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
Luke Cage
April 24th, 2012
10:00 pm
World Peace gets 7 games, thought it was a 10 gamer myself.
DawgNole
April 24th, 2012
10:01 pm
FTs made a difference–finally in our favor. Gotta make ‘em in the playoffs.
Big Lou
April 24th, 2012
10:01 pm
Why is joe back in the game? Lol
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:01 pm
Impressive win considering the Dunk King got 36 and CP3 got 34? Huge win……
Top 10 plays! Say it aint so Joe?
Punanny Jones
April 24th, 2012
10:02 pm
13 sec on the clock…. we up 10, starters should be on the bence
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
10:02 pm
Drew don’t want Jeff to have more than 2 assists. Those are for Josh! That way they can try to low ball him on his next contract. It’s a conspiracy people.
KevinA
April 24th, 2012
10:02 pm
McGrady putting on the scuba gear diving for that loose ball was the highlight
Punanny Jones
April 24th, 2012
10:02 pm
*bench
Melvin
April 24th, 2012
10:02 pm
*under my laptop desk* laughing at TMAC not in bounding the ball to Josh. That’s more proof that LD need to play TMAC to close out games….
DawgNole
April 24th, 2012
10:03 pm
Luke Cage
April 24th, 2012
10:00 pm
World Peace gets 7 games, thought it was a 10 gamer myself.
______________________
Shoulda been 7 years behind bars. Aggravated assault. Repeat offender.
KevinA
April 24th, 2012
10:04 pm
WorldPeace should have been next year
Big Lou
April 24th, 2012
10:04 pm
Tmac should start over captain light bright.
TMACfan
April 24th, 2012
10:04 pm
GOOD WIN
phil
April 24th, 2012
10:05 pm
Good to be dead wrong tonight…
Heat better win or we’re doomed when Dirk lights us up on thursday.
phil
April 24th, 2012
10:06 pm
Artest is a joke….
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
10:06 pm
Fools Gold!
“Impressive win considering the Dunk King got 36 and CP3 got 34? Huge win……”
_____
That was the game plan! 2 on 5, all night long. All those shots came from outside the paint with no offensive rebounds.
Hawks rolling with no center in sight. Give Drew some credit, he has earned an extension after next year’s team option. They better go ahead and lock him up for cheap now. Drew, might not go for cheap though, this time around. He will have other options now. So will, MVT and Ivan.
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:06 pm
Hey whos the Red Bone on the court doing post game interviews..She looks like Simone Ward? Hmmmm……
Sautee
April 24th, 2012
10:06 pm
“If Larry Drew continues to play his 2nd unit for 20 minutes every game, even when they are surrendering basket after basket, they will lose in the playoffs.”
FYI – Bench combined + 29 while the starters were combined + 18
Maybe Drew knew what he was doing.
DawgNole
April 24th, 2012
10:07 pm
No postgame BS by our astute announcing crew. Make way for the Braves. How ’bout it Bravos, make it a sweep.
Big Lou
April 24th, 2012
10:07 pm
Lol @ Heyward and Prado doing the electric slide.
Big Lou
April 24th, 2012
10:09 pm
“Make way for the Braves. How ’bout it Bravos, make it a sweep.”
They’ll definitely have a better chance without JJ pitching.
DawgNole
April 24th, 2012
10:09 pm
phil
April 24th, 2012
10:06 pm
Artest is a joke….
_________________________
A really, really bad one.
DawgNole
April 24th, 2012
10:10 pm
Celtics ahead of the Heat now. I was afraid of that.
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:11 pm
Chipper turns 40 today? Impressive dude..
TMACfan
April 24th, 2012
10:11 pm
The Heat are choking even without LeBron James… LOL
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
10:14 pm
Enter your comments here
East Coast Beat Downs!
Clippers play NYK next. Another East Coast beat down coming their way. This ain’t the West Coast fellas, we play defense ’round here.
“Welcome to Atlanta – Where the Players Play! And, we ride on them thangs like everyday!” -Jermaine DuPree-
_________
The Clipps wanted this win, bad yawl. Hawks Win! No Center in sight!
Dept. Of Unintended Irony
April 24th, 2012
10:17 pm
“The Clipps wanted this win, bad yawl.”
Is a bad yawl anything like an inferior ketch?
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:20 pm
Uh Oh drmaryb, you woke up dept? Hehehe
TMACfan
April 24th, 2012
10:21 pm
DeAndre Jordan
-17
40 million dollar man
LOL
Astro Joe
April 24th, 2012
10:21 pm
Really, really, really good to see Teague score well in the second half.
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:24 pm
Teague better show up like this against the Celts..But guess what? The Celts guards play much better D than the Clippers guards for sure…
Sautee
April 24th, 2012
10:26 pm
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
5:46 pm
“Clippers are extremely hungry tonight..Expect a 2nd quarter Hawk deficit..How much? Who knows.”
“If LD puts Captain Kirk on Randy Foye? Oh the humanity!”
Foye: 20 minutes 0-3 Zero points
Hinrich: 14 minutes 3-5 8 points
Another sterling slimjr prediction
RA
April 24th, 2012
10:26 pm
There’s your signature win.
brigadierjerry
April 24th, 2012
10:29 pm
Looks like Hawks have to win Dallas Game since Celtics gonna win this game
doc
April 24th, 2012
10:36 pm
good going guys, won iy how you are going to have to do it in the playoffs. get a good lead then hold on.
atlchris77
April 24th, 2012
10:38 pm
Who does boston play next?
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:40 pm
Sautee got jokes! Hehehehe
Keep them coming, we are going to need them next week for sure….
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
April 24th, 2012
10:43 pm
“Rob
April 24th, 2012
8:13 pm
I think Marvin could be a beast. He got skills. Just got to keep that mindset of attacking, just like Teague
______________________
Been sayin’ it. Just can’t get JeJe to buy in, though.”
The guy posted up Mo Williams and got stripped. Pretty sure he is a draft bust.
Rod, did you see that? Him posting up a far smaller player (just like he has done to Luther Head, Like Ridnour, Kyle Korver) and got no results
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
10:43 pm
Celtics Win!
Oh Boy! Who are the last two teams the C’s Play. What is our magic # now? Looks like that Knicks loss may be our undoing if, we dont win that Dallas game.
Melvin
April 24th, 2012
10:44 pm
I wonder if TNT will switch their Thursday night game between the Knicks/Bucks to the Hawks/Mavs
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:45 pm
Celts have the Bucks at home on Thursday..They may get the Home Court after all?
Tie breaker goes to The Celts…That Knick loss was huge!!!!!
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
10:46 pm
“Is a bad yawl anything like an inferior ketch?”
_____
Hugh? What a reach around there. Move on DUI, there is nothing to see here.
doc
April 24th, 2012
10:47 pm
ra a signature win is winning the second round and heading into the ecf. a win over the celts in a 7 game series would be close. a signature win is one of meaning against one of your close rivals that have beaten you like a drum over the years not a comeuppance team with a coach worse than ours. good win, not great.
doc
April 24th, 2012
10:50 pm
really really really good to see teague wake up a bit from his slumbers of friday night against the celts. but it is not like he hand cuffed chris paul in any way was it?
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
10:57 pm
doc, imagine CP3 instead of Marvin? Wow…..
brigadierjerry
April 24th, 2012
10:59 pm
I like Teague as a player. I think he can be a poor mans Tony Parker/Terrell Brandon type of player. I dont know if he will ever be a facilitator type of guard but if he did it would make the offense so much easier and able to make Joe Johnson to be able to come off screens or curls and make shots instead of him trying to create on his own because that really isnt his strong suit. Again, check video when he played on Phoenix.
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 24th, 2012
11:02 pm
All wins are great, when vying for HCA.
brigadierjerry
April 24th, 2012
11:02 pm
slimjr,
give hawks credit you didnt think Hawks was gonna win tonight!!
Slimjr
April 24th, 2012
11:02 pm
CP3 and ISO would have taken the Hawks to an ECF by now! Packed house nightly!
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
April 24th, 2012
11:03 pm
Shoutouts to Kirk tonight. He was draining shots. We NEED that!!!!!!!!