Defense, balanced scoring dominated the Denver Nuggets, Hawks improve to 20-10, T-5th best record in NBA

Hawks 109 Nuggets 91

24 29 18 20

29 25 24 31

BOX SCORE


This is a great year for Atlanta's birds.

Hawks 20-10 (4th in Eastern Conference, 5th in NBA)
Falcons 11-5 (NFC wildcard playoffs, Matt Ryan Offensive Rookie of the Year)

Both franchises have been through their fair share of turmoil, the Falcons a lil' more drama than the Hawks, but its beautiful to see these Atlanta teams maturing into real championship contenders.

This game started out very contested. Denver is a very good team, but NeNe, their starting center was out with an injury. Chris "Birdman" Andersen started in his place, he was no real challenge to Al Horford, as Horford made several big plays in the 1st quarter against him. Joe Johnson scored 12 pts in the 1st quarter, and the Nuggets doubled him at every position the rest of the game, Joe made them pay though with his excellent passing, usually to Mike Bibby who made big shots all game, he is a great floor leader offensively for the hawks, scoring (20) and assists (9). Al Horford played great. 16 pts (6/9 FGs 4/5 FTs) 10 rbs 4 asts, people don't give Atlanta's passing enough credit, especially that of Al Horford and Mike Bibby. Al Horford has to be the best passing center in the east, right?

i had been getting on Josh Smith lately, because i felt he hadn't played extremely well yet, but i just found out he had a nagging injury that he a playing through. That's alright, this is the year for the improvement of Mike Bibby, Marvin Williams, and Al Horford to shine, we won't be talking about Josh Smith all-star this year, but we will be talking about the Hawks 50 wins :)

The Hawks are looking real good right now, to themselves and the rest of the league. Joe Johnson is in his absolute prime, he is undisputedly an all-star and one of the best all-around players in the league. Mike Bibby is in his absolute prime, he has led this Hawks team to a winning situation better than anyone could have imagined this season, Mike Bibby should be an all-star.

• The Mike Bibby-Joe Johnson backcourt combine to score more points per game than any other backcourt in the NBA.
• the Mike Bibby-Joe Johnson duo has made more 3 pointers than any other duo on any team in the NBA.
  
• Mike Bibby has made 78 3pt FGs this season, 2nd in the NBA, Joe 70, 5th.

Its beautiful, the Hawks being a winning team, now I am going to make another outlandish prediction. Hawks 21-10 in 2008, 13-4 in January to make them 34-14. Watch.