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lethalweapon3

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  1. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Thunder

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Gee whiz… what will we do when we have to play the Thunder?”

    That was the prevailing sentiment among most Atlanta Hawks fans for two days before November 4, after our Fine Feathered Friends had laid an egg in their home opener against what was expected to be an overmatched Houston Rockets squad. If Marcus Morris can light us up, what, pray tell, will Kevin Durant do to us?

    By evening’s end, Hawks fans got their answer, in the form of a resounding 104-95 victory in Loud City.
    But the question arises once again, as the Hawks return to Philips Arena less than 24 hours after another lackluster overtime victory versus the 3-19 Washington Wizards. “Gosh, if Jordan Crawford can have his way with us, for Pete’s sake, what will Russell Westbrook do to us?”

    The Hawks pulled off the November Surprise in OKC while Josh Smith was sidelined with a sprained ankle, with Anthony Tolliver starting at power forward opposite Serge Ibaka. They also endured 22 first-half points from new acquisition Kevin Martin, coming off the bench to spell defensive stalwart Thabo Sefolosha. But Martin’s output was neutralized in the second half by Lou Williams, who shot just 1-for-6 from 3-point range in the game but still managed 14 points in the final quarter.
    Essentially, Atlanta got a more balanced effort from its bench than the Thunder, who only had seven scoring contributors while all ten Hawks got in the scoring column. Durant, Westbrook, Martin and Ibaka may do a lot to us, but it still may not matter, if the Hawks play their cards right.

    It helped to have Westbrook in Whoopsbrook form, making one critical blunder and questionable shot after another at crucial junctures of the game. KD was also perhaps a bit too passive -- as passive as one can be when dropping 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists, anyway -- as he was kicking the tires on the new wrinkles in Coach Scott Brooks’ offense.

    Those wrinkles seem to be pretty well ironed out now, with the Thunder running off 11 straight games and 14 of their last 15, topping off a five-game homestand last Monday with a strong win against their archrival Spurs. San Antonio was missing both Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard and could not withstand the surge from Ibaka, who drummed the Spurs with a career-high 25 points and season-high 17 boards.

    How can your team rank dead-last in the NBA in field goal attempts per game (77.0, 30th in NBA), yet boast the league’s top record and the most points scored (105.8 per game)? If you’re OKC, rank second overall in three-point shooting (41.1%) and tops in free throw shooting (84.2%) and And-1 percentage (3.25%), and you’re well on your way.

    I guess if there’s a way to critique a 20-4 team, they may be eating up too much of the clock setting up plays (91.9 points per possession, 15th in NBA) for some fairly obvious options. That sets them up for plenty of turnovers (15.05% turnover rate, worst in NBA), which should work right into the Hawks plans (16.8 turnovers per 48 minutes, 2nd in NBA).

    Rebounding may not be as much of a challenge for Atlanta as it might seem. There are no Thunder players among the top 50 in the NBA for defensive rebounding rate (Durant’s team-leading 21.1 per 100 possessions ranks 57th; Ibaka’s 18.9 ranks 83rd), although Durant is top-ten in defensive rebounds per game. OKC’s interior defense basically consists of Ibaka skying for blocks (2nd in the NBA at 3.1 per game), while Durant vies for the rebound.

    Oklahoma City also has no players in the top 30 for offensive rebounding rate, which doesn’t seem as much of a surprise, since there aren’t many misses on their end when they get a shot off. As perhaps another sign of being too deferential at times, the long-limbed Durant himself has just 2 offensive boards in his last 8 games.

    This Just In: Ibaka has a reliable mid-range jumper now! He’s hitting an uncanny 66% from 10-to-15 feet, and 51% from 16 feet out to the 3-point line (41% from both distances last season). You truly have to play him honest outside the paint now. You actually want him settling for short-range jumpers (43% from 3-to-9 feet). Ibaka’s still not a threat to pass it once he gets the ball, though. He’s tallied just 8 assists in his 24 games.

    Westbrook’s shot has been failing him as of late (33.9 FG% in his last 4 games), but he’s steadied his playmaking, averaging 9.0 assists and just2.0 turnovers in his last five games. Both Westbrook (8.8) and Durant (4.2) are experiencing career highs in assists per game. Jeff Teague has not done the best job of consistently creating pressure on opposing point guards, and needs to be a 40-minute presence tonight to create the transition baskets the Hawks will need to get an edge. Westbrook, of course, lives off dunks and lay-ins (3.3 FGM/game, tops among NBA point guards), so minimizing his ability to penetrate is key.

    Al Horford’s in line for a bounce-back game after shooting a season-low 2-for-11 (18.2 FG%) against the Wizards, repeatedly blocked at the rim. He shot 11-for-19 (57.1 FG%) for 23 points and 12 rebounds, including a season-high 6 offensive boards.

    When Smith has to rotate to help around the rim with Durant and Westbrook, Horford and the Hawks’ centers need to slide over and keep Ibaka from getting easy passes and follow-shots. If anything, you’ll want Kendrick Perkins and Hasheem Thabeet getting the ball instead (both in NBA Top 20 for turnover rate).

    In close contests, Hack-a-Hawk will remain in effect until Atlanta proves they can focus and convert from the charity stripe. They have now left at least 10 points from free throws on the table in each of their last three games, and have missed more free throws than their opponents in each of their last four games. To the Hawks’ fortune, in only two of their seven losses (at GSW, vs. CLE) have the number of missed free throws exceeded the final point margin, although two overtimes against Washington might have been avoided had Atlanta not missed 9 and 11 free throw attempts in each game.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  2. lethalweapon3
    Full Squad?


    It won’t have the same affect on the Atlanta Hawks as it has on tonight’s opponents, the Golden State Warriors (10:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Bay Area), but the Hawks may be as close to full strength as they’ve been in awhile with the return of All-Star Paul Millsap (bruised knee) to the starting lineup. Atlanta will need all hands on deck to have any chance of tripping up G-State and snipping their latest losing string in front of the 67th consecutive sold-out audience at Oracle Arena.

    Getting Pero Antić back up to full speed and platooning him with Elton Brand, alongside a rejuvenated DeMarre Carroll and Millsap, will go a long way toward restoring the competitive spirit that has been slip-sliding away for the better part of a month. Besides injuries, the Hawks are wrestling with complacency during a road trip where they’re facing one hungry team after another.

    As Atlanta runs repeatedly beak-first into a tanking firewall in the Eastern Conference standings, they’ve faced a Celtics team that needs the Hawks and Nets to lose, a Suns team hustling to avoid dropping out of the postseason with the Grizzlies right on their heels, and a Blazers team that would really like to open the first round at home.

    As show-stopper entertaining as they can be, the Warriors are in the same boat as Phoenix, and with the 9-seed just three games behind they can’t afford any more slip-ups on what is already a subpar 18-10 home record. Atlanta is the first of nine home contests over an 11-game stretch for the Dubs, the next two visiting teams eager to overtake them in the Western Conference standings (Phoenix and Dallas).

    After the Warriors, the Hawks go to Staples Center the next night, facing a rested Clippers squad that just knocked the taste out of the Lakers’ mouths on Thursday night and seems ready to make their final charge up to the top of the West. Atlanta has very few wins away from Philips Arena, but only one of them is against a projected playoff team, and that was a win in Charlotte way back on November 11.

    Kyle Korver’s Threak came to a halt as the Hawks laid their customary egg before a national audience in Portland on Wednesday. The new guy holding the belt? Why, none other than Warriors All-Star guard Stephen Curry (50 straight games in a row, and counting). The league-leader in threes made (3.3 per game) and attempted, Curry (23.8 PPG, 8.7 APG, 41.4 3FG%) is likely to play despite soreness in his leg. He was 0-for-4 against the Hawks in Atlanta on January 3, before his sole triple of the game with just five minutes remaining closed the gap to six, setting the stage for Andre Iguodala’s eventual buzzer-crusher.

    Head Coach Mark Jackson is laying his defensive imprint (99.2 points allowed per 100 possessions, 3rd best in NBA) on a franchise not very accustomed to such effort. Yet he knows his team’s championship dreams rest on having a spry Curry and Bogut in April. If the W’s can build an early lead, look for a Jackson to serve up a heaping of our old friend Jordan Crawford (15 points over 20 minutes, in his triumphant return to Boston on Wednesday; 7.5 APG, 6-for-24 shooting and 1-for-12 on threes vs. Atlanta this season) to give Curry’s legs some rest and preserve point guard Steve Blake, their latest veteran pickup.

    Tonight, Jackson is likely to lean more on Curry's Splash Brother Klay Thompson (behind only Curry, Korver, and Damian Lillard in threes made) to do the heavy-lifting on offense. Thompson will be looking to bounce back after going just 1-for-8 from deep against the Celtics on Wednesday. Look for DeMarre Carroll to get switched over from Iguodala or Harrison Barnes to deal with Thompson.

    Jackson is also carefully watching Bogut’s and David Lee’s minutes (each under 25 minutes in four of their last five games), divvying up reserve time between Marreese Speights and the surprisingly still-good Jermaine O’Neal. If Millsap is close to 100 percent, he and Lee should cancel each other out, especially if their guards on feeding them well on pick-and-rolls and on the low block. Reliant on Iguodala to roam the middle on defense, Bogut is unlikely to evacuate the paint unless Antić can provide some Al-proximation with his long-range jumper.

    After a stellar offensive performance in the prior four games, Jeff Teague took his foot off the pedal against Portland and the Hawks got run over. To stay competitive in this game, he and the Hawks backcourt must apply consistent defensive pressure. The Warriors turn the ball over 15.2 times per game (4th most in NBA), led by Curry (3.9 TOs/game, most in NBA). Opponents’ 17.3 points per game off turnovers rank third among possible playoff teams.

    In 20 games where Teague snares at least two steals, his scoring average jumps to 19.5 PPG, and the Hawks (10-10) only lost one of those games by double digits. In the 18 games where Jeff doesn’t register a single steal, his scoring drops to 14.1 PPG, and the Hawks lost all but five of them, including four double-digit losses (like Wednesday’s 24-point trouncing in Portland).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  3. lethalweapon3
    As De La Soul would put it… Stakes is high! But will the Atlanta Hawks be left looking like the Pharcyde, with the Indiana Pacers passin’ them by?

    My dear, they may not know us, but we know them very well. All season long, we’ve seen Our Fine Feathered Friends play loose and often without focus at the starts of the first and/or second halves of games, fully expecting they’ll find a way to just turn it on by crunch time, then tightening up and flaming out completely when the BR-30 doesn’t come on. More often than not this season, that strategy worked, especially against the Bobcats and Magic and Wizards of the world.

    Now, though, they’re one “whoops-oh-well” away from the end of the season and a very probable breaking up of the band. How will Our Fine Feathered Friends perform? Tonight, at Philips Arena, will Atlanta fans get to see the Hawks -- or pressure-cooked turkeys?

    After two previous flops in Atlanta, the Pacers figured a way to adjust to the Hawks’ super-sized lineup by subbing in Ian Mahinmi and Jeff Pendergraph earlier in Game 5. With Josh Smith sitting and in early foul trouble, the Pacers directed the offense to whichever of David West (series-high 24 points, six consecutive FGs in the second quarter) or Roy Hibbert (series-high 18 points) was in. Hibbert’s 14 free throw attempts surpassed the combined total (13) of the prior four playoff contests. Smith’s absence from the floor also allowed free reign for Paul George (21 points, series-best 7-for-8 FGs).

    After holding firm in that first quarter, the Hawks slid further behind with defensive lapses and blown short-range shots… and then allowed the bottom to completely fall out in the third quarter. Pointless technical fouls, fouling a 30-foot shooter at the end of the shot clock, and more of the same unfocused play contributed to the biggest laugher in the series.

    The winning spreads have gone from 17, to 15, to 21, to 11, and now to 23. The saddest part of Game 5 is the Hawks wasted away their best performance at the free throw line, shooting 30-for-37 after missing 13, 12, and 9 freebies in their previous three games. With their backs to the wall and the season, unlike Smith’s toes, on the line, will the Hawks come through from the stripe when the whistles blow their way?

    Frank Vogel figured a way in Game 5 to adjust to Hawks head alchemist Larry Drew. With his back to the wall and the season, and maybe his next NBA head coaching contract on the line, will LD find the proper substitution patterns to neutralize what Indiana throws out there? He may just be fine-tuning his poker game for the summer, because The Man of 1,000 Starting Lineups insists he hasn’t had to make adjustments at all. Via AJC:

    “It’s like it’s been all these other games, just preparation going into the game, knowing exactly what you want to do from a defensive standpoint. We haven’t approached any of our games any differently. At this point we won’t either. We will stick with the same game plan, go out and play our best and give it our best shot.”

    The NBA’s tenth-best field goal shooter in the regular season, Al Horford, shot just 11-for-28 in his last two playoff games. With his back to the wall and the season on the line, will he make the crucial shots and plays that prove he deserves to be a marquee player going forward in Atlanta?

    Smoove, Devin Harris, Kyle Korver, Johan Petro, and Anthony Tolliver may be rocking the candy-cane-and-blue Hawks jerseys in Atlanta for the final time tonight. Jeff Teague and Ivan Johnson may have to do some summertime contract shopping as well, while DeShawn Stevenson and Dahntay Jones could conceivably be donning NBA jerseys for the last time.

    With their backs to the wall and the season, and perhaps the terms of their next NBA contracts, on the line, will Larry Drew’s season-long mantra about a “sense of urgency” kick in and show up on the floor with these guys? Will interior players keep the Pacers out of the lane, leaving George and Indy's perimeter players (just 7-for-19 on threes in Game 5) settling for contested (and un-fouled) long distance shots? Will they win fights for loose balls and defensive rebounds? Will they “respond” and put the homecourt pressure back on the Pacers? Will they show this "composure" thing that LD keeps harping on in front of refs and fans, or will the Pacers fly home sipping a fine whine made from Hawk tears?

    Teague comes across more like a mallrat from Indio, California than a cat straight outta Indianapolis, pretty much assuring fans, “easy, my sheezies. Pressure what? Pressure who?”

    “There is no pressure. No one even expected us to be in a Game 6. We are going to go out and have fun. We know we can beat this team. We’ve proven. We are going to go out and play with a lot of passion and energy and try to get a win.”

    Hopefully, The Passion of the Hawks has a good ending tonight.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  4. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Raptors

    By lethalweapon3,

    (EDIT: Will Jose Calderon and Ed Davis play tonight? We're about to find out.)

    “Who will buy?”

    The trading deadline within sight, the Toronto Raptors’ GM Bryan Colangelo has been getting his “Oliver!” on lately. North of the border, the team that’s 16-29 and 1-7 in a brutal Atlantic Division is looking to shake things up. And if other teams have offers, much like Jordan Farmar, the Raptors are all ears.

    You’d have to head to the DeKalb Farmer’s Market to find more international options than the Raptors are peddling. What do you have a taste for? Italian (Andrea Bargnani)? Spanish (Jose Calderon)? French (Mickael Pietrus)? Perhaps a little fusion action, with some Lithuanian (Linas Kleiza or Jonas Valanciunas) thrown in?

    "What? You want more?" You want the team’s leading scorer (career-highs of 17.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.2 APG) in DeMar DeRozan, eh? Sure, but would you mind taking one of our offseason mistakes (Landry Fields) with you? Or, how about taking either one of our redundant power forwards (Ed Davis or Amir Johnson)?

    The Raptors are individually aware that they are not merely playing to compete, but they are being showcased.

    We always complain about the referees not giving the Hawks the foul calls they deserve. Well, we will know something is up if that observation continues tonight. The Raptors have the highest opponent free throw rate (33.5 free throw attempts per 100 field goal attempts) and serve up a league-leading 22.8 personal fouls per game. Their opponents need to take advantage of the plentiful trips to the line. Toronto is 2-16 when opponents sink more than 20 freebies, 14-13 otherwise. Atlanta is conversely stingy -- 29th in personal fouls (18.2 per game) and in opponent free throw rate (23.7 attempts per 100 possessions). Without Zaza Pachulia available, we’ll need bangers like Ivan Johnson and solid free throw shooters like Anthony Tolliver to contribute.

    Offense has not been much of a problem for the Raptors, 4th in the Eastern Conference in points per game (97.9 PPG) and offensive efficiency (106.5 points per 100 possessions). Coach Dwane Casey’s bunch plays at a low pace (25th in NBA), but their fouls give them ample opportunity to stop the clock and climb back in the game with extra possessions, matching foes’ ones-and-twos with their two-and-threes.

    Also helping the Dinos’ cause is the 2nd lowest turnover rate in the league (12.31 TOs per 100 possessions, second only to the Hawks’ last opponent, the Knicks). Calderon and Lowry are among the top 15 point guards (minimum 25+ minutes per game) for low turnover rates, while John Lucas III, Kleiza, DeRozan, rookie Terrence Ross, and the emerging Alan Anderson all rank in the NBA’s Top 50.

    The only exception on the roster for turnover rate was lightly used Aaron Gray, currently 3rd highest in the league (30.7 per 100 possessions). Gray took a vampire bite from Glen Davis during an altercation in Orlando last Thursday and went batty four days later in the Raptors’ loss to Golden State. He got 31 minutes and scored 22 points (a career-high, surpassing the 19 he scored way back in April 2008) on 9-of-12 shooting, adding 10 rebounds (and just one turnover). As the Raps await Bargnani’s comeback from an torn elbow ligament and Valanciunas’ return from a broken finger, look for Casey to activate Gray for another 20+ minutes.

    What’s bringing them down is defense. They give up 100 points per game, but more significantly, they’re 1-22 when opponents drop 100 points or more on them, 15-7 otherwise. Jeff Teague (25.0 PPG and 6.5 APG in his last two games) should get ample opportunities to continue driving to the basket with Calderon at his heels; against Lowry (who comes off the bench), not so much. Fields was suffering with flu-like symptoms over the weekend, but will be needed to temper the hot-shooting Hawks, who shot 60% on field goals in Sunday’s loss to the Knicks.

    The team’s top offseason acquisition, Lowry returned from a torn triceps muscle about a month ago and hasn’t gotten his starting gig back. He’s struggled for the most part with his shot as a reserve (11-for-35 in his last five games). At the season’s outset, Lowry could not have imagined the Raptors looking to keep Calderon and shop him instead, but Calderon has the advantage of a $10.6 million expiring contract. Or, as Yahoo’s Adreian Wojnarowski revealed recently, it may just be Calderon getting showcased while Lowry recovers from the triceps injury and back spasms. Something’s gotta give.

    Toronto is subpar in defensive rebounding (29.0 per game, 28th in NBA; 21st in defensive rebounding percentage), so crashing the boards is in order. The Hawks are 10-3 when they snare 12 or more offensive rebounds.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  5. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Cavs

    By lethalweapon3,

    Who ARE these masked men?

    Why, they’re the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that strolled into Philips Arena last month against an unsuspecting Atlanta Hawks team and, after laying low for a half, ran off with a split-second victory like a thief in the night.

    This time, they’ve got their alpha dog back. And this time, the Hawks will be in their house.

    Just like Detroit a couple days ago, Cleveland (7-23) has a more positive outlook after beating the Wizards for their second win in a row (first “streak” of the year).

    Tristan Thompson is still donning his protective mask. The second-year pro has contributed a double-double in each of his last four games, missing five consecutive by just a single rebound (12.4 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 52.3 FG% in his last five). His season high of 15 rebounds against came against the Hawks on November 30. Thompson’s bump in production comes right on time, with could-be All-Star Anderson Varejao (14.1 PPG, league-leading 14.4 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.5 SPG) still out and nursing a bruised knee.

    Beta-dog Varejao is not planning to play this entire weekend. The Cavs will need to mask his absence not only with strong rebounding performances (29th in the NBA in defensive rebounds per game, even with Andy V) from frontcourt reserves, but also some participation in the passing game and occasional defensive stops. Against Washington on Wednesday, Cleveland was out-boarded 51-38, yet they did manage to generate (or, at least, be present for) 20 turnovers, a high for the month even though they’re from the Wizards.

    They only went nine-deep in that game, giving Luke Walton his second straight 20+ minute appearance (his only two this season, so far). Walton surprised with a team-leading 3 steals against D.C. With a healed cheekbone, Tyler Zeller shed his facemask along the way to a career-high 20 points in his first NBA start against Boston last week (“All Praise Due to Jason Collins”). But Zeller seems to have trouble striking a balance of efficient scoring (32.4 FG% his last 3 games) and consistent rebounding (8.0 RPG in his last three games, 2.5 RPG in the two games prior). Samardo Samuels can’t help (or harm) as he’s just been assigned to their D-League affiliate in Canton. Facing back-to-back games like the Hawks, look for a surprise participant from Coach Byron Scott’s sizable doghouse to emerge. Kevin Jones? Jon Leuer? Omri Casspi? Against any of these guys, this may turn out to be a good game for Atlanta to give Mike Scott some shine.

    Kyrie Irving is rocking a mask now. Originally going with the Jet Li look, a black mask to shield a broken bone in his jaw, he’s now going with the Rip Hamilton-style clear mask. Either way, it’s been hard for opponents to keep Kyrie from going Zorro on them. Irving has averaged 23.0 PPG and 5.4 APG while shooting 40.4% on threes and 46.1% overall since his return from a broken finger. He hung an L on the Lakers with 28 and 11, and his 41 points nearly toppled the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. After the Hawks’ struggles containing Will the Thrill Bynum on Wednesday, what defensive designs will Larry Drew draw up for Uncle Drew?

    Jeremy Pargo wasn’t wearing a mask, but he sure played like The Mask in his last game against the Hawks, just one among a disconcerting conga line of opposing small guards to declare aloud,
    “Somebody stop me!” He burned Jeff Teague and the Hawks’ backcourt for 22 points, largely on an array of blow-by layups and step-back jumpers in the final stanza as the Cavs made their late charge. He’s taken a definite backseat with Irving back (five appearances and eight combined points in Cleveland’s last nine games), but it’s intriguing how much we’ll see of Jannero’s little bro this time around, perhaps alongside Irving as the situation warrants.

    Dion Waiters has been hot-and-cold offensively in five games since returning from an ankle sprain. Moreso than the return of Irving, Waiters’ trips to the line and three point shooting largely represent the difference between his last five games (2.0 FTAs/game, 0.4 3PTM/game, 11.8 PPG) and the prior five games before his injury (4.6 FTAs, 1.8 3PTM, 18.6 PPG). While Byron Scott values Waiters’ athleticism, it’s been a challenge for him to mask Waiters’ defensive lapses and inefficient shooting (38.2 FG% in the last 5 games, 36.7% on the season).

    Alonzo Gee continues to start but has been going through the motions with few standout games of late. He may struggle to hold off C.J. Miles for a starting wing spot, although his defense remains his calling card. Miles has cooled lately, but emerged with a couple explosive performances after Kyrie returned to action. He had 28 points each in back-to-back nights against the Lakers and Pacers, then followed that with 17 points in back-to-backs with the Bucks and Knicks before returning to Earth (9.0 PPG in his last five). C.J. does seem to be regaining his confidence (and Byron Scott’s) after a miserable November.

    Former Hawk Donald Sloan was cut loose to make room for Shaun Livingston, who was himself released for the second time in two months, this time by the Wizards. It’s hoped that he will add flexibility among the backcourt reserves, particularly allowing Daniel Gibson to shift onto point guards defensively.

    Despite mediocre shooting from deep (16th in 3FG%), expect the Cavs to come out swords blazing. When they manage to make ten or more three-pointers, their record is 6-3, and 1-20 otherwise. Expect Hawk guards to play close to the vest, but the wings and power forwards need to step out and help redirect their path to the rim when the Cavs’ guards drive. Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia need to stay home on defense and limit the cheapies from their opponents at center.

    Cav opponents shoot the league’s highest percentage at-the-rim (around 69%), an area where the Hawks excel. Particularly with Varejao out-of-action, this is not a day for Hawk forwards to sharpen their long-range sniping. But if they do (hint: they will), they can take solace in knowing Cleveland gives up long-twos at a league-high 41%. Cleveland’s intent is to guide teams into the muddled middle where guys like Gee, Irving, and Gibson can be at their disruptive best. A league-leading 58% of those at-rim shots from Cav foes are assisted, so this could be a nice day for lobs to the bigs and backdoor cuts from the wings.

    They may not be players, but they hack a lot. Cleveland ranks 2nd in racking up personal fouls, 5th in opponent free throw attempts (you’ll recall the Hawks are the NBA’s stingiest in these categories). Hopefully a significant number of trips to the line for Atlanta will be of the And-1 variety (top five in And-1s, as a percentage of field goal attempts) and not just Best-of-Two (28th in FT%).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  6. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Sixers

    By lethalweapon3,

    Are we all still here, Mayans? Good!

    Here’s your $64,000 question: What’s wild and woolly, hard to make sense of, and a troubling sign of uncertain days ahead?

    What’s that? Andrew Bynum’s hair, you say? No, I’m so sorry. I was going for the Philadelphia 76ers season!

    That’s especially true lately. The Sixers have been trying to hold it all together with would-be-superbig Bynum’s health status increasingly uncertain. Philadelphia went Bowling for Bynum this summer, taking what was then seen as a low-scale, high-profile risk for a young, potential Grade A superstar who was preparing for a non-invasive procedure on his gimpy knee in time for the start of an exciting season.

    Fans were apparently sold on the prospect: the team’s attendance is Top 10 for the first time since the Iverson era. Today, they are increasingly convinced that the Sixers, still pilloried for the returns from trades of Charles Barkley, Moses Malone, and Brad Daugherty, just tossed another gutter ball. A report on Bynum’s status is due today. But unlike the off-season, when season tickets were heavily pushed, no promises of a timeline for his return to the court are expected.

    With a sprained right foot shelving their leading scorer and playmaker, Jrue Holiday, for the past five games, the crack in Philly’s bell continues to widen. They’ve dropped all five games without Jrue, making their record 2-9 in December after an encouraging 10-6 start.

    Evan Turner has been able to help produce some offense in Holiday’s hiatus, averaging 17.8 PPG and 5.2 APG in the first five games of this month. And thank goodness for that, as there’s no one aside from Turner with more than 1.5 assists per game on the roster. But now Turner is potentially sidelined, too, with a sprained ankle leaving him a gametime decision. You’d have to imagine at least one of Holiday and Turner will make an appearance on the Wells Fargo Center floor tonight. Without their two leading scorers and assist-makers, they’re left with The Youngs (Thaddeus and Nick) and the restless.

    The only other traditional lead guard is former Hawk Royal Ivey, and he’s not getting much attention as he’s struggling with a strained groin. Coach Doug Collins was trying instead to shoehorn preseason star Maalik Wayns, an aggressive driving guard who had nine assists and no turnovers at Dallas on December 18, into the starting role. He was pulled after just 14 minutes against Houston (2 points, 1-for-5 shooting, no assists) on Wednesday. If Collins doesn’t trust his small guards, he’ll lean instead on his wings. The Youngs, plus Turner, Jason Richardson, Dorrell Wright and ex-Hawk Damien Wilkins, combined for 19 assists and just six turnovers against the Rockets.

    The Sixers play at a low pace (90.3 possessions per 48 minutes, 24th in NBA), but they get the fifth-most shots (84.0 field goal attempts per game). Taking care of the ball (11.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, 2nd lowest in NBA) allows them to maximize their opportunity for a shot, even if it isn’t a terribly good one.

    The passes in this offense are mostly for long-range two-pointers. The 76ers take the third most long-two shots (23.8 FGA per game from 16-to-23 feet) in the league. Almost everyone is in on the act, including forward-centers Spencer Hawes and Lavoy Allen, each taking as many shots taken from here as they have within 10 feet of the rim. Including starter-by-default Kwame Brown, the bigs themselves are not strong passers, either, and it’s tough to get them to participate fully in any pick-and-roll schemes.

    The injured pair of Holiday and Turner represents Philly’s their most reliable defensive options as well. The wings will swipe and dive for steals, but beyond that, they’re having a tough time stopping people. They gave up a whopping 125 points to Houston, the third straight game a Sixer opponent went for triple digits. The Rockets managed 36 free throw attempts. Philly’s opponents have had at least 20 free throw shots eight times through ten games this month, after just six occasions in the first 16 games of November.

    To match the versatility of Josh Smith, they’ll need a big game from Thaddeus Young (whose Twitter handle is ‘yungsmoove21’). His rebounding and shot blocks are up marginally, but while he fills up most of the stat sheet nightly, the longest-tenured Sixer really isn’t doing much to emerge from a leadership standpoint. We’re not one to criticize, but Thad’s free throw shooting is around 59%, down from 77% last year.

    Without being able to generate many turnovers from Philly, Atlanta will have to deploy a steady rotation at the 2 and 3 spots, ready to defend all those Sixer spot-up jumpers from 15 feet and beyond. Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver will have to provide the defensive energy necessary to keep Sixer guards out the lane. In the frontcourt, the Hawks need to limit Philly’s second-chances, and attack the paint persistently to thin out their options.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  7. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Nets

    By lethalweapon3,

    He’s baaaaaaaack!

    The week-long stretch of Hawkward Reunions continues tonight with J-J-J-J-J-J-Joe Johnson coming back to The Highlight Factory (oh, yeah, you too, Jerry Stackhouse) with the Brooklyn Nets. The six-time All-Star’s return to the Philips Arena floor will likely be met with applause from Atlanta Hawks fans, at least those that remember the not-so-good ole days before he got here. But will his grand return be a triumphant one? This will be a double-dip for the Hawks and Nets, as both teams will fly up to Prospect Heights for another clash on Friday.

    Atlanta traded off one “team leader” in July and will go into tonight’s contest without another, as the staff suspended Josh Smith one game for being a baaaaaad boyyyyyy in practice Tuesday. This should result in ample floor time for Anthony Tolliver, Ivan Johnson, and Mike Scott to help Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia match up against the Nets’ stout frontline. Horford will need a big game, playing as a legitimate big and going at Brook Lopez and Andray Blatche, if the Hawks intend to compete tonight.

    The burden of added leadership responsibilities is apparently weighing heavily on Smith, who seems to misunderstand that role as trying to be “Joe with Blocks and Steals.” Now shooting almost four three-pointers per night this month (2.3 3FGAs per game for the season, a career high) without averaging even one make, his field goal percentage in January (42.9 FG%) is approaching his free throw percentage (43.3 FT%), a feat which, for most players, would be a good thing. Smith’s season-long true shooting percentage of 47.4% is easily the lowest of his career, while his per-game rebounding (6.2 RPG, down from 7.5, which ranked 6th in the NBA last season) is his lowest in four seasons. He’s still getting the pretty blocked shots on help defense, but it’s at the cost of rebounds he and his teammates are readily conceding to the opposition.

    After the Epic Fail that was the 97-58 goring at the hoofs of the Chicago Bulls, the Hawks find themselves momentarily amid surging teams in the East. The Boston Celtics, one game below them, have won six straight, while the Nets have caught fire with seven straight victories.

    While Smoove and the Hawks continue their downward spiral, Joe is making his predictable pre-All-Star Game run with January numbers (20.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.1 TO/G, 47.6 FG%; 47.8 3FG%) up across the board from December (17.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 3.1 APG, 2.1 TO/G, 43.1 FG%, 34.7 3FG%). DeShawn Stevenson’s status is still unknown after having his knee examined yesterday, but he’ll be eager to be an impediment against Joe and his former squad.

    Reigning Eastern Conference Coach of the Month Larry Drew will be game-planning to stop the bleeding against a team that canned the previous award winner before going on a 9-1 tear. Finger-hickeyed P.J. Carlesimo’s troops are coming off a 113-106 win at Barclays Center last night against the improving Toronto Raptors. The Raps’ 106 points were the most that the Nets have given up in regulation since the 108-93 loss in Milwaukee on December 26 that dropped the Nets to a mediocre 14-14 and proved to be Avery Johnson’s swan song.

    It won’t surprise you much to know that a team featuring Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez on offense moves at the slowest pace in the NBA (87.9 possessions per 48 minutes). The offense, however, has picked up considerably in the points column. Brooklyn’s reached triple-digits in six wins during this ten-game stretch under Carlesimo, a mark achieved just seven times in the prior 28 games under the Little General. With the surge, Brooklyn now ranks third in the East in both scoring and scoring defense.

    Deron Williams is growing more comfortable as a floor leader for this team (just 2.0 TO/G in his last ten games; 3.0 in his prior 27). His turnover rate is by far the lowest of his career as an everyday starter. Unfortunately, so is his assist rate, as Johnson iso-dribbles in the clutch and Lopez backs opponents under the basket. Yet you get the sense that he and his teammates have figured out there’s enough quality depth where no one player has to go out and try to do everything. Joe, Deron, Brook (each with 20+ points last night), Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries recognize they can get paid handsomely without having to play Headliner Heroball for 40+ minutes anymore.

    Wallace has lived up to his nickname. Crash kicked off the season by spraining his ankle, and has been out for the last two games with bruised ribs after a characteristically rough spill early in a game against Phoenix. Wallace will be needed on the floor if the Hawks elect to go big at small forward (less urgent now, with Smith out for the Hawks). He’ll be a game-time decision. Fellow journeyman Keith Bogans has been spelling Crash as of late, to muted effect.

    Reggie Evans has supplanted TMZ favorite Humphries in the starting lineup and has failed to disappoint, leading the NBA in total rebounding percentage (24.8 per 100 possessions) and defensive rebounding percentage (37.1 per 100), while remaining a notorious thorn-in-the-side. The array of bigs at Brooklyn’s disposal is making life miserable in the paint for opponents. Beyond team scoring leader Lopez, there’s the resuscitated Andray Blatche (double-digit points in 6 of his last 7 games), Humphries, and even rookie free agent Mirza Teletovic (double-digit points in two of his last three games) coming off the bench. We’ll get an Ivan-Reggie tête-à-tête if we’re lucky. If we’re luckier, we may get a brief Battle of Georgia between Pachulia and a fellow Tbilisian, the lightly-used rookie Tornike Shengelia.

    Free MarShon Brooks! The Tucker High product started 47 games in his rookie season for lowly New Jersey, averaging almost 30 minutes a game, but is getting little burn behind Joe, Bogans, and Wallace. Despite shooting better inside the perimeter (54.2 FG% on two-pointers) than last season (46.3 2FG% in 2011-12), the sophomore still is not trusted enough defensively to get much more than 12 minutes per night.

    Former Hawks pre-season standout Damion James has picked up a ten-day contract with the Nets. His addition replaced a more prominent ex-Hawk, Josh Childress, who was waived a couple weeks before.

    Similar to Utah, the Net guards are generally not catching anybody on defense. No one in the backcourt aside from the lightly used rookie Tyshawn Taylor has a defensive rating below 105 (including Joe’s 111 points per 100 possessions. Hawk guards will need to be ready to catch-and-shoot, as the Nets may be slow to react. Usually, it’s Smith (4.4 APG) kicking the ball out from the block to get the ball movement started around the arc, so we’ll see if Jeff Teague takes more initiative and whether the replacement forwards pick up some of the slack in Smoove’s absence. Kyle Lowry did the scoring damage against Brooklyn in last night’s game with 21 points in just 15 limited minutes. We’ll see if Lou Williams or Devin Harris can play that Microwave role tonight.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  8. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Wizards

    By lethalweapon3,

    Not the Washington Wizards again! The 3-18 Wiz arrive back home at the Verizon Center after two nights’ rest, but it’s hard to hear them now after a 30-point drubbing in Miami, their fifth defeat in six games.

    John Wall is still not coming through that door! His knee prognosis has gone from a month of time off to uncertain. And the Wizards have been swimming up creek without their leading rebounder (Nene, sore foot, day-to-day but expected back tonight), leading stealer (Trevor Ariza, calf strain) and leading passer (A.J. Price, fractured hand, out 4-6 weeks). Another opening-day starter, Trevor Booker, remains out for another week with a strained knee.

    There are only so many rabbits Coach Randy Wittman can pull out of this hat. It would help if he could get some veterans (Emeka Okafor, Martell Webster, Shaun Livingston) to grab the reins and step up their game offensively, or for some of the young prospect talents (Jan Vesely, Chris Singleton) to emerge. But from game to game, they’re barely blips on the screen.

    Without them, Wittman is relying on Jordan Crawford, rookie Bradley Beal, third-year hook-shot master Kevin Seraphin and fifth-year wing Cartier Martin to keep them in games. With four games in five nights ahead of the Wizards, that’s a tall order.

    Martin has been one of the few bright spots in the Wizards’ last two losses. He led them in scoring against the Lakers with 21 points (5-for-11 on threes), then dropped 19 on the HEAT (4-for-6 on threes). Also he hasn’t drawn many trips to the line, he’s one of a small handful of NBA players that has yet to miss a free throw (10-for-10). It has to be tempting to get him into the starting lineup soon.

    Crawford is back below 40 percent shooting again, after a productive stretch (19.9 PPG on 44.4 FG%) that lasted two weeks and earned him a spot back in the starting lineup. He’s shooting 31 percent in his last four games. Miami put the clamps on him on Saturday (5 points, 2-for-12 shooting in 34 minutes) after he led Washington’s upset home win against the HEAT on Dec. 4 (22 points, 7-for-16 shooting in 31 minutes). With the injury to Price and Wall out of action, Crawford again becomes the team’s primary playmaker. He’s averaged 5.7 assists this month, and was averaging just 2.0 turnovers per game before racking up 6 against Miami.

    Back on the bench in favor of Singleton and Okafor, Seraphin has been probably the biggest thorn in the Hawks’ side, averaging 20 PPG and 8.5 RPG in the first two contests. Four of his paltry 17 blocks on the season have come against the Hawks (just 2 blocks in the 5 games since the last game at Atlanta). He’s made big shots late in both games, either to pull the Wizards to draw within a basket or take the lead. It will help if Atlanta can draw a few fouls on him early, throwing some bigs at him in post-ups while drawing him as a help defender from driving guards.

    After having his lunch eaten by David Lee and the Warriors, it’s a perfect time for Josh Smith (3 points on 1-for-12 shooting vs. Golden State) to chow down against the Wizards. During Player-of-the-Week week, Smoove’s 15 rebounds (6 offensive) against them on December 7 were a season high. His last loss in a regular season game against the Wizards, you ask? January 11, 2008. DeShawn Stevenson had 19 for D.C. in that game, which also had appearances from Hawks Acie Law IV, Anthony Johnson, and the late Lorenzen Wright.

    DeShawn may be rested tonight in preparation for KD coming to town tomorrow. Stevenson’s five three-pointers were just enough to keep the Wizards at arm’s length in the last matchup. But he and the Hawk guards have been turning cold from the 3-point line in the past week. Excepting John Jenkins in a garbage-time role, the combination of Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Stevenson, Lou Williams, Devin Harris, and Anthony Morrow are a combined 27-for-85 (31.8 percent) on three-pointers in their last four games. Morrow will be unavailable with a sore back, so expect a lot more floor time for Korver and Devin tonight.

    Washington’s overall defensive efficiency (102.1 opponent points per 100 possessions; 97.5 points per game; 53.1% total shooting) is actually a little better than Miami’s (102.4; 98.1; 53.5%). When opponents find a way to get the ball to the rim (23.4 FGAs/game, 2nd fewest in NBA) they’re experiencing little resistance, shooting 68.4% (2nd highest in NBA). Same deal on short-range shots -- second-fewest shots taken (7.2) but second-highest opposing FG% (44.7%). Meanwhile, their foes are shooting just 31% on long-range two-point jumpers (lowest in the league), and yet they take the fourth most (22.1 FGAs/game).

    It is amazing that a team that gets opponents to settle for outside shots has been this unsuccessful, but that’s because their own offensive efficiency has been so wretched (93.4 points per 100 possessions, only NBA team below 95). Especially the way the Hawks have been shooting as of late from that range, though, it’s time to try something different. This is an ideal game to attack from the paint some more, both on post-ups and assisted buckets.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  9. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bulls

    By lethalweapon3,

    Will our Homecourt Houdinis will be at it again, as the shorthanded but overachieving Chicago Bulls pay a visit to the Atlanta Hawks at the Highlight Factory?

    Our Deficit Hawks (26-19) have dug themselves out of double-digit graves in four of their last five home victories, erasing leads of 13 points versus Toronto on Wednesday, 27 against Boston, 18 versus Minnesota, 15 against Utah.

    But how much burrowing will be tolerable against a Chicago team that deep-dished the Hawks to the tune of a 44-point lead back on January 14, conceding just five points in the second quarter and 20 in the first half, on the way to a 97-58 beatdown so severe and absurd that even Worldstar was considering hosting the highlights as a viral video?

    To the casual viewer, one would think that was all Chicago’s doing, commandeered by Coach Tom Thibodeau with his vice-grip defensive strategies, as the Hawks shot a paltry 29.3 FG%. But the Bulls’ shooting in that game was also less-than-scintillating (41.8 FG%, just 27-for-65 from two-point range), and the Hawks committed just one more turnover (and three fewer assists) than Chicago, despite losing by 39.

    Rather, a lot of Atlanta’s damage was self-inflicted, with half-hearted team rebounding (59-39 rebounding edge to the Bulls), laughable shot selection, and a woeful inability to earn trips to the free throw line (ten free throw attempts, to Chicago’s 33). Even in the prior matchup, a comfy 92-75 win in Atlanta on T.I. Night (December 22), the Hawks only got to the line ten times.

    Prior to the January 14 game, Coach Thibodeau went in on his team, applying hoof-to-rump resuscitation two days after an embarrassing 16-point home loss to Alvin Gentry’s Phoenix Suns. "Early this morning, Tibs was going crazy on us at shoot-around,” Joakim Noah ruminated after the Hawks game. “Just waking up early in the morning and having Tibs just screaming at you and screaming at you and screaming at you ... we didn't want that to happen to us again." How amazing of a team that’s capable of responding when a coach dials the pressure up! After roasting the Hawks, the Bulls (28-18) went on to win seven of their last eleven games, pulling ahead of the Pacers in the Central Division.

    With the bloom still off Derrick Rose (knee), the Bulls also played last night in Brooklyn without All-Star Noah (recurring plantar fasciitis), Carlos Boozer (sore hammy), and Kirk Hinrich (elbow infection). Yet they still gave the Nets a run for their money, leading through three quarters before falling short 93-89 with just ten active players.

    Jimmy Butler and Marco Belinelli (team-leading 18 points) provided solid efforts off the bench, helping out with rebounding, passes, steals, and free throw shooting. Butler is a top-20 free throw shooter (85.4 FT%) in the league, and he’s top-ten in lowest turnover percentage (7.5 TOs/100 possessions). Belinelli and Hamilton will be leaned on heavily tonight to get open and spread the Hawk defense with accurate jumpshots.

    Butler, Taj Gibson, Luol Deng, and Nate Robinson each logged 40+ minutes while the Nets pulled away late. Gibson played the entire game, while Deng, the league leader in floor time (39.8 MPG) missed all of 4 seconds. Vladmir Radmanovic and Daequan Cook were dressed but not pressed into action, so look for appearances from each today, along with Marquis Teague, who played sparingly.

    Bob Rathbun sure can deliver the factoids. He tweeted today that against the Raptors, Josh Smith and Al Horford each tallied at least 20 points, 10 boards, three dimes and three swats. It’s the first time an Eastern Conference duo accomplished the feat since TNT celebrity Charles Barkley and ACC hoops analyst Mike Gminski did the deed just over a quarter century ago (January 27, 1988). Nice ‘n Smoove: sometimes, they run slow. Sometimes, they run quick!

    And when they do the latter, they and the Hawks benefit greatly. Bob reminds us that only the Denver Nuggets (21.0 PPG) run up more fast break points in their home games than the Hawks (19.7 PPG). With Chicago on the second night of a back-to-back, Atlanta will need to keep the Bulls’ guards, depleted without Hinrich, on their heels, and their frontline at their backs. A back-and-forth halfcourt race to futility only works in Chi-town’s favor. Instead, secure the rebounds, get the ball to the lead guards in transition, and engage in the running of the Bulls.

    If Noah and Boozer (both questionable) cannot go tonight, Horford and Ivan Johnson have to abdicate some of their mid-range shooting on halfcourt sets and back Gibson and Nazr Mohammed (their only available player above 225 pounds) into the paint. Last night, Andray Blatche wore down a weary Gibson with 10 points in the paint during the final stanza.

    If Hinrich is unavailable (currently not expected to play), Jeff Teague and Devin Harris have to dictate the pace, forcing Nate Robinson to remain active on the defensive side of the ball, drawing help from Deng and Gibson while opening up shots for the Hawk forwards and shooters.

    DeShawn Stevenson was a DNP-CD in that last Hawk-Bull matchup, and he’s expected to start tonight. He’ll be needed as an impediment to Deng, who shot 7-for-9 in that game. With Anthony Morrow finally fresh and Jannero Pargo’s re-signing today, the Hawks should have a full artillery of shooters at their disposal. Opponents shoot just 42.7 FG% (2nd lowest in NBA) against the Bulls' stingy defense, so someone should be crashing the offensive glass.

    Remember who our leading scorer was from that goring in Chicago? Mike Scott, by default, led the way with ten points. Bob also notes that Scott will have a cheering section tonight, as Tony Bennett and his UVa Cavaliers, in town to play the Yellow Jackets on Sunday, will be in the house tonight. With Zaza Pachulia out of action, look for Scott to get some inspired floor time tonight when the Bulls’ frontcourt backups are out there.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  10. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bulls

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Atlanta Hawks got drummed out of Philadelphia last night, looking terribly lethargic against a 76ers squad that had been stumbling before the return of Jrue Holiday.

    Now they return home to face a strongly confident Chicago Bulls team, a team that has won 9 of their last 13, beating Philly twice in that span. They’ve also defeated what was the East’s top team, the New York Knicks, twice this month, including a 4-point win last night in Manhattan that observers would tell you really wasn’t that close. Even without star guard Derrick Rose, the bloom is no longer off the Bulls, who are now primed to overtake the Hawks for the #3-seed in the East if they win at Philips Arena tonight.

    With little resistance from Chicago, the Knicks scrambled to put up 45 points in the fourth quarter just to shrink a 25-point lead by the end of the third quarter. The lack of a defensive pushback was, as expected, much to the dismay of Coach Tom Thibodeau. He drew a technical foul as the game got uglier, but his team was outdone on infractions as the Knicks’ Mike Woodson and star Carmelo Anthony were expelled. New York’s Tyson Chandler was also booted along with Chicago’s Joakim Noah after a fourth-quarter scrum, but a suspension for either player is unlikely coming into tonight’s game.

    It will be interesting to see what energy level the Bulls have by the end of tonight’s game. Deng (41.0) and Noah (40.2) lead the NBA in minutes per game, each exceeding their averages last night. To get both players some rest, Thibodeau may rely more on ex-Hawks Nazr Mohammed and Vladimir Radmanovic tonight.

    Unlike the Hawks last night, several key players on the Bulls stepped up their game to the level of their opposition. Noah clearly outclassed Chandler with a rebounding edge (12 to 8), and added 6 assists to go along with 15 points. Luol Deng (29 points) matched MVP candidate Carmelo Anthony point-for-point, and added 13 rebounds despite injuring his shoulder in the third quarter. Marco Belinelli (22 points) and Nate Robinson (11 points) did not shoot well from the field, but still produced offense by drawing trips to the line and nailing 16 of their combined 18 free throws.

    Perhaps most impressive was one of the players the Hawks jettisoned via free agency. Kirk Hinrich messed around and nearly registered a triple double (16 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 turnovers), while hitting 4 three-pointers, outplaying Raymond Felton.

    The T.I. that Hawks fans really want to see tonight is “Teague Inspired.” Will Jeff Teague, a listless 2-for-4 for 5 points and 4 personal fouls against the Sixers, take the reins of the backcourt offense and outwork the veteran he once had to defer to in past seasons? Without steady play from Teague, and with Devin Harris nursing his sore foot, the Hawks are pressured to rely on Lou Williams (13 points, 4-for-12 shooting, four assists, and four turnovers vs. Philly) as a lead guard for longer stretches earlier in the game than they’d like.

    Teague isn’t the only starter that needs to step up and dominate a game. Atlanta has now gone six games without a single starter scoring at least 20 points. They’ll need to see “Al Scoreford,” instead of the passive player (11.0 PPG, 3.5 APG) Horford has been in the past six games. He’s combining poor and rushed shot selection (9-for-35 in his past three games) with questionable decisions to pass up layups for passes out to the perimeter. His subpar free throw shooting (57.3 FT% on the season) may be subconsciously provoking his tentative play in the post. Although he’s 7-for-9 in his last three games, he definitely needs more trips than he’s earning. Horford will need to play big against his college teammate Noah, who’s won 7 of his last 11 matchups against him (including the 2011 playoffs).

    One Bull who had plenty of rest last night and will play a heavy role tonight will be Carlos Boozer. The Alaskan Assassin’s shooting percentage is a career-low 50.1 percent, and gets a quick hook from Thibodeau when his defensive effort is spotty, yet he is in the top ten in defensive rebounding percentage (27.3%). Taj Gibson plans to play despite a sprained right ankle after just four minutes of action last night, but Thibs will want to limit his playing time if he can help it.

    On Friday night, the Sixers played Death by a Thousand Long-Range Jumpers early, spreading the floor and making offensive rebounds and backdoor cuts easier against the Hawks. The Bulls, leading the NBA in the proportion of long-range shots (30.3% of all shots from 16-to-23 feet) will continue that line of attack.

    Josh Smith, who’s had all he could handle from Kevin Durant, David Lee, and Thaddeus Young lately, needs more help from DeShawn Stevenson and Ivan Johnson so he won’t be overspent making defensive stops at short-and-mid-range.

    More than half of the Hawks’ 15 wins, 8 of their last 11 victories, have come against cellar-dwellers in Charlotte, Orlando, and Washington. While earlier wins against Western contenders were impressive, they have to show some mettle against the top Eastern Conference contenders for others to take them seriously. A convincing victory tonight could be a big first step.

    Happy Holidays to All! And, Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  11. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Knicks

    By lethalweapon3,

    It’s Time for Woody Bowl IV!

    On the heels of an epic rollercoaster win, Larry Drew and the Atlanta Hawks will face off this evening with Drew’s longtime teammate and the man he assisted on the floor and the sideline for many years.

    Former Hawks coach Mike Woodson’s New York Knickerbockers took two of three contests against Atlanta last season, and strolls into Madison Square Garden with his charges (26-15) sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference, but treading water lately.

    Drummed out of Philadelphia in last night’s game versus the 76ers, featuring a 29-point deficit in the third quarter, the Knicks have dropped ten of their last 18 games. That’s the same record as the Hawks, who are just two games behind the Knicks in the East and getting their groove back with three
    straight victories.

    Woodson is crafting the Knicks in his desired image, controlling tempo by keeping turnovers low (10.9 team TOs/G, fewest in NBA), playing a slow pace (90.7 possessions per 48 minutes, 24th in NBA), limiting second chances for foes (9.9 opponent offensive RPG, fewest in NBA), and
    players calling their own number in isolation (54% of shots assisted, last in the league). A team with Jason Kidd on the roster that ranks 28th in assists (19.6 per game) is unfathomable at first, until you peruse the rest of the club.

    The Cereal Killer, Carmelo Anthony (career-high 29.0 PPG) is out to have a big day in his spouse’s (Redan High School’s LaLa Vasquez’s) former hometown. Despite playing the bulk of his
    floor time at power forward, he is spreading the floor by taking three-pointers (6.2 attempts per game) and plunking them down (40.2 3FG%, a career 32.2% before this season) like never before. He’s already taken and made more threes through 34 appearances than in 55 games last year. Melo’s assists are down from prior seasons (career-low 2.6 per game), but again, that is by Woodson’s not-giving-a-crap offensive design.

    Josh "Mad Max" Smith must not be cowed into trying to keep up with Anthony’s newfound long-range shot (or that of undrafted rookie Chris Copeland, who likes to step out as well). Instead, Smoove must strive to get threes for the Hawks the old-fashioned way, and by finding open shooters.

    Out since Christmas with a fracture of the pinky on his shooting hand, Raymond Felton is back to boost the Knick offense. New York scored in triple digits in 21 of their first 27 games, but has failed to reach
    100 points in eight of their last 15 games, including their last three.

    A few weeks before Christmas, Felton suffered a bone bruise on his non-shooting hand but played through it, dropping 27 points each on the HEAT in Miami and the Bulls in Chicago. Last night in Philly, he took the fewest shots (2-for-8, for 8 points) of his season, and managed just three assists while he and Jason Kidd simply hung on defensively against newly minted All-Star Jrue Holiday (career-high 35 points).

    Don’t expect Felton to be terribly active with his healing hands by gambling on defense. He will instead try to keep Jeff Teague, Devin Harris and Jannero Pargo in front of him. Mike Woodson is diminishing Kidd’s minutes to rest his sore back, and may lean more on 35-year old rookie Pablo Prigioni, himself limited in practice with a toe bruise, to create defensive pressure. Starting small forward Iman Shumpert, top-flight reserve J.R. Smith, and Ronnie Brewer are all needed to help with defense on the perimeter. Shump is just getting back into playing condition after returning from an ACL injury,
    and if he’s calling for a pick, he means he needs it for his Kid-esque hair. The Hawks must consistently deploy penetrating lead guards to keep New York’s point guard platoon busy.

    On offense, Felton will be targeting another first-time All-Star, Tyson Cleotis Chandler, who posted the third-highest field goal percentage ever (67.9 FG%) in 2011-12, and seems well on his way to at least matching that (67.5 FG% this season, career-high 11.9 PPG) with Felton back. Chandler was
    shooting 74.1 FG%, which would’ve passed Wilt Chamberlain’s single-season record until Felton got hurt. He then shot a “mere” 63.1 FG% as the Knicks went 6-7 in Felton’s absence. The Hawks need to use their wing players to disrupt the Felton-Chandler pipeline, taking pressure off of their bigs to make stops.

    This game will feature two of the league’s five most accurate three-point bombers over the courses of their careers, and if we’re lucky, three of them. Kyle Korver made his bid to take over Andrew Toney’s
    title as the new Boston Strangler, going off with eight triples on Friday in the Hawks’ wild comeback win. Kyle’s true shooting percentage (65.2%) is now up to third in the NBA behind Chandler and Kevin Durant.

    By nailing 24 of his last 36 treys, not only has Korver wrested away the top spot in NBA three-point shooting percentage (47.1%), he’s also rocketed past Matt Bonner for 5th in career 3FG% (41.8%) among active NBA players. He’s got his work cut out for him to catch the guy in 4th place – Anthony Morrow (42.5%), who remains questionable with hip/back issues. Just for fun: John Jenkins’ current “career” 3FG% (41.3%) would rank 7th among active players if he qualified.

    With Marcus Camby and human basketball truth detector Rasheed Wallace out with injuries, the Knicks are turning to Amar’e Stoudemire to back up Chandler at center. In limited minutes, STAT is using his athletic advantages against rigid centers to get his offensive production (20.0 points per 36 minutes, 50.6 FG%) back to the quality of the pre-Melo period of his 2010-11 season.

    J.R. Smith has been downright heroic at times this year, but the feeling of being passed over for a starting role may be gnawing on him. He’s mired in a shooting slump (28.7 FG% and 18.2 3FG% over his last eight games), and Knicks fans can only hope he has hit bottom after going 0-for-8 last night.
    J.R. has to attack the rim more to keep defenses honest. Can the Hawks be his slumpbuster? His 46.3% career shooting against Atlanta is highest all but one other opponent, but he only shoots 53.8 FT% (lowest versus NBA opponents) when the Hawks send him to the line.

    Say farewell to 50 percent free throw shooting for Al Horford. Just over two months after a 1-for-10 performance imperiled a victory against the Wizards, Horford came through with 10-for-11 shooting in the crucial comeback against the Celtics, rocketing his free throw percentage above the 60 percent threshold (61.5 FT%). His return to reasonable accuracy (79.8 and 78.9 FT% in his last two full seasons) has come right on time. He’s taken 18 shots from the charity stripe in his past two games, compared to a cumulative total of 14 shots over his prior 13 appearances.

    Horford’s 52 points over his past two games has moved his scoring average to a career-high 15.9 PPG, while six straight double-digit rebounding games has upped his rebounding average to just a shade under his career high (9.9 RPG).

    Horford’s career averages of 16.6 PPG and 11.6 RPG against the Knicks are higher than against any other Eastern Conference team. But after a 51-minute high-wire act against the Celtics, just two days after resting a sore hamstring and calf, it will be interesting to see how much rest he’ll need against Chandler and company. Zaza Pachulia is himself limited due to his Achilles, so expect judicious use of Johan Petro and Mike Scott to support Ivan Johnson, who will need to challenge the Knicks bigs under the hoop (11 points but just one rebound in 18 minutes against the Celtics).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  12. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Celtics

    By lethalweapon3,

    Is it possible for a team to run an opponent out of the building? Okay, well, how about two buildings?

    The Atlanta Hawks have a chance tonight to run the Boston Celtics out of Philips Arena and, if Coach Doc Rivers is to be believed, out of TD Garden as well.

    "I gotta either find the right combination or the right guys, or we're going to get some guys out of here," a clearly nonplussed Doc Rivers declared to the media after his team suffered their third straight loss on Sunday, this time to lottery contender Detroit. “That's the bottom line. This group right now, they're not playing right. It's in them to play right. But right now they haven't been either because I'm not getting to them, or they're not getting to each other.”

    Since then, they’ve lost to another cellar dweller in Cleveland. Then last night they fumbled away the game late at the Garden against cereal-killing Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks, after clawing out a multiple scoring funks. Now, as the trading deadline draws nearer, individual Celtics players will try to avoid having to take an alternate flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson.

    Gang Green will be vying to avoid their sixth-straight defeat, the worst losing streak in Beantown since losing seven straight back in April 2007. That team actually featured a player named “Allan Ray,” just a couple months before “Ray Allen” came to town.

    The Celts were the 89-81 victors in their last meeting with the Hawks on January 5, one night after beating Indiana and surging amidst a six-game winning streak before their wheels started falling off again. In their last six road games on the second night of a back-to-back, they’ve lost to every team except Atlanta.

    The Hawks were sitting pretty in that last game as well, before the wheels fell off for them after halftime. By double-teaming ballhandlers, Boston strangled the Hawks into a 33-9 third quarter, wiping out a 19-point lead. Atlanta won’t have Lou Williams (21 points in the first half, 7 in the second) to kickstart the offense this time. It will help the Hawks if Devin Harris (a gametime decision) and Jannero Pargo can work in tandem to pick up the scoring slack.

    How will leading scorer Paul "Azarenka" Pierce perform, one day after getting passed over for the All-Star Game for the first time since a (legitimate) foot injury kept him out in 2007? A healthy Pierce has not missed an All-Star selection since 2001. Hounded by J.R. Smith in the final quarter of the close loss to the Knicks on Thursday, Paul Pierce (22 points, but just three in the second half) had the ball he was handling knocked off his body out of bounds twice in the closing minutes.

    You have to feel a little bit for Rajon Rondo, who had his fourth triple-double of the season last night. Beyond averaging a double-double with points (career-high 13.7 PPG) and assists, Rondo has improved his shooting efficiency over the previous season and adds a career-high 5.5 RPG, highest among all NBA point guards. Yet the Celtic offense has been pretty vanilla, because they’re living-and-dying not by the three-pointer (20% of all FGAs, 4th lowest in NBA) but by long-two-point shots (28% of all FGAs, 4th highest in NBA). Last night, as SB Nation’s Celtics Blog noted, they shot a season-low 31.7% (7-for-32) from beyond 15 feet from the hoop.

    Kevin Garnett and Rondo know they’re proficient at that range (team 44.7 FG% from 16-to-23 feet, 72.5% assisted, both highest in NBA), but the bigs like Garnett and Brandon Bass are making the offense predictable with their long-range positioning and shot selection. Rondo needs players willing to find their way to the rack and finish when Rondo delivers the ball. Jeff Green, we’re looking at you.

    Further grinding things to a halt, forwards Green, Brandon Bass, Jared Sullinger, and Chris Wilcox (back after over a month out with a sprained thumb) are inactive in the passing element of the offense. Guards Jason Terry, Courtney Lee, Leandro Barbosa, and Avery Bradley (a combined 5.7 APG between the four of them) aren’t that much more pass-happy than the reserve forwards. Terry, in particular, has the lowest per-game (2.3), per-minute and per-possession assist rates of his career. Deferring to the Celtics’ Big 3 to create so much of the offense for others erodes the team’s effectiveness, especially when one of the premier players has to sit for rest or foul trouble.

    Taken together, Boston has reached triple digits in scoring just four times in their past 20 games, compared to ten times in their previous 22.

    Sullinger will get plenty of minutes tonight – that is, if he can keep his hands to himself. Averaging 3.5 personal fouls per game, he has fouled out of seven of his past 17 games, and has been whistled for at least four fouls in 15 of his last 20 games. Reliable free throw shooters like Jeff Teague should go after Sullinger in the paint when the Celtics get in the bonus, especially since Rondo has been struggling defensively with dribble penetration.

    Sullinger has been crucial in getting the Celtics second-chance opportunities (2.2 offensive RPG). Being subpar in the offensive rebounding department (28th in NBA) is nothing new, as no Celtic has averaged more than two per game since the days of Kendrick Perkins and Leon Powe. But those were also the days of Ray Allen, when good perimeter shooting meant the opportunities to crash the boards were few. With Terry (35.2 3FG%, a nine-year low), Lee (34.2%, down from 40.1% last year), Bradley (30.6%, down from 40.7%, despite taking 2.5 more shots per game) and Green (32.5%) all shooting wayward shots from long distance, they’ll need as much help extending possessions as Sullinger can provide.

    Terry is desperate to get his deadeye shot back. Over his career, he has shot 47.1 FG% against his former team, the Hawks, the highest against any Eastern Conference opponent. However, he is averaging just 16 minutes in his past three games, shooting a cumulative 4-for-14. He’s been replaced in the starting lineup by Avery Bradley for defensive purposes. At his last trip to The Highlight Factory, Terry shot 2-for-8 and 0-for-4 from deep. A couple consecutive missed shots, and Rivers is likely to ground JET with another short hook.

    Ivan Johnson’s tremendous performance against the Bobcats hasn’t gone unnoticed by Garnett, who lives, at this stage of his career, for the sole purpose of finding ways to get under opponents’ skin. He and the Hawk forwards (Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia will be gametime decisions) must remain composed and not fall for Boston’s reindeer games.

    Josh Smith (six turnovers on January 5; seven turnovers despite a monstrous game against Charlotte on Wednesday) must make wise decisions with the ball against the team that ranks third in the league for steals and fifth (just ahead of the Hawks) in opponent turnovers per game. A sloppy game works in Boston’s favor. But three of the Hawks’ highest assist totals this season (topped only by the double-overtime in Detroit last month) have occurred in the last five games, and all three games were wins.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  13. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bobcats

    By lethalweapon3,

    These are trying times on Trade Street, as the Charlotte Bobcats (10-31) are coming to understand their lot in life. They’ve won just three of their past 29 NBA contests and are fighting off the awakening Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers for dead last in the NBA.

    Complacency may be setting in for a team that, thanks to its fast start, has already surpassed the worst record in NBA history from the previous season. Now, though, they have a new futility record to fend off.

    Since starting out 5-2 at Time Warner Cable Arena, culminating in a one-point win against Toronto on November 21, the Cats fell 101-91 to the Atlanta Hawks two nights later. Two months have passed and they still haven’t won a single home game since. A loss tonight to the Hawks, winners of seven straight in this series, will move these Bobcats within three games of tying the all-time longest NBA home losing streak of 19 games, set by Jim Jackson’s 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks.

    They’re hoping for a lifeline from the Hawks, who enjoyed their largest margin of victory of the season (113-90) in the last meeting with the Bobcats in Atlanta on December 13.

    Charlotte’s scoring differential of -8.3 PPG is easily the worst in the league. Nonetheless, they’ve managed to keep their margins of defeat within 10 points for six of their last nine losses. They’ve also given up less than their NBA-high 103.2 opponent PPG in each of their last seven games.

    All the losing hasn’t seemed to hamper the sophomore campaign of Kemba Walker. The 6’1” guard is starting to find his scoring touch, shooting 50.8 FG% in his last four games, and has a slim turnover rate (8.95 TOs per 100 possessions) that’s bested among starting point guards only by Chris Paul and Jose Calderon. Like Kyrie Irving, surely his assist rate would be higher if he had some reliable shooters and finishers around him.

    Low turnover rates among the guards (Reggie Williams, Jeff Taylor, Ramon Sessions, and Gerald Henderson have even lower rates than Walker) and a high volume of free throws (19.7 free throws made per game, 2nd most in NBA) keep the Cats within purring distance even when their shots are off, which is often (42.4 FG%, 27th in NBA). Sessions and Ben Gordon come off the bench, but are the next two highest scorers after Walker. Sessions is scoring a career-high 14.3 PPG, and leads all qualified Eastern Conference guards in free throws made per game (4.8 FTM/G). The Hawks will want to minimize the hacking, as Charlotte is still 5-1 when they draw 27 or more personal fouls.

    Walker achieved a career-high 35 points on Monday with 6-of-7 three-point shooting against Jeremy Lin and the Rockets. Charlotte surged to an 11-point halftime lead in that game, but could not hang on as James Harden took control with 21 trips to the free throw line, sinking 19 of those shots.

    Charlotte’s fourth-leading scorer is a guard, too (Henderson). The guards are taking charge because there’s not much help coming from the frontcourt. The Bobcats are among the top five shooting teams volume-wise in the league at-the-rim, but because they rely on guards more than bigs, they convert at a woeful 57.7% (lowest at-rim FG% in NBA). Tyrus Thomas is earning a team-high $26 million over this and the next two seasons, but is deployed sparingly. Byron Mullens has of course been unreliable as a steady post presence, but it doesn’t help that he’s sidelined with an ankle sprain. Opponents are trapping the Bobcat guards and daring players like Brendan Haywood, Bismack Biyombo, DeSagana Diop, and Thomas to make something, anything, happen.

    Their top offensive option among power forwards? You guessed it, Hakim Warrick. Acquired in the trade of Matt Carroll to New Orleans, Warrick moved into the starting lineup on January 11 and has scored at least ten points in five of his last six games.

    Meanwhile, #2 overall pick Michael Kidd-Gilchrist seems to be losing his way at small forward. The rookie is shooting 38.7 FG% in his last seven games (6.7 PPG), and has just seven steals and eight blocks over his last fifteen. Coach Mike Dunlap and the Bobcat guards have to find a way to get MKG more involved via the transition offense. He’s connecting on just 25.8% of his jump shots. DeShawn Stevenson will start tonight, apparently to stick with Kidd-Gilchrist, Gordon or Henderson if any of them get a streak going.

    The degree of difficulty for the Cats is less steep tonight. Atlanta will rest Al Horford, one day after posting a season-high 28 points, to address his lingering hamstring and calf injuries. Horford, the team’s top defensive rebounder, will be joined by the Hawks’ top offensive rebounder, Zaza Pachulia, on the injury list as Pachulia deals with a sore Achilles.

    Ivan Johnson, in his first NBA start, will be subbed by Johan Petro and Anthony Tolliver as they endeavor to achieve at least parity with the Bobcats’ frontline. Johnson has averaged 13.6 PPG and 6.1 RPG in the five games this season where he’s played 20+ minutes. He will have to be ready for putbacks and passes in the paint as Biyombo leaves him to help with Josh Smith and the penetrating Hawk guards. As Zaza did in a start last week spelling Smith, Ivan will need to pass the ball out more than he’s accustomed to doing (7.25 assists per 100 possessions, second lowest on the team). On defense, Johnson and rookie Mike Scott (fresh off a career-high 11 points and 7 boards) will have to be focused and prepared to box out when Charlotte’s guards drive for shots.

    As Road Warriors go, Kyle Korver has been less Hawk and more Animal. He’s shooting just 38.8 FG% at Philips Arena (9.9 PPG), but a superb 52.7 FG% (11.4 PPG) in away games. Korver also stays hot with little time off. His 50.7% from three-point range on the back end of back-to-back nights dwindles as he get more days off (46.3% with 1 day rest, 40.0% with 2 days rest, 30.4% with 3 or more days rest). The Hawks should look for him early and often… and so should the Bobcats.

    Expect Henderson and rookies MKG and Jeff Taylor to shadow Korver along the arc. Even without Lou Williams and Charlotte native Anthony Morrow, the Hawks have a plethora of options besides Korver (Devin Harris, John Jenkins, Jeff Teague, and re-arriving revelation Jannero Pargo) at their disposal to get open for shots. Bobcat opponents score 9.4 3FGs per game, most in the league, while shooting them at the second-highest percentage (38.6 3FG%).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  14. lethalweapon3
    Shall our Atlanta Hawks overcome... or will they once again get rolled like a mighty stream?

    The Hawks enter today’s MLK Day game against the Minnesota Timberwolves coming off the league’s worst 10-game stretch (2-8). In successive games, they have dealt with injuries to two guards, Lou Williams (season-ending ligament tear in knee) and now Devin Harris (day-to-day with an ankle sprain). They’re further depleted with Anthony Morrow still out with hip and back issues. After just four appearances in his last 11 games due to a sore knee, DeShawn Stevenson is probable to see action today. Early word is Jannero Pargo is on his way back on a ten-day contract, so we’ll see if he helps out today.

    You’ll forgive Minnesota (17-20) for not exactly howling over Atlanta’s misfortune. After losing Kevin Love (fractured hand) for a couple months, the Wolves now have to make do without Nikola Pekovic (bruised quad) for a couple weeks. That’s their top two scorers and rebounders, out of commission. Chase Budinger (knee) and Brandon Roy (knee) are nowhere close to returning. On top of that, their top three-point shooter, rookie Alexey Shved, will miss today’s game after spraining his ankle.

    The Timberwolves’ 108-103 home win over the Hawks on January 8 was one of their few bright spots lately, as they went on to drop their next five games by double-digit deficits. The Wolves’ brass called out for reinforcements, and they appear to have found a couple useful players in Chris Johnson (waived by the team in the preseason) and Mickael Gelabale.

    The 6’11” Johnson made splashes in brief stints in Boston, Portland, and New Orleans the past two seasons, and was playing ball in Santa Cruz (with the D-League team, not the Banana Slugs) before the callup. He showed up on Saturday against the Houston Rockets and rang up 15 points and 6 rebounds in just 18 minutes as the Wolves broke their losing streak.

    Gelabale last saw meaningful NBA minutes in 2008 the last time Seattle had a franchise, teaming with fellow Frenchman Johan Petro on the Sonics before embarking on a world tour that would impress A Tribe Called Quest. He came off the bench Saturday, like Johnson, and provided 11 points in 21 minutes, contributing defense at the guard and wing positions against the Rockets. Houston starters James Harden, Jeremy Lin, and Chandler Parsons were a combined 1-for-13 from 3-point range.

    A lack of healthy, reliable shooters and finishers at the rim has dampened the progress of Ricky Rubio, who was brought along slowly to manage still-nagging pain after rehabbing his knee for months. The Spaniard has started in his last two games (6 assists in each), but with a jumpshot that remains shady (22.9 FG% through his first 12 games), he is generally not contributing much to the scoring column unless he is drawing trips to the line (4.1 PPG, 27 of his 49 points have been free throws).

    31-year olds Luke Ridnour (31 minutes per game) and Andrei Kirilenko (35 minutes per game) were not expected to put in as much floor time as they have this season, but they have proved to be steadying influences on a team beset with injuries. In Love's and Pekovic’s absences, Luke and AK47 have emerged as Minnesota’s top offensive options, with Kirilenko averaging 18 PPG in the past two games on 65.2% shooting and Ridnour providing 18.5 PPG on 50.0 FG%.

    Rubio will be looking for these vets on drives to the bucket, but his effectiveness will be boosted greatly if he can get a couple younger guys going. 2011 lotto prize Derrick Williams has his starting forward job back, but has only improved his shot marginally from his rookie season and must crash the boards more. If he doesn’t he’ll lose his spot again in favor of the water-treading Dante Cunningham, who returns after a brief illness. Reserve guard J.J. Barea has the second-highest usage rate on the team behind Love, but is shooting just 39.9 FG%, his lowest in six seasons. Former Celtic Greg Stiemsma started on Saturday but is strictly in there for his defensive abilities. It will be interesting to see if Chris Johnson gets the starting nod from Coach Rick Adelman, after his strong performance off the bench on Saturday.

    As was the case on Saturday in their 92-79 victory, Minnesota has its best chance to pull off victories if they can play strong defense, control the rebounding edge (10.5 opponent offensive rebounds per game, 3rd fewest in NBA), and keep opponents off the free throw line (19.6 opponent FT attempts per game, 2nd fewest in NBA; Hawks' foes have fewest @ 19.3). They’re 6-0 in games where they’ve kept teams below 85 points, and in all of those games they scored no more than 95 points themselves.

    If they’re hungry like the Wolves, the Hawks will want to counter by pushing the ball upcourt and not wasting possession time. They also will want to avoid foul trouble (Minnesota opponents 23.1 personal fouls per game, 2nd most in NBA). The Wolves’ top three guards (Ridnour, Rubio, Barea) all nail their free throws at or above 80%.

    Stiemsma and Chris Johnson will not draw themselves away from the rim, so there should be ample mid-range shots available for the shawtys in the Hawks’ frontcourt. Whichever forward isn’t hounded by Kirilenko needs to have productive day on offense.

    Happy MLK Day! A Day On, Not a Day Off! Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  15. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Nets

    By lethalweapon3,

    So nice… but can they do it twice?

    The Atlanta Hawks put together a solid performance for the home crowd at Philips Arena on Wednesday, outpacing the Brooklyn Nets 109-95 to momentarily stop a slide in the conference standings. Now, the scene shifts to Brooklyn for the Hawks’ debut at Barclays Arena.

    Against a team with sketchy perimeter defensive options, Jeff Teague stepped up with 28 points and 11 assists, his career scoring high and his fifth double-double of the season. Devin Harris piled on 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 4steals, and boundless vigor that was good to see from a veteran on this team. Harris will probably start again, but look for greater usage of Lou Williams tonight. While Lou is a decidedly better shooter at home (45.3 FG%; 39.4% on the road), he makes up for it by drawing more trips to the line on the road (3.8 FTA per game, vs. 2.5 at home).

    At power forward, Al Horford (17 points, 13 rebounds) outmatched Reggie Evans (just 5 rebounds in 21 minutes), while Zaza Pachulia had his way offensively (13 points, 6 offensive rebounds, 8 assists) with Brook Lopez.

    Brooklyn’s bigs shot well (29-for-38 among Lopez, Evans, Andray Blatche, Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace and Mirza Teletovic ). But that was neutralized by the Hawks’ collective speed and focus, shooting a season-high 57.7 FG% off 33 assists, also a season high for a regulation game. They effectively throttled the Nets’ handsomely-paid backcourt, as Joe, Deron Williams, and C.J. Watson logged heavy minutes and shot just 9-for-33 (2-for-13 on threes).

    Further, Atlanta’s 16 offensive rebounds were the most in over a month, a span of 23 games. The Nets will probably move Gerald Wallace, back from a rib injury, back into the starting lineup, and try to give him and Blatche a greater share of minutes in an attempt to wrest the rebounding advantage back tonight.

    How will Josh “Nino” Smith, returning after a one-game suspension for Keepin’ It Real in practice, keep the positive vibes going? He can help by being an effective finisher around the rim. Among players (minimum 25 games) taking more than one shot within two feet of the rim, Atlanta has three players among the top 25 of the league for FG% at that range. Smith (75%) joins Horford (77%) and Harris (74%) in that group, while Ivan Johnson (70%) isn’t far behind.

    The trick will be to have guards attack the rim as they did in Atlanta, and if they need to pass, the bigs must be ready to gather the ball and go up quickly before the Nets’ frontcourt can react. Ringing up assists in that way will improve their chances to win. Atlanta is 10-1 (the exception being a one-point loss to Detroit on Jan. 4) when they gather more than 25 assists.

    Aside from getting to the line (a perfect 7-for-7), Joe Johnson was a literal non-entity in the outcome of the game (4-for-15 FGs, 0-for-4 3FGs). A lot of that was, as AUhawksfan noted in the last Game Thread, was from Joe pushing up shots and passing out of double-teams.

    He’s certainly noticing it. When asked whether he deserves another All-Star nod, the New York Daily News reported Joe replied, "Definitely, if they're going to keep doubling and tripling me as hard as they doing.”

    Joe added, "It's not really frustrating to get trapped because I expected that. The frustrating part was not being in the right spots to make them pay. If we had made them pay a few times, then maybe they wouldn't have doubled so much. It just didn't seem like we knew where to be."

    He’ll certainly be looking for fellow All-Star Deron Williams when he’s getting trapped tonight. Deron averages just 14.8 PPG at away games, but 18.3 PPG on the herringbone floor at Barclays.

    The sweet spot for Joe himself is within 3-9 feet of the basket, particularly from the right side. He’s leading the NBA among players averaging more than two attempts at that range with 51.2 FG%. Atlanta going big will allow the fun of Josh Smith helping Kyle Korver and Harris deny Joe those spots on the floor.

    Free Johan Petro! The backup center started ten games and played in 59 of the Nets’ 66 games last season. He’d love to avoid another DNP-CD by spelling Pachulia for a short stretch. Anthony Morrow is back home with DeShawn Stevenson and will have to save their pseudo-homecoming for another night.

    With Indiana and Chicago on the road as well tonight, a two-game sweep of the Nets could bounce the Hawks back up as far as the 3-spot in the East.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  16. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pistons

    By lethalweapon3,

    After a strong showing against the Chicago Bulls over the weekend, the Atlanta Hawks can resume making hay against the dregs of the Eastern Conference. Tonight they’ll get the Detroit Pistons in their house, a team they’ll play again next week, before a quick road trip to Cleveland to avenge a November loss to the Cavs.

    On the path to their last Eastern Conference Finals appearance, Detroit last came out victorious at the Highlight Factory in February 2008, against a Hawks bench that featured Tyronn Lue, Acie Law, Mario West, and Lorenzen Wright.

    Things are looking up just a smidgen in Motown. The Pistons (9-21) have back-to-back wins under their belt after a home-and-home with the lowly Wizards. Fans are particularly antsy to get lottery pick Andre Drummond into the starting lineup alongside Greg Monroe. They’ve been out singing his praises like a choir in a Chrysler commercial.

    The 19-year-old has been given a limited share of minutes (18.5 per game) in deference to Monroe, Jason Maxiell and Charlie Villanueva, but he’s certainly making the most of his time on the court. Drummond is in the top 10 of the NBA for total rebounding rate, leading all rookies in field goal percentage (55.9 FG%) and winning over fans with showtime blocks (6th in block percentage) and dunks (11th in the NBA for total dunks, tied with Al Horford).

    He’s just ahead of Josh Smith for 8th in NBA defensive rating (97.4 opponent points per 100 possessions). Second only to Anderson Varejao in offensive rebounding percentage, Drummond crashes the glass for more offensive rebounds (2.8 per game) than Monroe (2.6 per game in 32.5 minutes) despite playing just over half as often. Coach Lawrence Frank insists that the 270-pounder is still a developing project, and a lack of trust for reserve rookie Vyacheslav Kravtsov makes it hard to risk foul trouble for his two talented bigs. But if close losses pile up, Frank may be imperiled by his reluctance to move Drummond into the starting lineup. Monroe and Drummond have shared the floor for just 39 minutes this season.

    Monroe is in the upper echelon with Varejao, Joakim Noah and Horford for the best passing centers in the East. His 3.3 assists per game ranks 4th among NBA centers, just ahead of Horford (3.2). Unlike Horford, though, he’s just as likely to turn over the ball, as his 3.0 turnovers per game are the second-highest among centers (Horford’s at 1.8 per game). Monroe is vastly more likely to pass out of the low post, so the Hawks need to be ready to pick off the outlet passes.

    On the other end, Monroe is second-highest among centers in steals, leading all Detroit players with 1.4 per game. Monroe is often M.I.A. from the rim area while going for steals, and Piston opponents respond by attacking the glass with alacrity (2nd-highest percentage of at-rim shots taken in games). The Hawks, perhaps magically, are still neck-and-neck with the Heat for the league’s highest field goal percentage at the rim.

    Detroit’s top two scorers have to do a better job of connecting with each other on offense. Other than Kobe and Dwight, Brandon Knight and Monroe are the only pair of NBA starters ranking in the top ten for per-minute turnovers. Knight also must become a more effective shooter inside the perimeter. He’s shooting 42.2% from three-point range, but just 39.2% on two-pointers, including 47% on layups and 26% on jumpers from 3-to-9 feet.

    Tayshaun Prince was hobbling over the weekend with an ankle he twisted against the Wizards on Saturday, but is confident he’ll play. He’s crucial to the Pistons lineup in matching up against Smith, guarding perimeter shooters, setting up Knight and Monroe, and connecting on some outside jumpers.

    Jason Maxiell is a full-time starter for the first time in his career, largely to mixed results. A career-high 8.3 PPG and 6.2 RPG is balanced out with a career-low 46.0 FG%. The 12 points he contributed in Detroit’s last win matches his combined point total from his previous four games. J-Max often steps up big against Atlanta, as his 9.5 PPG is his highest scoring average against any NBA team.

    Also eager to impress tonight will be Charlie Villanueva, who shoots 51.8 FG% versus Atlanta, second-highest against any NBA club. He was planning to spend the summer with Horford on the Dominican Republic basketball team, but was embarrassingly jettisoned by John Calipari for being poorly conditioned. Motivated by the snub, Charlie V is slowly regaining Frank’s confidence after being shelved for much of the second-half of 2011-12, and posted a season-high 19 points and 7 boards in Detroit’s last game versus the Wizards.

    After spending a year in Spain, deferred-rookie Kyle Singler has unseated Rodney Stuckey from the starting shooting guard spot. Any shooting guard that struggles with his outside shot (28.0 3FG%, 25.9 2FG% from 10 feet out) won’t last long as a starter, so Stuckey gets the bench nod. Singler shoots marginally better (37.3 3FG%, 28.2 2FG% from 3 feet out), and at 6’8”, the prevailing view is he will finish better at the rim and cause more trouble for opposing offenses. He’ll need to find ways to become more disruptive outside of hacking, as he ranks 7th in the NBA for total personal fouls.

    Stuckey still gets his points, but primarily from getting to the rim and drawing fouls. His 4.0 free throw attempts per game is way down from last season but still second-highest on the team, and he hits them at an 83% clip. Stuckey has become more effective with his passing as a reserve, spelling Brandon Knight and playing alongside Singler. His nearly 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio is, by far, a career high. Guarding point guards more frequently, he blocks shots more (career-high 0.3 per game), but no longer generates turnovers from steals (career-low 0.4 per game). If Brandon Knight has trouble on defense with Jeff Teague and/or Lou Williams (both starting again tonight), look for Stuckey to come off the bench early.

    Stuckey will have to work much harder to find his offense tonight, as Atlanta is now the most judicious team for personal fouls (17.2 per game, lowest in the league). They’ve been called for 20 fouls just once in their past 15 games, compared to four games with 20 or more whistles in their first ten. In their last two games (3 of the last 5), opponents had to settle for single-digit numbers of trips to the free throw line. Given key Hawks’ struggles with free throws, they are figuring out this is one area where they don’t need to dare foes to outdo them.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  17. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bulls

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Chicago Bulls hope to follow up two straight disappointing finishes at the United Center with a victory tonight against the Atlanta Hawks. Before a national TV audience on NBA-TV, Chicago is also aiming to overtake the low-hovering Hawks for the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference.

    With apologies to the Pacers, the Bulls were perhaps the last impressive victory for the Hawks, winners of just two of their last eight games. The 92-75 win in Atlanta on December 22 kicked off a 4-0 stretch for the Hawks over the Christmas holiday and featured every starter scoring in double figures. The Hawks managed a 25-point fourth quarter lead that not even their fellow-feathered neighbors at the Georgia Dome could blow.

    Meanwhile, there’s a little pressure on the team with the #1 attendance average in the NBA to produce for its home crowd. The Bulls are 10-5 on the road but just 10-10 at the Madhouse on Madison. They’ve come up short in four of their last six home games, including a streak-busting defeat to Charlotte and back-to-back home losses to Milwaukee and Phoenix. That’s despite impressive road wins at New York (twice) and Miami in recent weeks. On the season, the Bulls have averaged just 91.7 PPG at home (2nd lowest in NBA), compared to 95.9 PPG (12th highest in NBA) in away games.
    Suppressing opponents with Coach Tom Thibodeau’s defensive strategies (90.4 Opponent PPG) have kept them competitive at United Center, but not as dominant as they could be as they await the healthy return of their superstar, Derrick Rose.

    This will mark a return for the sharpshooting Kyle Korver to his previous NBA home. Along with a couple other jettisoned members of the Bench Mob, the most accurate 3-point marksman in the last two Bulls’ seasons is sorely missed in the Windy City. He and Lou Williams each went 3-for-6 against the Bulls, still fairly stingy with perimeter defense, the last time out.

    If Luol Deng is hampered at all by a torn wrist ligament carried over by last season, having elected to forgo surgery in the offseason, it certainly isn’t showing. He leads the NBA once again in minutes per game (40.2 MPG), up a tick from his league-leading 39.4 MPG in 2011-12. Chicago’s leading scorer (17.7 PPG) is finding his way to the rim often on backdoor cuts, so it will be wise for Hawk defenders to deny him space along the baseline. He is also helping Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah with offensive rebounds and putbacks.

    Boozer and Noah generally split the rebounding duties, with Boozer the primary option on the defensive end (7.3 Defensive RPG, 10th in NBA) and Noah at the opposite end (3.8 Offensive RPG, 7th in NBA). Hawk centers would do well to challenge Boozer and force Noah to stay at home under the basket more. Noah’s collegiate teammate Al Horford has a total of two offensive boards in his last three games. He and Josh Smith managed three offensive boards each in their last matchup with the Bulls, individually outdoing the two from Noah, Boozer, and Deng combined.

    Former Hawk Kirk Hinrich has picked up the passing duties admirably in Rose’s absence, doubling his assists to 5.5 per game from last season. His scoring capabilities seem to have fallen off a cliff though, with career-lows of 6.6 PPG and 35.1 FG%. He shot just 3-for-11 in his December 22 return to Philips Arena.

    As we near the midseason trade deadline, Richard Hamilton ($5 million contract in 2013-14; just $1 million guaranteed) is a likely trade target, or at least that’s what many Bulls fans seem to be hoping.
    Free agent acquisition Marco Belinelli (team-leading 40.6 3FG%) is playing for his next contract and, while not as reliable from mid-range, has provided about as much offensive punch as could be expected from Rip at this stage of his career.

    Nate is Nate. Robinson’s trademark zeal makes up for repeated breakdowns in defensive play with aggressive drives to the basket. When he’s not settling for three-point shots, he can be a handful. His per-minute scoring rate (18.4 points per 36 minutes) leads the team, and ranking top-20 in the league in assist percentage (30.3 assists per 100 possessions) has made him and his previously unguaranteed contract impossible to shed from the roster even with Rose’s impending return. Perhaps a sign of over-expended energy, Robinson has provided a bigger scoring boost in the first halves of games (45.9 FG%) than in the second halves (39.1 FG%).

    This isn’t really a team you want to see getting their offense off of cheap fouls. Five of their top 6 scorers (the exception being Boozer) are shooting above 80% on their freebies. Deng has boosted his percentage to a career-high 81.9%, as has Belinelli (84.5%). Even Gibson, a career mid-60’s free throw shooter, has improved at the line (74.6 FT%). How nice to see a team that seems to work at that!

    Chicago’s starters are not going to make a lot of three-pointers. Their top two three-point shooters, Robinson and Belinelli, come off the bench now that Hamilton has returned. Hamilton is 3-for-7 in his last seven games but has not taken a three-point shot in any of his last four. Former Three-Point Shootout champ Daequan Cook has been picked up on waivers, and will work his way into the Bulls’ rotation if he can effectively stretch the floor.

    The Bulls’ defense strives to make opponents take tough shots off the dribble. Opponents have the fewest assists per game in the league. An NBA-low 47.1% of opponent at-rim shots are assisted. The Hawks will need to pound the ball down low repeatedly, making Carlos Boozer work on defense (Luis Scola filled that role for Phoenix on Saturday, with 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting) , and penetrate into the lane (as Shannon Brown and Michael Beasley did for the Suns), forcing Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson to provide help. Atlanta must punish the Bulls when they go with a Hinrich-Belinelli backcourt, with guards beating them down the court for transition baskets.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  18. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Wizards

    By lethalweapon3,

    Don’t look for John Wall to be teaching people how to Dougie today. After multiple setbacks, he’ll be saving up his recuperated left knee for his season debut, as his Washington Wizards host the Atlanta Hawks at the Verizon Center.

    One can simply look at the record (5-28) and chuckle at Coach Randy Wittman’s witless charges all they want. But we know the Wizards, snakebitten all year with injuries, can pull some pretty good rabbits out of their hat every so often. And never mind the Hawks nearly succumbing to their spells on three occasions already this year. They’ve been blessed with four days of rest after concluding a five-games-in-seven-days stretch with a home win over Kevin Durant and the rolling Thunder, thrilling whoever bothered to show up to The Phone Booth on Monday with a Bradley Beal buzzer-beater.

    Not many NBA squads can boast they’ve felled the top teams of each conference, the HEAT and the Thunder, so far this year (actually, only one other team can – the 24-10 Grizzlies). Yet the Wizards pulled off the presto-chango against OKC while dressing just nine players, doing without not only Wall but Nene (knee tendinitis), Jordan Crawford (sore ankle), Cartier Martin (hyperextended knee), and Trevor Booker (knee strain).

    Beal’s heroic efforts were the second in the past week. Despite falling to Joe Johnson’s Nets in double-OT last Friday, Beal’s triple at the close of the first overtime tied the game, and his free throws tied the score in the second one before Joe did his thing. It’s the moments before the final seconds of the game where the rookie has been less than automatic. He’s shooting just 31.7 FG% in the final quarters, compared to 36.7 FG% for the season. To be fair, defenses have been zeroing in on Beal. All season, he’s been looking for guys like Crawford, A.J. Price, the waived Shelvin Mack, and mid-season signing Garrett Temple to find him when he gets open. Can Wall (8.0 APG last season) immediately become that guy?

    Jordan Crawford did his best impressions of Crawford and Jordan in the last Hawks-Wizards matchup, triple-doubling Atlanta with 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists with just one turnover. He Whose Name hasn’t practiced much this week, so if he’s rested tonight, look for the Wizards to try and get Trevor Ariza jumpstarted. The RZA just returned from a month-long calf strain and will be the first wing off the bench behind Beal and Martell Webster (season-high 22 points vs. the Thunder), offering perimeter defense if not much else. Also missing a month of action was A.J. Price, who has healed his fractured hand and will try supplanting Temple as the top reserve behind Wall.

    With wayward shooting skills (40.8 team FG%, worst in NBA), D.C. hopes to see if Wall has been able to expand his range in the offseason. He rarely shot threes in 2011-12, and for good reason (7.1 3FG%). Last season’s shooting chart showed Wall’s propensity for taking shots directly facing the front of the rim, particularly from the top of the key. Hawk defenders will need to keep him from driving to spots along that line, or catching-and-shooting open jumpers from there. As the Wiz guards take up a huge percentage of the usage with Wall back, defensive rebounding by the Hawks needs to be at a premium.

    Washington is the only NBA team whose opponents loft more than half their field goals beyond 15 feet from the rim. Furthermore, those opponents are shooting an NBA-low 31 percent on long-twos. So Atlanta shouldn’t waste time on those outside jumpers, instead making them count more effectively behind the line (35.7 opponent 3FG%). Among the Hawks’ three-point threats, John Jenkins (12-for-21 on 3FG since December 15th) performed admirably against Beal in the preseason, so don’t be surprised to see his minutes continue to increase tonight.

    Much like a leprechaun who’s always worried of people after he Lucky Charms, last night Ivan Johnson declared his fervent desire for a larger share of steadier minutes from Coach Larry Drew. Spelling a dormant frontline last night against Utah, he made his case (13 points, 7 rebounds) with clutch jumpshooting, double-teaming and creating turnovers, and full-court movement in transition for baskets.

    Just as important, Ivan and Zaza Pachulia were able to help neutralize reserves Derrick Favors (0 points and 3 turnovers in 15 minutes) and Enes Kanter (0 points in 7 minutes). That was a good blueprint for tonight, as Kevin Seraphin (19 points vs. OKC, starting in place of Nene) and Jan Vesely (5-for-6 shooting and 7 rebounds vs. OKC) will need to be cooled off. If Nene is unavailable, Booker will be pressed into action alongside Emeka Okafor. He’s been out with a knee strain since around Thanksgiving.

    The Jazz couldn’t stop the Hawks when they finally decided to clamp down defensively and make a run, leading to a 23-point swing. That doesn’t bode well for the Wizards if they play like they did last week against Miami. They were outscored 21-0 in the closing seven minutes of the game. Atlanta will want to take this set of mending and unfamiliar Wizard lineups and keep them on their heels defensively, also having them seeing the backs of many Hawk jerseys on fast breaks.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  19. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Jazz

    By lethalweapon3,

    A once-promising young NBA player with a somewhat disappointing career arc will reunite with his former teammates tonight, as the Utah Jazz visit the Atlanta Hawks at The Highlight Factory.

    No, I wasn't thinking about Devin Harris.

    Welcome Home, Marvin Williams!

    It will be all cheesy grins and handshakes for our anatine former starting small forward and Rubik's Cube aficionado, out of commission with an inflamed knee. Folks in Salt Lake our still kicking the tires on their once-used Kia, suspecting there's plenty more juice left to be squeezed out of that lemon, if he's used properly.

    Despite starting Marvin regularly, Coach Ty Corbin has managed somehow to reduce his minutes (25.6 MPG) from last season. Corbin is keeping Gordon Hayward flexible while avoiding a squeeze play among Paul Millsap, South Atlanta High's Derrick Favors, and Al Jefferson, by giving Marvin (8.9 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 44.1 FG%, 0.9 3PM/G) a quick hook early and heavily rotating his talented bigs in crunch time.

    But while he can't play tonight, there's plenty more young talent on this roster ready to go. Pure energy can always be expected from DeMarre Carroll, the former Grizzlie and preseason sensation who moved into Marvin's starter spot. He's not a strong shooter, but can fortify Utah's rebounding and defensive needs in Marvin's absence.

    Meanwhile, Mo Williams' thumb surgery is requiring other youngsters to step up. Hayward is Utah's top scoring wing (13.7 PPG), but has come off the bench since mid-November as his defense has been underwhelming. Alec Burks is getting more consistent shine off the bench and continues to find his NBA jumper (37.1 FG%). During wins against Dallas and Chalotte, Burks got double-digit points in back-to-back games for the first time this season.

    The Hawks could make hay with good guard play. No guard on the Jazz roster possesses a defensive rating above 105 (Jamaal Tinsley and the recently recalled Kevin Murphy from the D-League allow 107 points per 100 possessions). Jazz guards will swipe at the ball but guide opponents into the teeth of the defense on the inside. Point guards Jeff Teague and Harris (starting together for the first time in awhile) will want to use dribble penetration to kickstart the offense, and should be ready to catch-and-shoot from the perimeter at the end of the shot clock, if necessary.

    The Jazz guards will try and match the Hawks shot-for-shot from the three-point line. Randy Foye (14th in NBA in 3-point FGM) and Hayward (8-for-10 in his last two games) each shoot above 40 percent. Even Millsap shoots just under one per game (career-high 42.9%) and he will likely goad Josh Smith into an outside shooting contest.

    Millsap (14.7 PPG, 48.2 FG%) is having a down year from his torrid peripheral All-Star season of 2011-12, perhaps being differential to the other bigs on the floor. But with Mo Williams out he is helping with the passing game (career-high 2.7 APG, 5 assists vs. Charlotte on Wednesday). Jefferson (17.0 PPG) manages to lead the team in scoring and rank 6th in the league for defensive rebounds, while keeping the turnovers to a minimum (7.1 TO%, 5th in NBA).

    To match the Jazzer-size in the paint (including Enes "Undertaker" Kanter), Atlanta will need productive minutes from Ivan Johnson, Anthony Tolliver and Zaza Pachulia. Even if he moves to power forward again, Al Horford cannot shy away from his duties to vie for offensive rebounds (just one in 36 minutes at Cleveland). In consecutive games, starting centers (Nikola Pekovic and Tyler Zeller) achieved career highs in rebounds against the Hawks.

    The Cavs had the second-most personal fouls per game, yet the Hawks only managed to bang its way into a paltry two free throws made on Wednesday. The team that's tied with Cleveland for second? The Jazz. Will the Hawks find a way to capitalize this time?

    Let's hope whoever controls the tempo can keep the game down below four hours this time. Utah's last visit here in March was a four-overtime affair. But it's Friday, and people have clubs to get to!

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  20. lethalweapon3
    Once again, Larry Drew tries to slow down Uncle Drew!

    Kyrie Irving and Friends last lost to the Hawks on December 28, despite his 28 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Since then, his Cavaliers have dropped four of their last five contests, the sole victory coming at Charlotte. It would really help if somebody over at Quicken could loan these guys a home win. They’ve lost their last six games at the Q since their Masked Marauder returned to slay the once-feared Lakers on December 11.

    Now, amidst an already taxing season due to injuries, fans of The Wine and Gold got even more sobering news today. Could-have-been-All-Star Anderson Varejao may miss up to two more months. What was previously thought to be a bruised knee turned out to be a split quad muscle, requiring surgery for the man who was the NBA’s leading rebounder.

    Complicating matters up front, reserve Luke Walton missed Monday’s game against the Bulls to tend to a personal matter, and his availability is unknown at the moment. Omri Casspi has been busy beating back plausible trade demand rumors, Samardo Samuels just got waived, and Jon Leuer was just recalled from the D-League yesterday.

    With Varejao out, there is no Cavalier frontcourt player averaging more than ten points per game. It is definitely up to rookie Tyler Zeller and Tristan “Shout” Thompson (9.0 RPG, seven double-doubles in his last ten games) to keep the Cavs competitive against a multifaceted (albeit erratic, of late) Hawks frontline. It’s important that these guys (both in the top 20 of the NBA for personal fouls per game) stay out of foul trouble. It’s just as important for guards Dion Waiters and Irving to make the effort to find them.

    The Cavs come in tonight with the second-fewest assists per game in the league, plus the second-lowest field goal percentage, the highest opponent field-goal percentage, the second-fewest defensive rebounds, and the fewest blocks in the NBA. But we’ll see if Atlanta can continue its string of being the cure for other teams’ superlative woes. The Hawks have hexed themselves by getting badly out-rebounded by the league’s worst rebounding team (Boston), then giving up threes at a 53% pace to the league’s worst three-point shooters (Minnesota).

    Cleveland should get some reinforcements at guard tonight. Boobie Gibson got concussed in a collision with Anthony Morrow during the Hawks’ 102-94 victory on December 28, and he may finally be cleared for a return. Another perimeter shooting threat, C.J. Miles will be active after struggling with back spasms. Jeremy Pargo enjoyed some roasted Hawk on November 30 (22 points off the bench), but he has since fallen in Coach Byron Scott’s depth chart to recent waiver-wire pickup Shaun Livingston.

    With poor shot selection decisions late in the game, Waiters (18 points on 7-for-21 FGs on December 28) served up the Hawks victory on a platter the last time they played. Also hampered by composure problems with the refs when he doesn’t get calls, the rookie has been supplanted in the starting lineup by the hot-and-cold Miles. The recent availability of several Cleveland point guards limits his need in a playmaker’s role. But Scott still believes Waiters can score in bunches whenever he gets called to the floor, as he displayed on Monday in Chicago (team-high 18 points and 6 rebounds off the bench). Offensively, though, the fourth quarter needs to be entrusted to Irving and Thompson.

    It’s been a little while since the Hawks’ last four-game slide, which they'll try to avoid tonight. Atlanta crapped out the final six games of the 2010-11 season in April 2011, before going Full Possum on Jameer Nelson and the Magic.

    As noted by GameTime in Hawksquawk chat last night, lame duck head coach Larry Drew isn’t in any strategic position to dish out severe reprimands to key players for halfhearted play. But he does appear to be at the precipice of putting obvious names on blast when the criticism is deserved.
    LD’s most likely target of scorn is Jeff Teague, who failed to set up the offense in two straight games (zero assists at MIN, after just four assists vs. BOS), made questionable fouling choices against the Wolves, and has almost ceased getting to the rim since the first half of the Boston game.

    Theoretically, Teague can play more aggressively when there’s a more distribution-oriented guard to fall back upon (Bibby, Hinrich, Devin Harris), but he withers himself out of games over time without lead-guard help, especially when opponents are stacked at the 1-spot and can throw an array of halfcourt matchups at him. Jeff has achieved double-digit assists just once (11 vs. DET on 12/26) in the past month.

    Thankfully, Harris will be available to help out tonight, but another small-c cavalier attitude by Teague, this time against Irving and company, will result in just another uphill climb his teammates will have to endure.

    Atlanta gets out of sorts for long stretches when forced into halfcourt ball as defenders get back, so they’ll need to put Teague (27 points and 8 assists on December 28) and Lou Williams (16 points with four 3FGs on Dec. 28) to good use by finding them first in transition and letting them, not Al Horford or Josh Smith, push the ball up the court. According to SB Nation’s Fear the Sword site, Synergy stats suggest Cleveland gives up more points in transition than any other NBA team. Alonzo Gee will need help from others getting back down the floor if they are to stop the Hawks from stemming their losing streak tonight.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  21. lethalweapon3
    Are the T’wolves gonna make it after all?

    The brutal injury bug that caught Portland in years past has moved on to the Twin Cities, it seems. The Brandon Roy Experiment ended almost as soon as it began. Malcolm Lee was starting at shooting guard in place of Roy before hyperextending his knee. Chase Budinger tore a meniscus. Fans eagerly anticipated the return of Ricky Rubio from a knee injury only to watch him struggle while fighting off back spasms. Now franchise player and super-rebounder Kevin Love has re-fractured a hand and is out indefinitely.

    The Timberwolves will try to soldier on tonight against the Atlanta Hawks at the Target Center, striving to climb back above .500 without most of these guys (Rubio will give it a go) as well as Coach Rick Adelman, who is on personal leave. Terry Porter will fill in for Adelman.

    The Hawks have had good fortune against the Wolves of late with 12 consecutive victories, last losing by a point in Minnesota on April 9, 2006. Rashad McCants, Mark Blount, and Justin Reed led Minny in scoring on that day, eking out the win over guys like Esteban Batista and Royal Ivey.

    The T’wolves have been tops in the league for rebounds per game (46.2), but Love gathered nearly of third of them (14.0). With Love out of commission once again, the rebounding and lead offensive duties will fall upon Nikola Pekovic. Already having a career season with a boost in usage, the Montenegrin responded well in a loss to Portland 3 nights ago (21 points, 15 assists, 2 blocks), and he’ll need consistent help from guys like Derrick Williams (18 points vs. Portland, but not improving much from his rookie year) and Dante Cunningham (career-high 5.3 RPG; league’s third-lowest TO%).

    They’ll crash the offensive boards almost out of necessity, as they’re shooting 43.0 FG% (26th in NBA) and 29.5 3FG% (last in NBA) as a team.

    Andrei Kirilenko and Greg Steimsma will try to slow opponents defensively. But they’ll need to stretch out to the perimeter to cool off the Hawks. Portland lit up the Wolves with a season-high (for an opponent) 16 three-pointers.

    Rubio’s level of mobility will be interesting to see for T’Wolves fans, as well as for Jeff Teague, who despite 17 points really could get little going for the Hawks’ passing game (4 assists) in that fateful second half against the Celtics on Saturday.

    Rubio came off the bench for five games (4.2 PPG, 4.0 APG, 2.4 TO/G, 23.8 FG%) as Adelman carefully monitored his minutes. Luke Ridnour and J.J. Barea still have been more than adequately sharing point guard duties as the staff brings Rubio along. With Devin Harris still sidelined, Lou

    Williams will get plenty of minutes countering Minnesota’s enhanced depth at point guard. Williams will also try to counter Russian rookie Alexey Shved, who has scored in double digits in 6 of his last 7 games while also offering a couple double-digit games in assists in that stretch.

    Minnesota’s fairly stingy with the personal fouls (18.1 PF/G, 28th in NBA), so expect a continuation of limited trips to the free throw line. Smarter shot selection by the Hawks than fans saw in the second half versus Boston will help them get the edge once again.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  22. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pistons

    By lethalweapon3,

    The most confident 12-22 team you’ll ever see will be in action tonight, going for their fifth straight win at the Palace of Auburn Hills. And the Detroit Pistons can probably thank the Atlanta Hawks for their sudden invigoration.

    Detroit has come out on top in five of its last six NBA games. But despite back-to-back wins against the hapless Wizards at the start of this string, it was probably the fourth quarter comeback against the Hawks in Atlanta the day after Christmas, leading to a late overtime loss, which propelled the Pistons to the pretty nice homestand that followed. They snuffed out defending champ Miami (shorthanded without Dwyane Wade, but still) two nights later, followed by victories over then-first-place division foe Milwaukee and Sacramento.

    They’re perhaps most thankful for the thawing of former Yellow Jacket Will Bynum off their bench. Much like AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Hawk guards got shook all night long by the six-foot Bynum, to the tune of 31 points (off 28 shots in 36 minutes) and 4 assists. But at the next game against Miami, without Wade to chase him around, he was even more efficient, with 25 points (off 19 shots in 25 minutes), plus 10 assists to just two turnovers. Even if Rodney Stuckey returns from an ankle injury (Brandon Knight tweaked his on Wednesday but is expected to play), it will be tough for Coach Lawrence Frank to keep Bynum out of the starting lineup. Oh, and, warning alert: today is Bynum’s 30th birthday.

    The Hawks, now 12-4 in back-to-back games, are faced with the routine quandary of when to play DeShawn Stevenson. Do you bring him in to help bedevil Bynum and any Piston wing who gets hot, or do you save him up for the next night against Paul Pierce and the stumbling Celtics?

    Just in: DeShawn tweeted he’s a no-go tonight, so reigning Coach of the Month Larry Drew has his work cut out for him to keep Bynum from having a repeat performance. Tonight may be Star Wars Night at the Palace, but not even Obi-Wan Kenobi can help Jeff Teague if he’s having trouble with Bynum’s lateral quickness off the dribble. Kyle Korver (1.1 SPG, highest in eight seasons) will be needed for his continuously disruptive team defense, and sharpshooting John Jenkins will need to keep his defensive assignment from losing him.

    Detroit’s also thankful to the Hawks for granting Austin Daye a return to basketball relevancy. His three point shot in Atlanta gave them a one-point lead with four seconds remaining in regulation, causing him to get Clowney’d on a celebratory hip-check-slash-chest-bump from Greg Monroe. Daye’s heroics carried over to the next few games, including his first two double-digit scoring efforts of the year. A dunk in transition off a nice pass from Bynum doused the HEAT, while his three-point dagger with 11 seconds left deposed the Kings for good. During this six-game tear by the Pistons, Daye is 10-for-14 from three-point range. He was 15-for-41 before that.

    Of course, Detroit’s most thankful for the exuberant play of their eighth-leading scorer. With all due respect to Damian Lillard, we could very well be looking at the Rookie of the Year if Andre Drummond (21.7 PER, 17th in the league) got starter’s minutes. SB Nation’s Detroit Bad Boys blog notes that his per-minute production actually went up in December as his minutes off the bench were increased from November. He’s ranks sixth in the NBA for per-minute rebounds (third in offensive rebounds per minute), first in per-possession offensive rebounds, and eighth in per-minute blocks (sixth in per-possession blocks), among NBA players getting more than 15 minutes per game. With 46 total dunks (9th in the NBA), he’s slamming his way to a top-ten field goal percentage (58.4 FG%).

    Drummond hasn’t gone off since putting up 16 points and 12 rebounds (7 offensive) in 36 minutes at Atlanta. But the 19-year-old continues drawing opponents in and making life easier for Detroit’s outside shooters. One night after going 14-for-27 from three-point range, the Pistons shot 12-for-19 against the HEAT.

    The Hawks’ offensive plan should be pretty straightforward: attack the rim with reckless abandon when Drummond is not on the floor patrolling the middle. Detroit will happily let opponents take shots in the long-range-two (35.4 opponent FG%, 4th-lowest in NBA) and three-point (33.3 opponent 3FG%, 4th-lowest) areas against their long-limbed forwards, hoping you’ll ignore the 16.8 field goals per game (7th most in NBA) they give up at the rim.

    Detroit's interior defense often collapses when Monroe steps out to help on defense. Starting forwards Jason Maxiell (1.4 BPG, a career-high by far, despite just one swat in his last four games) and Kyle Singler (less foul-prone as of late, down to 2.8 PF per game) are helping out as best they can, but cutters can create problems for the Pistons. Aside from occasional flashes from 32-year-old relic Tayshaun Prince, there’s not much more help the Pistons can rely on when Monroe abdicates the painted area. Charlie Villanueva is more known lately for his D-as-in-Dirty than D-as-in defense, absorbing a hefty fine for Bruising Isaiah on a clock-expired layup attempt in the Kings game, while Jonas Jerebko and Corey Maggette are proving themselves to be a grand exercise in redundancy.

    Atlanta will need to see a strong night from the pride of Grand Ledge. Al Horford averaged 19 PPG in his last six games, but managed just 3 rebounds in 41 minutes against the Hornets, and ZERO free throw ATTEMPTS in his last three games. He must be an effective banger in the paint and must not be drawn into a strict high-post jump-shooting and passing contest with Monroe, who would also do himself some good making offensive plays closer in (32 FG% away from the rim, down from 40% last year). Horford will need help from Zaza Pachulia and the forwards to keep Drummond from doing damage off the glass. Johan Petro (back) will not be available to help the frontline, so there’s that.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  23. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Hornets

    By lethalweapon3,

    It’s time we have that talk about the Birds and the Bees!

    After laying an egg for the final few quarters against James Harden and the Rockets, the Atlanta Hawks flew over to the Big Easy just in time for the New Year’s Day celebrations. After a beatdown, some beignets and probably a little booze, can they summon up enough energy to laissez les bon temps rouler against the 7-23 New Orleans Hornets? Hornet fans will hope to see their team stem a six-game home losing streak at the oddly-unsponsored New Orleans Arena.

    The league’s second lowest scoring team (91.6 PPG) is thrilled to have Eric Gordon back at The Hive for what should be his first meaningful stretch in a Hornets uniform since David Stern gifted Chris Paul to the people of La-La-Land. Returning after a year of dealing with arthroscopic surgery and a bone bruise in his knee, Gordon didn’t disappoint in his first appearance of the season, offering up 24 points and 7 assists in a comeback win against the then-freefalling Bobcats. If you enjoyed Harden getting whistles from every possible angle last night, know that on Saturday, Gordon shot 5-for-13 but got just as many of his points from the line, shooting 12-for-14.

    Despite the Hornets’ offensive woes without Gordon, you can’t blame Ryan Anderson. What Carlos Delfino did to the Hawks last night is just another day at the office for Ryno, who leads the NBA with 3.2 treys made per game and led the Hornets in scoring despite coming off the bench behind the uni-browed top draft pick Anthony Davis. Consistent with most shooters who don’t put the ball on the floor much, Anderson has the third-lowest turnover percentage (6.2%) in the NBA. With Davis and Robin Lopez (7th in the NBA for FG%; 9th in BPG) down low and Jason Smith (4th in the NBA for FT%) backing them up, it does puzzle me why Coach Monty Williams doesn’t consider going big and playing the 6’10” Anderson more at small forward. Maybe opponents get around him on defense, but look at who’s waiting for them when they do. The Hornets current corps at the 3-spot consists of Al-Farouq Aminu, a Norcross High alum who has improved in spots but has lost Williams’ confidence in recent weeks, and Lance Thomas, who took Aminu’s starter spot but has been scoring and rebounding less ever since.

    You can’t complain about the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week either (sorry, Kobe and KD!) Greivis Vasquez went on a little tear with 21 PPG, 10 APG, and 6.3 RPG for the Hornets last week as they pulled off two road games against fellow substandard opponents in Charlotte and Orlando. He’s managed to rise to fourth among NBA players in assists per game (8.8) despite a lot of questionable recipients and moving parts among Williams’ rotation. Among players getting more than 30 minutes per game, only Rajon Rondo and Steve Nash have higher turnover rates, a stat which is usually excused in their cases. Vasquez’s assist percentage (46.2 assists per 100 possessions) ranks him right between Rondo and Chris Paul. Although Eric Gordon comes off the bench again tonight, his return will take a lot of the pressure off the Venezuelan as well as rookie Austin Rivers (34.6% on two-point shots), so expect less erratic and more efficient play from these two going forward.

    There’s not much to quibble over with Davis either. He’s averaging close to a double-double (14.7 PPG, 8.5 RPG) and is one of just eight NBA players averaging over one block (1.94) and one steal (1.12).

    Passing teams like the Hawks (23.2 APG, 3rd in NBA) have made hay against the Hornets’ defense. Opponents have 23.4 assists per game (2nd most in NBA) and just 12.6 turnovers (4th fewest). Josh Smith can not only impact the game with passes (6th among NBA forwards with 3.6 APG) but with swatting some Bugs as well. New Orleans’ players get their shots blocked 6.9 times per game (3rd most in NBA).

    Spraying the Hornets with threes may not be as effective as it was at the start of the season. Just two weeks ago, N’Awlins was the only team giving up threes at more than a 40% rate. Now it’s down to where the Hawks’ opponents are (37.8%), which is still top five but dropping quickly. Instead, you will want to bang with the Hornets and get trips to the line. New Orleans is 3-14 when they get called for 20 or more fouls, 2-14 when they watch their opponents shoot 20 or more free throws.

    Despite being slightly shorthanded at times, the Hawks have managed 100 points in regulation in its last four games. The Hornets have yet to win a game where they’ve given up 100 points or more (0-13). However, just one of those games came in their last six contests.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  24. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Rockets

    By lethalweapon3,

    What are you doing New Year’s Eve? With apologies to the organizers of First Night Houston, I’m guessing the Atlanta Hawks will want this game over with the quickness, and head straight to George Bush Intercontinental in time for the big countdown in New Orleans. Will the Houston Rockets cooperate with these travel plans?

    Coaches Kevin McHale and Kelvin Sampson have done a solid job keeping this roster in playoff contention (16-14; 11-2 versus the East but just 5-12 against the West). But the Rockets are suddenly leaking fuel again on defense and scrambling to find a stopper. After lighting up Memphis and Chicago for over 120 points just over a week ago, the tables were turned on them in the past two games, in San Antonio and at home to James Harden’s former mates, Oklahoma City. Both opponents are first-and-second in the league for scoring, and Houston’s right behind them (105.3 PPG), but they’ll want to cool off the Hawks, who have scored triple digits in regulation in each of their last two games.

    Only Charlotte gives up more three-pointers (8.4 per game) and points per game (103.8 PPG) than the Rockets. Before the Spurs game, H-Town kept teams below 100 points in six out of eight games, compared to just twice in the 14 games before that. They’re 1-9 when opponents score more than 105 points, while the 46.1 FG% they give up is higher than any Top 8 team in either conference.

    The Hawks need to keep up passing game going. Houston is 0-9 when opponents ring up more than 25 team assists. Atlanta will need to start from the inside out and attack the Rockets’ thin front line repeatedly. Omer Asik (1.1 BPG) is the sole Rocket with more than one block per game. Smoove-to-Horford could turn out to be a nice combo in the paint if Josh Smith is healthy enough to go, while Zaza Pachulia can give Houston fits with offensive rebounds. Jeff Teague and Lou Williams will need to drive and finish strong if they don’t draw extra defenders. If the Rockets bring help inside, kick the ball out to the perimeter, and swing it around until someone’s open. Those options won’t include Anthony Morrow or Devin Harris, who remain in Atlanta recuperating.

    Patrick Patterson (12.7 PPG, 4.6 RPG) is still developing at power forward but is recovering from a sore foot. Patterson is striving to get his staring gig back from Marcus Morris, who dropped 17 on the Hawks in Atlanta’s home opener and was a bright spot with a season-high 24 points (including four threes) against the Spurs on Saturday. As for the other bigs, Greg Smith shows up in flashes then disappears. A certain first-round pick whose name is not worth mentioning remains “Missing in Inaction,” although the team itself seems adequately shielded from the drama. Cole Aldrich has yet to impress and is a target to get released soon.

    Atlanta hasn’t been forcing turnovers like they did earlier in the season -- just 13.9 per game from December opponents compared to 17.1 in November. But they’ll be licking their chops for the transition opportunities against the team who’s #1 in turnovers per game (16.2).

    There’s little mystery as to where the Rockets emit their red glare. Houston takes the lowest proportion of long two-point shots by far (around 13%). They’re the only NBA team that takes more than two-thirds of their field goals either at the rim or at the free throw line. Their field goal percentages at either range are less than stellar, though, so plenty of defensive rebounding opportunities should arise. Houston didn't have a problem outworking the glass against Atlanta in the last matchup (23-7 on offensive rebounds). Ivan Johnson was a DNP-CD, so expect meaningful minutes this time around.

    Top scorers Harden, Jeremy Lin, and Chandler Parsons are aggressive attacking on the drive until they find either a rim or contact. Harden, the league’s 4th leading scorer, draws enough fouls to get an NBA-leading 10.2 free throw attempts per game, converting over 85% of them. Defensive positioning is important to get Harden (career-high 45 points against Atlanta in November) to move laterally instead of directly at the hoop, turning him into a jump-shooter (33.5 FG% on two-point shots away from the rim, 36.5 3FG%), or a passer. He’s second among NBA non-point guards with 5.2 assists per game, but he’s fourth in the NBA averaging 3.6 turnovers per game.

    The Hawks are still on the snake-bitten end with opponents’ free throw shooting, and against Harden (15-for-17 FT shooting vs. Atlanta) and Lin (81.8 FT%) that trend is unlikely to break tonight unless they can play Hack-A-sik (57.1 FT%). Atlanta is the only NBA team whose opponents are hitting their free throws above 80 percent (81.0%). That percentage would be an NBA record as far as I can tell, as the 2008-09 Portland Trail Blazers (80.3 opponent FT%) are the only other team in history to experience that over the course of a season.

    Lin (21 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists vs. Atlanta in November) has also been high on the turnover scale, averaging 4.5 in his last four games. He’s calling his own number more and shooting much better than at the start of the year (48.5 FG% in December, up from 37.7% through November), quieting the I-told-you-so’s that were crowing before he zipped ‘em up two weeks ago at Madison Square Garden.

    His passing (6.3 assists, 2.9 turnovers) is an uptick better than last year’s Season of Linsanity (6.2 assists, 3.6 turnovers in 2011-12), but his free throw opportunities have been cut in half (2.6 FTAs per game, down from 5.2). There’s no need for Heroball anymore with Harden around, so Lin may want to play to his strengths and lay off the three-point shooting for awhile, as he’s made just 6-of-31 over his last ten games.

    You probably won’t get to see him play today, but James Anderson is back on an NBA roster again. Despite playing well after a D-League call-up by San Antonio, he was crowded out after Stephen Jackson returned from injury. Houston saw enough to keep him from going back to Rio Grande Valley. He can definitely help the Rockets with their defensive woes.

    The Hawks have done well on back-to-back games so far this year, going 11-3. Whichever way this game goes, it will be interesting to see how well they follow up tomorrow night against Eric Gordon and the Hornets.

    Go Hawks! Happy New Year!

    ~lw3
  25. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pacers

    By lethalweapon3,

    Rested, or rusted?

    We’ll get a truer sense of where the Indiana Pacers are tonight as they ride their snowplows into the Philips Arena to face the Atlanta Hawks.

    With a snowstorm cancelling a mid-week tilt against the Bulls, Indy got 5 days of “rest” (assuming they weren’t out shoveling), before holding off a second-half surge by the reeling Phoenix Suns in Indianapolis last night.

    At 17-12, the Pacers are on a season-high four-game winning streak and have taken over the reins of the Central Division, with their traditional leading scorer, Danny Granger, unavailable for at least another month as his knee rehabs. They beat the team the Hawks bested last night, the Cavaliers, in Cleveland by ten points last week.

    We get yet another team that hasn’t emerged victorious at The Highlight Factory in a minute, last winning here over six years ago. That December 2006 game included guys like Speedy Claxton, Shelden Williams, Salim Stoudamire, Darrell Armstrong, Sarunas Jasikevicius, and Maceo Baston. In the November 7 matchup in Atlanta, the Pacers were up by 14 points in the final quarter before the Hawks pulled the rug out from under them. Atlanta ran off 18 straight points featuring a bombardment from Kyle Korver and Jeff Teague in that stretch.

    The Hawks aren’t the only team that’s benefitted from a fairly favorable schedule. Indiana is just 2-9 versus “playoffs-if-the-season-ended-yesterday” teams (Atlanta’s 7-7). Tonight would be their first win against such a team since beating Chicago and Portland on December 4-5.

    How will Teague, coming off a career scoring night (27 points, including the clinching nine final points in the fourth quarter, and 8 assists), perform against George Hill? The Suns used Sebastian Telfair’s season-high 19 points plus 6 assists to keep Friday’s game against Indiana close. Lance Stephenson has been moved into the starting lineup by Coach Frank Vogel expressly to slow the roll of whoever in the backcourt has the hotter hand, although it’s worth noting he’s not a shot blocker (1 block this season) and has been hampered by an ankle sprain.

    Expect a lot of one-and-done basketball tonight. Indiana shoots just 42.6% on the season (27th in NBA), but they hold opponents to NBA lows of 89.9 PPG, 41.0 FG% and 30.6 3FG%. Some of that is the general caliber of the teams they’ve played, but much greater factors are a grinding, slow-paced offense (28th lowest pace... they might wanna change their name) and a tight man defense that forces teams into tough shots and keeps them off the glass.

    Lacking an array of accurate shooters, to stay competitive the Pacers rely on defensive rebounding to limit opponents’ opportunities. They’re second in the league for per-game total rebounds (46.0 per game) and defensive rebounds (33.6 per game). It’s definitely a team effort. They have a bigs-heavy roster that can throw 2012 All-Star Roy Hibbert, leading scorer David West, Tyler Hansbrough, and Ian Mahinmi at the glass, plus they send guards and wing players like Paul George, Hill and Stephenson to help out. George is the only non-power forward-or-center in the league who leads his team in defensive rebounds per game. He’s had three double-digit defensive rebounding tallies in his past five games.

    The Hawks are not strong on offensive rebounding (10.4 per game, 22nd in the NBA), but on the other end they boast four players (Ivan Johnson, Al Horford, Zaza Pachulia, Josh Smith) with defensive rebounding per-possession rates that exceed the Pacers’ top player (David West) in that category. We’ll see how they’ll hold up against the Pacers’ bigs while battling hip issues and, in Ivan’s case, coming off of a stomach virus. Horf and Ivan will try to make a go of it while Smoove rests that hip flexor tonight.

    Hill has responded to his full-time starting gig with career-high scoring and passing numbers (15.2 PPG, 1.7 three-pointers per game, 5.2 APG), although he struggles shooting long-range twos (23.7 FG% from 16-to-23 feet).

    George is back on the cold side of a hot-and-cold season shooting the ball (35.0 FG% his last 3 games, 42.4% on the season). He’s also 6-for-28 on threes in his last six games.

    West (team-leading 17.3 PPG on 49.1 FG%) is still able to find his offense with ease, although he's been below his scoring average in four of the last five games. He'd be back to his 20 PPG days if Indiana would pick up the pace, or if he could get his free throw shooting (71.4 FT%) back to his customary 80% level. After that eye-opening first half against Cleveland, it will be interesting to see how much time Anthony Tolliver gets with Smoove out of action, at least to help tend to West, who has also become a more proficient passer (career-high 15.8 Assist percentage).

    Hibbert has still not come around offensively (career-low 40.2 FG%), but he’s making up for it on the other end. He is up to third in the NBA for both defensive rating (94.9 opponent points per 100 possessions) and blocks per game (2.8). Giving the rising-tide-lifting-all-ships concept legitimacy, George, Hibbert, West, and Hill are all in the top 15 for defensive win shares.

    The game should come down to which team can take smarter shots, and which can hold off opponents in transition after missed shots. Lou Wlliams could be a great target for outlets when the Pacers are not set in their halfcourt defense. The hawks will have to gameplan for the athletic Gerald Green and George on fast breaks (Sam Young will be out with the flu).

    (Side note for you crazy college kids back early from the break: the Hawks are selling tickets at the Philips Arena window for $15 tonight with a valid college, or UGA "wink", ID).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
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