Hawks VS Grizzlies Preview

Yes!

I normally don't blog previews but this is the game of the return of Josh Smith! we are all very excited, for the Hawks went 10-6 the first month of the season, and 6-6 the 12 games Smith was out, now with Smith back in the lineup, let's see what kind of defensive difference that makes in the play-by-play situations that occur. You know, people have been getting Smith's 08-09 season stats wrong. Everything says Smith averages 12.5 ppg 8.5 rpg 2.5 blks 2.5 stls (which is still very good) but in that average calculation, they are counting the game he got injured in, where he played 11 minutes before his injury, so OUTSIDE of that game in those 1st 3 games Josh Smith was averaging
40 mpg 14.2 ppg 10.4 rpg 3.3 bpg 3.0 spg 60.5% FGs 33.3% 3pt FGs 57.1% FTs

While we all know Smith won't come back and average anywhere near 40 minutes, its important to see this as a new beginning for Smith and the Hawks. Smith, who has never been out for 12 games in ANY season, and the Hawks who had not been without Smith for any extended period of time, and the Hawks certainly haven't even been winning the way the way we have been recently in the Josh Smith era of the Atlanta Hawks, so this was a learning, growing experience on both sides. Now, when u add the defensive force and offensive firepower of a player like Josh Smith to the winning performance the Hawks have been displaying lately, it will be interesting to see the result of that, which we will first, tonight, which is really just practice, warm-up for Smith, he wont really be unleashed until Friday against New York, which also happens to be Josh Smith's 23rd Birthday. I bet he will have a hell of a game, its starts now.

Hawks 105 Grizzlies 95

Hawks beat east-worst, fresh-fired Eddie Jordan Wizards, like we're supposed to

Hawks 102 Wizards 98
28 27 25 22
17 28 26 27

BOX SCORE


Test.

Its actually pretty sad, the situation for the Wizards. They have, what they feel, one of the best scoring guards in the league, a guy that can score 30 ppg and legitimately lead his team to being a title contender, a guy that signed a 6 year 118 million dollar contract 3 months ago...and he is recovering from his 3rd knee surgery in 3 seasons.

i mean, shout out to Hibachi 2.0 blogspot, that boy Moose is a fantastic blog writer, but Gilbert Arenas was one of my favorite players for a while, alot of people say he will never be the same player again when he returns, we can only imagine what Gilbert himself is going through as his team sucks and his coach gets fired. I can't wait to hear Agent Zero prove himself again when he returns, but until then, and even after, still, the Hawks needed this win.

Mike Bibby led the Hawks in a balanced scoring team performancewith 21 points (8/14 FGs 3/6 3pt FGs 2/2 FTs) 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals. Joe Johnson was good, 18 points (7/18 FGs 1/5 3pt FGs 3/3 FTs) 3 rebounds, 3 assists, but Mo Evans and Al Horford were the reason the Hawks won this game.

Mo Evans scored 19 points (6/14 FGs 4/7 3pt FGs 3/5 FTs) 9 rebounds, and Al Horford scored 19 points (7/10 FGs 5/6 FTs) 13 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals, and the play-of-the-game definitely goes to Horford.

The Wizards tied the game at 98 after a Caron Butler 3 pointer with 1:10 left to play, Mike Bibby dribbles up the court, passes to Marvin Williams, he drives, dishes to Al, Al dunks with dominating fashion to get the bucket and the foul. Makes the free throw.

The Wizards played well though, Caron Butler is a great player, Antwan is okay, but the Washington Wizards organization might as well be rebuilding, because they surely will not be competing for a playoff spot this season.

Hawks outexecuted down the stretch - Bosh beasts, Raptors win

Hawks 88 Raptors 93
21 29 15 23
24 22 23 24

We didn't have to lose this game.

Seems like every time i give Coach Woodson credit in a game, the next game the Hawks lose and Woodson is blamed for one reason or another, but in this game, Woodson is rightfully blamed.

and no one knows better than Brett LaGree at PeachtreeHoops, see how he breaks it down:

"With 3:32 left in the third quarter, Zaza Pachulia went to the bench. The Hawks were up 2, in no small part thanks to the 8 offensive and 9 defensive rebounds Pachulia had already grabbed. By the end of the third quarter, the Hawks would be down by 4 points. In the fourth quarter, the Hawks would never regain the lead. As a team they would grab, in the fourth quarter, just 7 defensive rebounds. Toronto would grab 15 fourth quarter rebounds, 4 of them offensive. Pachulia would never leave the bench."

Why, Mike? I was watching the game from home with friends and we were all saying "Wow! ZaZa is getting like ALL the rebounds!" but of course, Bosh was beasting, Al Horford can't contain that beast, and the Raptors won, like they were supposed to, but ZaZa could have definitely got a few of those rebounds, he has been outstanding in rebounding and defense since Josh has been out, he should have played more minutes than 0.

Now, after every game, everyone knows the coaches and players talk and give their analysis from their perspective, which is always an interesting thing, because analysis of the game is a whole different sport than playing, lol, and Mike Woodson is undoubtedly an expert, we cannot understate or undervalue the career this man has had with basketball, google him, but peep what Woodson said after the game:

"We hurt ourselves because we settled too much for 3s. We were just too selfish tonight. Sometimes those shots are appetizing and they look good, but if you're not making jump shots, you've got to get to the free throw line.''

Come on, the Hawks are the #1 3pt shooting team in the NBA, they were 6/13 in the 1st half, but in the second half went only 2/13, that does not mean the shots were bad or selfish, just not enough was going in, this was not a "get-to-the-line" kind of game, when you play a team like the Toronto Raptors, they are Chris Bosh and shooters, that is it, and Jose Calderon, who had 11 assists, but seriously, they are not a physical team, and surely Jermaine O'Neal doesn't make them that if/when he returns, no one cares.

Anyway, Al Horford has got to do better, Marvin Williams has got to do better, and we are on our way to Washington D.C., this way not a bad loss, the Hawks are still a better team than the Raptors thus far, and we will continue to prove that, especially after the return of JOSH SMITH.

Going into December 10-6. 4th in eastern conference.

believe that.

No Redd, Bogut, Hawks beat Bucks at Phillips Arena

Hawks 102 Bucks 96
24 24 19 29
28 20 23 31

BOX SCORE

Joe wanted to rebound well from the lowest scoring effort surrendered all season, and he did it not by scoring 30 points, but by scoring wisely, assisting well, and leading in every since of the word his team to victory with 15 points, 9 assists.

Al Horford led Hawks scoring with 21 points(9/12 FGs, 3/5 FTs), 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, 2 steals, he has been outstanding in the absence of Josh, Mike Bibby was good as usual, 18 points (6/14 FGs 4/9 3pt FGs 2/4 FTs) 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and Marvin Williams had an idential stat line, but a more efficient 18 points (4/8 FGs 1/3 3pt FGs 9/10 FTs) 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks.

"Flip-Switch" Murray was ON tonight after having been OFF for the past 3 games, although Mo Evans always steps up if and when Flip is OFF, and even some games where Flip is ON Mo plays big off the bench, we are going to soon start counting how many games we have both Flip and Mo is double figures, Sekou calls them "FlipMO Squad"

Busta Rhymes said no, lol.

In other news, this was the reunion of the the Hawks and Tyronne Lue, in which tried so hard to play well against his old number 10, Mike Bibby, but Bibby showed exactly why he was traded for, and why the Hawks were never successful with Lue, in that game. The Hawks are winning, and Hawks are being expected to win certain games and winning, this is such a far cry from even just last season, let alone the 2 seasons previous, even though Mike Woodson has been a fool more often than not in his head coaching career with the Hawks, but he deserves some credit this season, seriously, if the Hawks win 50 games, Mike Woodson Coach of the Year.

see you in Toronto.

Hawks spanked by Cavs, and LeBron, Joe held to 4 pts..bench shined though

Hawks 96 Cavs 110

12 20 26 38
28 21 30 31

BOX SCORE

Even though the Hawks are just getting used to being a "good" team, just now hearing of these "expectations" even after playing 9 games without Josh Smith(which is the total number of games missed HIS ENTIRE CAREER before this), and even though their previously outlandish goal of winning 50 games has become slightly believable, they are still quite a ways to go to defeat a LeBron-led team, and at since at this point its the Cavs, i guess it helps that the rest of the team is pretty good too.

Seriously though, the Hawks could not have come in with a game plan, couldn't have had a #2 option in case Joe was off(and boy was he off). There was one sequence in the game that had me very mad at Marvin Williams. After having 2 straight GREAT games (21/14/4 - 22/10/1) i was hoping he would have the confidence to go up against the greatest individual talent in the game today, he did not. With 0:42 left in the 2nd, Marvin drove toward the basket, now, he DID lower his shoulder, but LeBron was moving, and James was called a blocking foul. James was PISSED, dude smacked the floor stormed up and said some curses (away from the ref), so Atlanta gets the ball back, Bibby throws it into Marvin Williams in his opposite favorite corner with LeBron James in his face. So what does Marvin do? He fakes a shot, pivots right, then fakes a shot again, and pivots again. You know, a wise man said, "indecision kills confidence, exploits weakness" and Marvin Williams got EXPOSED on that play, LeBron just TOOK the ball from Marvin, shoved him to the floor, and threw the ball to a very bad player, Sasha Pavlovic for an open court layup. and of course by this time, the score is 29-50....Marvin later picks up his face and makes a jumpshot so the halftime score is 31-50.

Whats goin on with Joe?
whew, i dont think i've ever seen Joe this bad. 4 Pts on a layup and 2 free throws? missing 7 FG attempts and 2 threes? It would be one thing if we were playing, say, the Bulls and Al Horford was beasting to make up for some of that missed scoring, but yeah we would definitely need Joe to score at least his 20 pts to beat the Legend of LeBron's 30/8/8 or close every game. This was Joe Johnson's lowest scoring output since a game against the Championship Pistons in the 2005-2006 season. It's all good, every great player has a bad game or two in the season, let's just hope that was the one.










Law IV

Of course there is always credit given to a good player performance in a win, but there is also always a bright spot in every loss too. Acie Law played his heart out for a season-high 23 minutes for 20 pts (6/11 FGs 1/1 3pts 7/10 FTs) 6 rbs 7 asts, but besides his stats it was the advantage the Hawks had when he was on the floor, his speed and quickness off the dribble and in the open court has not been seen in Atlanta since, ummm, Jason Terry? ew, anyway there was only one sequence that i was upset at him for and that was a fastbreak in the 4th quarter, a 2-1 advantage, all he had to do was feed Mo Evans for the layup, he attempted his own layup, missed got the rebound and then tried to feed Mo, which the pass went out of bounds for a turnover. Can't do stuff like that against the Cavs, but he played a great game.

Marvin Williams is still playing great, the Cavs are a team cemented in the top 3 Eastern Conference, and will be as long as LeBron is employed there, however, we can beat this team with our speed, versatility, and athleticism, no player or team can STOP LeBron, but if you can hold him to his averages our team defense can overcome their other players offense, and the Hawks bench is better than the Cavs anyday. Its okay, they were expected to win this one, but when they come to Phillips Arena on December 13, Hawks and JOSH SMITH will be ready.