lethalweapon3

Bulls GameNotes cites Coby White as one of three players (Dejounte and Luka being the others) clearing minimums of 1,000 points, 400 assists, 350 rebounds, and 200 made 3FGs. White's 209 3FGs this season set Chicago's franchise record, although the Bulls could have used one more of them (0-for-3, whole team 8-for-31) when they lost the fourth-quarter lead and fell in OT, despite a valiant effort, on Sunday to the Knicks.

Coach Billy Donovan's club committed the fewest in-season TOs per game (12.2) in recorded franchise history (since at least 1973-74).

Chicago's 136 points in Atlanta, on February 12 when they beat the Hawks by ten, remains their highest scoring tally of the season, as is the 76-point second half. Dosunmu led the Bulls with 5 made 3FGs on just seven tries, while another Play-In pregame Questionable, Drummond, snatched a team-high three O-Rebs. 

While the Hawks should have Young and Murray to help close out this game, doing so will be tougher if the Hawks are playing from far behind in the fourth quarter. DeRozan led the NBA in fourth-quarter points and clutch PPG.

In the battle of Swiss-born centers, Clint Capela is the one who led the NBA in O-Rebs, and the one among three players (Gobert, Giannis) to have averaged a double-double in each of their past seven NBA seasons. The Hawks are the most susceptible to allowing fastbreak buckets when Capela gets flat-footed cherry-picking for potential putbacks (3rd-most opponent fastbreak points per-48), although Vooch and Chicago (2nd-fewest fastbreak points per-48) may be the ideal foe for this circumstance.

Bogi gets another chance to show out with Serbian fans in attendance. If he struggles out of the gate, somebody get Jalen Johnson to tell him that he overheard Quin calling him a Montenegrin.

~lw3

“I know, it’s the Windy City. But you all feel that draft? It's getting chilly in here!”

“Come on down here!” Mingling through overjoyed teammates donning their commemorative hockey helmets, the summoned Trice Tatum hovers to the fore in a swiftly emptying Tesladome to greet IRA Deputy Commissioner Draymond Green, who has some hardware to present. Most of the attendees watching from below saw no need to stick around for the ceremony.

Their Oakland Island Kings had a nice season, given their torturous five-town franchise history. Unfortunately for them, the Island Kings couldn’t get hold off Seattle, blowing a triple-digit lead in regulation before falling to the host SuperSeaHorses in triple overtime. The consolation prize was hosting the second round of the Pacific Continental Division play-in game, the annual events known colloquially by another name.

Despite the evident fatigue, OIK thought they were prepared to contain the CDMX Conquistadors’ star sphere-handler, withholding Tatum from another triple-triple by denying him easy discharges to Bruno Afonso David Fernandes Fernando III.

They were sorely mistaken, and Oakland’s season has drawn to a sudden close, their streak of failing to reach the Intercontinental Ringball Association Playoffs extending back to the NBA days when games were played with nets, and spheres dribbled off the ground. At least it was sudden, this time around. 

“DON’T TOUCH THE (REDACTED)! DON’T TOUCH THE (REDACTED)!”, Conquistador teammates chided Trice with cheerful taunts. Recently elevated from his prior role as Executive VP of Discipline, Green understood both the reason we cannot abbreviate “Trae Invitational Trophy” here, as well as the reason Trice would be hesitant to make contact with the honorary memento.

“I appreciate this opportunity, as winning a (REDACTED) is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a child scampering about the White House Lawn,” Tatum exclaimed, a reference to the reigns of three-time North American President Deuce, Trice’s father, and grassy lawns. “Back home in M-City, though? We aim higher!” The top-seeded Calgary Thunder is hereby put on notice.

Having evolved beyond the era of bellyaching over Everybody Gets a Trophy, these days, it’s all about Everybody Gets a Trophy Named After Them. Take the Murray-DeRozan Mid-Range Shooter of the Year award, for instance. Yet no one on Sirius-AIXM IRA Radio has any quibble about the signature and namesake on the glossy bronze award Trice just won.

No matter how good, or bad, scenarios got for NBA/IRA teams in the 2020s, 2030s and 2040s, no one wanted anything to do with Trae Young and his ATL Hawks in April, after regular seasons concluded, and certainly not in May.

Heading into All-Star Breaks and Trade Deadlines, some teams would spare no expense to avoid falling beneath the sixth seed in what used to be the Eastern Conference. Others, perilously close to the top-ten but far from contention, would deliberately engage in what was known as tanking, a phrase taken from a time when oceans were submarine depth, and the fines from the league’s front office were decidedly worth every aluminum (formerly, copper) penny.

The Hawks were painfully mediocre over the course of a quarter century, and longer, really, if one extends back before Young’s tenure. They were also, more times than not, a persistent problem higher-seeded clubs struggled to solve before it was too late to save their hard-fought season-long campaigns. Trae’s Hawks, as the old saw went, messed around. And it wouldn’t take long before opposing playoff hopefuls found out.

Young is the all-time leader in Play-In Tournament points, points created by discharge, and most importantly, wins. Like his IRA All-Time tally for discharges (previously, assists), and Bogdan Bogdanovic’s made-minimum-three-pointer streak that ended with his retirement to become UN Secretary-General, these are records too lofty for even young standouts like Trice to one day top. Periodically, even more frequently than the gold medals he’d earn Team USA over Bogdanovic’s Serbians, Young would drive the slow-building, late-arriving Hawks into opening playoff rounds and beyond throughout his 30 years in the NBA/IRA.

Young’s prolific post-seasons, and iconic plays, often in other team’s buildings, set the springboard that stars of the IRA’s 32 non-playoff teams seek to dive from this time every spring. The tournament is popularly accepted as the Trae-Ins because Young, in burnishing his Pro Ringball Hall of Fame legacy, demonstrated that just because your team hasn’t been too great, it is still not too late.

Swinging back into the time machine to 2024, Anno Dominique, to remind you gravity-laden souls that Young gets yet another chance to make a name for himself, and the Hawks, this time at the expense of the Bulls in Chicago tonight (9:30 PM Eastern, 92.9 FM in ATL, ESPN). If it doesn’t pan out? No matter. Chances are good, so long as he remains healthy, he’ll be back here next year to make the Play-In Tournaments his personal Trae-dition.

Young doing anything more than being a hot-hand iron, pressing his defenders into perpetual submission, will require his employer doing more for themselves. Ownership, and the management they hired that no one asked for, must get off their duff and find the personnel, including coaches on Quin Snyder's staff and advisers for Landry Fields, that can build a genuinely competitive on-court blend around their All-Star, if one is to expect better outcomes for them, and for him.

Sure, the Hawks (36-46) could raise the white flag and Etch-A-Sketch the whole thing, Young included. Few would complain, if a team featuring Dejounte Murray, Clint Capela and De’Andre Hunter still manages to allow closer to 200 than 100 points, this time versus an offensively shallow team in an elimination game. Division rivals Charlotte and Washington serve as cautionary tales of teams that jettisoned their elite ballhandlers, years ago, but thought they’d be further removed from the Lottery treadmill by now, while Portland looks to be another team about to join them.

None of this will matter today to Young and Murray, who visit a club that once hoped they’d have guards Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine guiding them to postseasons on end by now.

The Bulls (39-43) may also have to proceed without Ayo Dosunmu (questionable, bruised quad). Chicago’s frontcourt has been absent would-be starting forward Patrick Williams (foot surgery) since January, and rebounder-extraordinaire Andre Drummond is questionable for today with a sprained ankle.

Chicago will need Nikola Vucevic (29 points and 11 rebounds in CHI’s season-finale, Sunday’s 120-119 OT loss @ NYK) and DeMar DeRozan (30 points and 4 steals @ NYK) to extend themselves as double-team-drawing shot creators for a collective that normally struggles when they have to move the rock (59.4 team assist%, 3^rd-lowest in NBA) and play with pace (96.9 possessions per-48, 3^rd-lowest in NBA).

The Hawks will grant Young another opportunity to place rowdy fans, opposing players and their screeching families on chill mode, this time at United Center, by keeping mindless turnovers, particularly charges drawn by Alex Caruso, to a minimum, and by making like wild buffalo and boxing out, to limit the Bulls’ second-chance opportunities.

Paint-point chances versus the Bulls (NBA-low 44.8 opponent paint points per-48) are always hard to come by. But just as important as Murray’s mid-range mastery matching DeRozan’s, and Bogdanovic keeping up with Coby White and not falling into funks from the perimeter, are Capela and Bruno Fernando catching and finishing with focus and without hesitation in the few instances the ball makes its way into their hands around the rim.

Even if Atlanta’s season draws to a close this evening, or in the ensuing days and weeks, there will be Other Days, and plenty of them, to remodel the Basketball Club in ways that legitimately improve the Hawks’ defensive imprint and offensive consistency. If this offseason is more of the same from the front office? Well, so long as Trae is part of the equation, there will be Other Opportunities in Play-Ins to come. And plenty of them.

“These Trae-Ins are tons of fun,” Trice remarked as his family, including President Deuce, applauded from below. “But I want to accomplish things even my grand-daddy couldn’t, especially that Championship. We want to put that banner down in the rafters. It’s all about my team claiming that titanium ball!”

Seated alongside Paul Pierce in a matching hoverboard chair, former Celtic great Jayson Tatum could be heard bellowing from below: “Don’t remind me, Trice!”

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

“Y’all had to watch the NBA Finals on tape delay because a white Ford Bronco was in a police chase on the freeway? Dag, LP, that’s CRAZY!”

Bizarro World Atlanta Hawks are finishing the season true to form!

The actual Hawks are closing out this disenchanting season while bearing a 36-45 record (15-25 in away games) this afternoon at Indiana’s Fieldhouse. In so doing, they face the team directly in their funhouse mirror, the Pacers, who enter this game with a 46-35 record, 25-15 at home. Still, Atlanta could also leave Rick Carlisle and Lloyd Pierce’s club with the notion that we may meet again, soon.

Indiana’s brass made the big Trade-Deadline-run-up moves that Atlanta’s would not. Despite the positive start to the season, including a trip to the inaugural IST Finals, and the glowing press that flowed with it right on through the All-Star Game that Indianapolis hosted, the Pacers were not so enamored with Bruce Brown and Buddy Hield that they couldn’t try to enhance their postseason chances, by pursuing Pascal Siakam, and replenish their cash coffers in hopes of future contention.

“Shady government schemes to kneecap cities by flooding them with illicit-good market supplies” may not be the full picture of reality, but whether it’s Snowfall or Breaking Bad or The Wire, the “villain hiding in plain sight” always makes for entertaining Hollywood fiction. There’s a Real Villain unspoken in any dramatic storyline building tension among its main actors. For our dear Hawks, they’ve been undone by a two-man tag team. I’ve been calling out one heel all season long in these gamethreads – the NBA Schedule Making Office, delivering their chairshot before Atlanta could make it out the tunnel – but not its sinister masked luchador partner, the Injury Bug, with its myriad toeholds and anklelocks.

Spotrac has the Hawks ranked 4^th-overall, behind Lottery-bound Memphis, Portland, and Charlotte, for the most NBA games lost due to injury or illness (15 different players racking up 295 non-appearances, entering today). It will not surprise you at this point to discover that the Bizarro World Hawks of Indiana (14 players, 109 games lost) have the NBA’s second-lowest cumulative tally, wedged between league sweethearts OKC (81) and Minnesota (112).

The All-Star voted in to be an Eastern Conference starting guard in Indianapolis by NBA fans, only to need the Commissioner penciling him in as an injury replacement, Trae Young’s 27 games-missed (hand/concussion/illnesses) exceeded Indiana’s biggest injury-hit of the season in second-year wing Bennedict Mathurin (21 games missed, underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in March). When the best ability is availability, it can mean the difference between 36-46 and, say, 46-36.

It is also realistic to assess that the cast members make crucial and oft-fatal missteps, from one episode to the next, that leave fans wishing to tune out instead of in. The Hawks tricked off games versus those Lottery-bound clubs – the aforementioned Memphis, Portland, and Charlotte, plus Washington, Toronto, Utah, etc. – and earlier-season meetings versus anyone where Atlanta was the team, at least by default, with the healthier contingents, that would otherwise have made the Not-Bizarro World Hawks’ season far less bizarre.

Carlisle’s Pacers (24th in D-Rating), like Snyder’s Hawks (26th in D-Rating), have lost 14 games versus sub-.500 teams. What they also have in their pocket, thanks to the scheduling gods, are 3 more victories (21-14, to ATL's 18-14). They’ll have a fourth, too, if they prevail this afternoon (1 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Indiana) for a four-game sweep of Atlanta.

Taking care of business as a head-to-head favorite against the underdogs may not have completely erased the 10-game separation in the standings for the Hawks. But it certainly would have allowed them to be in the mix for a more favorable Play-In scenario, one that Indiana, like Orlando and Philadelphia (each also 46-35, 1.0 game ahead of 45-36 MIA), is hoping to avoid altogether today.

The Pacers left themselves in a precarious situation by easing up off the gas shortly after the All-Star Break. Since beating Dallas at home soundly on February 25, then losing at the Fieldhouse the next night versus Siakam’s prior team, Indy has failed to build a winning streak value higher than three. They could have been riding a four-game win streak but for Friday’s 129-120 loss in Cleveland. Two defeats in recent weeks by the Cavs (the earlier one with Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley watching from afar) isn’t the only reason it is Indiana, not Cleveland (48-33, assured of first-round homecourt), needing to skirt the Play-In.

Pockmarked with recent losses to the Spurs and Nets, and to Play-In contenders Chicago (twice) and the Lakers, Haliburton (17.5 PPG and 30.9 3FG% post-All-Star-Break) and his colleagues have not exactly set the pace they’ve needed to look the part of an opening-round threat, something that hasn’t happened since the fateful coach Nate McMillan’s Bubble-darlings were popped by untimely injury ahead of the Pacers’ last postseason trip in 2020.

Indiana knows it’s imperative to win their fifth straight home game today. A slip-up today, and theoretically in a 7-versus-8 matchup in a couple days, and one of either division rival DeMar DeRozan or Play-In specialist Young (24.5 points, on 64.5 FG%, and NBA-high 13.5 assists per-36 in past 2 games), the latter clearly loaded for bear after returning from a pinkie injury, pays the Pacers a visit with the Playoffs on the line. For as well as his All-NBA-caliber season has gone, Tyrese does not want to be the one, later this week, staring at the Man in the Mirror.

The weather outside suggests it is a wonderful time for a spring awakening. But one false move (really, two) inside by the Pacers, and they know Winter is Coming. For the visiting Hawks, this week is no time to get caught up in reflection.

Rest Easy, Rico Wade. Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

Not one, but TWO former first-round picks are preparing to return right on-time for the regular season's close.

Following LL Cool Will's report, Clint Capela was tacked onto the Hawks' list (Questionable, rest) and remains so as of the 12:30 PM Boo-Boo Report update. Trent Forrest, Mo Gueye, and the slip-sliding Garrison Matthews will each get more chances tonight to render the injured Wesley Matthews expendable ahead of Krejcimania I this weekend.

Returning at the time from a calf injury, Towns bailed out the T'Wolves in last year's meeting with the then-breakeven Hawks at Target Center, drawing a late foul from John Collins and hitting a pair of freebies to pull off the 125-124 victory in March 2023. Tonight, Minnesota looks to take a lead at home in their head-to-head series with Atlanta (16-16 in Minny; Hawks lead 25-9 in ATL).

~lw3

“I’m sure you're comfortable where you are. But once Marc and I take over, we can arrange an aggressive offer to hire you with a contract that pays you in conditional installments of… Hello? Are you still there? Coach Cal?”

You know how they say, you get to be a villain long enough, you eventually become the hero?

Congratulations to Glen Taylor. No one had been holding out for him to be a hero, yet here he is. The savior nobody asked for.

Pilloried for decades around the Twin Cities and elsewhere, the notorious spendthrift oversees the third highest-salaried roster in the NBA, and everyone, at long last, seems happy about getting their money’s worth. Diapers.com's Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez’s carefully structured layaway plan was proving to be worth the wait as Taylor eased his way out of the NBA and WNBA.

Then he took a gander at the incoming owners’ payroll projections. Is that a Bat-signal for Glen Taylor, of all people? And are those Timberwolves fans suddenly caping for him?

Shocker! The duo that had to explain, “See, the way our billion-dollar financing is set up,” had zero designs on inheriting a club that would dive into the league’s punitive salary tax-apron provisions head-first. When this season began, it was reasonable to take a sober approach. First-round bounces the past two seasons, 42-40 one year after going 46-36 in 2021-22, were meager improvements over most of the prior 15 seasons. Yet it suggested that while superstar guard Anthony Edwards hadn’t neared his peak, the team around him likely had done so.

Soon to be a lame duck, Chris Finch’s coaching seat was warming up, and after 2023-24 ends, the architect that brought NBA Patient Zero Rudy Gobert into Karl-Anthony Towns’ locker room, Tim Connelly, had a nifty opt-out clause baked into his employment deal. KAT’s supermax extension kicks into high gear in 2024-25, and someone is going to have to greenlight moving the North Star State’s once lone All-Star, 2015’s first-overall pick (likely returning tonight; DNP’d past 18 games while rehabbing a torn meniscus), who stuck it out through thin and thinner. Why, Taylor surely thought as this season’s tipoff neared, should he have to be the bad guy once more?

Well, life got flipped, turned upside down, in a good way. Now the Timberwolves (55-25, tiebreaker over OKC) are the toast of the Twin Cities, assured of no worse than a Top-3 seed in the rugged Western Conference Playoffs. There’s still a shot at the Nuggets’ top spot despite falling in Denver on Wednesday, should the defending champs slip up in one of their easy road contests, and the T’Wolves stand on business at home, versus the Atlanta Hawks tonight (8 PM Eastern, Peachtree TV/Peachtree Sports Network and 92.9 FM in ATL, Bally Sports North in MSP) and the Suns on Sunday afternoon.

Taylor isn’t the only NBA owner stuck with a long-held miserly reputation facing tough decisions about their longtime franchise face in the offseason to come. But at least he has another player that has seized that franchise’s mantle already.

It may not have been clear back on October 30, when the T’Wolves lost in Atlanta, 127-113 to fall to 1-2, despite the Atlanta native Edwards’ team-high 31 points and 7 assists. But it’s crystal now, and Ant-Man’s ascension (All-NBA-quality career-bests of 26.3 PPG, 5.2 APG, 46.2 FG%) affords whomever holds the keys, in a majority ownership capacity, lots of options. That is, so long as “gleeful repeater taxpayer” remains one of those options.

There’s not much to dwell upon with respect to their visitors this evening. A team that has prevailed in consecutive road contests just once since Thanksgiving will be tasked, next week, with winning in Chicago and elsewhere just to earn a playoff spot, then must win at least once on the road in any playoff series thereafter.

The aim in the final two away-games of the regular season for coach Quin Snyder’s Atlanta Hawks will be to zero-in on a rotation that can compete without the availability of Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu for the foreseeable future. Snyder also has to keep his mission-critical players fresh, which is why Dejounte Murray (41 points vs. MIN on Oct. 30) and Clint Capela (questionable) are targets for extended recuperation.

While Trae Young (a smooth 14 points on perfect shooting plus 11 assists over 21 minutes; DNP in the 4^th during Wednesday’s indefensible home-finale flop vs. CHA) is ramping back up in his return from his hand injury, once today’s deficit climbs deep into double-digits, he is sure to be handed a towel for the balance of this contest as well. Most of the preparedness for upcoming Trae-In game(s) will occur behind the scenes for the Hawks’ upright starters, in practice and shootarounds, while Vit Krejci vies in these final games to usurp someone at the back of Atlanta’s 15-man roster.

While Atlanta (36-44) has little to play for in the immediate term, Minnesota has much more at stake. Closing out the season strong, then winning a playoff series for the first time since 2004 against a tough lower seed, would justify Taylor’s once-begrudging investments and steel his desire to keep the core and coaching around Edwards together, well beyond this summer.

Turns out, it’s not merely a case of Seller’s Remorse, it’s Winner’s Remorse. Just when everyone in Minnesota thought he was out, Glen Taylor pulls himself back in!

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

“Listen close, I’ve got two words for ya! Tread. Carefully.”

“COACH! It’s an honor to have you here in The Queen City. How was breakfast with Gabe and Rick?”

Oh, the eclairs at Amelie’s are out of this world, Mr. Peterson. You fellas sure know how to fatten me up!

“Oh, please, call me Jeff. El Jefe, if you like! Hee hee. I’m sure you have lots of questions about our evolving operations, here at Charlotte Hornets Sports and Entertainment. But allow me to answer The Burning Question so many of our candidates here at The Hive have asked.”

Sure. Shoot! I mean, please, proceed!

“We highly regard all of the movers and shakers here in Charlotte that have helped make Hornets Basketball so… compelling… over the past decade! But rest assured, Coach, that I am in charge of all things basketball operations, and our new owners only intend to collaborate with the decisions I would make in partnership with you, as our next head coach.”

OK! So that means… with respect to Mr. Jordan…

“Yes, about that! As far as the former majority owner, now minority owner and alternate governor, is concerned… and Mitch Kupchak, the GM I replaced… and Steve Clifford, whose seat you’ll fill once this season ends… well, Gabe and Rick are keeping them all in-house, in advisory capacities. Michael’s nephew is a scout, sure, but that’s as far as it goes. They’ll all be so far in the background, you’ll hardly even know they’re in the building. These aren't the days when Kenny Atkinson went all Marilyn Munster's boyfriend on us. Trust me!”

Alright, if you say so. Speaking of buildings, where is the practice facility?

“So glad you asked! Peer out the window over there. Do you see across the street?”

That… the gravel parking lot?

“Yes indeed! That’s where we’re building a new facility for our team. Financing has been hung up while the old regime was bickering with the local government for years, but we should be shovel-ready by this time next year. Now, a question for you, Coach! Share with me your strategy for enhancing the play around our valued core of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Miles Bridges. Me? I’m a pace and space guy myself. A Bud Ball man, y’know.”

Oh! Uhh, Bridges, you say? I was under the impression he…

“Was an unrestricted free agent? See, we’re already finishing each others’ thoughts! Simpatico! Yes, but Miles has been so faithful to us, and we to him! Well, THEY to him, I just got here, y’know. Besides, he’s our minutes leader now, and what with everything he had going on… allegedly… where else has he got to go?”

‘Kay. So, Ball. Brandon, Bridges…

“The Triple-Bees! So poetic, if I say so myself. Our marketing team is already on it. Oops, can’t forget the Williams Boys! Mark, Grant… full squad!”

It’d help to know LaMelo’s condition to start next season.

“No worries! Melo could go tonight in Atlanta at the Hawks game (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast in ATL and CLT, 92.9 FM) if we let him. We just shut him down every season once we know we’re out of the running for the Play-Ins. Which was, like, early February, in our case. Their case, that is, since…”

…you just got here.

“Gee, you’re getting good at this!”

Thanks.

“Davis Bertans will probably pick up his ETO, so he’ll be back in the fold. As will Vasa Micic, our grizzled Eurostash rookie, and Cody Martin. Veteran leadership! Can’t have enough of that. Tack on Tre Mann and Nick Smith, Jr. for the youth movement behind Melo, and our next lottery pick, and I’ll hardly have to lift a finger this summer! You like whitewater rafting? I heard Hawk Island by the Catawba in July is CRAZY.”

How do you think these guys will fare tonight?

“Way better than last night, eh? At least Luka didn’t drop 73 in our building. We wouldn’t let him anyway. We mailed in that fourth quarter so we could hit the airport and have fresh-ish bodies for Atlanta today. Did you see those Hawks drag the heat through hell and back last night? Two overtimes, whew. If Dejounte Murray didn’t try to etch his name in the halls of Springfield with some of those crazy shots, they might have been able to pull it… whoops, terribly sorry, I HAVE to take this call.”

Sure. Should I…

“No, you’re fine, hold tight. It’ll take just a minute… El Jefe on the line… what do you mean you can’t find him any Wheaties? When His Airness wants his cereal in the afternoons, you Just Do It!... NO! I told you, He wants Tar. Heel. Blue. Gatorade. In His office fountain. We are not having this conversation again. That is all… Sorry, Coach. Buzz Peterson’s hearing is so gone these days. Anyways, Atlanta’s probably missing that jackrabbit Jalen Johnson, he twisted one of those rubbery ankles again last night.”

If I recall, the Hawks didn’t have Johnson the last time the Hornets were in Atlanta, either.

“Psshh. That 132-91 loss was such a one-off. Nobody other than Miles could buy a bucket for us. And they surely can’t expect Bruno Fernando to go off for 25 points again. Not by the hair of Aleksei’s chinny chin-chin!”

Did you just call Pokusevski a little pig?

“Oh, relax, Coach, it’s the Carolinas! Around here, calling somebody porcine is taken as a compliment. As I was saying, even if Trae Young makes it on the court today, it’s just window dressing for the Hawks (36-43). You know how Fan Appreciation Nights go. How enamored are you with the Triangle offense? I’d like to…”

Gabe and Rick wouldn’t say for sure, but do they expect a quick fix? With LaMelo’s rookie extension kicking in next season?

“Heavens, no! First of all, thanks to Atlanta’s Murray deal, our first-rounder is lottery-protected from the Spurs next year, too…”

Who did we get when we gave up control of that pick?

“Kai Jones. I know, crazy, right? Remember, They, Coach, not We. So, sure, we could hit the skids again next year if the occasion calls for it. They gave up our second-round pick going after Nick Richards in 2020’s draft, and at least he’s still here. But Mitch got one back from Houston when he dumped Gordon Hayward on OKC, so not all is lost. Plus, when Kupchak ditched P.J. Washington and Terry Rozier, we wound up with a treasure trove of potential first-round picks for 2027!”

You’re suggesting, then, that we’ve got plenty of time to turn things around.

“I sure do… I mean, WE sure do. I’m still working on pronouns. Just between us, we’ve got in-house training on that stuff next Friday. So, hey, cheer up. Things could be worse. You could be stuck working under Schlenk and the Wizards, am I right? That poor fella. Oh, it looks our working lunch is here! Care to share some BBQ and some Krispy Kreme, Coach?”

It sure feels like you guys are fattening me up, for something…

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

“Did somebody say, ‘Come up short in the finals?’”

715 is a number held in great regard here in the 404. I’ve got another special number I wouldn’t mind being around long enough to see one day in The A.

15,807 is a world away for most NBA players, when it comes to assist-making. Even pro-hoop lifers winding their careers down, like Chris Paul, have yet to eclipse 12,000 assists. But I imagine John Stockton’s record to be attainable, in an era where hooping into one’s forties isn’t a crazy concept, for a 25-year old who is currently the active NBA leader in per-game assists (9.5 regular-season APG, above CP3’s 9.36; 29-year-old Nikola Jokic, at 6.91, and 26-year-old De’Aaron Fox are the next closest among vicenarians).

As was the case with would-be standard bearer Magic Johnson, health and wellness will surely be one factor for The Trae Young, still attacking his rehab (pinkie ligament tear) ahead of the final scheduled Atlanta Hawks home games today, versus Miami (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Sun in MIA), and tomorrow versus Charlotte, without much confirmation as to whether he will get any warmups with adversaries before the 9/10 Play-In arrives. As big a component will be Young finding his Karl Malone partner-in-grime.

Up in Wisconsin, Hammerin’ Hank, a league MVP, a World Series champ and a two-time batting champ, was already near 400 dingers before he begrudgingly accepted the risk of joining his baseball club on the dive into the great unknown of professional life in 1960s America’s Deep South. Here in Georgia, it would be sweet to see a sporting record of high repute one day snapped by a special athlete who, to that point in his/her career, only needed to don one city’s jersey the whole time.

Salt Lake City knows the vibe. Stockton might have threatened to breach the 20,000-assist barrier there, had Frank Layden’s Jazz taken the risk to make the lightly heralded Gonzaga product, instead of esteemed vet Rickey Green, the regular starting PG in any of the first three seasons of his career. Atlanta, comparatively, handed 2018’s lottery draft prize the keys to the Range from the jump.

From his sophomore season on, Stockton was able to grow side-by-side with The Mailman delivering, with durability, as they led their team to 18 consecutive playoff campaigns. Currently 12^th in PPG all-time, Trae has had the benefit of Clint Capela (62.1 career FG%, 4^th-highest in NBA history, eye-tests be darned) and John Collins (55.1 career FG% w/ ATL, good enough for Top-30 all-time), but not scorers at volumes worthy of mutual All-Stardom and folklore. Whether Young’s Hawks (36-42, first losing record since 2019-20) make it four playoff runs in a row remains to be seen.

One Hawk who helms from Wisconsin might be just the right frontcourt coupling for Young, going forward. While he projects as more neo-Kemp than neo-Malone, the key for Jalen Johnson (last two games: 11-for-30 combined FGs, 8 assists, 8 TOs) will be to use the offseason to expand on his versatility, where he can become as dependable on the low block, at the three-point corner, and the free throw line, as he is whenever he soars assertively into the lane.

Annually, or all-time, home run records feel like singular athletic feats of fancy. But even after generations of seasonal home run chases, Henry Aaron remains the king of runs batted in, his final tally of 2,297 upon his 1976 retirement not approached even after players named Pujols, A-Rod, Bonds, and Cabrera have hung up their cleats. The nearest active RBI leader in the majors, 34-year-old Freddie Freeman, would have to nearly double his current collection to someday surpass Aaron.

Being the home run king is a testament to longevity, endurance, and power. But one doesn’t get to be the RBI king without good teammates.  Pitchers couldn’t pitch around Aaron, not with the likes of Eddie Matthews, Joe Torre, and later Joe Torre and the punchy Rico Carty around him.

Record assists, much like RBIs alongside HRs, will never be as heralded as LeBron’s newfound scoring record in the NBA. But with the right coalition of teammates that allow Trae to thrive, particularly in this three-point-heavy era, Young can one day lead the NBA all-time in points created, by either scoring or passing, well before he approaches Stockton’s lofty assist mark. It is clear, as it stands, that a new batting order for the Hawks is in order.

Can Dejounte Murray continue to be Trae’s main battery mate? We’ve gotten a little of the bad, and a lot of the good, of the Hawks (12-10 since Feb. 23) soldiering through the back end of this season with Murray calling the shots primarily in Young’s absence. However long the post-regular season lasts, this is likely to be the last opportunity to see Young and Murray (minus-6.1 per 100 possessions, as per bball-ref, lowest among ATL 2-Man pairs with over 1,000 minutes) figuring out how to function together as a winning backcourt tandem.

In the visitors’ dugout are the heat, whose 43-35 record is hardly an improvement over last season, when they won four of their final five games just to finish at 44-38. In a conference where seeds 2-through-8, though, are separated by 4.0 games, hope trickles anew.

It helps the heat that they have Tyler Herro back in time for another playoff push, and that they have the stability of a trusted, rings-bearing Coach/Executive combo. It aids their cause that Herro’s return from knee and foot ailments reunites the trio, with Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, that went from barely surviving 2023’s Play-Ins as an 8-seed to an NBA Finalist for the second time in four years.

The flirt with disaster that came with the Bulls, in Miami, up 1 in the third quarter of last year’s PIT second-round, a game that became a must-win after Young and Capela’s rebounding-dominant Hawks humbled the heat in Round 1, makes it imperative that this year’s heat (1.5 GB 6-seed IND), first, avoid the Play-In altogether. Failing that, and then without a first-round Play-In victory, a rematch for either the upset-minded Bulls or Hawks would be in the cards, with the team the heat vanquished in the ECF, stride-hitting Boston, awaiting the winner.

That’s why not only is Herro back already, but players up and down the roster are sticking their necks out to improve Miami’s standing. Most literally Terry Rozier, the Deadline pickup who played through neck spasms for three quarters of Sunday’s 117-115 loss in Indy, then spent the fourth quarter sorely regretting that decision. “I felt like I hurt the team by trying to be a warrior and get out there,” Rozier shared with the Miami Herald.

Questionable to appear this evening, Scary Terry is among a litany of wounded-warrior statuses on Miami’s side of the injury report. Adebayo (sprained hand), Kevin Love (sprained ankle), Orlando Robinson (spasming back) and Nikola Jovic (sprained ankle) are all listed as probable for The Baddest and Bougiest Team in the NBA. Had Jimmy Butler (57.4 average games played over five seasons in MIA; tonight will be Game #57) and the heat not tricked off whole segments of the earlier season, coach Erik Spoelstra might have been in a position to designate these players as out, joining Duncan Robinson (spinal arthritis), for these remaining games.

They messed around on Udonis Haslem’s jersey retirement night, and they found out what happens when you let Murray steal the show. While Young was sidelined due to illness, Dejounte’s game-winning triple with two seconds remaining secured the 109-108 win for Atlanta. That precipitated a losing skid for Miami that would extend to seven games, dropping the heat to 24-23. Having split their past 20 games, mixing big wins with humbling defeats, it is hard to say that the heat have found their footing.

Miami would much rather have the extra few days off, to more fully heal, and then draw a struggling team like Milwaukee, who thought they had made up for last year’s first-round dispatch by stealing away Damian Lillard from the heat’s clutches. A team Miami doesn’t want to see anytime soon in their house are the Hawks, who are no Murderer’s Row, especially on defense, but can be a tough out whether it’s Young or Murray in the leadoff spot.

Johnson, De’Andre Hunter, Capela (team-high 19 points and 12 rebounds @ DEN last Saturday) and the Hawks frontcourt can be beneficiaries of Miami’s banged-up frontcourt and bench, so long as Murray (10-for-32 combined FGs last two road games, losses @ DAL and @ DEN, but 8.0 APG) doesn’t fall prey to early-game hero-ball whims and feeds them relentlessly.

Miami heads home later for a nationally televised game versus Dallas, currently in Charlotte as the Mavs and Hornets race south for respective games in South Beach and ATL tomorrow. The heat might catch the breaks they need when Toronto arrives for a pair of games to close out this season. But a loss or two, particularly against Atlanta in the heat’s final road game, will once more beg the question of whether one should hope for Playoff Jimmy to appear, year after year, when it’s so hard, even with Jimmy, to sneak into the Playoffs.

I’d delve further… oh, I’m told I can’t use “delve” anymore, because ChatGPT, or something… but I'll stop here, since we’re getting very close to 7:15.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3