lethalweapon3

With the season tipping off this evening, it’s WNBA Power Poll time! Las Vegas Aces – The champs remain, thanks to Parker, the most complete team 1-through-6, no matter what other superteams have formed. New York Liberty – In Stew York! Jonquel and Stewart and Sloot joining forces with Ionescu changes a lot of equations. Can they find enough shot-making at the wing to complete the turnaround? Washington Mystics – Still a dangerous team, with great defense at the wings, now directed by the longtime coach's son. But limited frontcourt depth puts a lot on Elena Delle Donne's plate. Phoenix Mercury – It is great to have Brittney Griner back in seemingly full form. It is not so great for her to return to a team that seems plagued by dysfunctional relationships on and off the court. Connecticut Sun – Departures of the Coach and MVP suggest a steep slide is in order. But with the other Jones' emergence in Brionna, and some guard help, not so fast. Dallas Wings – Key new faces, including the first-time head coach, will make the start slow out of the blocks, although an emergent draftee could change the prospects significantly. Everything's bigger with Arike Ogunbowale around. Seattle Storm – Suddenly, it's the Jewell Loyd Show! She will need more help, in areas of depth and rebounding, to disprove skeptics that say she cannot ably carry the marquee. ATLANTA DREAM – Gray and Howard ought to be a dynamo at the wing spots not seen since peak Hayes and McCoughtry. Rebounding and further growth from McDonald may help tip the scales. Minnesota Lynx – A complete transition to the post-championships era is underway for Reeve. Try as Napheesa Collier and rookie Diamond Miller might, the ride is bound to be bumpy. Los Angeles Sparks – Healthy veterans all season long would give the team under Curt Miller a better shot, although better shooting from outside would be even more useful. Anyone seen Chennedy? Indiana Fever – Now loaded, thanks to rookie Aliyah Boston, with young talent at the post positions, playoff contention will be possible with improvement at the wing spots. Chicago Sky – Did someone snap their fingers? Even with all the superstar departures, coach James Wade still has Kahleah “KFC” Copper and wing talent. Is there enough backfill for the frontcourt? ~lw3

Definitely do that as there ought to be a lot more ESPN coverage this season, although I'll note the league is dusting off a new WNBA app that can help keep you abreast of games and things going on. ~lw3

It won’t be as easy as ABC, where the Dream’s season-opener will air, or 1-2-3, to figure out where all the WNBA action is on the telly. The beleaguered Bally Sports remains, for now, committed to providing regional coverage for the Dream and some other WNBA outlets. If that holds through the summer, like Jimmy Buffett at 5 PM, it’s a Dream game on somewhere. The array of streaming and traditional-cable outlets means viewers, with or without WNBA League Pass, will want to keep a close eye on the schedule for media availability, and the wildly varying tipoff times, from game to game. Check! Your! Local! Listings! Contests will continue being presented via Amazon Prime Video and Twitter, while CBS Sports Network, NBATV, and ESPN3 will continue offering some Atlanta games to national audiences. The newest player is the ION network. They’ll interrupt re-runs of Matlock and Law & Order: SVU or whatever to introduce Friday Night Hoops through the summer. The league’s healthier and deeper rosters, one of which Atlanta presently appears to be, will fare better during the treacherous back half of the season, as the schedule-makers sought to cram six more games than last year into the docket. While I am unsure of the Dream’s odds to reach the Commissioner’s Cup, clearly someone in the league office has their doubts. Atlanta has to play a Western road back-to-back, in L.A. and at Vegas, just two days before the Cup game tips off in mid-August. ATLANTA DREAM SCHEDULE (All Times Eastern) [** - Commissioner’s Cup qualifier games] Saturday, May 20 – at Dallas Wings (1 PM, ABC) Tuesday, May 23 – at Minnesota Lynx (8 PM, Bally Sports Southeast, Twitter) Sunday, May 28 – vs. Indiana Fever** (3 PM, BSSE, NBATV) Tuesday, May 30 – vs. Chicago Sky** (7 PM, BSSE, Twitter) Friday, June 2 – vs. Las Vegas Aces (7:30 PM, ION) Friday, June 9 – vs. New York Liberty** (7:30 PM, ION) Sunday, June 11 – vs. Connecticut Sun** (4 PM, Bally Sports South) Tuesday, June 13 – at New York** (8 PM, BSSE, CBS Sports Network) Thursday, June 15 – at Connecticut** (7 PM, BSSO, Amazon Prime Video) Sunday, June 18 – at Indiana** (4 PM, BSSO, CBSSN) Tuesday, June 20 – at Dallas (8 PM, BSSE, NBATV) Friday, June 23 – vs. New York (7:30 PM, ION) Wednesday, June 28 – at Washington Mystics** (7 PM, BSSE, NBATV) Friday, June 30 – vs. Washington** (7:30 PM, ION) Sunday, July 2 – vs. Los Angeles Sparks (3 PM, BSSO, ESPN3) Wednesday, July 5 – at Los Angeles (10 PM, BSSE, CBSSN) Friday, July 7 – at Chicago** (8 PM, ION) Sunday, July 9 – at Chicago (8 PM, BSSE) Wednesday, July 12 – vs. Seattle Storm (7 PM, BSSE) [ALL-STAR WEEKEND, LAS VEGAS, JULY 14-15] Tuesday, July 18 – vs. Minnesota (7 PM, BSSE, NBATV) Thursday, July 20 – at Connecticut (11:30 AM, BSSE, NBATV) Saturday, July 22 – vs. Connecticut (1 PM, ESPN) Tuesday, July 25 – vs. Phoenix Mercury (7 PM, ESPN) Thursday, July 27 – at New York (7 PM, BSSE, Prime) Sunday, July 30 – vs. Washington (3 PM, BSSO, ESPN3) Tuesday, August 1 – at Las Vegas (10 PM, BSSE) Thursday, August 3 – at Phoenix (10 PM, BSSO, Prime) Sunday, August 6 – vs. Indiana (3 PM, BSSO, ESPN3) Thursday, August 10 – at Seattle (10 PM, BSSE, NBATV) Saturday, August 12 – at Los Angeles (7:30 PM, BSSO) Sunday, August 13 – at Las Vegas (9 PM, BSSE, CBSSN) [WNBA COMMISSIONER’S CUP GAME – AUGUST 15] Friday, August 18 – vs. Chicago (7:30 PM, ION) Tuesday, August 22 – vs. Las Vegas (7 PM, BSSE, CBSSN) Friday, August 25 – vs. Los Angeles (7:30 PM, ION) Sunday, August 27 – at Indiana (4 PM, BSSO, NBATV) Tuesday, August 29 – vs. Phoenix (7 PM, BSSE) Friday, September 1 – at Minnesota (8 PM, ION) Wednesday, September 6 – vs. Seattle (7 PM, BSSE, NBATV) Friday, September 8 – at Washington (7 PM, ION) Sunday, September 10 – vs. Dallas (1 PM, BSSO) ~lw3

Patience is a virtue. The virtuosity of Atlanta Dream fans needs only to be tested a little longer. Take, for example, the New York Liberty. No WNBA titles of which to speak, and a long history of being mismanaged and disregarded by prior ownership. They’ve lost 20 games in each of the past three seasons – 2-20 in the bubble season of 2020, 12-20 in 2021, 16-20 in 2022. But what they’ve also had throughout that time is 2020’s #1 pick, the sensational guard Sabrina Ionescu, to grow around as the team improved. Ionescu was derailed by early injury in 2020, struggled to regain her form in 2021, but had her first complete All-Star-worthy season in 2022. The Libs managed a bottom-seed in the WNBA Playoffs in each of the past two seasons, notching their first playoff win before bowing to Courtney Vandersloot’s and Candace Parker’s Chicago Sky in last summer’s opening round. Well, somebody liked what they saw out of Sabrina and the Liberty. 2021 league MVP Jonquel Jones hopped on the Tina Charles Freeway, steering a trade trip from Connecticut to New York. 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart opted not to return to Seattle, coming from across the continent to join forces with Ionescu and Jones. Vandersloot bailed Chicago, too. The WNBA’s all-time leader in assists per game departed from the Sky to forge a juggernaut in New York, as much on paper a super team as the defending champions in Las Vegas. The Aces are now fortified by the arrival of 2013 MVP Parker to pair upfront with 2020 and 2022 MVP A’ja Wilson. What seems to be a recurring theme in this league is, no matter your past reputation, if you draft high AND draft very well (Ionescu, Wilson, the retired Maya Moore), All-Star caliber veterans with the agency to move will move heaven-and-earth to get to where you are. New York City’s big media market has its obvious allure. But GMs like the Atlanta Dream’s Dan Padover knows it can be done with previously underwhelming franchises in Las Vegas and Minnesota, too. You don’t have to necessarily Build-A-Bear. Get the right cubs in-house, content and under guaranteed contract, and Mama Bear is soon to come. 2022’s first-overall pick acquired by Atlanta, Rhyne Howard has been making Padover and the Dream brass look smarter than average. While the back months of 2022 were deflating for the Dream, Howard (10th in WNBA for points scored, 3rd in made threes, 8th in SPG) was the clear-cut Rookie of the Year whose All-Star-worthy start had Atlanta (14-22) finish merely a game short of the 8-seed, two games behind Ionescu’s Liberty. 15 or 16 wins probably won’t cut the mustard this season, not with the WNBA expanding the schedule to an all-time high of 40 games. Frankly, that’s okay, especially this year. The prospect of college NIL deals encourages the best PTP amateurs on scholarship in the women’s game to stick around campus as BWOC for as long as possible, forgoing the low-scale and insecure wages that await them in the pros. That was what left the 2023 WNBA Draft class, including Dream rookie Haley Jones of Stanford, relatively thin when compared to the potential bumper crop that could befall WNBA clubs next spring. While there was one perceived immediate-splash of a prize at the top of draft boards, or maybe two, in 2022 and 2023, finishing this season with a low playoff seed, or none at all, could pay dividends with a rookie offering instantaneous plug-and-play impact. If Padover plays his cards as well as he did while biding his time drafting high-caliber prospects at Las Vegas, we may soon find The ATL, headlined in College Park by Howard and another young up-and-comer, serving as The W’s hot new super-team destination. In the meantime, there is no one stopping Howard and her current cast of Dream mates from reaching for the stars right now. Least of all the organization, who went out and acquired Allisha Gray from the Wings. 2017’s Rookie of the Year, Gray led the Wings in minutes played last season, nailing over 40 percent of her threes (10th in WNBA for 3FG%), while serving as an ideal second-fiddle to scoring ace Arike Ogunbowale. Gray’s addition helps the Dream begin to re-establish a foundation of stout defensive-minded scorers at the wing spots, something not seen since the peak years of Angel McCoughtry and the recently departed (via trade with Connecticut) Tiffany Hayes together. It certainly behooves head coach Tanisha Wright (2022's Associated Press pick for their Coach of the Year honors) to firm up the imprint of an emerging defensive club, an identity that began to escape Atlanta as McCoughtry’s presence waned. Wright clearly did work throughout last season with Aari McDonald (1.4 SPG in 2022), allowing the diminutive guard to see more of the floor as a sixth-woman energizer for the backcourt. 2021’s third-overall pick, McDonald may break into the starting unit, although veteran Danielle Robinson, a three-time All-Star during the mid-Teens with Padover’s San Antonio Stars, will hold the fort at the point after Atlanta acquired her from Indiana. Also likely to see more playing time, only in the frontcourt, is 2022 second-rounder Naz Hillmon. A bestie of Howard’s, Hillmon was a beastie during the offseason, a runner-up to Indiana’s NaLyssa Smith for MVP in the Athletes Unlimited league (Gray finished fourth overall, as the top guard behind ex-Dream guard Odyssey Sims). Tenacious rebounding aside, Naz struggled to find her form when forced into starting lineups at the close of last season, but she will push mainstay hustle forward Monique Billings (team-best 6.3 RPG in 2022, in just 17.4 MPG) for the frontcourt starting spot between Howard and Cheyenne Parker. Wright’s challenge for this season is to boost the offensive aptitude of a club that finished last season with a league-low 17.6 APG and a WNBA-high 15.2 TOs/game. Howard has the transition skills down pat, especially off turnovers. But creating halfcourt offensive sets that gain Howard (37.9 2FG%, 2.8 APG) better interior looks and passing lanes could unlock more of the 6-foot-2 wing’s game, perhaps just in time to participate in the triple-double craze that other multifaceted WNBA stars (Alyssa Thomas, Ionescu, Candace Parker) have birthed. Despite being undersized relative to today’s array of standout WNBA centers, Cheyenne had her first complete WNBA season in three years with the Dream in 2022, joining McDonald as the sole players to appear in every game. Given ample rebounding help from the forwards, Parker can transition from help defender and beat her assignment down the floor for better chances around the rim. Size upfront will improve once 2022 rookie Iliana Rupert, previously drafted by Padover in Vegas, arrives from her overseas duties in Italy. Rupert is not shy about lofting three-point shots, and the potential with Rupert, at least momentarily former Georgia Tech star Lorela Cubaj, and Cheyenne Parker opening up the floor, granting Howard, Gray and the Dream backcourt better options while handling the rock, offers a tantalizing dimension to the offense that Atlanta has never seen. A surge to superteam-level play is unlikely in 2023. Yet, the team core, managerial and coaching staff included, remains reasonably stable relative to most of the other 11 WNBA clubs, Padover granting Cheyenne Parker a contract extension along with Gray during the offseason, on the heels of Padover and Wright inking their own five-year extensions. But even the so-called superteams will need a minute to gel, while some lineups are incomplete in the early going due to either overseas commitments, injury returns or pregnancies. The opportunity abounds for the Dream, led by Rhyne, to pounce, much as they tried to do at the outset of 2022, only this time with a little more collective knowledge under their belts. That could lead to a WNBA playoff berth by the close of the regular season, or even a shot at the midseason WNBA Commissioner’s Cup if they can trip up enough Eastern Conference teams in this early going. It’s after this season concludes where we could really watch the stars align, via draft, trades and/or free agency. Yes, Atlanta, futures made of virtuous insanity is what we’re living in. And, well, it’s alright! Let’s Go Dream! ~lw3

Congratulations to the Hornets' Mark Williams! ~lw3

I keep mashing the SIM LOTTERY button until none of Washington/Orlando/Charlotte/Dallas get a Top 4 pick. So, if I broke anything, Tankathon, you have my most sincere apologies. ~lw3

NorthCydamus Strikes Again! #UnderAnyCircumstance ~lw3

It was an abnormally hot spring Saturday in 1998, but apparently not hot enough for some. With the sun a long way from setting, I was walking home from work that Freaknik weekend, stuck among the throngs of thongs and sarongs prancing to competing bass beats along Auburn Avenue, when suddenly... oh, wait. It isn't October already? Back to the drafts you go! Go Hawks! ~lw3

When I think of You(ng), nothing else seems to matter. Including the start time, which is actually 8:30! (another Young takes center stage first, on a different channel). And I forgot the national channel, which is TNT. I'll go fix that! Nothing of interest on the Boo-Boo List. Jaylen Brown (Available) will try his best to play with his Mask on this time around. ~lw3

Fans, skeptics and opponents learn: he's more than meets the eye. ~lw3

‘Looks like I’m freed up on Thursday night now, Smokey! So, it’s a date?’ “Ummm… Let’s Wait Awhile?” We Be PEGgin’! Just like I’ve always said, it’s another Playoff EXTending Gamethread. Get your PEG on! Atlanta’s Trae Young served up some poetic justice to his naysayers, and by extension, those among us, Yours Truly included, who routinely doubt his Hawks can scribe valedictorian-quality essays when the assignments get turned in late. Down 3-1 versus a 2-seed, down double digits on the road in the final quarter of what looked to be the final quarter of this Eastern Conference quarterfinal, many of us viewers were convinced the 7-seeded Hawks simply don’t stand another chance. Yet with one bold stroke, after another, and finally another, in Boston, Young responded to our persistent queries of, “Is that the end?” with a definitive, “NO.” Hey, Celtics, let Trae take you on an escapade, back down to Georgia. Let’s go! The Trae-nsformer converted Thursday night at State Farm Arena into Game 6 (8:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBC Sports Boston, TNT), Live From Downtown. Beyond deferring the ready-made weekend plans made by bunches of Bostonians, along with a phalanx of Philadelphians, Young also turned Friday night in Atlanta’s downtown district into a Traffic Congestion Valhalla. All you legions of Swifties out there at The Benz, say hello to Planet Janet! Ride MARTA, y'all, it’s smarta! Before we go too far… a few words for his backcourt mate, Mr. Murray. If I was your coach, oh, the things I’d say to you (but I’m not). The best things in life are free, so, here’s some unsolicited advice. I’m not that demanding. I have simple taste! I just want opportunities for you to win playoff games that can’t go to waste. Referees aren’t obligated to chat you up, nor respond to your charm offensives in kind, nor counsel you on how best to cheat their imperfect little system to your squad’s advantage. You might think I’m crazy, but I’m serious. It’s better you know now. I admit, I didn’t anticipate coach Joe Mazzulla’s strategic late-game blunders, or Marcus Smart Marcussmarting, or Boston blowing free throws to ice the game, allowing Atlanta to come back to me for a Game 6. Yet, by virtue of the shorthanded Hawks stepping up with the season on the line, finally hitting open shots on the road, and Ice Trae coming through in the wintry clutch, what could have been a season-ending suspension now offers you, Sir Dejounte, a chance at redemption before a supportive home crowd. I get it, these refs make me want to scream, too, quite often. And don't feel lonely. I agree, I can’t let just any Celtic hold me. But now that you’ve all but labeled the league’s officials as devilish, conniving, cheating liars, going on and on and on with your IG stories about narratives, consider yourself a black cat to them, and quit crossing their paths. If I could turn back the hands of time, I’d implore you to think twice before acting out with your emotions running high after a tough loss. Still, this season is unexpectedly still alive, and Joni Mitchell never lied when she said you don’t know what you got... Dejounte, it’s all about control. Control of what you say, control of what you do. And you’ve got lots of it. Please, put it to your best use. A composed, steely Game 6 effort, courtesy of the best all-around performer in this series, to help Young and the Hawks outshine Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and the desperate prohibitive favorites? Or unnecessary distraction, weighing your underdog team down? What’s it gonna be?! Alright! Now that we’ve got Dejountrae together again, and John Collins seemingly with his head out of the clouds, patching together the best stretches of the Game 3 and Game 5 victories gives coach Quin Snyder’s crew the best chance at forcing Boston into a Game 7. Pressuring Celtic ballhandlers without cheap fouling, no overhelping, no overdribbling, no forcing up shots that are not a part of the rhythm, boxing out, pushing the pace. That’s the way. At which point, New Englanders would be gifted one more chance to see if they have learned the lesson Clevelanders, South Floridians and Philadelphians had to learn the hard way, tutelage that hard-headed New Yorkers still struggle to absorb. No, his first name doesn’t begin with “F”. It’s Trae. Mr. Young, if you’re nasty. Let’s Go Hawks! ~lw3

I see Jameer Nelson's sportswriting internship isn't going too well. ~s33y0u1inth3s3c0ndr0und

~th3d0n

Fans will... miss... miss her much? ~lw3

“I’m BACK!” PEG Season is here! Probably, and mercifully. Another Playoff Ending Gamethread is in store for the Squawk. Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamethread Starter, as usual, doesn’t have much to add to these things, aside from appreciating you for putting up with my streams of semi-consciousness over 80 times every year. In case this is the only PEG we’ll need, I would like to wish each of Bob Rathbun, Dominique Wilkins and Steve Holman a prosperous Hawks offseason focused on wellness and recuperation. Watching and commenting about every moment of these Atlanta Hawks on the floor, in their current form, is not easy. Yet only a few people are obligated to not turn away when the proceedings aren’t favorable. The Human Highlight Film had to miss Games 3 and 4 at The Highlight Factory due to illness, while his broadcast partner had to be hospitalized mid-season after an unfortunate pregame ailment. And Holman is well into his fifth decade of, “Oh, Brother!”. Everyone gets their own heaping spoonful of health-related issues, wholly unrelated to the daily outcomes of sporting events. My hope, though, is that the Basketball Club rebuilds in the upcoming months in ways mindful that the performance on the court can impact the overall well-being of our beloved, senior-most play-by-play personnel. To say nothing of the esprit de corps among Hawks Nation members in the stands and watching from afar. “You are a cheat code, young man!”, Bawb exclaimed with joy during the dazzling Trae Young’s first official game-winning play before the home crowd as a prized rookie. Five seasons in, the two-time All-Star remains a cheat code, and is still a young man by NBA standards. But nearly two years removed from an unanticipated run to the cusp of the NBA Finals, the team Trae headlines still appears too wet behind the ears to be taken seriously. And too easy for veteran-laden contenders to play them like a PS5. Indeed, those ears replacement coach Quin Snyder is trying to bend on the fly are quite damp. Only Memphis entered the Playoffs with a younger roster by average age, the Hawks and Grizzlies hovering around a nightclub-cardable 24. No other teams in the Playoffs are simultaneously bottom-ten in the league for average age. There are times when youthfulness serves a brash, bold, and bouncy team well. Other times, as Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks can attest, not so much. The second-oldest club in the NBA East, 8-seeded Miami, stumbled at home against the Hawks during their Play-In, but has recovered in time to give the league’s eldest club, top-seed Milwaukee, the business. Meanwhile, the third-oldest club, the 2-seed Celtics, will seek to tuck the 7-seed Hawks into bed tonight (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast for likely the last time and 92.9 FM in ATL, TNT) at Boston’s TD Garden. Trying to be taken seriously as a playoff-worthy threat, Atlanta swung for the fences last June and traded for a backcourt partner to Trae, 2022 All-Star Dejounte Murray, with seven playoff starts under his belt. The Big Idea, as was the thought surrounding Trae and John Collins (5.0 RPG, 1.3 FTAs/game, team-low 32.4 FG% vs. BOS), or Trae and De’Andre Hunter, or Trae and (previously) Cam Reddish and Kevin Huerter, was that they could grow together, organically. Well, they do all age together. But they don’t necessarily mature together. Nor do they evolve their individual skills, at the same necessary pace. Two teams Young vanquished in prior postseasons, New York and Cleveland, responded to the Murray signing by going all out to replenish their backcourts with Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell (the Knicks would later flip Cam in a multi-team Deadline deal for Josh Hart). The Hawks were trumped by both the Knicks and the Cavs, as both avoided the Play-In, although the silver lining is that one of those teams’ seasons will conclude by this weekend. From the internal strife over the Murray deal going forward, Atlanta in 2022-23 found itself afflicted with immaturis disarrayus, an organizational malaise that turned operations president Travis Schlenk into a come-sit-by-me puppet of the Ressler clan, and helped cost Nate McMillan his head coaching gig before he could bow out gracefully. Fittingly, Murray had a bout with gediminas petraitis. The resultant suspension for his Rondo-lite tiff with a referee at the close of Game 3’s loss in Atlanta made tonight’s road elimination game, as the Hawks have done to themselves all season long, needlessly harder. In contrast, Ime Udoka’s reportedly immature off-court dalliances threatened to spoil second-year hoop-ops executive Brad Stevens designs on a follow-up campaign to the Celtics’ 2022 second-half sprint to The Finals. Fortunately for them, the mature players on the floor, like Al Horford, and the otherwise seasoned ones, like Marcus Smart, helped lay the foundations to keep the team upright despite Udoka’s unexpected suspension. It is possible to be an older team, yet insufficiently mature or talented to help stars carry teams into consistent contention, as Young’s draft-day foil over in Texas can testify. But veteran leadership on the floor helped firm up Jayson Tatum’s and Jaylen Brown’s All-NBA campaigns. In this series, that and Atlanta’s thorough lack of composure has so far negated the vast coaching experience edge Snyder holds over rookie head coach Joe Mazzulla. Youth allows the capacity and the time for players and teams to adapt and transform, especially in an NBA where supreme conditioning allows tricenarians like Al Horford and Lebron James to thrive. But maturity carries with it the will for adaptation and transformation. “Blame it on our youth!” sells, whenever these Hawks go haywire on the hardwood. But it won’t sell forever. Yes, there is an angle whereby the Hawks re-assert their rebounding edges from Game 3 and the end of Game 2, tighten up defensive and shot-creation schemes ensuring their buckets come from easier shots, and outshine Boston’s bench brigade, to offer Murray a redemption game before the home faithful on Thursday. Sadly, given Dejounte’s contributions to date in this series (25.3 PPG, 39.4 3FG%, 7.3 RPG, 5.8 APG, 2.3 SPG), the absence created by his obtuseness makes this angle acute. I do expect Atlanta (last win in BOS in February 2021, where Trae dropped 40 with Smart sidelined), tonight, to avoid looking ahead mid-game to what should be a busy offseason, headed by the Amateur Hour managerial regime that the Ressler clan has cobbled together. But I don’t castigate Hawks fans, as many of us have been halfway-tuned out on this collective since at least the lame run-up to the All-Star Break, or at least the wlwlwwlwlackluster loss to Murray’s old team in San Antonio last month. My request to the players is to avoid the resort towns that follow the 1-2-3 chants – Cancun! Tulum! Acapulco! – as travel to those spots is getting too hot, and I’m not talking climate change. If Trae must put his passport to work this summer, it ought to be on behalf of Team USA in Abu Dhabi and Manila. Bogdan Bogdanovic will do all he can to help Nikola Jokic and Serbia punch a ticket to Paris 2024, but I beg him not to overextend himself and risk becoming next season’s version of Boston’s Danilo Gallinari. As for team president Landry Fields, development guru Kyle Korver and the reconstituted front office, I would like to see, by this time next year, a Hawks team that not only makes far more sound decisions under pressure, but also heeds the late Joan Rivers’ persistent directive to her audiences: “Oh, Grow Up!”. That’s going to require stern direction from Coach Quin and his team’s assistants and development staff to expand the skillsets of the Hawks they elect to keep, assuming they have much choice in the matter. That will also require filling in the gaps with a more robust array of veteran leaders than Frank Kaminsky and Justin Holiday. Whatever the moves are for the future, I hope Atlanta’s staff bears in mind that our dutiful play-callers in the media aren’t getting any younger. That’s about all I’ve got for a PEG, although I wouldn’t mind a few more cracks at it. In closing, you can’t have a PEG, and you can’t spell ATL, without an AL! Let’s Go Hawks! ~lw3

'cause this is THRILLER! Thriller, um, evening... ~lw3

The only person allowed to die on a screen is Logan R(too soon?) ~lw3

More Free Kick TV! Those of you pining for Five Stripes soccer without having to shell out for Cantaloupe+ or whatever as a streaming device are in luck today. Atlanta United (4-1-3 W-L-D) is at the Benz today (4:30 PM Eastern, FS1, 94.1 FM in ATL), and on cable, striving to stay unbeaten at home while hosting a Chicago squad (2-1-4, but 2-0-3 in its past six fixtures) that is even more on Fire lately. Chicago has been remodeled around veteran striker Kei Kamara (3 goals in his past six matches). Atlanta midfielders will have to step up their attack if scoring threats Thiago Almada and Giorgos Giacoumakis remain no-goes due to injury rehabs. Let's Go United! ~lw3

Postseason-only three-point specialist extraordinaire Marcus Smart remains Questionable on the Boo-Boo Report, after bruising his heinie during Game 3's fourth-quarter pratfall while trying to propel himself off Clint Capela's shoulder for a rebound. False To Atlanta guard and John Havlicek Trophy winner Malcolm Brogdon, and perhaps Payton Pritchard, would pick up more minutes in Smart's absence, although my hunch is Marcus will give it a go to start the game just to see if it Smarts too much. Jaylen Brown is listed as Available only for his masked face, which suggests his lacerated plant-watering hand should be less of an issue for him today. No Hawks are listed as of this morning. ~lw3

“FIXED!” I arrived in Atlanta just in time to see the whole town as upset as they had been when New Coke first came on the scene. TEN numbers to dial? Ten? Won’t anyone think of all the poor folks with rotary phones? And might Morris Day and The Time, and Tommy Tutone, have to remake their hit songs? Trusty radio ad jingles needed a hasty re-write. And business signs and awnings all over town, untouched for generations, were coming down. They were all being redesigned and re-erected. This time, with a parenthetical addendum to the old, tried-and-true 555-1212. Georgia, in particular its largest metropolises, have long been growing. The entire state of Georgia, and its 3.5 million citizens, was designated an area code of 404, under the North American Numbering Plan of 1947. In just seven years, Macon and points south needed a separate code, 912, as Atlanta’s bustling airport-driven growth had the state already running low on landline numbers. Southern Bell’s White Pages were bursting at the seams by 1992. The landlines had to compete with standalone fax machines, routers, pagers, and those bulky cell phones with antennae sticking into the sky. It was all part-and-parcel of the modernizing business climate of the burgeoning Olympic city. The big plan was to wait until the end of the 1990s to introduce a new area code, for North Georgia and middle West Georgia outside of The ATL. Them the Census updates came out, and that plan had to be expedited. Metro Atlanta’s population now exceeded that of its host state back in 1950. Welcome, the rest of the state, to 706. As the Peach State population grew ever larger, the 404 zone grew smaller, until it was inclusive of just the City of Atlanta, its inner-ring suburbs and, after some protesting, what was then the far-flung exurbs. The latter was only able to stick around in 404 Country until 1995, when 770 was foisted upon the city’s surrounding burbs. 404 became roughly coincidental with Interstate 285. The prospect of remembering middle-digit area codes that weren’t either a 0 or a 1 was unnerving enough. It also took a lot of corporate assurances to comfort locals expecting they’d soon have to pay a toll just to call their kooky cousin in Kennesaw. Through all the changes, the rule remained that you needed only to dial seven digits, if you were connecting to a number within the same area code. That was the same everywhere across the country. Until ’95. That was when Atlanta, not New York, not Chicago, not Los Angeles, became the first U.S. metro area to require dialers to use ten digits, area code included, to reach out and touch someone. Was this the devil-dealing price for letting the city finally end its major sports championship hex? During the Baby Bell mergers of the early 1990s, Atlanta became the HQ for the newly reconstituted BellSouth. Also by the mid-1990s, the forward-looking metro possessed the world’s largest fiber optic bundle, five times the size of the bundle in the NYC metropolis. That made Atlanta the ideal test-case for mandatory ten-digit dialing. Suddenly, for anyone in and around town that had to remember what numbers to dial (remember dials?), they had no choice but to recall the first three digits of somebody’s phone number, the area code, in addition to the traditional seven that followed. Page Not Found errors on the World Wide Web, to perhaps help jog Georgians’ memories, were still years away. The clean split between “ITP” and “OTP” created measures of pride, for reasons good and bad. Those who benefit from the economic warmth of the central city without needing to feel burned by its urban social challenges grew to enjoy living in 770 and 706 areas, the “Notlanta” parts of Georgia. Notlanta bedroom communities would learn to self-sustain with their Notlanta office parks, Notlanta malls, Notlanta dining enclaves and Notlanta town centers. (Coming soon, to a development probably not all that near you: a Notlanta NHL franchise!) Conversely, 404 gave in-towners, particularly the “Grady Baby” generations that stayed True To Atlanta through the decades of centrifugal forces, a handy numeric shorthand. Rap and R&B artists inside and outside The Perimeter, and well beyond, from Bow Wow and Ciara, to Outkast and Jeezy, to De La Soul, Three 6 Mafia and Trick Daddy, would reference the Four-Oh-Four in rhymes to impart varying degrees of its regional and national significance. Being genuinely 404 brought with it a hip cachet. Throughout this time, Notlanta, Atlanta, and the State of Georgia shared an effusive love for its pro sporting franchises. Specific ones, anyway: Bravos, Falcons, and the football Dawgs (don’t dare try to convince anyone they’re not all pros-in-training). The franchises that came online during the outset of urban flight, like the NBA Hawks? Atlanta, they’re all yours. If you can keep them around. For, say, the Suns in Arizona, the Hornets in the Carolinas, the Nuggets in Colorado, and certainly the Celtics of Massachusetts, even the Grizzlies in Tennessee, you don’t have to zero-in on the central city just to find vast concentrations of outward support. They’re embraced, rather warmly, throughout the states in which they uniquely reside. Downstate Illinois wasn’t exactly rampaging about the Bulls back in the days when Reggie Theus was the biggest thing they had going, but they’re all on board now. Georgia is an even bigger, fatter state. Here, you’d long be hard pressed to discover Hawks fans, by the multitude, in local taverns, or their gear, their team flags flying, or the car stickers and specialty plates, out in Valdosta, or Statesboro, or Helen. But Atlanta’s inner-city population drain eventually turned around after the Olympics, and with the gentrifying growth emerged the desire to attach cultural relevancy to economic endeavors, be it by musical artists or mega-developers. The Ressler clan falls in the latter category, and they made the conscious decision upon acquiring the struggling NBA franchise to lean in on 404 Pride. Ricky Raw falls in the former. The EDM music producer sought to showcase local musicians with a “404 Day” at the infamous Clermont Lounge in 2012 (sorry, I cannot promise you that no beer cans were harmed in the process.) The wild success of Ricky Raw’s production, then bringing along local artists, creatives and restaurateurs of many stripes at subsequent festivals, made “404 Day” (on April 4, or “4/04”) the event to show up and show out in the post-Freaknik age. Now the April date is embraced with an array of activities, not just parties, sponsored throughout the city. For the Resslers, embracing communities, celebrities and initiatives that signify intown pride year-round has them printing money these days in ways prior Atlanta Hawks ownership regimes never could. The team announced that an unprecedented 38 of their 41 home games this season (yes, THIS, of all seasons) were sold out. Among hoop fans in far-flung reaches of the country, and the state, voluntarily sporting Trae Young jerseys is no longer a novelty. To many a prognosticator, Game 4 of this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBC Sports Boston, TNT) was lining up to be the game where the visiting Celtics slam down the receiver (remember receivers?) and the uneven Hawks season reaches its final dial tone. But… hold the phone. Some intrepid Boston fans may arrive late to State Farm Arena today, as they’ve spent part of this weekend seeking returns for their handheld broom purchases at our local hardware outlets. That is thanks to a Game 3 performance from the Hawks, re-enlivened by their home-friendly crowd, that featured better offensive balance and defensive hustle. Hawks fans, they can hear you now. The one thing better than two home playoff games, in any round for a 7-seed, is three home playoff games. If coach Quin Snyder can fine-tune the defensive coverage in anticipation of Joe Mazzulla’s well-designed high ball screens, Hawk players continue to execute their open shots swiftly instead of hunting in vain for contact and foul calls, and if Young and Dejounte Murray lead lineups where everyone commits to securing rebounds and chipping in, at both ends of the floor? 404 Country? Please, stay on the line. #Together404. Let’s Go Hawks! ~lw3

Meanwhile, the Julie Andrews song is now titled Trae-Re-Mi in NYC because... ~lw3

The eperts so far are just two out of 17: Kendra "Malika's sister, the Expert" Andrews (Hawks in 4) Nick "Kyrie's Pal" Friedell (Hawks in 4) https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/36149468/nba-playoffs-2023-experts-picks-play-every-first-round-series ~lwX

Nor sure whether it's damning with faint praise, or praising with faint damnation. ~lw3

“You’re not the Bawse of me, now!” Marvin Williams eyed a long two-pointer, off a nifty dish from Joe Johnson. Splash! Atlanta leads! For a moment there, the Atlanta Hawks had the Boston Celtics, in TD Banknorth Garden, right where they wanted them. For all of 23 seconds, Marv’s bucket was the pinnacle of the game for Atlanta – 2-0 Hawks! For the ensuing 46 minutes of the opening bout in 2008’s first round? Not so much. It’s a good thing they always say to take no quarter at Playoffs time, because Atlanta wasn’t able to seize any of them, 15 years ago yesterday, versus the Eastern Conference’s darling top-seed. Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and playoff-savvy savior Mike Bibby were horrible from the field. Things didn’t get much better once Boston coach Doc Rivers subbed in Leon Powe and James Posey to close things out. Atlanta’s 27-point deficit was only neatly trimmed down to 23, a 104-81 loss at the final horn. Things turned out a bit better for the Hawks in Game 2, one could argue, even though they mustered four fewer points than the first game. Kevin Garnett and his newfound amigos were amicable enough to allow Atlanta to borrow the lead for all of 66 seconds in the first quarter – 7-5 Hawks! – before deciding playtime was over. Atlanta fell behind by 11 in the first quarter, 15 in the second, 20 in the third. It was a 24-point Celtics lead before Rivers called off the dogs and let the Big Baby Davis Showcase begin. 96-77 was your final. No one, genuinely, remembers the particulars of those games in that series. Because the fun wouldn’t begin until the scene shifted to Atlanta. Especially over the course of the prior two decades, Atlanta players had grown used to seeing the home stands donning opponent colors, none more garish than Celtic green. But in Game 3, the first postseason contest in Georgia since the fans in Knick orange packed the Dome, nine years before, for an upset-on-paper second-round sweep, the vibe at Philips Arena was decidedly different. These Hawks saw red, and a lot of it. Emboldened by a ravenous home crowd at The Highlight Factory, the Hawks were a different species for Paul Pierce and the Celtics to deal with. Ray Allen, suddenly, couldn’t buy a bucket. Josh Smith was in full Matrix Mode. Bibby repeatedly sprinted the ball downcourt, his teammates catching Kendrick Perkins flat-footed. And a new star was born. Al Horford, the rebounding machine! Smoove’s pass for Horford’s dunk put the Hawks up by 14 with just over two minutes to spare. As the Celtics waged a comeback to cut their deficit in half, Pierce took a page from the Rasheed Wallace Guide to Intimidating Foreign-Born Players, reminding Horford of Pierce’s wager of ten-grand (stacks, if I recall the lingo correctly) that Atlanta would get swept. Paul picked the wrong guy, on the wrong team, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. The two-time NCAA champ and NBA rookie center responded by unleashing a stunning mid-ranger with under 24 seconds to go to ice the game, sending the arena crowd into a frenzy, then kindly sending Paul the directions to the nearest Western Union. Garnett thought it wise to consult Sheed’s Guide in Game 4, only to be met head-to-ginormous forehead by Zaza Pachulia. KG had clearly elbowed Zaza, and shoved a ref (No suspensions? Where they do that at?) but neither the Hawks nor the refs were swayed by his gambling antics. Smoove returned seven Celtic shots to sender. Iso Joe’s crossover shook Powe clean out of his British Knights. And the Smith-Johnson duo turned the tables completely, with a 32-17 fourth-quarter blitz, on a Boston team that thought they would never need to return to A-Town again. Game 5, another blowout in Boston? Yup! Game 6, did the Hawks finally yield? Nope! (Word to E-40). This time, it was bench guys Josh Childress and Pachulia who helped the Hawks cross the finish line first by putting the defensive clamps on the eventual champs. Zaza grabs the postgame mic to rally the ecstatic faithful ATL locals: “Nothing Easy! Nothing Easy! We going to Game 7, baby!” General Custer would have been impressed by the brazenness of it all. For the hastily-constructed Celtics, this first-round series was supposed to be mere re-affirmation of their championship mettle, merely a road bump along their quest for a redeeming 17th NBA title. And they got just that. Only, they would have to receive all of that affirmation in the cooler comforts of New England, where they concluded the series with a 99-65 swashbuckling in Game 7. Still, egged on by their growing legion of fans, in the space of seven days, coach Mike Woodson’s 37-45 Hawks turned Atlanta from a footnote to an exclamation point, as the series became more about the pesky 8-seed that wouldn’t wilt at home. The Celtics were team of the moment, but the Hawks were the team on the come-up, as the NBA shifted from gravity-bound pivots like Perkins to futuristic lean-and-mean ones, built more like the bicep-flexing Horford. If only they could keep this team τΩΓεφερ, the Atlanta Hawks would be the NBA’s hot young team on the rise. Horford would indeed make his mark in the NBA Finals, but he would be neither hot nor young by then, and he wouldn’t be in Atlanta. Commentators look down upon the Trae-vails of Atlanta’s current superstar in these 2023 Playoffs, as evidence that an elfish, defensively deficient leader could never earn the respect of championship-starved veterans while guiding a team through treacherous playoff waters to reach The Finals. Yet it wasn’t too long ago that Al found himself wooed by the siren song of Isaiah Thomas, a revelatory Celtic All-Star that he and the Hawks dispatched in first-round action mere months before. As Atlanta turns the page from a pair of fruitless outings in Boston, to Game 3 tonight (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBC Sports Boston, ESPN), Trae Young is feeling the pressure from outsiders to succumb to deflated expectations, much as what happened to Thomas (24.2 PPG but 39.5 FG% vs. ATL during 2016’s series loss) in the Celtics’ prior postseason incarnation, the seasons before upstarts Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were both on board. Despite the constant ragging on the road, Young (last 8 playoff games: 31.7 FG%, 17.5 3FG%, 6.6 APG, 5.8 TOs/game) can take comfort in knowing, as was the case for Joe Johnson and company in 2008, that there is only encouragement flowing down from the State Farm Arena stands. In at least one prominent fan’s eyes, among the spectators, Trae and the Hawks have vastly exceeded his expectations, to date. Tony Ressler is revenue-driven, and the Hawks’ majority owner has a shortlist of things in mind when it comes to his Basketball Club. Annually, 81 home games, and a minimum of two postseason home dates. 2023? Check. 2022? Check. It’s just that 2021 produced so much unexpected, bountiful catnip that his desired slow-growth approach, with management building youthful talents around the still-youthful Young (RIP, great grandpa!), is no longer the cat’s meow. 2008’s Hawks figured out that victories against the league’s mightiest teams were not coming without a sound team approach, rather than putting everything on Joe, or Al, to carry the water for 48 minutes. Dejounte Murray began to get the gist of this in Game 2 (7-for-13 3FGs, 6 assists, 4 steals), taking over the alpha-scoring reins from Young as Atlanta threatened to dig out from yet another impossible hole at TD Garden. But they need more finishers, inside and out, to extend their season beyond this weekend. As the great Wesley Morton at Peachtree Hoops noted, Atlanta sits last among the 16 playoff participants with 26.5 percent of wide-open shots (closest defender 6+ feet away) converted into points (incl. 17.5% on wide-open threes), despite having the second-most such shot attempts. During the regular season, Atlanta’s 43.3 wide-open FG% ranked 7th in the league, not far behind Boston’s 44.1 percent. If the mystique of The Gahden is simply what has been spooking the Hawks to this point, those ghosts should be scarecrow-ed away from the very tipoffs of Games 3 and 4 down on The Farm. Getting forwards De’Andre Hunter, John Collins, Saddiq Bey and Jalen Johnson (combined 5-for-31 3FGs, 24-for-68 overall) going across the floor, and more effective screens from Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu, opens up better looks for both Young, shielded to this point with impunity by Derrick White, and Murray. Hunter and Bey continuing to run in transition, alternatively to the corners and at the rim, and better backcourt pressure on Boston’s ballhandlers can keep the Celts from controlling most of these games at their desired halfcourt pace. Collins, Capela and Okongwu provide enough rebounding support to overwhelm Robert Williams and Horford, while forcing Tatum (team-highs of 10.5 RPG, all defensive, and 27.0 PPG) to continue playing end-to-end. If Marcus Smart resorts to Sheed’s Guide tactics to try and distract the Hawks, rest assured, Bogi Bogdanovic will have none of it. Atlanta’s fans will do their part to demonstrate that victory over an oft-favored foe requires an effort where everyone pulls together. Now, they’ll need to see the same collective swag-surfing zeal on our arena floor. No matter what transpired up in Beantown, nothing will happen for the Hawks up there anytime soon unless the Hawks, both today and Sunday, show up presenting less punk, and more spunk. Let’s Go Hawks! ~lw3

Same Starters, Different Day! ~lw3