Celtics at Atlanta Hawks Game 5: Game thread

  • Hawks starters: Jeff Teague, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith and Al Horford. Zaza Pachulia (foot) is out. All Celtics players are available.
  • Larry Drew on why he’s using this lineup: “One, just to give it a different look and see if it will kind of jump start us a little bit. It gives us an opportunity to move Joe back to some two. It makes us bigger so we can do a few more things defensively in making some adjustments in Game 5. And I just think its’ time. After you play four games in the playoffs, obviously it’s a game of adjustment, and you try to do things to benefit your team. It’s time to give us a different look and see if it will jump start us with Al back in the starting lineup, Marvin in the staring lineup, bringing Kirk [Hinrich] off the bench.”
  • Drew on Horford’s condition: “Physically he feels fine. I wouldn’t say he’s in tip-top shape but he’s in playing shape. He didn’t experience any discomfort with the pec the other day [Game 4]. There was a play early he went for the ball and it was pulled back. I thought that would be kind of the test with him. He said after the play he was fine and he wasn’t sore after that. That was kind of the test. I know coming back he was waiting for that moment to see if he could withstand a collision or pull-back with the injury.”
  • Drew on how he’ll use Horford: “He’ll only play a certain amount of minutes. I could have brought him off the bench but instead of letting his shoulder and chest stiffen up while he’s on the bench elected to throw him out there while he’s warm. We want to get off to a fast start and he certainly brings an energy.”
  • Drew on the benefits of the lineup for Joe: “He’s had to defend Paul [Pierce] all four games. I kind of want to give it a different look and see if that can generate more offense out of him. He’s been chasing Paul around for four games and that can put a little wear and tear on you. We’ve decided to give it a look.”
  • Drew on pushing the pace with this lineup: “When we are at our best is when [Al] and Josh rebound the ball and bring it out on the dribble. We’ve been missing that with him out of the lineup. It makes us a much better running team when we have all five guys involved in the break.”
  • Drew on switching defensively: “Whether we start the game with our switching remains to be seen but it does give us a flexibility. The sets we defend we are in more switchable situations. A lot of the things they do run we can play it a little differently now going a little bit bigger at the two spot.”
  • Drew on matchups: “They will have to make a decision who they match up with against Joe and Marvin. If they stay with Pierce on Joe, there’s a size advantage with Marvin on [Avery] Bradley.”
  • Drew said Josh (knee) won’t be on limited minutes: “This is a do-or-die situation. Al we will definitely keep an eye on, but those other guys probably will play extended minutes given the situation.”
  • Josh on his knee: “It’s pretty good. I’m in it to win it. I’m here to play so I can’t worry about my knee.”
  • Joe on if the new lineup will help: “I don’t know. Hopefully it works out for the best for us. At this point we really don’t know. I guess it’s just a gut feeling.”
  • Joe on if moving to shooting guard will result in more touches: “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
  • Josh on Boston’s D: “With the defense they play they tend to over-help at times and we haven’t made them pay yet. We’ve got to be able to take our time and knock down the open shot.”
  • Joe on Game 4: “We haven’t had a game like Game 4 in quite some time. It was mind-boggling, honestly. I couldn’t get why we came out and played so poorly after we were so close in Game 3. I’m still puzzled from that. Hopefully Game 5 will be different.”
  • Joe on if he thinks Game 5 will be different: “Honestly I’m not sure. I just have to wait until we get between the lines. It’s easy to talk it but it’s different when you get on the court. Hopefully we will take a sense of pride and a sense of desperation and try to make it back to Boston.”
  • Josh on Game 4: “To me, to be honest, we played pretty good defense. We was with them on every shot, every catch, and they shot the ball extremely well, especially Paul Pierce in that third quarter when we were trying to make a push. We have got to to try to meet them right before they past halfcourt i guess to give ourselves a chance.”
  • Drew on Game 4: “When you lose a game like that, it’s deflating. But like I told our players I think we’ve had a great season in spite of that one game. That game is no reflection on the rest of our season. It happened. We’ve watched film, we’ve learned form it and now it’s time to move on. Yesterday I was still sensing guys were a little down. After our meeting we had yesterday it seemed to kind of rejuvenate them again. And then coming into shootaround today they were back to themselves.”

Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat

1,176 comments Add your comment

Big Lou

May 9th, 2012
12:15 am

“That inbound play at the end really pissed me off. No one was even close to open. This was AFTER we used a timeout.”

Yup. Thank God Al Horford was playing. To be honest with you, he might be the difference maker that squeezes the Hawks to the next round.

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:17 am

Josh looked like he threw that inbound pass right to Rondo at the end and it could have been one of the most incredible costly turnovers in Hawks playoff history right there? Whew. WTF..Does this dude need corrective vision or what?

Mike

May 9th, 2012
12:20 am

All you guys need to shut up, get off the internet, and enjoy a win. The Hawks are still living to play at least 48 more minutes and that’s what matters right now. Let’s out-hustle Boston and take the crowd out of it, lots of energy on defense, more quick passing and feeds, and get this back to Phillips for a decisive game 7.

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:21 am

Al’s game will really benefit the most of all his teammates with a pg that penetrates and draws defenses away from him. IT leaves lanes open for Al to score at point blank range.. He will feast off of Teague’s dribble drive penetration…We saw glimpses of it tonight..Nice..

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:22 am

Mike= pissed patrol…

drmaryb.(*_*).

May 9th, 2012
12:24 am

15 rebounds & 16 pts on a bad knee. Without Josh we don’t win this game. G-Nite yawl. Rondo turned it back over too, didn’t he? Didn’t Josh deflect Rondo pass to cancel his error?

Didn’t we WIN?

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:25 am

Old school:

Magic to Worthy

New school:

Teague to Horford

Fascinating..

bbfan

May 9th, 2012
12:26 am

Al is beginning to remind me of Tim Ducan; not just a good player but also good role model.

WHEN ARE THEY MOVING ?????

May 9th, 2012
12:29 am

WHO CARES !!!!????

WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SUPPORTING THIS CRAP TEAM & LEAGUE, MAKES ONE ILL TO SEE
ATLANTA STUPID GROUP MAKING MORE $ THOSE LIARS !!!!!

LOOK FORWARD TO THE SALE & MOVE AFTER THIS FARCE IS OVER !!!!!!

I LOVE THEM LOSING, JUST LIKE THEIR OWNERS !!!!!!

MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE !!!!!!

Buddy Grizzard

May 9th, 2012
12:31 am

LOL KH 7 points in 7 minutes but you want more T-Mac?

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:31 am

Larry will be talking about wheres the energy in Game 6..Watch him….

Buddy Grizzard

May 9th, 2012
12:31 am

KH is awesome! Plus he’s white! We watch all the games at our Klan meetings!

Mike D

May 9th, 2012
12:34 am

@Big Lou
Tmac plays small forward for this team! When he’s on the court Pierce is his man an he did a damn good job at containing him in his few minutes(dumb coaching) Kirk is good but he should be backing up Teague. An Tmac should be playin pointforward anyways because Kirk just dribbles the air out the ball an does not create well for others! Just face for the Hawks he is an over-hyped role player lmao!

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:34 am

The 6 man[Boston crowd] will make it real hard on the Hawks to concentrate.. They will have quite a few turnovers again..

It may get real ugly real fast…..

Buddy Grizzard

May 9th, 2012
12:34 am

Willie Green -11 in 7 minutes, 6 points worse than the nearest Hawk! Pargo DNP CD! Hawks win!

Mike D

May 9th, 2012
12:35 am

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:36 am

Marvin will probably put on his disheartening cloak again…sigh…

Buddy Grizzard

May 9th, 2012
12:36 am

“Didn’t Josh deflect Rondo pass to cancel his error?” – drmaryb

Which error? I saw Josh cost the Hawks at least 10 points.

Mike D

May 9th, 2012
12:37 am

@Slim jr.
Damn right long as TMac not getting minutes over these scrubs

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:43 am

“For 1 night ya’ll need to get off Al and give him his props, now hopefully Zsa Zsa will be back and we get even more size” -Luke-

Kiss his ring Luke! lol

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:44 am

and dont forget to bow too…..

Mike D

May 9th, 2012
12:44 am

Oh yea@Buddy Gizzard KH overhyped role player talk about that at ya klan meeting! Lmao what a joke

Big Lou

May 9th, 2012
12:44 am

“Which error? I saw Josh cost the Hawks at least 10 points.”

No use in telling her… she has Josh on twitter now. Those rose colored glasses really blind folks.

Mike D

Kirk is the best man to gaurd Ray Allen. He’s the only one who can get through screens effectively on the team. I want Tmac to get more minutes, too; but not at the expense of Kirk’s good defense/solid shooting.

Slimjr

May 9th, 2012
12:45 am

If ZaZa comes back.Hawks in 7!

Big Lou

May 9th, 2012
12:47 am

“KH overhyped role player talk about that at ya klan meeting!”

Come on, man. Don’t bring racist sh!t in here. Even Najeh agrees that Kirk is the best cover guy for Ray Allen.

Michael Cunningham

May 9th, 2012
12:48 am

new blog posted. shutting down this thread.