Posts Tagged ‘Hawks’

Cleveland – It’s over, folks. More than just losing two games, the Hawks have lost players and heart. They’re undermanned. They’re overwhelmed. Soon they’ll be outta here.

This one has sweep written all over it. Yes, a certain series a year ago bore the same look after two distressing road games, and that one went the distance. But Al Horford and Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson weren’t injured then, and these are the Cavs and they’re even more driven than Boston was. LeBron James might not let his team lose a half, let alone a game.

And the Hawks who showed up at Quicken Loans Arena – or, more precisely, didn’t show up – pale alongside the spirited bunch that took Games 3, 4 and 6 from Boston, even alongside the polished crew that saw off Miami in Game 7. In three days here the Hawks managed the difficult task of hurting themselves while taking a dive.

“I don’t know who’s going to dress on Saturday,” Mike Woodson said afterward. And then: “We’ve got to get …

Continue reading Round 2, Game 2: Say goodbye to the Atlanta Hawks »

Cleveland – I don’t like doing television. Heck, I don’t like watching television. But a local station asked if I’d come on live from courtside at the Q before tonight’s game because one of the anchors took umbrage with this scandalous line from the live Game 1 blog:

“For one thing, they have to live in Cleveland.”

It was, I’ll grant you, a bad little joke. But I’d also submit that, as Cleveland jokes go, it was about the mildest ever. Because I don’t really get into that make-fun-of-the-other-city thing. (Except for Birmingham, Ala. — don’t get me started on Birmingham, Ala.)

Anyway, I was asked to go on the local Fox affiliate with some guy named Bob — or maybe it was Bill — who bills (or bobs) himself as the Mayor of the City of Champions. (Yes, that would, in Bob/Bill’s mind, be Cleveland, Ohio, which hasn’t seen a professional championship since 1964. But I digress.)

So there I am, trying to be a good sport, and Bob/Bill comes on, calls me a knothead, calls my employer …

Continue reading Live from Cleveland: Game 2, and the Mayor is mad at me! »

Hewitt’s program takes yet another hit

Georgia Tech announced Wednesday it had “elected to forego” two basketball scholarships for the 2008-2009 season for what it believed would be its failure to meet the NCAA’s Academic Progress Report standard of 925. Sure enough, the just-released APR showed the Jackets falling to 914 in the reporting year of 2007-2008, down from 931 in 2006-2007.

This comes on the heels of Tech’s third losing season over its past four, the possible early loss of Gani Lawal to the NBA and the loss of assistant coach Charlton Young, who became head coach at Georgia Southern. It also follows Hewitt’s assertion that “our academics are in the best shape since I’ve been here.”

His point was that any academic issues might have had — in 2007-2008, say — have since been ironed out. In the same March interview, Hewitt noted that six Jackets made the dean’s list last semester. He also admitted he “tried to fight the APR hard because I thought it could have an effect …

Continue reading Bradley’s Buzz: More bad news for Georgia Tech hoops »

Cleveland – The Hawks filed back into Quicken Loans Arena this morning for practice, and Mike Woodson admitted he had some fences to mend. “I kind of lashed out at them last night,” the coach said, and when Woodson says “kind of” he means “absolutely, positively.”

Woodson was angry about the second half, in which his team managed 28 points in 24 minutes and, according to Joe Johnson, “gave up.” I’ll address this at greater length in a column, but Woodson’s point — and it’s a good one — is that the team can’t be satisfied with just getting here. Because if it is, it won’t be here long.

Questions linger about Johnson, who took only 10 shots against five turnovers, and whether the Cavs’ defense rendered him ineffective or whether Johnson simply wasn’t forceful enough. And the big question now, same as it was last week: Will Al Horford play?

He didn’t practice this morning, getting treatment on his tender right ankle. Asked Horford’s status for Game 2 on Thursday, Woodson said: …

Continue reading Live from Cleveland: Chatting about Woody and his Hawks »

CLEVELAND — They were here — well, not “here” geographically — last spring. The Hawks arrived in Boston at a time when Sports Illustrated was bannering the prospect of a Celtics-Lakers final on its cover, and they nearly gummed up the works. Now they’re on the shore of Lake Erie for what’s being billed as LeBron’s Coronation. So they know how difficult it is.

“It’s tough to steal a series,” Mike Woodson said before tipoff Tuesday. “I’ve seen it done in my 27 years in the NBA, but it’s very tough.”

The Hawks gave Boston all it could handle — in Atlanta. The games in TD Banknorth Garden were rather different and never close. The Celtics won by 23, 19, 25 and 34. And this Game 1, sad to say, tracked that regrettable path. The Hawks lost by 27 and didn’t lead after the first eight minutes.

True, they hung around for 2 1/2 quarters, whereupon the MVP left the visitors in his considerable wake. Credit the Hawks for making LeBron James work, but credit the man himself for …

Continue reading Round 2, Game 1: A big night for LBJ, another no-go for Joe »

Cleveland — We come to you from Quicken Loans Arena, known locally as the Q. To enter the media door of the Q, you walk within 75 yards of the left-field foul pole at the Indians’ ballpark, which used to be known as the Jake (short for Jacobs Field) but is now, I’m guessing, the Prog (short for Progressive Field, which is the new official name).

If you’re looking for positive signs, that’s a pretty solid one. The only time an Atlanta-based professional team has won a title in one of the major North American sports, half the games were played at the Jake. The Braves lost two of the three, but without Pedro Borbon Jr. — remember him? — saving Game 4 of the 1995 World Series, our Atlanta-based professional teams might be 0-for-ever.

(About Borbon: The lefty reliever hadn’t worked in 19 days but was summoned by Bobby Cox when Mark Wohlers yielded a leadoff homer to Manny Ramirez and a subsequent double to Paul Sorrento leading off the ninth. Borbon struck out Jim Thome, struck out …

Continue reading Live from Game 1: In the court of the wine-and-gold king »

A change of pace: Glowing Hawk reviews

Back in October, John Hollinger of ESPN.com picked the Hawks to finish 31-51, 13th among the 15 teams in the NBA East. On Sunday he sat in Philips Arena and watched them beat the Miami Heat to advance to Round 2, and it’s safe to say he was duly impressed.

Focusing on Joe Johnson’s breakout game, Hollinger also wrote: “If Atlanta’s All-Star could match Miami’s All-Star [Dwyane Wade} shot for shot, as he finally did Sunday, there was no way Wade’s supporting cast could lift him past Johnson’s.” (Oddly enough, a guy I know had been saying much the same thing. Not that I’m ever right. Though I was, kind of, this time.)

For the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Ira Winderman wrote essentially the same thing and played heavily off Wade’s assertion that the Hawks have five guys who can make a play. And five tends to beat one.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

On SI.com, Bill Trocchi called Zaza Pachulia’s dive-on-the-floor offensive …

Continue reading Bradley’s Buzz: The Hawks win a series, and people notice! »

The franchise that didn’t draft Chris Paul and saw its owners sue another over a trade with Phoenix; the franchise of the wayward bird mascot and Cliff Levingston’s running lefty hook; the franchise that hadn’t won a Game 7 since it was based in St. Louis and a best-of-seven series since 1970 …

That franchise stands among the NBA’s elite eight.

Admit it. You laughed at these guys. Heck, we all laughed. But go ask the preening Pat Riley and the illustrious Dwyane Wade how funny it is to play these reborn Atlanta Hawks. Because they’re different. They’re the kind of team we Atlantans don’t see very often. They’re the kind that rises to its moment.

“This has been the kind of situation in which Atlanta has traditionally had trouble,” said Michael Gearon Jr., a lifelong Hawks’ fan who’s one of the team’s many owners. “And not just us. Other teams, too.”

Well, yes. From Lonnie Smith dallying in the Metrodome to Eugene Robinson getting arrested on Biscayne Boulevard, we’ve grown …

Continue reading One big step for these Hawks, one giant leap for Atlanta »

The Celtics and Bulls played seven overtimes over their seven games. The Hawks and Heat haven’t yet seen a second-half lead change. Think about that. Think about a series that has gone the distance but done nothing to stir the senses. (Unless you’re the sort who gets miffed over a missed dunk in a 20-point game.)

Fun with numbers: The Hawks have won three games, each by double figures, and have been outscored by 19 points in the series. They won Game 1 by 26 points and lost Game 6 by 26. (And let’s try to forget Game 3, in which the margin was 29.)

In sum, it has been a series to forget, but that will change today. Because somebody’s going to win this thing, and somebody’s going to remember it. Somebody’s going to be chasing LeBron James in Round 2. And I’m thinking, as I mentioned yesterday, it’ll be the Hawks.

Note the score I predicted. (Note also that, as most of you know, I’m never right about anything.) I said 82-77, which means I believe that finally — finally! — we’re …

Continue reading Live from Game 7: Looking for Mr. Good Game (finally!) »

They’d better win because they’ve worked 12 months for these 48 minutes. They’ve said it daily since May 4, 2008, same as Mike Woodson said it Saturday: “We wanted to have a chance to host Game 7.” Now they do.

They’d better win because to do otherwise would leave them where they were 364 days ago. They’d be just another team that made a bit of noise before taking its leave, just another Round 1 loser. They’d get to sit and watch while the big boys sort out the NBA championship, and again they’d have to ask, “When are we going to grow up?”

They’d better win because these Hawks are almost grown, or they should be. Joe Johnson and Mo Evans entered the NBA in 2001, Flip Murray in 2002, Zaza Pachulia in 2003. Mike Bibby was drafted in 1998. Even Josh Smith, widely viewed as the epitome of young and reckless, has been a pro since 2004.

They’d better win because they saw in Boston what it takes to win a Game 7. They saw the Celtics in all their focused fury. They saw the Celtics’ …

Continue reading Another Game 7, and this one’s at home. They’d better win. »