Texas Road Trip and beyond

The Hawks learned from that loss to Dallas, today they go up against the Yao-led Rockets. Now, usually a team can gain some comfort from a few starters being out with an injury, but in this situation, it makes the Rockets even more dangerous. With Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest out with injuries that leaves the Rockets more offensively relied on Yao, and Yao, when he gets his rhythm, is slightly unstoppable. Its not an impossible task, but seeing as the Hawks no true 7 footers against a guy 7 foot 6 inches, it may be difficult but we might need Randolph Morris and his 6 fouls for this game.

Joe Johnson is rightfully more concerned with the Hawks team play over the possibility of being dominated by Yao, its not effort that he questions, its the team being in sync on the floor, there can be no missed defensive rotations or mis-mismatches, Hawks must impose their will, their style of defense, offense, which means more this season than iso Joe, lol. Josh and Al must be the unstoppable tandum than can be, are already close to being. They just have't had enough games together yet, Josh is getting the ball down on the block a little more often than before the injury, and he is shooting a higher percentage in these last 3 games than he did in the 1st 3 games of the season. Josh is still getting his rhythm, he was the most hurt by that loss in Dallas, and he didn't even have a bad game, this will be a good test against Yao.

In the Grizzles Preview, i had predicted the Hawks December record to be 12-4, with predicted losses at Houston and Denver, with 2 unexpecteds. That Dallas loss was not an unexpected, they simply will pick it up in Houston and go on to San Antonio tomorrow.

Look, the Hawks are in no ways similar to the Spurs, a championship franchise, the NBA's darlings with the big fundamental Tim Duncan, they win championships like every other season, which is exactly what they have done in the 21st century; '03, '05, '07, but to me, that team is on the decline. The spurs right now are 8-11, 9th in the Western Conference, and its not that the Spurs aren't good, its that they aren't GREAT anymore, the Spurs don't scare anybody, and they are old and slow, the Hawks are a team that they don't match up well with. Mike Bibby VS Tony Parker is a draw this season, Joe > Manu, damn the rings, Joe is a better more versitile player, Williams > Bowen, does Bruce Bowen still start and play for them? Isn't he like 42? Smith VS Duncan will be very interesting, Josh Smith will be determined to play him better than he did Nowitzki, and Duncan will struggle against the defensive Josh Smith, but when Josh gets the ball, Duncan is not quick enough to cover him. I could probably never say that Josh is a better Power Forward than Tim Duncan, but he might win that matchup about 50% of the time. and of course, Horford > Thomas, i say all that to say this. Hawks will win in San Antonio, probably for the first time in a decade or so. We will probably see that occur tomorrow.

Then its Miami. Dwayne Wade is the potential MVP of the league he is probably the best guard player in the league. Averaging 29.5 ppg 5.0 rpg 7.5 asts 49.9% FGs 27.7% 3pt FGs 75.1% FTs, he is proving that last year was surely a fluke. Except no one else on that Miami team has improved or is contributing in a major positive way. I mean, Micheal Beasley is the team's second leading scorer at 13.9 ppg 5.2 rpg but Shawn Marion leads the team in minutes played and he is only averaging 12.7 ppg 9.2 rpg, far below his career averages, equivelant to what Udonis Haslem is doing, 12.1 ppg 9.2 rpg, and the starting point guard? averages 30.7 mpg for 9.4 ppg 4.4 apg 2.1 spg. Not bad, but they don't match up well with the Hawks, especially our bigs. All the matters is the Wade factor, i would like to think Johnson and Wade cancel each other out, that Johnson is almost as good as Wade as a scorer and ball distributor..then i get back to reality. I always say Joe Johnson is the 3rd best SG in the NBA, but #2 is Wade, and of course #1 is Kobe, but in the game against Miami, Wade might score 40 but if we can keep the rest of the team in single digits we'll be good.

Then..its the revenge of the Hawks against LeBron. Our worst played game of the season was in Cleveland, we want to keep our home team record pretty for playoff time, and Josh Smith is back to cover LeBron, and Joe surely won't score 4 points again, so i think we can get a win at Phillips against the 2nd best team in the Eastern Conference.

That's all for this week, of course next week is the ESPN game of the season so we'll have a special for that, but all in all, the Hawks are doing fine and will continue to grow and improve.

Hawks seemed to have took Knicks win for granted, played same way in Dallas for 7th loss

Hawks 98 Mavs 100
23 20 16 39
21 20 33 26

ugh, another painful loss. Josh Smith agrees, “There’s no question this is one you wake up thinking about in the morning,” he says in the Sekou Smith Traveling Hawks piece.
Its unfortunate, it would have been monumtenal to go to Dallas and steal one on them, especially the way they are rolling, the hawks could have stopped that. Let me just say that Dirk Nowitzki is a magnificent player, its no wonder or question why he won the MVP that year, he is still the 3rd best PF in the NBA(Duncan, Garnett), and the best shooting PF of all time, seriously, how many other 7 footers average 25 ppg on 50% FGs 40% 3pt 90% 3s ? Yes, so it was understood that dirk would win that matchup, it was Joe's job to exploit the matchup between he and Juan Jose Barea. HE was supposed to score 30 and Barea should have been held to single digits, well, Joe Johnson DID score 32 pts (12/22 FGs 5/10 3pt FGs 3/5 FTs) 2 rbs 2 asts, but we shouldnt have let this under 6-footer score 22 pts (16 in the 3rd), the key to Dallas 33 pts 3rd quarter that almost sealed the game.

But how o how did the Hawks score storm back with a 39 point 4th quarter and then with the hawks down by 2 with Dallas ball, Josh Smith stole the ball! He dribbles upcourt with 35 seconds left in the game, loses control on the ball, and Jason Kidd steals it, flings it upcourt to Brandon Bass, who slams it home to make it 96-92, but then Mike Bibby runs downcourt and hits a three! score 96-95, Dallas has the ball, Josh Smith fouls Jason Terry, hits both free throws, score 98-95, hawks ball. No timeouts. Joe brings the ball up, tries to force a shot, we really dont know what happened here but Jason Kidd ended up with the ball and flings it up to Brandon Bass AGAIN who slams it home again. 100-95, 3 seconds left. Joe brings the ball up and hits a 3 as the buzzer expires, just to give him that 30+. Mavs win, 100-98.

The Mavs won and they deserved to win, but the Hawks could have deserved to win too with the excellent 4th quarter they played.

Marvin played okay. Bibby played good. Josh played good. Zaza played great. Joe played great.
nobody else did anything, Flip continues to suck.

STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Marvin Williams, PF	38	3-10	1-4	4-4	2	4	6	1	1	0	1	2	11
Josh Smith, PF	39	3-9	0-1	7-11	2	7	9	3	1	1	3	4	13
Zaza Pachulia, C	35	4-7	0-0	5-5	4	8	12	1	2	2	4	4	13
Joe Johnson, SG	39	12-22	5-10	3-5	0	2	2	2	0	0	2	5	32
Mike Bibby, PG	38	9-18	2-5	1-1	1	4	5	5	3	1	3	1	21
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Maurice Evans, SF	19	1-4	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	2
Acie Law, PG	10	0-1	0-0	2-2	0	1	1	2	1	0	1	1	2
Ronald Murray, SG	9	0-2	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	1	0
Solomon Jones, PF	13	2-2	0-0	0-1	1	1	2	1	0	0	2	2	4

Hawks narrowly avoid loss against Knicks, Josh Smith birthday

Hawks 98 Knicks 95
30 25 16 24
31 17 26 24

Happy 23rd Josh Smith! We felt this was gonna be a great game with the style the Knicks play and the return of forward Al Harrington against our Al Horford and Josh Smith. The result was not pretty in the first half, Harrington scored 20 pts on 8/12 shooting, but Atlanta was leading 57-55. the Hawks buckled down on defense in the 3rd quarter, but it looked like their offense went with it, holding the Knicks to 16 pts in the 3rd, the Hawks only scored 17. The 4th quarter, the Hawks gave the ball to their 2 best playmakers Josh Smith and Joe Johnson, we are still waiting for Josh to become the great offensive playmaker he can be, especially if he would, i dunno, take 60% of his shots in the paint, he could be an unguardable player at the power forward position, but he scored 16 pts (6/12 FGs 1/5 3pt FGs 3/5 FTs) 8 rbs 5 asts. Joe Johnson scored 17 pts (8/17 FGs 1/7 3pt FGs) 5 rbs 7 asts, and Marvin Williams was the leading scorer of the game with 18 pts (7/14 FGs 0/2 3pt FGs 4/4 FTs) 4 rbs 3 stls.

Its good to see Al Harrington reminice and respect the progress the Hawks made since his departure, he was always a class act for the hawks, he'll be a fine 2-year-rental for the Knicks.

Hawks surely didn't play their best in this win, they know it and they'd better learn from it before facing Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas.

STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Marvin Williams, PF	38	7-14	0-2	4-4	0	4	4	0	3	0	1	1	18
Josh Smith, PF	35	6-12	1-5	3-5	0	8	8	5	0	2	2	3	16
Al Horford, C	29	5-7	0-0	4-5	3	6	9	1	1	0	0	0	14
Joe Johnson, SG	44	8-17	1-7	0-0	0	5	5	7	1	0	6	2	17
Mike Bibby, PG	37	4-14	2-8	0-0	1	5	6	9	1	0	2	0	10
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Maurice Evans, SF	28	5-10	1-4	0-0	2	2	4	0	2	0	2	2	11
Ronald Murray, SG	16	4-6	0-0	2-3	1	3	4	1	0	0	2	1	10
Zaza Pachulia, C	13	0-0	0-0	2-4	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	2	2

Josh Smith returns, Hawks superb defense, balanced scoring effort grounds Grizzlies

Hawks 105 Grizzlies 95
24 15 30 26
24 26 33 22

BOX SCORE

Well, I sure wish i was the D that Sekou is referring to in his blog entry, something about a guy who accurately predicted all of the Hawks first 16 games wins and losses, coinscidence his name is D and im DJ, maybe it is me. If or if not, THIS was me, in yesterday's rare preview, i wrote the casual prediction of a 105-95 Hawks win, and, there you have it. But the story of this Hawks win is so much more than the score.

Josh Smith's return was grand, defensively, offensively (still taking those 3s, if Hawks aren't the #1 3pt shooting team in the league by the end of the season, ill say thanks JOSH!), still as explosive as ever, Josh Smith is, was, and always has been that X-factor that makes them able to beat ANY team in the league, i mean, of course any team is capable of beating any team in a game situation, but the 08-09 Hawks without Josh Smith were a 45 win team good for 5th seed in the East and beyond, but the 08-09 Hawks WITH Josh Smith are a 50 win team and may even earn homecourt advantage in the 1st round THIS SEASON.

SWAGGER Of the Game

Mike Bibby
Wow, Mike is really showing what he can do this year, you can see his floor leadership and decision making skill is at an all-time high, he is easily in his prime at 30 years old, shooting a career high FG%, 3pt FG%, now if we can just get that FT% above 80 he'll be an all-star PG. Last night Bibby scored 20 pts (7/11 FGs 4/6 3pt FGs 2/2 FTs) 3 rbs 10 asts, that will be his 7th game so far with 20 pts or more, his 2nd game with 10+ assists, and his 7th game shooting 50% or better from 3. I mean, he isn't quite Devin Harris (Bibby for Harris and the Hawks go to the Finals) but the Hawks aren't gonna get much better than this from another veteran PG in the league, Bibby is a great fit for this team. Mike Bibby played a perfect second half: 6-6 FGA, 4-4 3PTA, 5 assists, 0 turnovers.

SUPERSTAR JOE
Joe Johnson
Thats the Joe we know, thats the 3rd best SG in the league Joe, thats one of the most versitile players in the league, shooting and passing beautifully leading his team with Bibby to a win. Not every night Joe will score 26 pts 5 rbs 5 asts

The Invisible X factor
Marvin Williams
Marvin Williams scouting report from the opposing team about him probably reads, "average at everything, try not to completely ignore him" and so far opponents haven't taken heed to that little truth of advice in that statement, because Marvin's a shooter now, he may not be Ray Allen or Peja Stoy, but he's got a better 3pt % than both of those players right now. He has also improve in his ball handling and passing ability, there were several nice assists made in this game, 16 pts (4/9 FGs 2/5 3pt FGs 6/6 FTs) 4 rbs 5 asts.





The BO$$
Al Horford is the Boss, i guess. After the Hawks beat the Bucks at Phillips Arena, somebody asked Al his nickname, or rather he volunteered it, then, clearly making it up on the spot declared, "I'm the BOSS!" at the time i was making fun of him for it, my friend asked me, "is that anybody's nickname is the NBA?" i said "no, maybe in the WWE" so im laughing joking about it, and i go to Phillips Arena and they booming it over the system everytime he scores now, "AL HORFORD, THE BOSS!" Wooooww.... we'll see how long it sticks, probably as long as LeBron's wrist kissing thing before each free throw.
NEVERTHELESS, "the BOSs" had a good game, it would be good for Horford to average a double-double, but with this hawks team, its so not important these induvidual milestone statistics, and with Horford especially because his presence is bigger this season than the last, especially on the offensive end. 15 pts (7/9 FGs 1/2 FTs) 5 rbs 4 asts is a good stat line for the starting center.

Hawks ball movement is beautiful.


Joe Johnson is still magnificent.

Al Horford is still a beast

Josh Smith is still great.

Season Prediction:
Many people called me crazy for my preseason prediction of a 47-35 record for the Hawks this season, a 10 game improvement for a team that only added bench would have been great, but no one could have predicted the Hawks beautiful ball movement, excellent 3point shooting, all-star play of Mike Bibby, and improvement of Marvin Williams, if you look at my previous prediction i predicted Marvin would DISimprove this season, but i am glad to be wrong, Marvin is a very important piece to the Championship-level Hawks, whenever we get there, but THIS SEASON, it is not outside the realm of possibility to achieve a record of... 50-32 - 5th seed in eastern conference, i would put us at 4th seed, but its too early to count out Detriot and Allen Iverson, no matter what, THAT is who we will see in the first round playoffs this year, in my prediction, and since that D person predicted November I am going to predict December

Hawks VS Grizzlies W
Hawks VS Knicks W
Hawks @ Dallas W
Hawks @ Rockets L
Hawks @ Spurs W
Hawks @ Miami W
hawks VS Cleveland W
Hawks VS Charlotte W
hawks VS Celtics W
Hawks VS Golden State W
Hawks VS Detroit W
hawks VS OK City W
Hawks VS Chicago W
Hawks VS Denver L
hawks @ Indiana W

and dont call me a jynxer if they lose a few of these games, but i think worst case scenario, Hawks will go 10-6 in December to match the November record, and if they stay on that path these Hawks may end up....50-32 exactly as i predicted, i swear if the Hawks get 50+ wins Mike Woodson deserves Coach of the Year, so follow December with me i wanna see the Hawks succeed.

Hawks record going into 2009: 23-8

Hawks VS Grizzlies Preview

Yes!

I normally don't blog previews but this is the game of the return of Josh Smith! we are all very excited, for the Hawks went 10-6 the first month of the season, and 6-6 the 12 games Smith was out, now with Smith back in the lineup, let's see what kind of defensive difference that makes in the play-by-play situations that occur. You know, people have been getting Smith's 08-09 season stats wrong. Everything says Smith averages 12.5 ppg 8.5 rpg 2.5 blks 2.5 stls (which is still very good) but in that average calculation, they are counting the game he got injured in, where he played 11 minutes before his injury, so OUTSIDE of that game in those 1st 3 games Josh Smith was averaging
40 mpg 14.2 ppg 10.4 rpg 3.3 bpg 3.0 spg 60.5% FGs 33.3% 3pt FGs 57.1% FTs

While we all know Smith won't come back and average anywhere near 40 minutes, its important to see this as a new beginning for Smith and the Hawks. Smith, who has never been out for 12 games in ANY season, and the Hawks who had not been without Smith for any extended period of time, and the Hawks certainly haven't even been winning the way the way we have been recently in the Josh Smith era of the Atlanta Hawks, so this was a learning, growing experience on both sides. Now, when u add the defensive force and offensive firepower of a player like Josh Smith to the winning performance the Hawks have been displaying lately, it will be interesting to see the result of that, which we will first, tonight, which is really just practice, warm-up for Smith, he wont really be unleashed until Friday against New York, which also happens to be Josh Smith's 23rd Birthday. I bet he will have a hell of a game, its starts now.

Hawks 105 Grizzlies 95