Atlanta Hawks: Rockets 109, Hawks 102 (updated)
Vivlamore reporting from Philips Arena.
Welcome to the Hawks’ new style of basketball.
Oh yes, this is going to be interesting.
The Hawks couldn’t contain James Harden. They were killed on the boards. They trailed by as many as 16 points.
Yet, they barely lost.
Harden finished with a game-high 45 points, including seven straight when the Rockets erased a two-point Hawks’ fourth-quarter lead, en route to a 109-102 victory Friday night at Philips Arena. There is still much work to do for the Hawks and a revamped roster.
“We have some things that we really have to focus in and work on,” coach Larry Drew said. “There were area in this game where we weren’t very good, very polished, particularly on the boards. We didn’t do a good job on the boards.” And it wasn’t just our big guys. It was our perimeters not being in position to chase down long rebounds.”
After losing the late lead thanks to Harden, who finished with 18 fourth-quarter points, the Hawks had a chance to tie the game late. Trailing by three points, 97-94, DeShawn Stevenson and Jeff Teague passed on potential game-tying 3-pointers. Teague instead passed to Josh Smith, who missed from long range. Chandler Parsons hit a 3-pointer off the miss as the Rockets went up by six and sealed the win from the free-throw line.
“I saw Harden running at me and it was just a basketball play to make an extra pass,” Teague said. “I’ve got all the confidence in the world in Josh. I see him work every day on shooting drills after practice. I’ve got all the faith in him. If I didn’t have faith in him, what kind of teammate would I be? I saw him wide open and thought he could knock it down. He happened to miss it but it’s part of the game.”
Since being acquired by the Rockets earlier this week, days ahead of their season opener, Harden’s has scored 82 points in two victories. Jeremy Lin added 21 points and Marcus Morris added 17 in the win Friday.
The Rockets (2-0) held a 58-36 rebounding advantage. They pulled down 23 offensive rebounds and many led to points in the paint. Center Omer Asik had 19, including seven in the first six minutes of the game.
“Giving up 17 offensive rebounds in the first half and 23 for the game, you are not going to give yourself a good chance to win. You have to be able to get in there and gang rebound. … We have to find a body, box them out and limit them to one opportunity.”
Lou Williams led the Hawks (0-1) with 22 points. Smith added 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Hawks also got double-digit scoring from Al Horford (14), Teague (14), Zaza Pachulia (13) and Stevenson (12).
The Hawks made their late run by going to a bigger lineup with Pachulia at center, Horford at power forward and Smith a small forward. Drew also elected to go with the hot hand as Williams played all of the fourth quarter when he had 13 points.
“We have to play how we played at the end of the third and into the fourth quarter,” Williams said. “We have to play like that for four quarters. We have to put four quarters of good basketball together in order for us to be successful.”
The Hawks had trouble with their offensive and defensive assignments. They often conferred with Drew during the course of the game to clear up where they were supposed to be on specific sets.
“It’s still a process,” Smith said. “We are still getting acclimated to the new guys coming in with our defensive principles and getting a feel for where they have to be. It’s still a work in progress.”
The Rockets led by as many as 16 points in the third quarter, 68-52, but the Hawks worked to close the gap. They entered the final quarter trailing by seven points, 81-74. With 7:10 remaining the lead was gone. Smith converted in close for an 88-87 lead capping a 14-6 quarter-opening run. Williams and Smith each had six points in the stretch.
The Rockets took a 53-44 halftime lead. Their lead was 14 points, 49-35, with 1:50 remaining in the second quarter when Harden drained a 3-pointer and was fouled by Stevenson. The Hawks closed the gap to nine points by ending the half on a 9-4 run, punctuated by Stevenson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The Rockets held a decisive rebounding advantage – 20-8 after the first quarter and 34-20 at the half.
“We made a run and they handled it,” Horford said. “They took it and got their composure back so you have to give them credit. I don’t think we played well enough to win the game tonight.”
The Hawks travel to Oklahoma City to take on the defending Western Conference champion Thunder Sunday.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
310 comments Add your comment
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
12:53 pm
LD preaches defense, yet players are going up to him during the game (after one month of being together) because they have no idea about their defensive assignments.
ag
November 3rd, 2012
12:57 pm
I just don’t see who is going to check Durant. Last year, Marvin held him to about 35. Durant will abuse the Hawks like he is playing in the Summer League’s. PLEASE DON’T PUT STEVENSON ON HIM!!!!
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
12:59 pm
At the game, there was a video of Ferry and Lame Duck talking to the fans.
It looked really awkward because Danny Ferry is 6″10 and LD is 6″1
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
1:02 pm
Durant could score 50 in a half on us.
it will be a layup line just like it was for Harden (WHO IS A FREAKING LEFT AND WENT LEFT MOST TIMES BECAUSE NO ONE STOPPED HIM).
LD will probably start Korver on Durant and end up putting Devin Harris on him before too long
This is going to be a very long season. What a disappointment
cp
November 3rd, 2012
1:06 pm
I see Durant going for about 38 and 12. Ibaka grabs at least 13 boards and 5 blocks. Westbrook will have a big game too. I think the Thunder win easily by double digits.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
1:14 pm
Harden 45 pts on 19 shots and only 14 FG.
Wow
NO DEFENSE
November 3rd, 2012
1:23 pm
NO DFENSE, IT IS PLAIN AND SIMPLE.Don’t know who will step up and play defense and rebound.
I MUS WRITE
November 3rd, 2012
1:30 pm
I swear LD has to go….Those guys looked lost in the sauce last nght …Sunday i predict 65+ points for the combo of westbrook and durant…….DAM
hfc95
November 3rd, 2012
1:35 pm
Why is everyone so upset?? Dont we want the hawks to be terrible and get a lottery pick? I mean we can either go .500 and make the playoffs and have two mid first round picks or we can lose more games and drop down to the bottom 13 and get a top 5 talent and potential franchise changer.
Im happy watching the Hawks either way but of course I want to see wins but I know winning this year is all for not as we will not advance past round 1 anyway.
Truly id like to see us be in the lottery for a change(never would imagine myself saying that in the early 2000s) but we need it. I say Lottery>.500 ball and 1st rd exit. I do want to see the hawks play with passion nightly though, and I want to see Ivan Johnson PLAY! He is a true force and plays the game how it should be played.
FreshFromATL
November 3rd, 2012
1:45 pm
Teague pissed me off last night when he passed up that open 3 and gave it to Josh with only a few seconds remaining on the shot clock. People blame Josh for taking that shot but it was solely on Teague being scared to shoot.
mike
November 3rd, 2012
1:48 pm
We needed Ivan to bang around with Asik down there. I realize he is a lot smaller but the dude is tough and would have at least pushed some folks around.
Tolliver looked bad, would like to see what Morrow could offer.
Old School
November 3rd, 2012
1:49 pm
Was at the game and saw the same old Josh Smith jacking up jumpers, arguing with officials and trying to be the point guard – no wonder he’ll never be an all star. Since they were getting out rebouded so badly, I wonder if Ivan was injured or in Drew’s dog house; maybe he could have provided some help defensively.
FreshFromATL
November 3rd, 2012
1:49 pm
Oh, and FIRE Larry Drew!
Rusty
November 3rd, 2012
1:52 pm
You can always depend on LD to make bad decisions . I guess he still hasnt forgiven Ivan or JT who has made him look very bad with the Bibby & Heinrich bad decisions. His so called Princeton offense is a fiasco.
Trevor
November 3rd, 2012
1:52 pm
wow fans are so uneasy after 1of 82 games wat dissapointed that we r not goin undefeated relax ppl its a new team with new roles be patient a lot of encouraging signs though once they all gey acclamated
Ray
November 3rd, 2012
2:35 pm
@ Trevor
I’m with you on this one in fact I’m wondering if anyone looks themselves in the mirror’s to b!tch slap themselves after saying we need to trade away people after one game.
In all seriousness relax okay we still have 81 games left in this season.
Also if you weren’t informed this team was already going to take a step backwards that’s one reason you won’t see me complain this season much.
Although I will say I agree about players like Tolliver and Petro need to go both don’t have anything to offer Keith Benson and Damion James did.
Now I will say Larry Drew if around the 40 games mark we’re well under .500 you need to start packing your bags dude and GTFO. In fact do it now before it gets worse because YOU CANNOT COACH! Just saying.
Astro Joe
November 3rd, 2012
2:40 pm
I’m not saying that Joe held every start SG below their average, but I don’t recall watching Wade or Roy or Iverson or any other great SG in the past 8 years walk into our arena and blister the Hawks like Harden did last night. Not only did Joe relish the chance to defend guys like that but he also forced them to play defense on the opposite end.
When was the last time the Hawks lost a home opener? Seems like it has been a while.
Astro Joe
November 3rd, 2012
2:44 pm
Teague slept walked through the first half. He, Devin and Lou were too busy trying to get out on the break to worry about things like blocking out Lin from grabbing easy rebounds. Just a lack of focus and attention to detail.. as if they are rookies in the league. Shameful.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
2:45 pm
No Josh tomorrow. Durant could go off for 80. Korver and Tolliver will split minutes on him. SMH
Co-sign AJ
Ken Strickland
November 3rd, 2012
2:45 pm
Don’t mention my name when it comes to bashing our players or pitting one against the other. I was pissed at Smoove for continuing to do the same stupid BS he’s done in the past on OFF. The truth is, no one player is to blame for our shortcomings last night, and only a fool would believe otherwise.
What pisses me off more than anything is LDs insistence on taking this team down the drain by insisting on playing veterans, especially OFF only vets, over younger players no matter how horrible and unproductive those vets play. You can’t convince me that Morrow couldn’t have done better than Korver, on either end of the court, or that Ivan and Scott couldn’t have done better than Tolliver or Stevenson, particularly on the boards.
HC LDrew is totally locked in on winning or losing using OFF only, and vets only, no matter what. How can he be committed to DEF, as he’s been claiming, when he cuts, or refuses to play, his best rebounders and/or DEF players off the bench. As soon as he saw we were getting pounded on the boards, he should have replaced Korver with Ivan at SF.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
2:51 pm
We let 3 guys have career nights in 1 game last night. Probably closest Lin has been to a triple double
carl
November 3rd, 2012
2:51 pm
even though the hawks lost there were still a lot of positives, they had 12 steals and only committed 13 turnovers to the rockets 21, they outscored the rockets in the paint 56-50 thanks to a 33 to 18 edge on fastbreak points, they held the rockets to 42% shooting and limited them to just 5 field goals on second chance points despite giving up 23 offensive rebounds. The hawks lost the game at the free throw line and on the glass, they only needed to foul a little bit less, get to the line a little bit more and rebound a little bit more to win. In order to be successful the hawks need to keep their rebounding deficit to 10 or lower, be more aggressive attacking the basket ( Teague and Horford must take at least 15 shots per game and Smith must get in the post more) , and Ivan needs to play
Lottery
November 3rd, 2012
3:02 pm
come on home hawks
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
3:14 pm
Best chance to win:
Lou/Devin/Morrow/Josh/Al
Teague/Jenkins/Korver/Ivan/Zaza
Stevenson/Scott/Uglliver/Puketro
Atl Fan
November 3rd, 2012
3:17 pm
Josh Smith isn’t playing tomorrow
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
3:18 pm
We need defense. How bout we cut the one guy that played it. lol. What a joke that LD fella is.
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
3:21 pm
Josh hurt?
Just Joe
November 3rd, 2012
3:25 pm
Josh supposedly has an ankle sprain, but I smell LD all over this one. Josh was upset last night. Pure speculation, but I wonder if this isn’t something else. I don’t remember Josh favoring that ankle at all.
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
3:27 pm
Correction:
Best chance to win:
Lou/Devin/Morrow/Josh/Zaza
Teague/Jenkins/Korver/Ivan/Al
Scott/Deshawn/Uglliver/Puketro
Atl Fan
November 3rd, 2012
3:29 pm
They said he has an ankle sprain and won’t travel to OKC
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
3:32 pm
Ken Strickland, what else do you expect from LD? He was trained by Woody. They dont believe in young legs. Remember Bibby?
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
3:34 pm
Josh is saving himself from the embarrassment. lol.
Najeh Davenpoop
November 3rd, 2012
3:41 pm
“This team is a mess. We traded a top 5 team in the East for a team with absolutely no wing players and miserable defense.”
Come on now. You were complaining about the old team every bit as much as anyone else here. Don’t come up in here reminiscing fondly about the annual playoff embarrassment that the previous team was.
This is a transition team. If they play well this year, it is a bonus. The real season starts for the Hawks on July 1, 2013.
Najeh Davenpoop
November 3rd, 2012
3:51 pm
Well, with Josh out, Al gets a chance to play PF (against Ibaka). I’d be shocked if LD kept him at C as opposed to starting Zaza. And hopefully Ivan will get some minutes.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
3:54 pm
“This is a transition team. If they play well this year, it is a bonus. The real season starts for the Hawks on July 1, 2013.”
Really? What free agents do you have in mind? Dwight and CP3 who don’t want to be here?
Najeh Davenpoop
November 3rd, 2012
3:55 pm
The level of overreaction on this blog rivals Philly fans on their worst day.
a) Nobody expected this team to win a championship. Few of us even expected them to be a #2 seed like ESPN predicted. Many of us picked them to miss the playoffs. Why are we surprised that they got off to a less than stellar start?
b) Pretty much everyone, even those of us who were the most optimistic about them, realized that perimeter D would be a problem. Why it is a surprise that Harden went off?
c) It is ONE GAME, people. If they are in last place a month from now, it is time to panic. Right now, no. Even a week and a half from now, after they finish their brutal opening stretch, no.
Al isn’t going to suck that badly every game this year. Korver isn’t going to throw up bricks all season, and if he does, Morrow will replace him and likely won’t throw up bricks all season. And as bad as they played, it’s not like they got blown out. It may not be great but it isn’t going to continue being this bad.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
3:58 pm
Our two best players consist of Al Boss, who is softer than toilet tissue, and Josh, who after 473625284726 seasons STILL THINKS HE IS A JUMPSHOOTER
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
4:00 pm
Its our 4th time in a row losing to that averageazz Houston team
Najeh Davenpoop
November 3rd, 2012
4:01 pm
“Really? What free agents do you have in mind? Dwight and CP3 who don’t want to be here?”
I have no idea whether or not they want to be here. Even if they don’t, so what? The worst possible case is that they strike out in free agency, sign and trade Josh, go into next season with Horford and a bunch of scrubs on the roster, and get a top 5 lottery pick to start rebuilding. That is still preferable to continuing indefinitely with a capped out team that had no chance of being anything other than dead meat in the first round.
I trust a guy who found a way to move the seemingly immovable Joe and Marvin within a three hour span. I know it feels weird to trust Hawks management but Ferry has earned it, at least until he proves otherwise.
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
4:02 pm
Um, I was talking about cutting Damien James. Wtf? lol
cp
November 3rd, 2012
4:10 pm
Clearly I missed this great game Devin had last night.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
4:13 pm
Well are we predicating whether we rebuild or compete based on getting Cp or Dh? Because those are two drastically different plans. Id trade Harris for a wing player but what would I know
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
4:14 pm
Devin had 9 early pts then tried to take over. Didn’t play much after.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
4:17 pm
Incredible LD preaches defense, yet guys are going up to him during game bc they dont know what they’re doing
Heard Zaza on radio two days ago, Thurs, say that the team had mot yet discussed gameplan for Houston game. Not making this up
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 3rd, 2012
4:19 pm
b) Pretty much everyone, even those of us who were the most optimistic about them, realized that perimeter D would be a problem. Why it is a surprise that Harden went off?
***
The guy hasnt signed one small forward. We have 3 tiny guards and a bunch of scrub SGs
And Korver and Tolliver. Not one SF. Durant could drop 40 tomorrow and still have an offnight
And does Viv reply to anyone at all on twitter?
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
4:24 pm
Josh is probably going to the Falcons game. lol
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
4:27 pm
Aaron Murray is pretty awful. Im sorry. Luckily he has a prety good team around him. Otherwise……..
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
November 3rd, 2012
4:28 pm
Grandmaster Jeje is back!!!!!!!
Its time for people to realize that Horford and Zaza don’t want to play defense. No matter how hard LD preaches defense, the players have to make a decision that they want to play defense. With Al and Zaza actions speak louder than words.
terrell
November 3rd, 2012
4:29 pm
Update, you got a link?
Ken Strickland
November 3rd, 2012
4:29 pm
I just can’t grasp the logic behind Drew addressing the pounding we were receiving on the boards last night by using 3 jumpshooting, rebounding challenged players(Korver/Stevenson/Tolliver) at SF instead of 2 bigger, stronger, and taller players who are known for their rebounding ability(IJohnson/MScott). STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES. We’re experiencing a repeat of MWoodson’s BS.