Atlanta Hawks: Heat 95, Hawks 89 (updated)
Vivlamore reporting.
How do the Hawks measure up against the Heat?
Very well it turns out.
The Hawks went toe-to-toe with the defending NBA champions in a back-and-forth, thoroughly entertaining contest Friday night at Philips Arena. In the end, LeBron James hit a jumper with 13.7 seconds remaining as the Heat won 95-89 over the Hawks.
Al Horford missed a contested shot alley-oop dunk attempt, after a timeout, and a jumper down the stretch for the Hawks. Ray Allen hit a pair of free throws to seal the win.
The Heat played without a key piece of their Big Three as Dywane Wade missed the game due to a cold.
“We don’t want any moral victories,” said Anthony Morrow, who came off the bench with 17 points. “We know what we need to get better at. We know the things we did well tonight. We will continue to work on the things we need to work on and execute down the stretch.”
The Heat opened the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run to take a nine-point lead, 82-73. The Hawks staged another comeback, something that is becoming a trademark early in the season. They went on a 14-3 run to regain the lead that was punctuated by two straight 3-pointers from Jeff Teague. The second, with 4:02 remaining, tied the game at 85-85 and sent the home crowd into a frenzy. After a defensive stop, Horford drove past Chris Bosh for a layup and gave the Hawks’ first lead since late in the third quarter.
Kyle Korver could have extended the lead. He missed a fast-break layup and after getting his rebound appeared to be pushed out of bounds. However, the Heat were awarded the ball.
“They called out of bounds on me,” Korver said. “I missed the layup first of all. I shouldn’t have been in that situation. I’ve got to finish that. There was a scramble. I was off balance. I thought I got pushed in the back but they felt otherwise.”
Allen put the Heat up by two, 91-89, on a short jump with 1:21 remaining. They took the lead into the final minute when Josh Smith missed two free throws with 1:05 left.
“Not an excuse,” Smith said about expending energy having to guard James for much of the game. “I have to be better offensively for this ball club. As a leader I have to be more efficient. I have to be better at the free-throw line. I apologized to all my teammates because that was just a poor effort offensively by me. I mean it is a tough task to give energy on both ends of the court but I have to be more efficient. And I will be more efficient.”
Smith finished with 13 points but was 6-for-19 from the field and 1-for-5 from the free-throw line. He added eight rebounds. Teague led the Hawks (2-2) with 20 points. Korver (11) and Horford (10) were the other double-digit scorers.
Bosh finished with a game-high 24 points for the Heat (5-1), who have won four straight and four overall against the Hawks. James added 19 points and 10 rebounds.
“It was a very hard-fought game,” Drew said. “It really was. I thought my guys came out and really competed at a very high level. We played good in spurts, and again we showed some resilience, particularly when we got down by nine points in the fourth quarter. …
“But this game is about making plays down the stretch and we didn’t come up with enough plays down the stretch. They did, and they came up with the win.”
The Heat took a one-point lead, 72-71, into the decisive final quarter. They outscored the Hawks 18-2 in points in the paint – an important stat for both teams coming into the game.
The Hawks took a 46-42 lead into intermission thanks to Morrow. He scored the first seven points of the second quarter for the Hawks. Morrow had 12 points, including two 3-pointers, in the first half off the bench.
Smith had nine first-half points before leaving with a few seconds remaining before halftime after taking a charge from James. He said he suffered a bruised knee and expected to be sore Saturday when the Hawks leave on a four-game west coast road trip.
“We fought back against a great Miami team,” Smith said. We’re going to be good. We’re going to be going to be good and I’m going to be better.”
- Chris Vivlamore
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210 comments Add your comment
sameba
November 10th, 2012
12:01 am
Aside of pure play of some hawk players, I am very sad to see such a “bad” calls from NBA referees. Take as an example absence of a call when Chalmers (obviously) pushed KK from behind, I do not remember anything like that in any other sports I watched before.
northcyde
November 10th, 2012
12:04 am
Najeh Davenpoop
November 9th, 2012
11:13 pm
With 7:54 left in the 4th quarter, James Harden is 3/14 with 16 points and 5 turnovers against Tony Allen and the Memphis Grizzlies.
*************************
Harden finished 4 – 18 FG in that game . . . but scored 18 points.
In fact here are his last 3 games:
8 – 24 FG . . . 24 points
5 – 15 FG . . . 15 points
4 – 18 FG . . . 18 points
Teams are treating him like Jordan now. He’s simply making the adjustment. 3 point FG% is abysmal though. ( 2 for his last 17 )
Still a superstar in the making, once Houston gets better talent around him.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 10th, 2012
12:05 am
Wouldn’t mind trading Smoove, but any trade involving Pau Gasol is dreadful because he makes way too much money, whereas Smoove’s contract is respectable (although I think Smoove’s contract is pretty bad if he keeps playing like this)
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 10th, 2012
12:07 am
northcyde, What is Harden’s adjustment? Trying to get to the line?
I think the Hawks do well on this West Coast trip. None of the teams we are playing scare me. 3-1 should be possible IF LD MAKES THE RIGHT SUBSTITUTIONS. PUT FREAKING ANTHONY “FLIP MURRAY” MORROW IN IF HE IS ON FIRE. SMH
Rusty
November 10th, 2012
12:10 am
LD lost this game for us .He takes JT out of the game for long portion of the third &forth quater.doesnt put morrow or Ivan back in This team has a lot to overcome having LD ad our coach.zhr had no control of Josh..it seems like he might be betting against us,just a poor excuse for a coach.Idiot bob R talking about how much we miss JJ. LD really has no feel for the game of basketball,he really needs to go.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
12:10 am
Unfortunately, it seems Horford is a pure defender, and Josh is a pure offensive player. KK still cannot correct his shooting. Harris is a disappointment…
prison mike
November 10th, 2012
12:10 am
KK is horrible. He leaves his man and guards the no man’s land. Compared to Morrow, I don’t what Drew was thinking. Morrow had the midas touch. KK messed up a 4 on 1 break.
We are screwed with the swingman position until a trade is completed.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
12:11 am
^poor
Rusty
November 10th, 2012
12:13 am
Larry dummy needs to give JT big minutes,he is the rock of the offense.he needs to stop playing his favorites.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
12:16 am
First of all, I do hope LD is not HC soon.
Najeh Davenpoop
November 10th, 2012
12:17 am
T.I. says (among other things) that he would be open to collaborating with the Hawks in the future although he stops short of saying he actually wants to buy a stake in the team. That dude uses more unnecessary SAT vocabulary words than anyone other than Clyde Frazier.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
12:17 am
Only when LD is gone, one can start building something.
northcyde
November 10th, 2012
12:19 am
Jeje . . his adjustment is shot selection, and when to take the shot.
Those are Allen Iverson type scoring lines he’s putting up right now ( low FG% but high FT% and trips to the line ).
If he had some guys who could knock down open shots, his assists would be over 7 per game.
Everyone knew that he wouldn’t keep playing at the level that he was playing at. So the opposite should be true as well. He’s not going to continue to shoot this bad either.
The only question with Harden, is if he’ll be one of those Jamal-like “hot and cold” scorers, or a consistent one.
He’ll average 25 – 26 ppg this year pretty easily on that Rocket team.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
12:20 am
I guess with this head coach it is hard even to see the potential different Hawks’ players might have.
Rusty
November 10th, 2012
12:28 am
This game is on LD.
Rusty
November 10th, 2012
12:32 am
If LD wasn’t.our coach I could see JT becoming our best player.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
12:38 am
Rusty, it appears JT is already Hawk’s best player
Melvin
November 10th, 2012
12:42 am
northcyde,
Smoove was wearing a Veterans Day Headband. Some players around the league are wearing the same headband
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 10th, 2012
12:46 am
LD should call out the refs, but he won’t because he doesn’t make enough to afford a fine
Fire Asg
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
November 10th, 2012
12:47 am
Marvin looking like the invisible man for Utah *Yawn*
ghost of sekou smith
November 10th, 2012
12:54 am
teague, josh & al.. then, zaza, ivan, lou.. then a-mo, deshawn and jenkins.. we are a 4 or 5 seed at worst… LD needs to stop with the devin harris-ing and anthony tolliver-ing.. keep the rotation tight and these guys will figure it out.. 4 games people and we’re 2-2.. could be 4-0 or could be 1-3, but unlike the Lakers, give these guys some time to figure it out.. the east is so weak aside from the miami lebrons.. only morrow and teague played well tonight, and we were right there.. give it a few weeks and then start tearing josh to shreads, geez.. and he’s not selfish at all, just takes bad shots because players set him up for it and no one tells him otherwise (LD) – Josh was 2nd on the hawks in assists last year, and number 1 in the league amongst PF/F’s.. again, let’s give it some time
Rusty
November 10th, 2012
1:04 am
JT 27min,Harris 20′,Ivan 5″‘,Toliver 15′,Morrow 14′ doesn’t LD even have the brains to know who s hot or who is cold.why does he Try to run the offense thru Josh. I sure hope that Ferry seeswiicly that this man is a liability.
Slimjr
November 10th, 2012
1:10 am
“Battier’s D on Josh prevented the Hawks from doing this and took Josh out of the game offensively. Teague and Morrow kept the Hawks in it, and the defensive effort overall was pretty good, but neither Josh nor Al got it going inside like they should have.”
Tough nite for ALLStar Al too.. What was his impact?
“Did Al Horford play in this game? He got owned by Bosh and I don’t remember much of him on offense”
Bosh took somebody’s Chicken dinner.. But his Fan Club is focused on the other guy..Hmmm….
MattP
November 10th, 2012
1:11 am
I hope Ferry fires Drew before the season is over. I also want to see Smith get traded, bring in pieces that actually care about winning. I hope Ferry is watching Morrow, I want to see this guy on this team after this season.
Slimjr
November 10th, 2012
1:22 am
Woody and the Knicks are 4-0? Beat another team by double digits…
Melo goes for 31….
22-6…
Jamaaliver
November 10th, 2012
1:23 am
Josh (and change) for Pau Gasol might be worth looking into. Pau makes substantially more, but his contract is only a year longer than Josh’s. Pau and Horford would be the best front court in the East.
If things went South with Pau, his expiring conotract would be an attractive trade asset, or we could just keep him for the extra season.
But we really need to start looking at alternatives for Josh Smith. 8 years is more than enough time to realize it’s just not working.
TomDawg
November 10th, 2012
1:29 am
Come on now. Did ya’ll really think Atlanta was gonna beat the Heat.
kuhndog
November 10th, 2012
1:29 am
The call with 2 min. to go was a bad one we had the momentum, we need bot refs. I can’t say the refs lost it for us but they took away the momentum from us we only scored 2 points after that. It is hard enough to play the Heat but the refs. too.
kuhndog
November 10th, 2012
1:30 am
somebody needs to change the clock on the posts it is an hour fast, I guess they are too busy eating doughnuts
Rusty
November 10th, 2012
1:31 am
Not with LD as our coach.
Slimjr
November 10th, 2012
1:33 am
Bosh gets the game ball.. He seems to be over looked most of the time, but he is an ALLSTAR!
sameba
November 10th, 2012
1:36 am
It is better to go to lottery than take Gasol’s bad contract. No more bad contracts for Hawks! Aside of that, Gasol is a poor defender, his production is not better than that of Josh. Also, 4 games sample is too small to make such a important decisions…
Jamaaliver
November 10th, 2012
1:51 am
Pau has played in 3 NBA Finals, winning two. he’s played tough against KG, Duncan and some of the top PFs and Centers in the league.
He’s a 4x NBA all star, 2x NBA Champion 2x Olympica medalist. His defense AND his offense are just fine.
Dude is a winner. And how can a contract that lasts for 1 year and a half be terrible?
Jay
November 10th, 2012
1:54 am
Trade Josh Smith.
He can’t handle being the man, he sent worth the max, and he has some serious flaws. He has the ability to shoot us out of games. We’ve looked MUCH better without him on the floor, that isn’t a coincidence. Trade Smoove for a couple good players and we can become the Nuggets East. We can’t let Smoove leave for nothing, and he isn’t worth a long term contract for the coin he is going to ask for, so trade him!
Jae Evolution
November 10th, 2012
1:55 am
Josh is better than Pau, and he is 6 years younger than him.
Pau sits around the arc just like Josh taking long two’s and the occasional three. All Pau has is size, not to mention a worse contract and it wouldn’t move us forward.
Look at Pau’s statline tonight, it is nearly identical to Josh, however Pau played 4 more minutes and grabbed 8 more boards he still shot a low %. I can’t help but think if Pau were here tonight would the blog be coming down on him as hard as Josh.
Melvin
November 10th, 2012
1:57 am
Anthony Randolph is about to play for the 1st time this season. I think he regrets signing with Denver instead of the Hawks. He could have played a lot of more mins (or possibly started) with the Hawks.
Melvin
November 10th, 2012
1:58 am
I fail to mention the Randolph is playing now b/c it’s a blowout game with 4mins left.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
2:00 am
Jamaaliver:
P.Gasol’s achievements are in the past. Just look at the NBA website.
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/pau_gasol/
Do these numbers look attractive for you?
beone
November 10th, 2012
2:02 am
If Josh continues to play like this, we will find out about Ferry real soon. I will stay tuned but if Josh doesn’t learn to consistently play smarter bball and Ferry does nothing, then there is no hope. I hope I am wrong but I don’t believe Josh will change. I don’t know about Ferry. Hopefully, he will do what has to be done when the time comes. We’ll know within 2 or 3 months.
Najeh Davenpoop
November 10th, 2012
2:08 am
Aside from the on-court problems with bringing Gasol here (which I don’t feel like repeating since I already repeated them about a thousand times over the summer during the ongoing debates with northcyde) it is highly unlikely that the Hawks trade Josh for him when the whole point of moving Joe and Marvin out of here was to gain future salary cap flexibility. Gasol has won zero games in his career as the best player on his team, has peaked as a player, and most likely isn’t the type of player Ferry wants to build a team around at this point in his career. If Ferry wanted to salary dump Marvin so that his $6 million wouldn’t be on the books next year, it’s highly unlikely that he will want to play Gasol $20 million next year.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
2:16 am
Aside from getting some superstar, one should bring more younger, talented, full of energy players to Atlanta if one wants to contend in two years…
sameba
November 10th, 2012
2:21 am
And yes, one has to play them, not seat on the bench of course!
sameba
November 10th, 2012
2:23 am
^seat
CamiloAtlanta
November 10th, 2012
2:49 am
It’s going to be a long year, a long decade. Can’t wait till the next century when the Hawks finally win it all.
sameba
November 10th, 2012
3:04 am
Well, I would expect a little more than 10 points & 7 boards from a 2x AllStar in such a game. The problem with Al is that he lacks leadership skills. When you see Josh is struggling, why you would not take offence into your hands? He seems to be afraid of this. When you are a professional in sport, art, science etc you have to get rid of this shyness (I am not sure how one should say it in English better), otherwise you will not be very successful…
Hawkin' it up there randomly
November 10th, 2012
3:11 am
Why are you all so ready to bash Josh Smith???
I get it. He’s been a historically inconsistent player. He’s shown immaturity.
He’s also become more mature as he’s become one of the stalwart veterans on the team. It’s taken a long time – we all wish it had been quicker, and it’s not finished. But he’s been better, and at least he’s admitting accountability and trying to shoulder some of the burden with a little awareness.
He’s also one of the most talented players in the league. Improve his shot selection (yeah, I know) and you have one of the top forwards in the league as both an offensive and defensive threat. He’s been an elite shot-blocker since entering the league (..he isn’t a center) can play SF and PF with an advantageous overall matchup most of the time (better at PF, at Battier reminds us), and is an above average rebounder. He’s a career 46.4% shooter.
It’s a new era for the Hawks. New ownership and style have come to town, and an attitude change has followed. Smith is only now truly stepping into a new role as THE guy (Horford could be a close 2nd). Joe Johnson’s departue removed any question marks about Smith’s role as a top option and marquee player. He’s showing an interest in filling it and he’s grown up some – and just faced up to his inefficiency in this game. Not something he would have done a couple of years ago.
Calm down, enjoy the new potential and style of basketball we’re seeing, and give him more than 4 games to fill his new shoes. Go Hawks!
Grandad
November 10th, 2012
3:19 am
Late to the party:
Pau Gasol is a better basketball player than Josh Smith.
There is no comparison.
-However- and a -Big However- at that;
a trade at this time would need to be planned.
For example:
Straight up no way do we do it even due to age.
If LAL wants it;
they would have to involve a 3rd team …
one that has a really good young player or a potential high pick.
Somehow we would take home PGasol plus a young player or high pick.
LAL does not have that – could they produce that – they are LAL.
No way DFerry gives Josh away for PGasol;
even with him being the better player.
*’`age`’* !
Having said ……. more to come ……. next post.
Grandad
November 10th, 2012
3:24 am
* note;
had to remove a word prior to the word “planned”
the word was * m e t i c u l o u s l y
It makes for better syntax when inserted.
Grandad
November 10th, 2012
3:32 am
game notes:
I did not have a problem with Josh`s play;
only that he complained:
“about expending energy having to guard James for much of the game”
which he said was not an excuse.
When a wanna be Star Player … and I`m not using that term
in a derogatory fashion … has a bad nite;
he can`t blame it on defense.
The star has to bring it every nite in all phases.
LBJ does.
JJohnson did not, to which Josh evidently complained.
Once again I`m not jumping on Josh !
I`m making a pragmatic observation.
Grandad
November 10th, 2012
4:00 am
more game notes:
* Josh is killing our Hawks with his *’`awful`’* perimeter shooting.
* Along those lines LD is killing us more by allowing it.
* Furthermore – we have such very good shooters;
it`s more insufferable than a yr ago.
* Then the FT`s killed us:
The camera was on his eyes [once] as he was about to shoot a FT,
he averted his eyes to the Miami bench as he shot.
This shows his lack of concentration & I`m certain Miami knew this.
* The officials had an agenda tonite.
* The tech foul on Zaza was deplorable.
* However the total FTs were even – it was the timing.
* The officials officiated better than LD managed his player personnel.
* Ivan 5+ min stinks.
* Toliver & DHarris play while Ivan & JJenkins sit stinks more.
* Plus one does not sit Lou just for having an off nite;
otherwise … why was Josh and Al not seated.
* That brings up Zaza / can`t say match-ups /
his (+/-) was better than Harris who played 20 min to Zaza`s 14
Zaza was playing as well or better than Josh or Al ??? what gives.
I reckon LD does not like tough guys = Ivan + Zaza.
* We never spaced the floor with two shooters tonite:
Korver + Morrow allowing Josh or Al space to work inside.
* I will be the 1st to defend LD ……………….. when he deserves it.
~> 26 to go <~