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