26 28 27 31 | 112
17 24 28 18 | 87
recap17 24 28 18 | 87
box score
It is such a beautiful day to be a Atlanta Hawks fan. Not too long ago, rookie Mike Woodson, Josh Smith and the Atlanta Hawks were the worst team in the league at 13-69. After 4 long years of player development and steady improvement, it seems the Hawks have taken a quantum leap into the NBA elite in this 09-10 season.
The Minnesota Timberwolves hope to emulate the Hawks' success story in the coming years. The Hawks core of Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, and Zaza Pachulia have played together for 4 seasons, and over the past 2 seasons they have added big Al Horford (3rd pick 2007 draft), Mo Evans, and Mike Bibby to their core. A couple of key role players such as Jamal Crawford (leading candidate for 6th man of the year), Jeff Teague (19th pick 2009 draft), Joe Smith (14 year veteran big), and young Randolph Morris, and the 2009-2010 Atlanta Hawks have one of the top 10-man rotations in the league.
This game was never in doubt, as the Hawks jumped out to an early lead, turning the Wolves 7 first quarter turnovers into 14 points, the Hawks ended the first quarter leading 26-17.
The Hawks did a great job of keeping the Wolves at arms length, the game never got closer than 8 in the first half, despite foul trouble with Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia. When Smith was on the floor, he was a huge difference-maker, in 21 minutes Josh scored 10 pts (5/6 FGs) 3 rbs 3 asts 3 stls, but the biggest difference maker in this game had to be Jamal Crawford.
Just as he has been doing all season, Jamal comes off the bench to lead the team in scoring, it is amazing to see how offensively gifted this guy is, he must have one of the best pull-up jumpers in the league, and he is shooting at a career-high FG%, in this game, Jamal enters at 2:30 remaining in the 1st. The Hawks keep the lead going into the 2nd quarter and that is when the Jamal Crawford light show starts. He starts his scoring tier by hitting a 24-foot 3-pointer on an assist from Mike Bibby. The Wolves did get within 7 points on a Al Jefferson layup, but Really, the combination of Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford is getting too potent for opposing teams to handle, Joe and
Jamal alternating scoring put the lead back up to 13 for a 54-41 halftime advantage.The 2nd half had more of the same, the game was never really in doubt, but the Hawks did get a little lax defensively, allowing the Wolves to outscore them in the 3rd, 28-27, so in the 4th quarter, Joe and Jamal put the team on their back, and the most consistent player of the night had to be big Al Horford. In a game where Smith and Pachulia had 5 fouls, Horford played a game-high 41 minutes for 16 pts (7/15 FGs) 11 rbs 4 asts 2 stls 1 blk. Horford, shooting a 7th in the league best 57.8% on the floor, was great at making the right plays and playing defense, it would have been cool to see Horford with 19 rebounds, but he has the ability to get those numbers anytime.
Jamal Crawford scored 13 of his game-high 26 in the 4th quarter to put away the Wolves, including 2 back-to-back beautiful 3-pointers in the beginning of the 4th. The Wolves did battle back, but they did not get any closer than 12 as the Hawks stepped up and scored 31 4thQ points, the most of any quarter in the game for a 112-87 victory, the Timberwolves second worst defeat this season.
"We started with a bunch of babies six years ago, 18, 19, 20-year-old kids, and they've grown," coach Mike Woodson said. "The ownership has given me the latitude to continue to coach this team and our core guys have been together now four years and that makes a big difference." -Mike Woodson
"They're kind of the example of a team that got its players young," Love said of the Hawks. "They played together. They stuck together. They grinded out wins together. They had high points. They had low points. But they stuck together. ... That's something I hope I can be a part of one day." -Kevin Love
It great to see other players and teams continue to give the Hawks credit for their rise from the bottom and acknowledge the team as a top 5 team in the NBA today.
"We're trying to do something special," Woodson said.
translation: "We feel we can be the best team in basketball and maybe even win a championship"
I believe these Hawks can do it, they will at least make the conference Finals this season, but it would be a dream come true for the Hawks players coaches and especially the fans to see the Atlanta Hawks represent the East in the NBA Finals.
It can happen, stay tuned.
Denver Nuggets (19-9) tomorrow.
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