lethalweapon3

"Erie Are, the D-League Hawks!" ~lw3

Your final score: Falcons 44, Packers 21! Tough loss, but meh! Can't dig 20-point holes against shorthanded but yadda yadda yadda, we've seen this show before, at least they crawled back this time... fix the defensive coverage and the first-half offense (and Sap's elbow) and all's good. Hardly any real standings slippage tonight, either. (Way to go Pels!) In closing: GOLDBERG! GOLDBERG! GOLDBERG! ~r1seup

#InBruthahood ~lw3

Look out, Dennis, here comes Big Play Ray! ~lw3

I'll save my opinion on Sap's candidacy (TL;DR version: "Sure he's earning another trip, but...") for Wednesday's gamethread. As for trading for Kevin... ~lw3

I'd also rather they just do it after the Draft Combine. It's not like scouts need to watch anyway. ~lw3

I left out that Doc has implemented a "No-Techs" rule, to help his team stop digging holes for themselves. This applies to his kid, but whether he's applying it to himself remains to be seen. ~lw3

Trolls gotta troll! I call "series." ~lw3

Gonna hafta call him Whiplash Williams at this point. ~lw3

“Great game, Mike. Hey, maybe you’ll compete for titles like my Hawks, someday? Who knows?” Atlanta Hawks fans at Philips Arena for tonight’s meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Prime Ticket in La-La-Land) may be able to tell their grandkids they were there, when three of their team’s best-ever point guards graced the hardwood at the same time. No, there are no jokes forthcoming about Chris Paul, Atlanta’s would-be 2005 NBA Draftee, who will sit out for the next month or so following surgery for a thumb ligament torn last week. I’m not even jesting about Sam Cassell, the current Clipper assistant and former Florida State star who had to watch his college teammate, Doug Edwards, get plucked by the Hawks nine picks before him in 1993. Since coming on the scene in 2013, Dennis Schröder (6.2 APG this season) has assisted on 33.6 percent of Atlanta’s field goals when he is on the floor. That’s the highest assist percentage in franchise history, and he’s just getting warmed up. He has already compiled 1,031 assists, midway through his first full season as an NBA starter. If all goes well, he’s got at least four more guaranteed years to go under the watchful eye of pace-pushing coach Mike Budenholzer. Knocking on wood, 857 assists from now, Schröder will surpass Armond Hill (5.2 APG as a Hawk), the current Clippers assistant coach who helped guide neophyte head coach Hubie Brown’s Hawks through the late 1970s. Hill was taken with the 9th pick in the 1976 Draft; if the Hawks had waited until the second round, they could have gone after the late Dennis Johnson, taken one spot after Atlanta chose Bob Carrington. But I won’t quibble with the past, because 2,836 assists from now, Dennis would surpass Armond’s boss, a player the Hawks drafted almost exactly 30 years to the day before him, as Atlanta’s all-time leader. Perhaps the best draft work in Hawks history transpired over the course of three years. In 1982, the team traded with Utah to keep Dominique Wilkins in Georgia. In 1984, they stood pat and took Kevin Willis (John Stockton went five picks later, but I promised I’d stop). Having traded away their 1983 first-rounder (who would become Derek Harper… there I go again) back in 1979 for Terry Furlow, the Hawks’ first selection arrived in the second round, in the form of Glenn “Doc” Rivers. Building up his NBA rep by serving as Nique’s steady caddie for many seasons, Rivers (6.8 APG in Atlanta) eventually hung up his sneakers with a Spurs team, well-video coordinated by Budenholzer, in 1996, and has had fortune shine upon him in his subsequent career. Within four seasons, he would become the NBA Coach of the Year in his first try as a head coach, directing a Magic team led by Darrell Armstrong, John Amaechi and no-name Ben Wallace to a 41-41 record. First in Orlando, then in Boston, Doc built up a rep as an affable coach who simply couldn’t get his teams over the hump. This, after eight consecutive seasons without producing a second-round playoff team. Fate would smile upon him, though, in at least two inconceivable ways. Just before he could be canned in 2007, Minnesota decided that, yes, Al Jefferson, Gerald Green. Theo Ratliff and flotsam would be enough to hand over Kevin Garnett, before the athletic forward could fully pass his prime. Doc and the Celtics rode cagey KG and friends to the NBA championship. Before that ship could sail, in 2013, Danny Ainge swung a deal shipping Doc to the Clippers, a move that allowed the coach to inherit two potential Hall of Fame players: Chris Paul, and Blake Griffin. Like KG, CP3 was a superstar that could coach the team himself, if needed. A third stroke of luck came the next year via TMZ-leaked audio, leading to an ownership shakeup that granted Rivers even more power as a team executive, fully in charge of basketball ops. With Paul and Griffin in tow, Coach Doc helped the Clips eclipse the blinding shine of Kobe’s Lakers in L.A. But he has not been able to make a dent in the Clippers’ quest for championship greatness. Four seasons into his Clipper tenure, Doc is back to being perceived as an affable coach who simply can’t get his franchise over the hump, in this case, to at least the Western Conference Finals. Which brings us to tonight’s challenge. Besides having to soldier on without Paul (6th in NBA for Net Rating, 3rd for Assist/TO ratio), the Clippers (29-16) have been without Griffin (arthroscopic knee surgery) since December 18. While he insists he’s ready to go, the temptation is to sit Griffin out tonight, in advance of the back end of this road back-to-back in Embiid-less Philadelphia tomorrow. But the minute the power forward steps on the court, L.A. will have, by far, their team’s best available passer. After their most recent performances, it’s reasonable to suggest that Rivers and the Clippers cannot afford to wait much longer. Beyond Hawksquawk gamethreads, a two-game slide is not normally cause for concern. After all, L.A. outlasted visiting Oklahoma City last week, even after Paul exited the game late in the first quarter, to win their seventh-straight. But the Clips sure have been streaky, even with Paul around. That winning streak was preceded by a six-game losing skid, including a Christmas Day lump-of-coal from their housemate Lakers. Last Thursday, Karl-Anthony went to town on the Clippers with 37 points to help the Wolves steal one at Staples Center. Then, kick-starting a five-game road swing in Denver, the Clippers were breathless at high altitude. One of the league’s worst defenses (stop me if this sounds familiar), the Nuggets held L.A. to 98 points, while scoring 123 themselves. Looking ahead, the good news is the Clippers get a four-day break after playing the Sixers on Tuesday. The bad news? That rest precedes a trip to Golden State. This run of away games is part of an arduous stretch that includes 10-of-11 games on the road, broken up only by a visit next week from the Warriors. Flights to Boston, Toronto, Charlotte, and Utah await. To go into the All-Star break, they’ll conclude with Schröder and the Hawks at Staples, and they’ll kick off the back half of the season in Oakland once again. All of this, without CP3. This upcoming slate doesn’t appear to ease up for Los Angeles until early March. In the meantime, things could go very sideways with a spate of bad losses, and that could imperil the coaching status of not just Rivers, but other former Hawk luminaries on the staff, namely Hill and Mike Woodson. Even with their stars back, a 4-or-5-seed in April spells a titanic first-round clash ahead of pending doom versus a likely-rested Warriors club. An even lower seed would be unfathomable to owner Steve Ballmer, and maybe untenable. But a 6-or-7-seed might be the only rational path to the long-awaited conference finals for Paul and Griffin, who could each opt out and hit the exits this summer if they choose. Tonight, needing a spark of momentum, the Hawks’ all-time assist-maker could stand to catch a break from the most likely candidate (Schröder) to be Atlanta’s future banner-holder. In any case, what Rivers needs even more is some sense of composure and resolve from the key remnants on his roster. That includes his son, guard Austin Rivers. That includes a roster loaded with experienced veterans. And that especially includes Doc’s max-contract, All-NBA 1st Team center. Without Paul around to order him to crash the glass and own the paint, DeAndre Jordan came thoroughly unglued during the third quarter in Denver. As the Nuggets widened the 8-point gap into the twenties, Jordan seemingly wanted out of the game. Rivers would not oblige, so Jordan reacted with three quick fouls, the last one an egregious whack at Nikola Jokic’s arm that earned him a technical, and the rest of the night off. Whichever of the starting centers in tonight’s matchup, Jordan (NBA-high 69.0 2FG%, 64.0% of FGs are dunks, NBA career-leading 67.2 FG%; 34.6 D-Reb%, 3rd in NBA) or Atlanta’s Dwight Howard (31.1 D-Reb%, 6th in NBA), brings less histrionics and more end-to-end production to the court today puts his team in good standing over the course of 48 minutes. With continuously thin rebounding options coming off the bench, Howard must avoid early foul trouble. Plus/minus-wise, Dwight is -38 on the season (14 games) when he piles up four or more personals, +49 (25 games) otherwise. The Clippers have an array of experienced bigs to turn to, including the floor-stretching Marreese Speights (39.4 3FG%) and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (39.1 3FG%). Paul Millsap has to trust that Howard can hold his own keeping Jordan off the offensive glass, stepping out of the paint to make catches-and-shots from three-point territory tough on the Clipper forwards. Three early fouls by Austin in Denver had Papa Doc scrambling, turning to Raymond Felton more than he’d like. Jamal Crawford (25.4 FG% since Dec. 28, 1-for-20 3FGs in past 7 games) and J.J. Redick are not at their best when they’re relied upon as ball-movers, but that’s what the Clippers need when Austin cannot stay on the floor. Backcourt options aside from Rivers should continue to struggle tonight to keep up with Schröder, who remains a cunning passer (9 assists, 1 TO vs. PHI this past Saturday) even when his shot is occasionally off-kilter, and Kent Bazemore (7-for-12 FGs vs. PHI; 41.0 January 3FG%), who continues to seek out his offensive comfort zone while meeting Coach Bud’s defensive demands. Dennis averages 4.8 APG and 2.8 TOs/game on the season when he shoots below his season-average of 47.1 FG%, values that have improved to 5.9 APG and 2.6 TOs/game this month. Schröder also contributed on the defensive end with a pair of steals in the win over Philly, and should continue those efforts tonight to match Rivers’ attempts at steals and deflections. Baze and Thabo Sefolosha need not sag on L.A.’s struggling perimeter shooters, and must make Crawford and Redick (36.1 3FG%) put the ball on the floor and drive inside in search of offense. The Clippers want to stem their downward momentum now, not waiting for Griffin and Paul to get back up to speed. If they struggle now, and in a couple weeks, with teams like Atlanta, Budenholzer may find himself taking queries, from Hawks point guards of the past, about the availability of assistant seats between him and the Hawks point guard of the present and future. Rise Up! And Let’s Go Hawks! ~lw3 View full record

^For the next two weeks, these are the only ones the Falcons are allowed to be seen around. ~lw3

Coach Bud's Beignet Watch continues. Raps just gift-wrapped an L (complete with a Lowry ejection) at home versus lowly Phoenix. Second in the East is now 2 games ahead of Atlanta. Patrick Patterson out as well. ~lw3

"Trust the Process. Hey... that sounds catchy!" ~bud

Progamming Note: This thread is certain to be moved to Homecourt Classics in a couple weeks. ~r1seup

Head-of-the-Pin Watch... Top 12 teams for Pace: Nets, Warriors, Suns, Rockets, Nuggets, Lakers, Suns, Pelicans, Pacers, Blazers, HAWKS, 76ERS. Best 12 teams for Opponent Points-per-48: Jazz, Grizzlies, Spurs, Mavericks, Pistons, Bulls, heat, HAWKS, Clippers, Hornets, Bucks, 76ERS. (Cavs only other team in Top 15 -- 14th -- of both categories) (Kings, Magic only teams in Bottom 15 of both categories) ~lw3

"We Wuz Robbed!" I almost cost Boogie and the Kings a technical all the way from ATL. ~kangz

Great night in the standings. C'mon Kangz, I want a cherry on this Saturday Night Sundae! ~lw3

Not that I want this at all, aside from the awkward media reactions, but we're also 2.5 games away from sending Bud to New Orleans in February. ~lw3

“I call this dance move the ‘Joel Embiid’!” Remember those times the Atlanta Hawks could just bring their B-game to the table, and still run said table on most nights against the Philadelphia 76ers? Well, hopefully, you enjoyed those games, because those days appear to be tabled for the foreseeable future. Nobody’s chanting “fo-fi-fo” up in the City of Brotherly Shove just yet, but the Sixers arrive in Atlanta for tonight’s game (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, CSN Philly) having won eight of their last ten, including last night’s thrilling 93-92 comeback win at home against Portland. That’s the best string of Sixer success since the outfit led by Jrue Holiday and Andre Iguodala broke into the 2011-12 season with an early 9-1 run. By comparison, they were 7-24 before this latest stretch, 10-72 all last season. It’s not just patsies, either, that Philadelphia (15-26) is pheasting on. This past week, the Sixers took out visiting Toronto and knocked off the Bucks in Milwaukee. Last week, they fumigated the Hornets at home, one week after putting a late scare into their old rival Celtics in Beantown. For long-middling franchises like the Hawks, winning ten out of 12 doesn’t cause anyone around town to start planning parade routes. But for a team as historically miserable as the latter-day 76ers, these days, it’s as if the Mummers never left South Broad. 2016 #1-overall pick and soon-to-be-rookie Ben Simmons placed an exotic pet cat atop his head for an Instagram earlier in the week, and just that simple act has spawned a flurry of #RaiseTheCat tweets among Philly’s Pheline Phaithphul. Need we mention that Simmons has yet to play a regular-season game? All that town needed to go paws-itively cat-crazy is the most magnetic personality since Allen Iverson to finally make an impact on the floor. Back in October, Joel Embiid was in just his second game as a pro, when the Hawks obligatorily pasted the Sixers, 104-72. Yet he was thrilled with what he perceived as a dominant performance (14 points, 2 blocks, 2 rebounds in 15 minutes) versus former All-Stars Dwight Howard (2 points, 3 blocks, 7 rebounds in 19 minutes) and Paul Millsap. “Everybody has flaws,” Joel not-so-humble-bragged to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I thought I took advantage of that by attacking (the Hawks’ bigs) and creating fouls. I got the shots that I wanted.” Such paltry contributions don’t excite Embiid anymore. He’s become a per-minute-MVP candidate, for turning around Philly’s fortunes while remaining on a team-mandated 28-minute restriction. 22.9 PPG, 2.5 BPG, 8.5 RPG, 1.1 SPG, and nearly one made three-point shot per game would be a dream for most starting NBA bigs, to say nothing of these averages Embiid produced in his past 15 appearances (in just 26.8 minutes/game). There are also 3.8 turnovers per game in those abbreviated stints, but hey, this is Philly, and at least he’s trying. Beyond just the highlights and the numbers, Embiid has emerged as the NBA’s premier social media magnet, building legions of fans awaiting his next tweet or Instagram post. Whether it’s flowering praise upon longtime crush Rihanna, bottling Shirley Temple drinks for a city that needs, if nothing else, sugary beverages, or revealing he and Johnny Football were summertime pals, Joey Basketball is taking the NBA world by storm, off the court as much as on. Sixers coach Brett Brown is certainly happy to still be along for the ride. His former boss, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, rarely reveals many “joys in life,” but one of them apparently is “to watch (the 76ers) win basketball games, because if there’s any team that deserves it, it’s those guys,” he told ESPN.com. “They’ve had it really tough for all the obvious reasons,” Coach Pop explained, “and there’s nobody in this business that is more positive, and more day-to-day upbeat than Brett Brown.” The signs that Brown had something simmering even without Simmons has been evident for a couple months. When the Hawks raised their record to 9-2 on November 16, they were the Eastern Conference’s most defensively-efficient team (95.1 D-Rating, 2nd in NBA), and despite combusting every now and then, they remain so (102.5 D-Rating, 5th in NBA). But in the games since that November 16 date, it’s the Sixers – yes, the Sixers – who have boasted the most efficient defense in the East (103.4 D-Rating, 5th in NBA since 11/17). Coincidentally, Embiid began stringing consecutive games together, even more so by mid-December with just 2 DNPs in Philly’s last 17 games (4th in team D-Rating since 12/14). Sixer opponents have shot just 46.9 eFG% in January; only Atlanta’s next opponent, the L.A. Clippers (46.3 eFG%) has been better. It’s just been a matter of the 76ers’ offense finding a way to catch up, and T.J. McConnell has helped in that regard. He has averaged 7.1 APG (2.1 TOs per game) in his last 20 games (8.1 APG in January; 2nd in NBA for Assist Ratio this month), and Philadelphia is 8-2 with McConnell as a starter. Helping cut down on the mistakes keeps Philly (still NBA-worst 17.2 January TO%) in contention by eliminating the runouts at the other end of the floor. McConnell can dish out lobs to Embiid, but he is also feeding the Sixers’ second-leading scorer well. Ersan Ilyasova arrived along with another future protected first-round pick from OKC in exchange for Jerami Grant back in November, and Philly Phans will start calling him “E.I.” if he keeps sinking jumpers. The ninth-year forward is averaging a career-best 15.3 PPG as a Sixer, including 2.2 threes per game. He has ebbed this month (35.3 January 3FG%), but he has been balancing that offense by crashing the glass and scoring more efficiently around the rim (career-high 65.7 FG% within 3 feet). Compensating for Ilyasova, Robert Covington’s jumper is beginning to reappear (41.7 3FG% last six games; game-winning contested 3FG last night vs. POR), while rookie forward Dario Saric has been putting some big plays together. The Sixers built up their confidence by coming back to win last night while Embiid was on-and-off and finally off the floor after hyperextending his knee. He was left behind in Philly for scheduled rest, but the spirited 76ers should still be a tough out in tonight’s contest without their current franchise rookie star. Right before finding their defensive groove, the Sixers visited Philips Arena on November 12, Embiid again a scheduled DNP. Even without him, Philadelphia sprinted to a 27-23 first-quarter lead, led by Saric’s seven points. Then Atlanta turned on the jets along the way to a 117-96 win. The trio of Tim Hardaway, Jr., Kyle Korver, and Dennis Schröder sank half of their 20 three-point shots, while Dwight Howard and Kris Humphries (combined 23 points and 20 boards) pummeled Jahlil Okafor and the Sixers’ frontline around the glass. A ton of Philly’s turnovers involve either Embiid (5th in NBA for TOs per game; 3rd in TOs per 36 minutes) experimenting, or teammates desperately trying to feed him the ball. They’ll miss his impact on the floor, but his absence should help them keep Atlanta from piling up easy buckets in transition. The Hawks’ 17.4 points per-48 off turnovers ranks second in the East, while the 17.6 points the 76ers allow ranks as the second-worst in the conference. This will be a chance for Nerlens Noel, who contended Mason Plumlee’s would-be-game-winner at the rim to seal the victory last night, and perhaps Okafor to shine, or at least to showcase their skills for other teams. Inactive until mid-December, Noel enjoyed 20+ minutes of playing time in consecutive games for just the second time this season. Those minutes came courtesy of the sudden mid-game absence of Embiid, along with continued ankle soreness for Okafor (season-high 26 points last Saturday @ WAS). Noel’s opponents have shot just 40.8 FG% (2nd-best in NBA, min. 4.5 opponent FGAs) on shot attempts he has defended, a value that compares favorably with the favored Embiid (39.6 defended FG%, 1st in NBA). Similarly marginalized after a rocky rookie season, Jahlil was DNP’d in seven of the last ten games, including the last two Sixer games. If he doesn’t play, Brown will likely turn to Richaun Holmes. Despite limited minutes, the second-year big has more points and rebounds versus Atlanta than against any other team. All of these frontcourt players know their playing status is in jeopardy with the pending arrival of a healthy Simmons. The long-tanking Sixers actually have an incentive to keep winning. Besides Embiid’s insistence on carrying this team into the postseason, Philadelphia also has a pick-swap option with the Kings, thanks to the summer 2015 deal that relieved Sacramento of Nik Stauskas. The Kings just lost Rudy Gay for the season, have lost four straight and seven of eight, and now sit perilously (0.5 games) in front of Philadelphia in the NBA standings. Atlanta will need much more out of their bench players than they presented in last night’s 102-93 roller-coaster ride versus Chicago. Hardaway’s near-halfcourt buzzer-beater to close Atlanta’s 35-13 first quarter mattered much more than it should have. The reserves allowed the Bulls to stampede back from 30 points down, at the start of the fourth quarter, to within 5 in the closing minutes, forcing coach Mike Budenholzer’s hand in making Millsap and Dennis Schröder 25 points on 11-for-14 FGs vs. CHI) re-lace their shoes. If the Hawks’ starters, led by Schröder (70.7 FG% last 3 games), Howard and Millsap, take care of the ball and defend well enough through three quarters to build a sizable lead, coach Bud will turn to once again to the other Mikes (Scott and Dunleavy, with Muscala still out), plus 10-day pickup Gary Neal and rookies DeAndre’ Bembry and Taurean Prince, and expect they won’t again turn a laugher into a thriller. Scott (4 assists in 21 minutes vs. CHI), particularly, must provide a stronger defensive presence around the paint and take some pressure off Humphries, while Prince must make better decisions with the ball in their hands. Philly doesn’t really need Embiid to compete for 48 minutes tonight, but they’d much rather save up their budding big men to face Dwight and the Hawks in the playoffs. Wait, did I actually type that? Rise Up! And Let’s Go Hawks! ~lw3 View full record

~lw3

Yachty's twin, Lil Dinghy, struggles with performance issues. Or, so I'm told... ~lw3

"No Justice..." "I know, right? I mean, Phil seriously expects ME to waive my clause just so they could swap me back to Denver? La La was like, 'What is Phil smoking?'..." ~lw3

Six straight wins versus Chicago (let's do this again in about 5 days! Well, at least the first three quarters.) No Embiid tomorrow, so you know what that means. Please don't go off on us, Nerlens! ~lw3

any "more" friction, that is... ~lw3

~lw3