Spirit the Hawk takes flight onto the court, jynx Hawks(4), Wade put Heat(5) on fire from 3 to even series 1-1

Hawks 93 Heat 108
24 30 29 25
18 23 31 21

recap

box score

Damn! Gotta hate those Hawks, the bird, not the team of course. And i don't hate all Hawks, but the one that flew down from the rafters onto the shot clock in the middle of the 1st quarter didn't help the Atlanta Hawks at all. They needed it.

CoCo stated some interesting coinscidences with that Hawk, apparently whenever there are incidences with that bird, the Hawks lose, there was a game in the 2007-2008 season against Miami at Phillips Arena where the bird flew into the rafters and simply refused to come down, and yes, the Heat won too.

Well, the story had been told, just as Al Horford and Josh Smith were laughing about their fear of the bird, everyone was just a little too lighthearted in the game tonight. Dwayne Wade wasn't laughing about anything, he was offensively aggressive AND hitting shots from the opening tip all throughout this game. It is understood that Dwayne Wade is a top 2 SG in the NBA, and he has the ability to takeover a game at his own pace, but the Hawks defense simply was not what it was in game 1. Game 1 the Hawks had steals, deflections, blocks, our defense really created all those fast break opporitunities and of course, we had the advantage. But when the offense slows down and we run plays posting up Joe Johnson and stuff, that is not our advantage. It wasn't just Wade though, all the decent players on the Heat stepped up, Jermaine O'Neal scored 19 pts, Dequan Cook 3pt shooting champion scored 20 pts, the Heat RESERVES outscored the Hawks in the 2nd quarter while Wade was sitting, then he came back in and scored 13 points straight.

Yep, it was evident from the jump that this game was just in the Heat's favor, shots were falling, and no one even scored 20 on the Hawks, so the Hawk players must feel as if they've been kicked in the teeth, Wade just pissed on the Phillips Arena floor, right on the Hawks logo, i expect the Hawks to be pissed off have vengence in their blood in Miami on Saturday.

(wade just spits in the Hawks faces and gives the spitball to our Atlanta representer, hell na..)

CoCO writes a great blog entry about how the writing was on the scoreboard (figuratively and literally)

Hoopinon breaks down the loss and gives statistics as usual

the Human Highlight Blog shows how Wade made you look

i think the Hawks can and will win on the road in these playoffs, watch..game 3

the HomeCourt Advantaged PlayoffsHawks (4) SWARM Dwayne Wade's Heat(5) in Game 1

Hawks 90 Heat 64
21 18 18 7
24 35 17 14

recap

box score

As Clifford "T.I. Harris announced the starting lineup for the Hawks and the Heat, the energy of the crowd was supremely intense, it is the first time playoffs have started in Atlanta since the1998-1999 season and the first time ever at Phillips Arena. Atlanta has shown it has die-hard Hawks fans too with the arena filled way before tip-off, the crowd was hectic from the beginning.
It proved to make all the difference.

The game started on a Dwayne Wade dunk, but the Atlanta Hawks defense and fast break agility flustered the Heat throughout the entire game. the young veteran Atlanta Hawks showed how they've grown together and how they are a much better TEAM then the Heat by moving the ball and exploiting mismatchups all night, and on the fast break? Mike Bibby and Josh Smith are unstoppable, or Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, or Josh Smith and Al Horford, and especially Marvin Williams, the Hawks are showing they have a stonger starting 5 and a better bench.

Many "experts" have given their playoffs predictions, 6 out of 10 of them believe the Hawks will win the series, my only concern is that 4 of those 6 say it will take 7 games.

My Prediction for the series is Hawks in 6.

See HawksDawgs colorful commentary, analysis of game 1, where Josh Smith has no regard for human life, and his victory bullets for that game.

See EVERYTHING at Lang Whitaker

For Micah Hart this game went better than he could have imagined

CoCo called this a good old fashioned ass whippin

WOW, Hoopinon critic barely gives Atlanta any credit for that win, basically saying the Hawks defensive performance provided a welcome relief to Hawks fans who'd spent the past week entertaining reasonable worries about this series

Who has reasonable worries? I'm confident that this Hawks team is the better and it is our year to advance to round 2, and superstar Wade is not going to stop that.

See u at game 2