled. Speaking of Josh, when will LD learn that he needs to get the ball to Teague on the break, since Teague can get the ball up the court in three seconds. Teague would love to throw Josh a lob on the break.
7. LD is the definition of insanity. When will you learn to rest JJ for a game or two during the season? A great coach like Pop does it all of the time. Question: why does JJ have problems closing out games? Answer: they treat him like the falcons treat Michael Turner. They continue to run him in the ground even during meaningless games, but he won’t hesitate to rest Teague, go figure. Teague the one guy who never gets tired.
8. He keeps starting Twin.
9. His substitutions make know since. The games he needs to rest JJ, he plays him the entire game. Moreover, the games he needs to play JJ; he plays the bench too much.
10. Again, he keeps starting and playing Twin. You mean to tell me we couldn’t get a taller Ivan from the DLeauge.
I digress, and those of you with multiple usernames. YOU HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS, PLEASE GET A LIFE. Much respect to the good Dr. At least she only uses one username on a basketball blog. It’s not that serious people.
Peace Mary,
Lacsho
Scoop
April 25th, 2012
1:54 am
I thought Josh played a very “solid” game tonight. And that’s the best thing I could say for him. He was playing within himself AND playing hard. He boxed out on the glass, set good-hard screens AND rolled to the basket (instead of camping on the three), AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, did not turn the ball over (except for a bogus traveling call).
Also, he played pretty good defense on Griffin tonight. The dude was clearly frustrated by Josh’s length (AND Ivan’s grit I might add), and it showed with the tech he got for abusing Teague late in the game.
Josh gets a lot of attention and criticism for his play (rightfully so IMO), but i believe the reason is bc he is the X-factor of our team. Josh can score, we all know that, but that’s not what we need from him to win ball games. We need him to be ACTIVE on the glass, enforce his will on defense and in the paint, and we need his athleticism in transition. AND we need him to not turn the ball over, take bad shots, and complain to the officials like a whining baby.
If we’re going anywhere in the playoffs then Josh has to play within himself. He should let his teammates take care of scoring and he should focus dominating the other areas. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again-This team will go as far as Josh wants us to go…….I can’t wait to see what happens bc these playoffs are gonna be epic!
Punanny Jones
April 25th, 2012
4:40 am
Teague may be a sorry example of a point guard but hes his mothers child. Lets package Teague and Al for world peace.
Consensus
April 25th, 2012
4:42 am
Scoop is an idiot and hates the marvelous success of Josh Smith. Josh Smith is clearly our MVP.
Rick Sund
April 25th, 2012
4:46 am
Word has it that the lakers are willing to give up Andrew Bynum and two 1st round picks. plus cash For Al Horford and Jeff Teague..
Should we make this trade?
Fact is
April 25th, 2012
8:09 am
Teague is not intelligent enough to be a point guard so last night he play a 2 guard and the offense was distributed though Swoosh Smith.
Thats the beauty of Josh. He has a total game and is the most critical player on the hawks team. Josh Must stay at the powerforward and continue to own the position as a point forward because the hawks just dont have a true or intelligent point guard. I hope we package Al and or Teague and go after a real point guard.
Thank Goodness Josh can distribute, shoot, defend and run the team from the 4 position. I agree Josh is this teams MVP.
In the interim project cases like Al horford, Jeff teague and Marvin Williams need to be traded for upgrades.
Only then will this team take it beyond the 2nd round.
Fact is
April 25th, 2012
8:13 am
Thats a good trade Rick, Id do that, but Hold out for 3 1st round picks to go along with Bynum. We are giving up all nba all star all chiit Al, right? Plus Brainless Teague. Yeah hold out for 3 1st rounders. Over back to back to back years.
All Scrub Al.