“Hi, Damon? This is Steve Harvey. I am SO sorry, but remember when I announced that you beat out Pimentó for World’s Best Mixtape?”
Tonight, watch Hawks fans Nae Nae! But more importantly, hopefully you’ll get to watch the Atlanta Hawks Whip the Portland Trail Blazers (8:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, CSN Northwest) at the Highlight Factory. Thanks to Kooninball, we’ve had plenty of rhyme-spitters grace our floor lately. But how many of these ATL-based artists can boast that their government name ends with “Hawk?”
Richard Lamar Hawk has that going for him: you know him better by his stage name, Silentó. We have no idea whether the soon-to-be-18-year-old, a Soul Train Award winner, is merely the latest summertime one-hit dancing wonder to Bankhead Bounce his way in and out of our hearts. But he’s already accomplished more on wax than 25-year-old Damian Lillard, whose #4BarFridays have fallen on America’s deaf ears, somewhere in between “40 Bars” and K.O.B.E. (that’s a pretty wide spectrum).
It’s been a good thing for Portland that Lillard keeps his night job. One of just three players in the NBA’s top-ten for both per-game scoring (24.6, 8th in NBA; career-low 41.8 FG%) and assists (6.8 APG), the two-time All-Star Lillard has been a true ironman for the Trail Blazers (11-18) as the team lurches through Year 1 of the post-LaMarcus Aldridge era.
Despite the wise departure of Aldridge to San Antonio, made possible by Atlanta’s acquisition of Tiago Splitter, Lillard found himself a new 20-PPG sidekick to Kid ‘n Play with. Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum (20.1 PPG, 40.7 3FG%, 1.3 SPG) certainly relates well to Weber State’s Lillard, having been a tad overlooked as a lottery pick coming out of a small-conference school. McCollum came alive in last year’s brief playoff run, averaging 17 PPG (up from his 6.8 regular-season average) and hitting 48% of his threes as the replacement for the injured Wesley Matthews. Today, Toronto is the only other NBA team (sorry, Klay) that boasts of a backcourt with two 20-point scorers.
Unfortunately, neither guard will grace the hardwood with their play today. Keeping up the latest run of injuries to current and former NBA point guards (Jeff Teague, Elfrid Payton, and Jason Kidd included), Lillard aggravated a nagging plantar fascia last night in the loss to Miami, and his rest tonight will put an end to his 275-game playing streak. Like Lillard, McCollum also arrived in Atlanta a bit banged up, rolling his ankle and banging knees with Miami’s Dwyane Wade late in last night’s game. He’s been ruled out as well due to the ankle sprain.
The heat tenderized the Blazers along the way to a 116-106 victory, Miami shooting a Blazers-opponent-high 57.3% from the floor (52.2% on threes) as they wiped out a strong offensive run by Portland in the first half. Portland arrives in Atlanta for the fourth game of their five-game road swing without their double-barreled backcourt available, and coach Terry Stotts will pull lots of levers in hopes someone else can step up with productive minutes on the second night of a back-to-back.
The Blazers have given up triple-digit scoring in each of their past five games and in eight of their last ten, creating deficits that are tough for Dame and C.J. to overcome. Starter Mason Plumlee (2.7 O-Rebs per game) and reserve Ed Davis (2.8 O-Rebs per game) have been eager beavers on the offensive glass, cleaning up many of Lillard’s and McCollum’s misses. The Reggie Miller-eared Allen Crabbe (47.4 FG%) and Gerald Henderson (41.7 3FG%) come off the bench to provide perimeter shooting, athleticism, and not much more. But right now, Stotts needs stops, in addition to shots.
Second-year power forward Noah Vonleh (3.0 PPG, 41.4 FG%) is highly unpolished on offense. Yet Stotts starts the 20-year-old, ahead of Meyers Leonard and alongside Atlanta native Al-Farouq Aminu (career-high 11.0 PPG, 37.9 3FG%), because defensive effort is a premium on this un-ripened roster. Inexperience in general, never mind playing together, is what puts the Trail Blazers behind the 8-ball, as all of their starters are aged 25 or younger. Lightly-used center Chris Kaman, bugged by an illness, is the only Blazer over the age of 30. The second-oldest player on the team, Henderson, just turned 28 a couple weeks ago.
With the scoring guard options depleted, who will Stotts turn to? Up goes Frazier! Tim Frazier made a name for himself last season in the D-League, the 6-foot-1 guard out of Penn State being honored as both D-League Rookie of the Year and MVP after averaging 16.1 PPG, 9.5 APG, and 7.1 RPG.
In his February call-up to Philadelphia, Frazier notched 11 assists in his NBA debut. Late last season with Portland, he dropped a double-double (13 points, 10 assists) on Dallas. Later, he averaged 67 percent on threes in the preseason. The Hawks can expect a lot of energy from Frazier as his next big chance to impress awaits. He’ll be backed up by Notre Dame’s 2015 March Madness hero Pat Connaughton. Whichever of Crabbe or Henderson starts will be buttressed by Mo Harkless and rookie Luis Montero. The struggle is real.
Atlanta won their 18th straight game against a sulking Lillard and Portland back in January, despite missing DeMarre Carroll (Achilles) and losing his backup, Thabo Sefolosha (calf strain), at the outset of the game. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer turned to Kent Bazemore and Mike Scott (9-for-11 combined FGs) off the bench, and the duo showed off Atlanta’s understated depth at forward. Kaman, if healthy, and Leonard are the only returning Blazer participants from that game available to play tonight.
With Carroll having gone north of the border, Bazemore (55.3 eFG%, 15th in NBA) now starts for Atlanta, and Scott re-emerged last night with 15 points off the bench (3-for-5 3FGs) plus some heady defensive plays as the Hawks outlasted the Magic in Orlando.
It was the reserves that once again kept the Hawks in contention last night, until the starters, led by Kyle Korver’s 6-for-8 three-point blitz, could pull through late in the fourth quarter. As a starter, Baze certainly brings boundless energy, but may be getting caught overcompensating, or at least out-of-position, when the Hawks’ backcourt combo of Teague (1.1 SPG, down from 1.7 last season) and Korver breaks down defensively.
Atlanta’s 5-man starting lineup with Bazemore has averaged a minus-1.3 on the plus-minus scale this season (11.1 mins/game, 1.6 team SPG, 1.2 team BPG; 49.9 eFG%, 51.2 opponent eFG%; 12.3 O-Reb%, 25.8 opponent O-Reb%) , compared to a plus-1.3 (13.0 mins/game, 2.5 team SPG, 2.0 team BPG; 52.6 eFG%, 46.1 opponent eFG%; 26.9 O-Reb%, 29.3 opponent O-Reb%) when the veteran Sefolosha gets inserted in place of Bazemore. Coach Bud wants to keep Thabo spry for the long haul, so his staff needs to find ways to improve Kent’s positioning on the floor with the top unit.
Teague (6 TOs @ ORL on Sunday) has struggled the past couple games, and his one logged assist came on Korver’s dagger three-pointer off a baseline dish in the closing minutes of last night’s game. He and Dennis Schröder (1-for-3 FGs, 3 assists, 4 TOs @ ORL) will do well to connect with cutters, and those teammates in turn should focus on finishing in the lane and earning trips to the line against Plumlee (3.4 personal fouls per game, 6th in NBA) and a hack-heavy Trail Blazer front line.
Only Milwaukee matches Portland with a net +4.1 whistles per game on personal foul calls, and the Blazers allow an NBA-high 26.7 opponent FT attempts per game. Atlanta’s 79.8 FT% currently ranks 4th in the league. But leaving points on the board, as the Hawks did on six out of 20 occasions at the charity stripe on Sunday, could keep even the shorthanded Blazers in contention late. Here’s hoping that Silentó’s sinuous dance moves represent the most thrilling action on the floor by the end of the night.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
