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.
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