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lethalweapon3

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Blog Entries posted by lethalweapon3

  1. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Nuggets

    By lethalweapon3,

    “This was my finals project, from African Basket Weaving class…”


    November 17. The Denver Nuggets slink into the same Quicken Loans Arena that their opponents this afternoon, the Atlanta Hawks (3:30 PM Eastern, NO LOCAL TV, 92.9-FM, Altitude Sports Network) passed through just two nights before. In seven of Denver’s eight prior games, they allowed over 100 points, well over in several cases; 116 and 130 to Portland in consecutive games, 110 and 131 during a home-and-home with Sacramento.

    The Hawks had just been barbequed 127-94 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the same formerly struggling team that beat Denver in their house by nine points just ten days before. Now, here are LeBron’s troops, newly confident, rested, and lying in wait for a 2-7 Nuggets team that got blasted by the Knicks… the Knicks!... one day before.

    A perfect time for a season turnaround.

    Hot-seated coach Brian Shaw started pulling the right strings, and a Denver team that was certain the end was near shocked a Cavs team that thought the worst was over. The 110-101 win kicked off a 7-2 winning stretch that transformed what was the NBA’s most disappointing team into the playoff contender they were expected to be, back to .500 in the Western Conference. But after a 30-point setback on Friday in Washington, their largest defeat of the season, the Nuggets (9-10) would greatly appreciate a quicker bounce-back victory this afternoon at the Highlight Factory.

    Speedy lead guard Ty Lawson recently conducted an AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) on Reddit, and in response to, “Who are you passing to for the last shot?,” he provided a Kendrick Lamarian one-word answer: “Myself”. While Denver’s leading scorer (16.5 PPG) and assist-maker (10.3 APG, 2nd in NBA; 11.3 APG in last ten games, 3rd in NBA) was joking, on this team, it was certainly not the worst answer to give. When he dishes out the ball, it’s not likely he’ll get to see it back.

    Based on Sport-Vu player-tracking data, Denver passes the ball a league-low 257.1 times per game. After Lawson, Randy Foye (out for another week with a quad tear) creates 2.0 APG, and we know what new chicken-and-waffles restaurateur Nate Robinson (1.8 APG) has in mind when the ball touches his hands. Nate the Great is questionable for today’s action after bruising his back in D.C. on Friday. To spell Lawson, Shaw may have to turn to Erick Green (ACC!), a 6’3” second-year guard who led the NCAA his senior year in… scoring. Rookie two-guard Gary Harris may get a chance to share the floor with his fellow Spartan teammate, the Hawks’ Adreian Payne, who’s back from a D-League stint.

    Essentially, the Nuggets offense features playing ready to shoot (Arron Afflalo, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Foye, Robinson), players ready to dunk (Kenneth Faried, J.J. Hickson, JaVale McGee, Alonzo Gee), players ready to clean up their teammates’ messes (Faried, Timofey Mozgov, Darrell Arthur)… and Ty Lawson. Ranked 6th in the league in pace, Denver wastes little time executing the plays they want.

    Shaw has been able to turn things around in part by tightening up his rotation and leaning even more heavily on Lawson to control the action. Offensively, doing so lessened the risk that under-competent players wind up in decisionmaking situations with the ball that involved anything other than trying to score. Defensively, it’s allowed for better communication and fewer breakdowns. Denver allowed opponents to shoot at least 45.0 FG% in six of the first nine games, just three times in the next nine games.

    The Hawks will obviously want to do what they can defensively to press Lawson (NBA-leading 13.3 drives per game) into giving the ball up to teammates, and then making it difficult for him to get the ball back while pressuring his teammates into turnovers. Atlanta will also want to minimize low-post touches by Faried (similar to Robinson, questionable with a strained back), another star from Team USA that entered the season with inflated expectations, and the bruising big Mozgov.

    Pero Antić will have an active role in keeping Mozgov and maybe McGee (doubtful, playing through tibia pain) from easy baskets around the rim. Rookie Jusuf Nurkic is not accompanying the Nuggets on this road trip, which continues tomorrow in Toronto, for personal reasons. Dealing with so many banged-up bigs, Al Horford and Paul Millsap should be able to have target practice from mid-range and beyond, while the guards and wings will be able to create havoc with halfcourt drives.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  2. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Nets

    By lethalweapon3,

    Shhh! Let the brutha dream. Can’t you see, he’s counting $heep?


    First, let’s get one matter out of the way. If you’re the Atlanta Hawks and you really want a 2015 lottery pick, you are going to have to trade up for one.

    That’s not to say tonight’s hosts, the Brooklyn Nets (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, YES Network), have been world-beaters, at least not up until this week. The Nyets (8-9) crawled into December with a losing record and zero victories over teams with a winning record. Even after two crucial wins on back-to-back nights this week, Brooklyn sits in the precarious 8th-seed position in the Eastern Conference, two games ahead of Indiana with 65 games left to play. Conceivably, one false move, and a fortuitous ping pong ball bounce or two, could have Danny Ferry donning his Viola Davis wig and instructing a summertime class on How To Get Away With Mudiay.

    Now, here’s the wet blanket. I’m going to ask you to take a quick, sobering gander at seeds 9 through 14 in the East. Go ahead, look at it. It’s fugly, ain’t it? Sure, it’s only December, we haven’t even had our first Gridlockalypse yet. True, we’re not even a quarter of the way into the season. Yet who, pray tell, is going to catch fire over the next four months and nip at the heels of the Nets, or anybody else? Whatever’s left of the Pacers? The nice-try Magic? The fire-sale Celtics? Melo and the Meloettes? The buzzkill Hornets? Smoove? None of those teams have that pull-it-together mojo that the Nets caught once January rolled around last season, and none are a blockbuster trade away from significantly enhancing their playoff prospects.

    The line of postseason demarcation is set in the East, and Brooklyn’s now on the good side of it -- calling it now -- to stay. That doesn’t mean, though, the Hawks can’t help make things a little interesting.

    While Netswatch is on life support, Netswap is still very much on. Atlanta can still do its part to keep the Nets on edge all season long, including winning two matchups during the final two weeks of the season. At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, the Hawks (11-6, winners of six of their last seven) might even get a chance at homecourt advantage against these guys in a playoff series. And no matter how that might turn out, the Hawks would win in May, once they get a chance to climb the draft ladder and swap rungs with Billy King. Every win over Brooklyn helps not only improve the likelihood a pick swap occurs for Atlanta, but also expands the distance between these teams when the time comes to trade places.

    “I’m off this s***!!” No, Joe Johnson wasn’t celebrating giving up purple drank when he typed what is, still, the last message on his Twitter page a few weeks ago. The man known coincidentally as Iso-Joe was frustrated at what he perceived as “selfish” play on the part of his teammates… and this was back when Brooklyn was 4-2. Along the way to dropping seven of their next nine games, Nets players and their new coach, the acerbic Lionel Hollins, were cranking out more shots-fired than in the final season of The Sopranos, offering brutally honest assessments of one another both inside and outside the locker room.

    Brook Lopez? No one cares about your obligatory 20 points-a-game. Toughen up! Go get us a defensive rebound, guard your man, and try passing the ball every once in awhile -- you might like it. Andrei Kirilenko? Thanks for being a good soldier and all, but we’ve got no role for you on this roster. Go spend time with your model wife or something. Bojan Bogdanovic? Shooting it from Flatbush won’t improve your chances of making a shot, rook. Calling you a stretch four is, indeed, a stretch. Put the ball on the floor and play in-the-paint. Hey, Joe! Nice game, but you have a nice salary, too. Can you try being a little more consistent? Team USA you say, Mason Plumlee? That’s real nice. Meet Team Jamaica, because Jerome Jordan’s outplaying you and taking your minutes away.

    In the aftermath of Joe’s outbursts, Kevin Garnett noted that NBA players don’t last long “just whispering or being a nice guy or the guy the ladies like. You’ve got to be an ***hole,” advice the Honey Nut Cheerios-munching power forward has clearly taken to heart. But that ethos applies to Hollins, too, and all the pressure and heat the new coach is applying may be starting to make diamonds out of players that were quite satisfied with being coal.

    KG has been carrying most of the defensive rebounding weight Hollins has demanded out of Lopez all season, but took himself out of Wednesday’s game, the second night of a back-to-back against Tim Duncan and the Spurs. Who was going to step up against the defending champs? The surprising answer came from not just one, but two big men. Lopez’ season-high 13 defensive rebounds equaled his tally from the prior three games, plus he helped slow Duncan into a 5-for-18 shooting night (the sullen superstar’s 17-rebound production notwithstanding). Lopez got help from third-year forward Mirza Teletovic. The Man for Mostar played like a Monstar on Wednesday, matching B-Lo’s 15 rebounds and ringing up 26 points, including 5-for-7 shooting from three-point range.

    They needed all of that production plus a steady passing performance from Deron Williams (17 points, 9 assists, 2 TOs) to outduel the Spurs in overtime. Throughout the game, fans of the Nets (45.5% assisted 2FGs, 4th-lowest in NBA) were downright shocked to witness their team matching the Spurs with a functional motion offense featuring players notoriously accustomed to pounding the basketball through the herringbone floor. It’s a sign that Hollins’ messages are beginning to sink in. D-Will has fully embraced Hollins’ edicts and is enjoying a bit of a rebound (17.9 PPG, 6.5 APG, 40.0 3FG%, 89.2 FT%) after a disappointing 2013-14 season (14.3 PPG, 6.1 APG, 36.6 3FG%, 80.1 FT%).

    Even with Garnett back on the floor, there is absolutely no reason for Brooklyn to make adjustments from Wednesday’s victory over San Antonio (64.6% assisted field goals, 3rd in NBA) for a Hawks team (66.3% assisted field goals, 1st in NBA) that professes to think of itself as Spurs-Lite. Of course, consistency is not exactly Brooklyn’s forte. A Nets win tonight will mark the first time the club has won three in a row this season.

    DeMarre Carroll will have his hands full defending Joe, who's eager to have a good night against any winning team, much less his old one. In the last two games versus the Spurs and the last game against the Bulls, all in the past two weeks, Johnson shot a combined 10-for-39 (2-for-11 3FGs), managed a combined two free throws, and averaged 7.7 PPG and 2.7 APG. Joe Cool heated up against the Sixers and Knicks, averaging 21.5 PPG and 5.0 APG while shooting 15-for-26 (4-for-8 3FGs).

    The Nets have struggled to establish a deep rotation, as reserve guards Jarrett Jack and Alan Anderson have struggled on both ends of the floor, while Plumlee (13.1 minutes/game, down from 18.2 his rookie season; 42.5 FG%, 43.9 FT%) and Kirilenko have yet to earn the trust of Hollins. The backups (Jack, Anderson, Plumlee, and Jordan) contributed just 14 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, one steal and no blocks during the 95-93 win over San Antonio, and Nets reserves put up just 16 of Brooklyn’s 98 points the night before at New York.

    Depth is an area the Hawks can exploit, by wearing down Brooklyn’s starters with a high pace and getting one or more of their starters in foul/turnover trouble. Dennis Schröder (61.7 2FG%) has established a career-high in points scored (15 versus Boston, 16 at Miami) two nights in a row. Atlanta’s reserves have put up at least 35 points in each of the past three games.

    The Hawks want to press the action throughout and earn trips to the free throw line, where they’ve shot above 80 percent in each of their last four games. Brooklyn is 1-7 when their opponents gained 22 or more free throw attempts.

    With Paul Millsap likely occupied by Garnett for much of the game (Wear a cup, Paul. And titanium forearm sleeves, too), Al Horford will want to get in on the action by getting in the post on Lopez and drawing foul shots. Horford’s peripheral offensive approach to this point has produced just 0.9 FT attempts per game, well below the 2.4 shots from his last All-Star season in 2011. He has been more accurate in his trips, shooting a career-high 80.0 FT% despite the low volume. Once a fairly poor free-throw shooting team, Atlanta’s 79.6 team FT% has them currently ranked 4th in the NBA. And they’re 8-1 on the season when their free throw-to-field goal attempt ratio exceeds 22.5%.

    When their opponents are shooting threes from the corners, Brooklyn’s defense has been stout on the left side (22.0 left-corner opponent 3FG%, lowest in NBA) but sagging on the right (48.0 right-corner opponent 3FG%, 5th-highest in NBA). Kyle Korver (66.7 3FG% on right-corner threes) and the struggling Carroll (4-for-17 FGs in the last two games, but 41.7 right-corner 3FG% on the season) could utilize screens from the bigs to make the right corner the rough equivalent of a layup line, with an added effect of finding bigs and cutters inside the paint, once the action draws the Nets’ bigs out.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  3. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - heat

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Be honest, Dwyane… does this outfit make me look fat?”


    “You did good, for an Old Geezer!” Who, in their right mind. would ever disagree with the exquisite “Being Mary Jane” star Gabrielle Union, particularly when she’s talking about her “O.G.” hubby Dwyane Wade? Least of all, Mr. Wade himself?

    The soon-to-be 33-year-old has been gracing the hosts for tonight’s game with the Atlanta Hawks, the Miami heat (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, SUN Sports), with his presence for ten of their 17 games thus far. The 9-8 heat have gone 6-4 when D-Wade plays and, even without LeBron James around to run the show, the Commissioner of Miami-Wade County continues to prove he’s no Flash in the pan.

    Wade showed up big under the bright stage lights of Madison Square Garden after missing seven games with a hamstring injury, pouring in 27 points on 11-for-18 shooting on Sunday and earning some postgame tough-love from his better half. The Missus is also on his case over his recent free throw malaise (career-low 64.2 FT%; 14-for-28 in his last five games) and, probably, forgetting once again to take out the garbage and put the toilet seat down.

    Scoring at least 20 points in his last six appearances, Wade ranks second in shot accuracy among all NBA guards with 53.5 FG%, now trailing only Atlanta’s hero from last night, Kyle Korver (53.6 FG%). He’s taking three-point shots rarely yet judiciously (career-high 41.7 3FG%), while his 5.6 APG is his highest passing mark since 2010.

    Without LBJ, who has taken the place as Miami’s third wheel alongside Wade and Chris Bosh (21.5 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.4 3FGs/game, 37.5 3FG%, his highest numbers with the heat)? At first glance, it would appear to be third-leading scorer Luol Deng (14.1 PPG, 47.7 FG%, 4.8 RPG), who has great stats out front but… oh, never mind that.

    Actually, so far that third-wheel has been Shawne Williams, who’s enjoying quite the breakout season at age 28. Connecting on 47.9% of his threes (6th among active NBA players), he ranks second in the East behind (there’s that man again!) Korver in true shooting percentage (66.2 TS%). Plus, his 4.6% turnover rate (2nd-best in the league) has buoyed Williams to an offensive rating that ranks fourth in the league, just ahead of Atlanta’s You Know Who (side memo: could someone, please, nudge Evan Turner to wake him up from his nightmare? Boston’s got another game today.) Having struggled of late (13-for-35 FGs in his last seven games), Williams seeks to duplicate the season-high 21 points, including 5-for-6 3FGs, he piled up in Atlanta.

    Coming most recently off a wire-to-wire, 21-point defeat at the hands of the division-leading Wizards in D.C, Miami heads out after this game for a five-game road stretch that includes meetings with the newly-unearthed Nuggets, the newly-resurgent Bucks and the newly-OMFG Grizzlies. Even with Monday’s loss to Washington, the heat have accorded themselves well when they’ve been away from the Everglades (5-3, including victories in Dallas and Brooklyn). But it suits the Hawks to have the heat tripping into their upcoming trip by beating them first in South Beach, where Miami is a mere 4-5.

    This is the part of the preview where we mention a really poor rebounding team… and don’t worry, we’ll get around to the Hawks eventually, too. Miami’s 47.5% rebounding percentage is next-to-last in the league, a ranking that has the heat wedged between the Hawks (48.0%) and the lowly Sixers (46.6%).

    Failure to rebound on the offensive side of the ball isn’t so awful when you have good shooting teams (Atlanta and Miami are first and second, respectively, among Eastern teams for effective field goal percentage), and if you can effectively grind the game down to a virtual halt like Miami does (91.9 possessions per-48, 29th lowest in NBA). But it becomes a big problem when the iron becomes unkind, as was the case when the heat shot just 2-for-22 on threes against the Wizards. The only starter who snagged one of Miami’s seven offensive rebounds in their loss on Monday? Point guard Norris Cole, who is playing with a splint on his recently-dislocated finger. Or, I should say, was playing. Cole left practice this morning after coming down with that pesky illness and is questionable to appear tonight.

    Tack on a league-low 3.3 BPG, and it’s easy to see that it’s been an uphill climb for the Miami frontline, all the more so without Chris Andersen (out with an ankle sprain) flapping around the rim. heat coach Erik Spoelstra is trying not to overtax Miami mainstay Udonis Haslem, and he is bringing along veteran swingman Danny Granger slowly.

    Spo will need Bosh to play a bigger role on the defensive glass and get more consistent help from Deng as he delegates more of the offensive rebounding responsibilities to Williams and Josh McRoberts. Coming off a modest season-high eight points and four assists, McBob is striving to approximate his Bobcat numbers so he can eventually supplant Williams in the starting lineup. To alleviate their frontcourt issues long-term, the heat sent Shannon Brown packing and brought in seven-footer Hassan Whiteside, who showed ridiculous upside in his last brief D-League stint (22.0 PPG, 85.7 FG%, 15.7 RPG, 5.3 BPG in three games). The Thundering Herdsman was granted a guaranteed contract and will be developed along with center Justin Hamilton.

    Cole’s likely absence will give Mario Chalmers (team-high 23 points and 11 assists off the bench at Atlanta on Nov. 14) yet another opportunity to audition for his old starting point guard job. In his two starts in place of Cole two weeks ago, he contributed 20-and-10 against the Hornets and 24-and-8 against the Magic. But when they started together the next game, they shot a combined 5-for-25 with six total assists as Miami got blown out by Golden State. Essentially, it pays to have Wade playing and one of these two coming off the bench. Rookie Shabazz Napier will sop up the minutes Cole doesn’t put in tonight, and as he becomes a steadier passer, he’ll accelerate the likelihood one of Cole or Chalmers gets traded.

    Absent a strong rebounding presence, offensive execution is key to victory for the heat. They’re 6-0 when finishing the game with an effective field goal percentage above 55%, 2-7 when it falls to 50% or below. Atlanta’s defenders have to fight through screens and stay committed to their man, as Miami will keep passing the ball until the end of the shot clock to find the shot it wants, or otherwise just clear out for Wade to do his elfin’ magic. A stronger defensive performance will be needed out of Thabo Sefolosha (season-high 12 points and three blocks vs. Miami on Nov. 14), who (along with Mike Scott) got a short hook yesterday after failing to help quell the Celtics’ first-half scoring bonanza.

    Last night, the Hawks showed they can get hit in the beak and keep pecking away at subpar teams (down 42-30 in the first quarter vs. Boston), inflicting blunt three-pointer trauma (Korver 6-for-7 3FGs, teammates 5-for-17) in the hopes their foes will eventually cave. But it’s not the soundest long-range plan. Atlanta has ended the first quarter with the lead in just one of their six losses this season (the double-OT debacle in Charlotte), and in those games the Hawks have been outscored by an average of 29.8-22.5.

    If they keep trying to feel out opponents in the opening quarter, they’ll be showing themselves out by the end of games against teams far better than the Celtics. Tighten up that first-quarter defense tonight, and there might be just a smattering of "MINUTOS!" uttered as the game nears its end.

    Wade missed out on last month’s affair in Atlanta, a 114-103 victory for the home team, and he’d greatly prefer not to allow his team to slip back to .500 with a second loss to their division rivals, granting the Hawks a fourth-straight victory for the second time this season. It’s a safe bet he doesn’t want to hear about all that when he gets home.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  4. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Celtics

    By lethalweapon3,

    Misty zebra-striped memories... of The Way We Were...


    There’s not -- yet -- a fire sale underway for tonight’s opponents of the Atlanta Hawks. But everyone on the Boston Celtics (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN New England) understands the credo as best proclaimed by the great Ted DiBiase: every man has his price. Losers of their last four and sitting at 4-10, it’s hard to say whether Celtic players are a part of the core for the future, or even if there is a core at all.

    With all of his 2008 championship teammates now a distant memory, Rajon Rondo may or may not be the face of Gang Green going forward. The 28-year-old’s expiring $12.9 million contract leaves open the possibility that a cap-space-hungry or title-contention-hungry team will bid for his services by the time the All-Star Break arrives. Scoring just 9.3 PPG, the lowest since his rookie season, and the author of just one double-digit scoring contribution in his past five games, it’s hard to tell whether Rondo is preserving himself for the near-future, is lacking enough fellow playmakers on the floor, or is forcing teammates to get used to carrying the torch without him. Or, all of the above.

    As for the rest of the squad, expiring contracts like Brandon Bass’ and Marcus Thornton’s could be had with the right phone call. As could Jeff Green, who could give a contender scoring, if not much else, on a short-term deal. As could any of the eight aged-25-and-under upstarts getting a chance to shine in the legendary green jerseys, at least until coaching wunderkind Brad Stevens has no more use for them. It’s hard to assess whether these guys are playing for a future alongside Stevens, or somebody coaching some other NBA roster. Armed with his $10.1 million contract while averaging eight minutes per occasional game, the creaky Gerald Wallace is about the only Celtics player nailed down for next season. That’s unless someone can trick him into early retirement or something.

    Stevens is deploying a free-wheeling style where everyone, centers included, is hauling butt down the floor, mostly off of defensive rebounds, and converging at the hoop, ideally awaiting a feed from Rondo (NBA-high 10.5 APG; 2 points but 10 assists and zero TOs vs. San Antonio on Sunday). Boston ranks third in the NBA for pace (100.0 possessions per-48), also third with 16.4 fastbreak PPG and second with 47.4 points in the paint per game.

    It’s a pace-of-play that back-above-the-weather Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer would greatly prefer, although Atlanta’s opponents to this point of the schedule have not really obliged. Eight of the bottom-ten in the league for pace have played the Hawks so far; the lowest-tempo team, Miami, hosts Atlanta tomorrow. Boston will be the first of the league’s top-five in pace that the Hawks will face. Atlanta’s 0-for-4 against teams (Raptors, Lakers, Spurs) ranked in the top-ten for pace, and Coach Bud would like to get one of these contests in the win column.

    Atlanta has given up an NBA-low 9.1 fastbreak PPG, so something’s gotta give. A more problematic consideration for the Celts is that in their rush to the offensive end of the floor, they’re leaving the barn door at the opposite end wide open. Boston’s opponents score an NBA-high 49.6 PPG in the paint. The C’s allow 107.6 PPG and hold the worst defensive mark in the East. And no, Philadelphia has not yet fallen off the face of the Earth. Opponents of both the 76ers and the Celtics are shooting 47.1 FG%, tied for 4th-worst in the Association.

    With the Celtics now appearing to slide out of the playoff picture early, job-secure Stevens is happy to kick the tires on players who may not have gotten an honest shot elsewhere. Offseason acquisition Tyler Zeller (via Cleveland) is tied with the space-eating Jared Sullinger for the team lead with 3.5 offensive boards and 1.0 blocks per-36; Stevens moved him into the starting lineup ahead of Kelly Olynyk (42.9 3FG%) on Sunday in the loss to the Spurs. Zeller contributed a team-high ten rebounds, including five in the first eight minutes of the game. Olynyk may once again come off the bench, this time to offset whatever Pero Antić brings to the table for Atlanta.

    Meanwhile, the Brooklyn-discarded Thornton, whose $8.7 million salary comes off the books this summer, came off the bench for a season-high 20 minutes on Sunday to help make the Spurs’ victory a little less of a laugher. When Rondo sits, Stevens turns not to lotto rookie Marcus Smart (sprained ankle, out for a few weeks) but to Evan Turner (3.1 APG, 1.8 TO/game), who we last saw sparingly in the Hawks-Pacers playoff series.

    After getting left behind in the vapors of reigning Player of the Week nominee Jeff Teague (career-high 18.0 PPG; 7.2 APG; 47.4 FG%, 38.2 3FG%, 87.5 FT%) back in April, whether Turner will fare better trying to keep up with Teague or Dennis Schröder (12 points, 2-for-2 on 3FGs vs. Charlotte) remains to be seen. The Germanator may get some useful floor time matching up against Rondo as well. Offensively, the Hawks have been so sound as of late at the point position that Stevens may latch defensive-minded Avery Bradley onto Atlanta’s PGs, leaving Rondo and Turner to try and disrupt the Hawks’ shooting guards instead.

    Al Horford and the Hawks (55.1% of chances rebounded, 3rd-lowest in NBA) have to do a sound job sealing away the rim from Celtics seeking extra scoring opportunities, particularly the long boards that often come after three-point shots, which is not exactly Boston’s forte (30.0 team 3FG%, lowest in NBA). Atlanta will want to box out not only Sullinger/Bass and Olynyk/Zeller, but Rondo, who’s averaging a career-high 7.4 RPG.

    Rondo’s defensive boards (6.2 per game, highest on the team) allow him to push the game to a pace of his liking, while his offensive rebounds help the team atone for awful shooting stretches. To help the out Hawks’ bigs, a secret weapon in the Hawks’ possession may be the wayward-shooting Kent Bazemore, who snared eight defensive rebounds over 22 minutes in the blowout victory over Charlotte, plus four more in just 15 minutes against New Orleans.

    The Celts have actually fared better on non-parquet floors (2-3 on the road; 2-7 at home). If Boston is still hanging around by the end of the game, they’ll turn to leading scorer Green (career-high 17.6 PPG, but 43.4 FG% and 26.4 3FG%) to try and hoist up enough shots to save the day. His arms may get tired, though, trying to either keep up or stay ahead, as Atlanta’s 27.5 fourth-quarter PPG leads the NBA. Teague’s 30.8 points-per-36 in the final stanza ranks higher than every major active NBA player besides Melo, Cousins, and Wade.

    The Celtics’ strongest quarter is the third, where they lead the NBA with 28.6 PPG on 50.6% shooting. How well DeMarre Carroll and Paul Millsap defend Green will likely determine how much Boston tempers their expectations this evening.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  5. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Hornets

    By lethalweapon3,

    Brandon Jennings: “Damm, Kemba! We at the corner of 106 & Suck!”


    I’m no entomologist, so I’m just asking. Do Hornets even have necks to put your foot on?

    If not for our Atlanta Hawks, the 4-13 Charlotte Hornets (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth in ATL, Fox Sports South in Carolinas), tonight’s opponents, could have been 3-14, including 1-11 over their past 12 games. Atlanta allowed the lead to slip away from them several times in regulation and briefly in overtime up in the Queen City on November 7, setting up the human embodiment of “Why Not?,” Lance Stephenson, to loft up a 33-foot bank shot that beat the buzzer in the second overtime. The buzz from that momentary high is now long gone for fans of the Hornets, losers of eight straight games.

    The Hawks get a chance to be the next NBA team to zap the Hornets, this time at The Highlight Factory. There’s more in it for the Hawks today than mere revenge for that 2-OT defeat, or just keeping Charlotte from regaining confidence while they’re submerged in the dregs of the standings. If the Pelicans, the team the Hawks vanquished on Friday night, can be kind enough to upend the Wizards tonight in D.C., then a win tonight for the Hawks would have Atlanta fans waking up on Sunday morning to find their basketball and football teams in first place of the Southeast and “NFC Soft” Divisions, respectively.

    Since the last time, the story has been the same for Stephenson, who has been benched thrice in the fourth quarter of recent games. Even with the Miracle Shot to fell the Hawks, Stephenson (36.9 FG%, 20.0 3FG%, 64.3 FT%) has been a liability in the clutch, shooting just 23.1 FG% in 4th quarters or overtimes when his team has just five minutes left and neither team leads by more than 5 points. Despite a 26.2 assist percentage that rivals lead guard Kemba Walker, and despite leading the team in defensive rebounds (6.8 per game), his shot decision-making and defensive positioning at critical junctures of games has left Hornets coach Steve Clifford less than pleased with the free agent arrival.

    Clifford has been expounding on Lance (team-high 17.9% turnover percentage) that he needs to see more stellar play, but the space between Stephenson’s ears has to often seemed interstellar. "I've been fortunate. I've been around Kobe [bryant] and [Tracy] McGrady. They were superstars. I was also around Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell. They were two-, three-year All-Stars,” Clifford said recently. “[stephenson has] got a lot of work to get to that level. Everybody proclaimed him as this guy, and if you remember the first time we got him, I said he's got to develop into that."

    While there’s much gnashing of teeth up in teal-‘n-purple country, a most glaring reason for the Hornets’ spiral has to do with their schedule. Charlotte has played ten of their 17 contests against the daunting Western Conference, three more than anyone else in the East. They sport a 1-9 record versus the West, which includes getting overrun by the Warriors last night as Stephen Curry triumphantly returned to his hometown.

    Curry probably has next week’s Western Conference Player of the Week award on lock by now, scoring 26 points in his Carolina homecoming despite hitting just one of his ten three-point attempts last night. On the Eastern side, the inside track for that honor has to belong to the Hawks’ Jeff Teague, whose 26.0 PPG over his past three games ranks third in the NBA behind Curry and Chicago’s Jimmy Butler. During the biggest five-game offensive stretch of his NBA career, Teague is averaging 25.8 PPG (2nd in NBA, behind James Harden), 6.2 APG and 1.4 SPG while shooting 53.8 FG%, 50.0 3FG%, and 95.1 FT% (highest among NBA players averaging at least 5.0 FT attempts/game). Kemba Walker proved to be little resistance for Jeff (22 points, season-high 15 assists) in their last meeting, and his lack of defensive intensity and awareness is, like Stephenson's play, beginning to grate on coach Clifford’s nerves.

    The other problem for Clifford’s squad is the difficulty they’ve had convening a full roster. Marvin Williams strained the area around his left wing, joining forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and guard Gary Neal (23 points vs. Atlanta on Nov. 7) on the bench against Golden State. Jeff Taylor went Swedish Rice on his girlfriend in September and is suspended for awhile. Lotto rookie Noah Vonleh has recovered from a sports hernia, but has appeared sparingly since Clifford is less than convinced he’s ready to play significant minutes after missing the preseason and training camp.

    The missing-in-action players have pressed guys like Brian Roberts (team-high 20 points off the bench last night), rookie P.J. Hairston, Cody Zeller (15 points and 14 rebounds against Golden State) and veteran castaway Jason Maxiell into heavy rotation. Maxiell has been virtually useless when he’s not rebounding, but sophomore Zeller has brought forward enough spunk to perhaps keep a spot among the starters for the time being. Roberts will threaten both Stephenson and Walker as a starter for as long as the losing string continues.

    Rebounding issues are huge to Clifford, who noted his team’s failings at keeping Marreese Speights, Draymond Green, and the W’s (16 O-Rebs) away from the glass, before marching out of last night’s press conference without taking any questions. He must have been elated three weeks ago when the Hornets out-rebounded the Hawks 51-38 in double overtime. The task for Al Jefferson (season-high 34 points on 15-for-24 FGs and 9 rebounds vs. Atlanta Nov. 7) and the Hornets will be more arduous without MKG or Marvin around.

    Al Horford (10 rebounds) and Paul Millsap (9 rebounds) held serve against the Pelicans' Anthony Davis and Omer Asik (11 boards each) on Friday, and only Ryan Anderson’s tip shots kept New Orleans within shouting distance of Atlanta's lead. DeMarre Carroll will be needed more tonight to secure rebounds for the Hawks than to help defend a subpar perimeter shooting team (Charlotte 32.6 3FG%, 27th in NBA).

    The NBA’s league-leader in steals? Chris Paul? John Wall? Curry? How about Paul Millsap? The 6-foot-8 forward took the ball away four times against New Orleans to tie Wall with 32 steals over his first 14 games. Sap’s 3.2 steals per 100 possessions ranks second in the East behind ex-Hawk Lou Williams. Aside from Stephenson, the Hornets don’t turn the ball over much (10.9 TOs/game). But Atlanta will want to use Millsap, Carroll, and Kyle Korver’s active hands to disrupt post passes into Jefferson, and use Teague and the Hawk point guards to force the action in transition.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  6. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pelicans

    By lethalweapon3,

    “The Most Interesting Power Forward in the World.”


    Who’s trippin’ on the Tryptophan more, the Atlanta Hawks or the visiting New Orleans Pelicans? We’ll find out on a cool Black Friday at the Highlight Factory (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth).

    No matter the name, it’s always the same story for New Orleans. A decent team beset by injuries that would compete for a conference title if only they were more significantly situated east of the Mississippi. The Pellies are 2-1 versus Eastern teams, but a 5-5 Western Conference record in the Southwest Division have them in last place, looking up at the Grizzlies, Rockets, Spurs, and Mavericks.

    N'Awlins gets space-eater Omer Asik (9.7 RPG) back just in time to compensate for the indefinite absence of shooting guard Eric Gordon, who’s out after tearing his labrum. Asik returns to establish a nightmarish frontcourt combo with Anthony Davis, who continues to raise eyebrow across the league. Despite averaging a career-high 25.4 PPG (2nd in NBA) and 11.3 RPG to go with a league-leading 3.3 BPG, Davis is unlikely to remain high in the MVP balloting if his Pelicans can’t fly north of the postseason-qualifying line.

    They’re waiting for forward Ryan Anderson (7.0 3FG attempts/game, 36.3 3FG%) to get back to his surefire shooting of seasons’ past. He came around with 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting in the loss on Tuesday to Sacramento. Similar to Kyle Korver (4-for-6 3FGs and 19 points in Wednesday’s loss to Toronto), Anderon’s ability to space the floor opens things up for his bigs to do damage inside. Paul Millsap struggled against the Raptors and will need DeMarre Carroll and the Hawks’ guards to turn Davis into a distracted help defender. When Davis and Asik converge, someone should be open on the outside.

    Defensive rebounding and smart execution will be paramount for the Hawks tonight. Largely, it’s because getting the Pelicans to turn the ball over (11.0 team TOs/game, lowest in NBA) for transition opportunities is a lot like drawing blood from a stone. Atlanta could manage only two steals against the Raptors on Thanksgiving Eve.

    Still, the Hawks will want to pressure Pelicans who aren’t accustomed to playmaking and being pressed into extra duty due to Gordon’s absence. That set could include any of Gordon's starting replacement Austin Rivers (45.3 FG%, 36.8 3FG%), Jimmer Fredette, or even our good friend John Salmons, the man whose inflated salary weight sprung Lou Williams free from the USA. Jeff Teague will want to get the ball out of the appropriately-surnamed Jrue Holiday's hands, and pretty much pounce on whoever gets it, including Tyreke Evans (6.2 APG, 2.8 TOs/game). The forwards have to minimize the lobs to Davis, and help make any halfcourt touches by Asik a troublesome experience.

    To keep afloat in a hyper-competitive West, the Pelicans must continue to stand out with victories against Eastern Conference opponents like Atlanta. To stand out in the muddled East, the Hawks have to show they can occasionally outrun mid-tiered Western Conference teams like New Orleans, especially when the Hawks are in their own nest.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  7. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Raptors

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Hey, Danny! HOW DOES IT FEEL? …”


    Atlanta Hawks fans, say hello to ATL’s Own and the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week… Sit down, Smoove, not you. I’m talking about Lou Williams!

    This holiday season, Lou's giving thanks to Danny Ferry for sending him to a team that seems thrilled to have him around. After being traded in June, along with 2013 first-rounder Bebe Nogueira, roughly for the equivalent of chipped beef on toast, the Snellville Sniper has found a new pep in his step with tonight’s opponent, the first-place Toronto Raptors (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Sportsnet in Canada). Lou (36 points, 15-for-15 FTs) left LeBron James looking like Anthony Tolliver on defense, on his way to a 23.6 PPG, 10-for-19 3FG kind of week. He followed that award announcement with 17 points on Monday night, as the 12-2 Raptors edged Phoenix for their fifth win in a row.

    Toronto is second in the league in scoring (106.7 PPG), but it’s not so much due to sharpshooting (45.3 FG%, 17th in NBA) as it is their ability to bang away, draw fouls and get to the free throw line (24.6 opponent fouls and 24.1 FT makes/game, 2nd in NBA; 80.1 team FT%, 5th in NBA). Seven of Toronto’s eight top-scorers shoot 79 percent or better from the line.

    Although they’ve performed well on the road, including a convincing win last week in Cleveland, the Dinos have mostly fed off of a rabid home crowd (#1 in the league in home attendance). Toronto has prevailed in nine of their league-high ten home games thus far. This game kicks off a four-road-games-in-five stretch, but (with apologies to Sacramento) none should be as challenging as their trip to Philips Arena.

    Opponents may also have been cowed by the Raptors’ noisy fans in Air Canada Centre, as they’re shooting a league-low 67.8 FT%, the only set of opponents shooting worse than 70 percent and leaving up to 8.0 PPG on the table. In their home opener on October 29, Toronto watched the Hawks shoot 9-for-17 (and the good guys 26-for-33) during the Raps’ 109-102 victory. The Raptors are the only NBA team with a double-digit differential (+12.3%) in free throw accuracy.

    Toronto opponents have also coughed up 16.6 TOs/game (2nd-most in NBA), and the Raps’ minus-5.6 turnover differential leads the league. The Raptors produced 7 additional steals and 8 fewer turnovers against Atlanta in October. Kyle Lowry, who leads Eastern point guards with a 3.74 assist-turnover ratio, and (yes) LouWill (career-high 3.5 steals per 100 possessions, 4th in NBA) have an awful lot to do with that later discrepancy. Williams’ defensive activity is indicative of his rediscovered agility, following his struggles in Atlanta to recover from a January 2013 ACL injury, as well as Raptors coach Dwane Casey’s imprint on the team. Casey’s confidence in Williams may be growing at the expense of Lou’s fellow backcourt mate, Greivis Vasquez, who’s struggling to find the basket (career-lows of 33.3 FG%, 25.0 3FG%, 21.3% assist percentage).

    Jeff Teague goes from D’ing up John Wall, who leads the NBA East with 7.8 PPG off pull-up shots, to Lowry, who ranks 2nd with 6.1 pull-up PPG. Teague will want to deny Lowry (career-high 18.4 PPG and 5.0 RPG; 25.3 PPG on the road) easy layups around the rim and render him purely a jump-shooter (39.4 FG% on jumpshots; 31.7 3FG%), avoiding bailout fouls as well. Lowry is only shooting 27.6 FG% on catch-and-shoot, all of those shots being three-point attempts.

    DeMarre Carroll and Thabo Sefolosha will spend a good deal of time trying to do something similar with Raptors leading scorer DeMar DeRozan (20.2 PPG, 40.0 FG%, 15.4 3FG%), who makes up for wayward shooting and preciously few other offensive contributions with 80.9 FT% on 8.2 FT attempts per game (4th most in NBA). That will leave Kyle Korver and/or Thabo to try to keep Williams and/or Terrence Ross (career-high 42.4 3FG% and 93.3 FT%) in front of them.

    Coming off of back-to-back season-high tallies of 28 points, Teague has long been a lot for Lowry and the Raptors to handle. Jeff shot a season-high 67 percent (8-for-12 shooting) in Atlanta’s season opener at Toronto, and he matched his career-high in scoring (34 points) here at Philips Arena against the Raptors last March, a 118-113 overtime victory. Coincidentally, in that game, Paul Millsap (19 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) notched his first career triple-double. It will be interesting to see how much Casey will use Williams to help Lowry defend Teague.

    If Atlanta’s backcourt does its job, then it will become crucial for the Hawks to keep Jonas Valanciunas, Amir Johnson, Tyler Hansbrough, and Patrick Patterson off of the offensive glass: both teams have a subpar 73.1 defensive rebounding percentage (20th in NBA). Four Raptors, including both starting guards, had at least 3 offensive rebounds in the previous meeting with Atlanta.

    One good matchup to watch will be floor-spreading forwards Patrick Patterson (41.5 3FG%) and Mike Scott, whose offense thawed on Tuesday evening after two weeks of struggling from long-range. Both players will be needed to help crash the boards and close out on one another. Scott’s 17 points last night are the most he contributed since putting up 20 (8-for-11 FGs, 4-for-6 3FGs) on Toronto in October. Against the Wizards, Scott managed 4 of Atlanta’s 12 offensive rebounds.

    JV (59.4 FG%, 5th in NBA) was full varsity on Monday against Phoenix (27 points, 10-for-11 FGs, 11 boards). But after the Suns went Chock Full o’ Guards, wiping out a 17-point fourth-quarter Raptors lead in 8 minutes, Casey was compelled to sit Valanciunas in crunch time, in favor of a smaller lineup just to try and match up. It will be interesting to see if Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer tries a similar small-ball approach (albeit with less-talented guards than Phoenix) to keep Valanciunas’ stints short and minimally impactful. Dennis Schröder and especially Shelvin Mack (season-high 13 points) shined during last night’s win at Washington.

    Happy Thanksgiving! Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  8. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Wizards

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Don’t hate! This is far easier than selling my sneaker line!”


    Our Atlanta Hawks sit 4.5 games out of first place in the Eastern Conference, and their next two opponents, the Toronto Raptors and tonight’s opponent, the Washington Wizards (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Washington) rule the roost. Owing to the collective mediocrity of the conference, Atlanta’s also just 4 games out of the next-to-last spot in the East. Coming off their final three-day rest period before the All-Star Break, in which direction will the Hawks move this week?

    Under former Hawks forward and current Wizards coach Randy Wittman, Washington’s approach is essentially to dominate the scoring inside the perimeter. A league-high 66.3% of their points are two-pointers, and an NBA-high 59.5% of those twos are assisted. John Wall (career-high 19.4 PPG and 9.1 APG) is still not a reliable 3-point bomber (27.6 3FG%), yet he has been finding his groove within the free throw circle and around the right elbow. And of course, they have Nene and Marcin Gortat pounding away in the paint.

    Meanwhile, the Wizards put the defensive squeeze on anyone else daring to force the ball inside. An NBA-low 22.9 opponent shots per game are taken in the restricted area, a league-low 34.8 per game in the paint. Led by Wall (NBA-high 2.7 SPG; prior career-high 1.8 SPG), the Wizards steal the ball away 2.1 times more than their foes (3rd-highest differential in NBA).

    The Wizards are willing to gamble that opponents won’t be capable of keeping up by hoisting long-range shots, especially if they use their own guards (particularly Wall, and the savvy vet Andre Miller) to control the ball and limit their foes’ possessions. Opponents’ effective field goal percentage of 48.2% is the second-lowest in the East, while opponents’ 17.4 turnovers per 100 possessions ranks second only to Toronto. That’s helped the Wizards, a notoriously slow-starting team, to break out on top of the Southeast Division at 9-3, their best record to this point of the season in four decades.

    Against resurgent Milwaukee on Saturday, Washington (who saw this as a “trap game” after topping LeBron’s Cavs the night before) conceded a season-high 27 points to Bucks guard Brandon Knight and a career-high 20 points to Giannis Antetokounmpo. But the Wizards forced 5 turnovers from Knight, while his and Giannis’ teammates shot 36 percent from the floor, including 2-for-10 from three-point distance. Limiting Milwaukee to 12 second-half points-in-the-paint, Washington was able to swing a 15-point second-quarter deficit into a 15-point fourth-quarter lead.

    The Hawks won’t catch a break from Bradley Beal (16.7 PPG, 51.2 FG% through 3 games), who returned a bit early after recovering from a preseason wrist injury. Wittman has preferred to bring Beal off the bench in favor of his opening-day replacement, Garrett Temple, partially due to a desire for bench scoring (Martell Webster may be out for another month), a prod to get Beal to play better defense, and a preference not to abruptly upset winning chemistry. But with People’s Temple only moderately more disastrous than Garrett Temple has been (2-for-26 FGs in last 7 games as a starter, zero FGs in past 4 games), it won’t be long before Beal gets paired up with Wall once again. How long Temple stays in will depend on how long he can keep Kyle Korver (56.7 3FG%) in check.

    The Wizards picked up free agent reinforcements over the summer (Paul Pierce, Kris Humphries, Rasual Butler, DeJuan Blair) as they anticipate injuries to key big men Marcin Gortat and Nene. The latter checked out of Saturday’s win after six minutes due to plantar fasciitis, while Otto Porter did not play due to soreness in his thigh. Much like he did in Brooklyn, habitual Hawks troll Pierce (13.1 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 39.7 FG%) ably stepped in at power forward and chipped in 10 rebounds to go with his team-high 25 points (including 4-for-5 shooting on threes). Nene is unlikely but Porter is probable to return for tonight’s game.

    Especially without Nene, whoever the Wizards deploy at power forward is going to have a tough time chasing Paul Millsap around. Whether it’s Drew Gooden or Humphries, Millsap (and Mike Scott) will want to put the ball on the floor from the perimeter and create havoc inside, watching out of course for Wall’s active hands. Pierce and Porter will be spread out defensively between helping with the Hawks' driving forwards and defending the wings (Korver and/or DeMarre Carroll) around the 3-point line.

    Paul’s struggled offensively on the road (15.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 42.0 FG%, 30.8 3FG% in away games) so far, and this is an ideal game to get him going away from the Highlight Factory. The Wizards will start hacking if they can’t get stops any other way, so it’s crucial for Millsap (career-low 64.3 FT%) to focus at the charity stripe.

    Neither of Gortat or Kevin Seraphin is coming out to defend Al Horford around the perimeter, and not only can Horford find himself open from long range (54.5 FG% from 16 feet out) but he can boost his passing stats (2.5 APG, 1.2 TO/game) by taking advantage of teammates cutting to the basket.

    Will Jeff Teague (1.4 SPG, up from 1.1 SPG last season) be a spectator, or an agitator? Coming off a season-high 28 points versus Brandon Jennings and the Pistons, Teague (career-high 16.9 PPG and 5.5 FT attempts/game) and the Hawks point guards need to be more aggressive in creating turnovers and transition opportunities. Like Millsap, Teague will also need to get it going offensively on the road, where he’s averaged just 11.0 PPG while shooting 38.2 FG%.

    Backcourt defense will of course be crucial for Atlanta, but particularly in quelling fastbreak opportunities by Wall and Beal, both ranking in the NBA top-ten for the percentage of their scoring from fastbreaks. The Hawks have given up just 9.1 fastbreak PPG, second-lowest in the league.

    Each of the East’s current Top-11 seeds have at least two road victories under their belt – everyone, that is, except the Hawks (1-4), who follow up this road game with a four-game homestand over Thanksgiving weekend. In fact, each of the East’s Top-4 seeds have winning records. A big road victory over the Wizards would go a long way toward proving Atlanta belongs in the East’s Top-5… and not among the Bottom-11.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  9. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pistons

    By lethalweapon3,

    WARNING: This shot chart might leave your eyes glazed over. Kinda like Kim, actually.


    Are the Atlanta Hawks the “fixers” of the NBA?

    Despite a three-game winning streak, the high-hoped Cleveland Cavaliers had a disappointing 4-3 record and were coming off a seat-of-their-pants victory in Boston the night before. Their championship aspirations were, and are, decidedly in question. How nice of the Hawks to serve as the backdrop for Cleveland’s franchise-record 19 three-pointers on Saturday? The Cavs went on to lose the next two games on their home floor this week, including one to the squabbling Nuggets. Thank goodness for that Atlanta game, eh, Cleveland?

    It takes a lot to get Charles Barkley to consider skipping dessert, much less fasting. Yet the L.A. Lakers were just 1-9 and starving for another victory (their first on the road) after dropping four straight. Well, welcome to Philips Arena, Kobe! Home of the Bailout Factory! Kobe gets his obligatory 28 while three other Lakers get double-doubles. The victory propelled L.A. to get up off the mat, winning their next road game in Dwight-less Houston. Thanks a bunch, Atlanta!

    Now here comes Josh Smith and the Detroit Pistons (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Detroit), in the ATL and hoping to grab that life raft. They’re mired in last place in the Central Division (3-9), two full games behind whatever’s left of the Indiana Pacers, losers of three straight and six of their last seven, shooting a league-low 43.6 2FG% despite the presence of three frontcourt talents.

    Atlanta’s Own (12.5 PPG, career-lows 36.9 FG% and 45.8 FT%) and his new coach/GM, Stan Van Gundy, are already squabbling on the sidelines, Smith getting benched midway through the third quarter of a two-point home loss to Phoenix. And all signs indicate they're stuck with each other for the foreseeable future. Will the Hawks be there to once again to step in and lift another team’s spirits?

    Andre Drummond has been rebounding, blocking shots… and that’s pretty much it. The youthful behemoth that’s been heralded as the face of the franchise is being forced by Van Gundy to do more than play help defense and cherry pick. As a result, That Other AD is struggling at a scale on par with Detroit’s economy. Having shot 61.8% in the first two years of his career coming into this season, the Big Penguin is shooting an ice-cold 39.4 FG%, a 13.5 PPG scorer last season who has scored no more than 12 points in his last nine games, in double figures just once in his last six. Early foul trouble (4.2 PF/game, 2nd-most in NBA) takes him out of the already-torturous flow of the Pistons offense.

    With Al Horford (75.0 FG% last three games; 64.5 FG% and 13.2 RPG in last three seasons vs. Detroit) beginning to find his comfort level on the offensive end, will he and the Hawks keep Drummond playing off-balance? Or will they be the ones awakening the beast?

    Despite the losing, Greg Monroe (15.8 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 18-and-12 versus Phoenix) hasn’t whizzed away his chances for a big free agent payday this summer, in a similar situation as his counterpart for much of this evening, Paul Millsap (career-high 18.0 PPG and 2.1 SPG). But the early exits by Drummond tend to stretch his team’s frontcourt depth and, by moving Monroe into the 5-spot, diminish their defensive capabilities. Joel Anthony has not done much to fill the gap so far once Drummond sits. Never a strong defensive presence himself, Monroe has amassed a total of two blocked shots in his 10 games this season.

    Despite an early-season benching in favor of D.J. Augustin in the clutch, the Pistons’ leading scorer Brandon Jennings ( 16.6 PPG; career-highs 44.2 FG%, 41.7 3FG%, 39.5 assist%) seems to have embraced Van Gundy’s directives as well as any of the Pistons’ starters. He struggled mightily in four games against the Hawks last season (32.2 FG%, 12.8 PPG) but was bailed out repeatedly (40 assists, 2nd-most vs. any NBA team) whenever he could find an open shooter.

    While still hot-and-cold as a volume shooter (1-for-9 on threes vs. Phoenix, 5-for-7 vs. Orlando, 1-for-6 at Memphis, 5-for-8 during their last win at OKC), Jennings has been as efficient as ever before as a passer, having turned the ball over no more than three times in 11 of his 12 games. Jennings, Smith, and Monroe have to help one another boost the Pistons’ passing game (14.6 assist%, 2nd-lowest in NBA) against a Hawks team that ranks second in that category (18.9 assist%).

    Detroit’s competitiveness from night-to-night will improve as they get their full array of shooters with Georgia back to complement Jennings and their marquee bigs. Greenville’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5-for-11 3FGs last two games) is understandably peeved at Phoenix’s self-professed cardiologist Markieff Morris questioning his heart in postgame commentary. No one needs an ego-bruised KCP to transform into Papa Pope tonight. The Pistons’ top free agent prize, Norcross’ Jodie Meeks, remains out for another month with a back injury, but they do have ex-Hawk Cartier Martin, who celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday, back from injury to help stretch the floor along with Caron Butler and Kyle Singler.

    Smoove may get another chance to go up against the guy who took possession of his ATL #5 jersey. Atlanta’s NBA rank for defensive rating (points per possession) fell from 11th to 23rd in the span of games DeMarre Carroll missed to heal a groin strain, although Thabo Sefolosha did the best he could to contain Kobe, LeBron, Deng, and Hayward in the interim. While Sefolosha (11.8 3FG%) could not replicate Carrroll’s (45.8 3FG%) long-range shooting, he did keep the Hawks in the mix against the Lakers with 6 offensive rebounds. DMC plans to play but will be a gametime decision.

    Detroit puts very little pressure on the ball (11.8 opponent TOs/game and 12.4 PPG off TOs, 2nd-fewest in NBA), so execution of the Hawks offense should be little problem tonight. That’s good news for Kyle Korver, who’s now down to “just” 56.1 3FG% after going 2-for-5 on threes against the Lakers, just 2-for-7 FGs in his past two appearances. It might be too much to ask for Korver to get his interior shots up, too (31.0 2FG%). Broken record, but with the bricklaying likely to come from Motown shooters, all hands should be on deck to seal Monroe and Drummond out of the restricted area for putbacks. The Hawks’ 16.1 second-chance points given up per game to opponents remains the league’s worst.

    Especially against fellow teams in the East still trying to get their bearings, the Hawks (5-5) have to stop working against their own interests and righting others’ ships. When another team’s vessel is listing, as the Pistons’ has been, hand them buckets full of seawater, sand, and basketballs.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  10. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Lakers

    By lethalweapon3,

    "Look at ALL the ****s I give!"


    RUMOR: Jeff McInnis just connected on a 3-point shot, the Hawks are down by 36 again.

    The Atlanta Hawks sure could use one of those Neuralyzers from Men in Black, after the Cleveland Cavaliers…

    BREAKING: Boobie Gibson has just hit a 3 to expand Cleveland’s lead on the Hawks. Keyshia Cole set the screen.

    …dragged ATL all across the Quicken Loans Arena floor on a Knight-jumps-Queen, Bishop-jumps-Queen, Pawns-jump-Queen kind of Saturday night. The good news is that when the Cavs finally cooled off a bit they found themselves losing last night to lowly Denver, and the Hawks can eke past them in the conference standings once again with a victory tonight against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Time Warner Cable SportsNet).

    As an added salve, the Hawks are getting a good bit of rest with seven days off over a nine-day pre-Thanksgiving stretch and no road trips. We will get to see if the Hawks spend this time tweaking their defensive gameplan to keep from getting roasted like the turkeys that showed up on Saturday.
    One could argue David Blatt beat Mike Budenholzer at his own game. The Cavs first 11 treys in the first half hit nylon, and the shell-shocked Hawks…

    THIS JUST IN: Delonte West just hit a 3, and is triumphantly leaving the arena with one of the players’ mamas on an ATV.

    … would go on to miss 19 of their 22 tries, while Cleveland finished the evening shooting 19-for-31 (a franchise-high in makes) from downtown. Kyle Korver’s mini-Threak was thwarted after 8 games when Budenholzer gave him most of the night off following 14 ineffective minutes, leaving John Jenkins (12 points) out there for garbage duty. The Cavs laid off of the mid-range shots and had little trouble finding the shots they wanted, whether around the rim or along the perimeter.

    Al Horford shot 6-for-10 in his return to Cleveland after getting injured there last season, but he settled too often for shots at the elbow when he was having his way around the rim. He and Paul Millsap (two free throws in a combined 47 minutes) have to mix it up inside against opposing bigs to draw more attention and contact. With a balanced offensive attack, Mike Muscala (5-for-8 FGs, 2-for-3 FTs, 13 points and 4 blocks in 22 minutes) showed why he may be steadily eating into Pero Antić’s floor time.

    Jeff Teague was getting inside, but not making shots (2-for-8 shooting, 1-for-5 in the paint). A lack of focus from the backcourt players allowed Blatt’s troops to key in on Atlanta’s perimeter shooters and force the Hawks to settle for mid-range jumpers. Atlanta shot 14-for-24 on 2FGs from 12-feet-and-out, but that was just a case of jogging briskly in Cleveland’s quicksand.

    Perhaps in a nod to Sherman’s army from 150 years prior, opposing ballhandlers have been blazing unencumbered to the bucket, finding open teammates ready to finish plays without much resistance from Atlanta. Roughly 80 percent of Cleveland’s field goals were assisted (39 Cav assists, 13 turnovers), keeping the Hawks at an NBA-high 27.8 opponent assists per game, a value now significantly higher than pass-happy Atlanta’s own 25.1 per game. Even without DeMarre Carroll (groin, out for tonight’s action) around, the Hawks’ guards and wings must be less passive and more disruptive, denying desired spots on the floor and forcing tougher passes from their opponents.

    As for Tinseltown, the Lakers’ coach is cussing and boorish, his team struggles to make stops, players are low-key pointing fingers at each other, and the star is in full shrug mode. Who could have possibly seen this coming???

    The once-proud Purple-and-Gold is tarnished by a league-high 112.1 PPG (55.9 opponent eFG%, 2nd-highest in NBA). The defensive approach seems to consist heavily on allowing deep post position then fouling to force opponents to make hay at the free throw line (NBA-high 29.6 opponent FTAs/game).

    New Lakers coach Byron Scott expressed a need for his frontcourt defense (60.7 opponent FG% at-rim, slightly worse than the Clippers and Hawks) to tighten up, prompting free agent forward Carlos Boozer to crow, “It’s not just the bigs.” Booz is right about that, as opponents are connecting on 41.7% of their threes (3rd-highest in NBA). Still, the lack of defensive proficiency up front (including Boozer and Atlanta native Jordan Hill) is pressing Scott to consider putting Ed Davis in the starting lineup. Arriving in free agency after being underutilized by Memphis, Davis (65.1 FG%, 3rd in NBA; 1.7 BPG, 10th in NBA) is the sole Laker showing a consistent level of hyperactivity on both ends of the floor.

    That the Lakers (1-9) have been so bad has at least as much to do with sickness as suckiness. Steve Nash concluded his season prematurely after lifting some luggage. Nick Young put in his thumb while reaching at Kobe in practice and pulled out a torn ligament. Lotto prize Julius Randle broke his leg in his debut. Wayne Ellington missed time to start the year and is currently out on bereavement leave. Ryan Kelly sat out the start of the season, and then played three games before finding a tear in his hamstring. A team as fundamentally flawed as the Lakers needs as close to a full complement around Kobe as possible to compete over 82 games.

    More mucked up than the La Brea Tar Pits, the drowning Lake Show has turned to Kobe to save the day, every day. While Vino has obliged with a vintage 27.8 PPG (1st in NBA), he is taking more shots per-36 than he did as a 27-year-old (career-high 35.4 PPG in 2005-06) when he carried Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, Lamar Odom and friends into the 2006 NBA Playoffs. Some of these shots, though, are as ill-advised as his K.O.B.E. rap career, as he’s coming into tonight shooting a career-low 37.7 FG%.

    Kobe plopped down 44 of the Lakers’ 115 points (on 50 shots, free throws included) on Sunday night at Staples Center. But his teammates could only muster 37 percent shooting from the floor (0-for-14 3FGs) while the team conceded 136 points to the Warriors. “If you think I want to shoot this many times and be as aggressive at 36 years old, you’re freaking crazy,” Bryant quipped, perhaps the sole instance of someone choosing the verb “freaking” at a Lakers postgame presser.

    The Hawks must keep the Black Mamba (9.0 FTAs/game, 3rd in NBA) from slithering his way to the free throw line. It may not be the best idea to stick ex-Laker Kent Bazemore on Kobe for any significant period of time, unless perhaps it's garbage time. Even so, Baze (29.1 TS%, 9.9 assist%, 20.9 TO%) needs to become more effective on the offensive end before he can earn meaningful playing time.

    If Kobe graces Atlanta with an off-night, who’s left to bail the Lakers out? Have no fear: Swaggy P is here! "Get your popcorn ready," Nick Young declared about his impending return, invoking the memory of someone well known for supporting locker-room cohesion. Young has been restless to return to the floor following what was arguably a career-season (17.9 PPG) in 2013-14, and has recuperated his shooting hand ahead of schedule. Scott would probably love to replace Wesley Johnson with Young in the starting lineup alongside Kobe, but with Jeremy Lin, Boozer and Hill already on the top line, Young needs to remain a reserve to keep the Lakers from giving up 120 points every night.

    Serving as Bryant’s point guard in the absence of a well-organized offense must be among the most thankless positions in the Association, as Lin (11.7 PPG and 43.2 FG%, career-lows as a starter; 4.4 APG, 2.6 TOs/game) can attest. 2014 second-rounder Jordan Clarkson came back from a quick D-League stint to put in a career-high 10 points (mostly free throws) versus G-State, and Scott may be upping his minutes so someone aside from Ronnie Price (4.4 APG, 1.1 TOs/game, 26.2 FG%) can alleviate Lin from the point guard duties.

    There will likely be plenty of Kobefans in the building tonight, and that’s understandable, as there’s no certainty No. 24 will have many more big-time scoring nights in Atlanta. But the Hawks can absorb a grand performance from Bryant (and Young, and Lin) and still cruise to victory, so long as they’re not still shook from Saturday’s blitzkrieg that even had Austin Carr wanting in on the action. Even after made baskets, the Hawks must pick up the pace and exploit a Laker team that gives up an NBA-high 17.5 PPG on fastbreaks. Push the pace, execute on offense, and find ways to be disruptive without fouling on defense, and the Laker fans at Philips can sit back and enjoy another Pyrrhic victory of Kobe going for 40.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  11. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Cavaliers

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Hmm… Why would LeBron ever want Michael Beasley on his team?”


    It’s payback time! Al Horford and friends return to the scene of the crime, Quicken Loans Arena, in search of a fifth-straight victory on the season, against the Cleveland Cavaliers (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Ohio), a familiar foe with royally upgraded expectations.

    Following the season’s first three-game winning streak and a near-upending of LeBron James’ defending champion Miami heat in OT, the 2013-14 Atlanta Hawks were a 3-seed in the East, looking every bit the part of an NBA team just beginning to turn a major corner. It was the day after Christmas 2013, and Mike Budenholzer’s Hawks were in Cleveland trying to un-wrap their first road victory in a month. Horford was coming into his own, plunking down 25 points in Cleveland for his fourth-straight 20+-point feast, leaving the Cavs’ free agent prize Andrew Bynum to seriously reconsider his career choice. Al’s 2-point basket from Jeff Teague with a minute to go forced overtime in the Buckeye State. Then, disaster struck.

    With under two minutes to go in OT, Anderson Varejao callously de-tata’d Horford as he futilely attempted to wrest the ball away along the sideline. Horford exited stage right for the season, leaving it to Paul Millsap and Jeff Teague for the heroics needed to come back from three points down and force a second OT session. Teague’s 34 points, including the buzzer-beating game-winner, and 14 assists upstaged Kyrie Irving’s 40-and-9, building renewed confidence that his game, at his best, is not all that far off from All-Star quality.

    Unfortunately, the loss of Horford and a few subsequent injuries deflated Atlanta’s postseason hopes. By the time both teams met again in April, the Hawks had tumbled from 16-13 to 32-42, in need of a winning sprint at the close of the season just to reach the playoffs.

    Meanwhile, one season after winning the top draft pick, the Cavs, losers of all three games to Atlanta last season, had to settle once again for the lottery after its playoff hopes were dashed. Then, the ping pong balls bounced, Andrew Wiggins happened, LeBron shocked everyone by coming home, and Wiggins-and-fluff turned into Kevin Love. While Horford rehabilitated in Atlanta, Varejao’s Cleveland became Believeland once again.

    Now, this isn’t Basketball Wives, so no one needs to see Varejao’s wig get snatched or anything. But Horford and his 5-3 mates can leave an indelible statement behind, that no one in the East is willing to simply hand the Eastern Conference over to LeBron and his new merry Kingdom.

    “Oh noes! LeBron and Kyrie are squabbling! Kyrie and Kevin like puffing weed! Kevin’s leaving us for the Lakers! Dion’s leaving us for ISIS!” Such is the downside for any team with a player or two the average person remotely cares about – the non-stories border on absurdity. And they get all the more WTFier every time the Cavaliers (4-3) lose. James (NBA-high 27.1 PPG; 6.7 APG, 10th in NBA) is doing everything he can to keep that from happening. Even out of the gate, it’s doubtful that he expected winning to be this hard. James, Love, and Irving are each among the NBA’s top-5 in minutes played.

    After playing five of their past six games on the road, Cleveland comes into tonight’s action on the heels of a Friday-nighter, just like the Hawks, theirs on the road in Boston. Needing to avoid falling back below .500 and to keep the ravenous media mum, the Cavs smartly hopped on the James Train. LeBron (41 points, 7 assists) may have slimmed down a bit for this season, and he’s not as fond of football as he used to be, yet he still ran into, over, and by various and sundry Celtic defenders to bring Cleveland all the way back into the lead from 19 points down in the fourth quarter.

    Even with James and Shawn Marion in tow to join Varejao, first-year coach David Blatt knew he had his work cut out for him in turning around a team defense that has been known for being, at best, cavalier when it comes to effort. Few anticipated, though, the team looking like “Clevelan”, the Cavs’ 111.0 opponent points per 100 possessions worse than every NBA team save for the Lakers (and just slightly worse than their opponent from last night, the Celtics). Only Love’s former team, the T’wolves (50.5 opponent FG%), have a harder time keeping the ball out of the basket than the Cavs (49.0 opponent FG%).

    Losing dogged second-year point guard Matthew Dellavedova to a sprained knee didn’t help a Cavs team that is the sole NBA squad giving up more than twice as many assists (NBA-high 26.7 opponent APG) as turnovers (12.7 opponent TO/game). Cleveland’s also ranked in the NBA’s bottom-five for steals (5.6 SPG, 4th-lowest in NBA) and blocks (3.7 BPG, 4th-lowest in NBA).

    With Rajon Rondo (16 assists, 3 TOs) at the helm for Boston, Cleveland gave up a season-high 48 field goals on 54.5 FG% last night, including 42 points in the 3rd quarter. Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger pretty much had their way with Cleveland’s interior and still stepped outside for threes, while Jeff Green had few problems drawing fouls and piling up points at the free throw line.

    Blatt replaced recently-injured Dion Waiters in the starting lineup with the veteran Marion, and while The Matrix seems like an odd choice for a 2-guard, his presence is sorely needed on one side of the floor. Waiters returned to action last night after nursing a sore back. But after Marion phone-boothed Rondo with the clock running out to save the game, it’s not likely Waiters will be getting his starting gig back anytime soon.

    The Hawks must treat James as though he’s donning a red-and-white-striped ski hat: Where’s LeBron? Love (20.9 D-Reb%, 4th in NBA) will be a monster on the glass, but the true American Horror Show is Love heaving the ball on an outlet to any one of James, Irving, or Waiters, as the trio can run a literal track meet in transition. Even in the halfcourt, James cannot get the ball out on the wing with a clear lane toward the hoop. The Hawks must work for 48 minutes to shield and deny James the easy passes that allow him to do the dirty work.

    Despite atrocious defense, LeBron’s Cavs have been staying in games thanks to the mercy of the referees’ whistles. Cleveland has been called for an NBA-low 17.4 personal fouls per game, a value that’s hard to believe with the number of active bulls-in-china-shops they have at their disposal, particularly Varejao (61.1 FG%, 6th in NBA) and Tristan Thompson (19.3 O-Reb%, 1st in NBA), and drive-friendly guards like Irving (8.1 PPG on drives, 3rd in NBA) and Waiters. Cleveland’s personal foul differential of -6.6 per game is the widest gap in the league, as is the 9.6 additional free throw attempts per game. The turnovers Atlanta generates must come more by way of picking off passes than swiping at the Cavs’ ballhandlers or drawing charges.

    Last night, the Hawks shot a scintillating 56.0 FG% (also 82.6 FT%) against Miami, and they left it to benign players like Mario Chalmers and Shawne Williams to keep the heat within shouting distance. Horford (8-for-10 FGs, plus 4 assists) soundly outshined James’ former Big 3 teammate Chris Bosh in probably his best offensive display of the young season.

    Eight Hawks registered double-figures on the scoreboard, including Shaqtin a Fool nominee Mike Scott, who had 26 points on 12-for-13 FGs in his last outing against the Cavs. Cleveland apparently digs Atlanta’s approach with second-rounders, as they went back to Charlottesville this past summer to nab guard Joe Harris. Like his fellow Virginia Cav alum Scott has done, Harris has been sparking Cleveland’s offense in limited minutes and gaining Blatt’s trust. Amid Cleveland's championship aspirations, rumors are the rookie is being groomed to take over the 2-spot from Waiters and Marion very soon.

    Contrast-and-compare the way Cleveland (36.2 3FG%) and Atlanta (40.6 3FG%, 1st in NBA) get their three-point shots. An NBA-high 98.8% of the Hawks’ three-pointers have come off of an assist. For the Cavaliers, it’s an NBA-low 68.5% of their threes assisted. One can expect a lot of heroball anytime the Cavs are falling behind or hearing footsteps. Atlanta’s perimeter defenders cannot bail the Cavs out by fouling them in the act of shooting. Cleveland’s 81.2 FT% ranks second in the league, each of the team’s top four scorers (James, Irving, Love, Varejao) shooting at-or-above 82 percent.

    Look for a lot of Atlanta’s big bodies (Pero Antić, Elton Brand, maybe one of Adreian Payne or Mike Muscala) sopping up fouls to thwart easy buckets and putbacks, so Horford and Paul Millsap won’t have to do it all. If Teague, Dennis Schröder, and Shelvin Mack can collectively outpoint Kyrie Irving (22.7 PPG) and the Cavs’ lead guards, the Cavs’ true defensive players can be stretched late in the game by Horford, Millsap and Kyle Korver, left feeling like they have to be everywhere at once.

    If all goes well tonight, Horford should be able to turn to Varejao and keep him a-breast of which NBA rival isn’t deferring the conference crown to the King. What’s wrong, Anderson? Your Cavs can’t pass the Hawks in the standings? Tough Titty!

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  12. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - heat

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Dear Mr. Luol Deng: You, kind sir, are a first-class individual, a dignitary, a gentleman and a scholar, a true sportsman, a credit to the human race. PLEASE don’t drop 40 on us!”

    Somewhere out beyond the Perimeter this evening, Danny Ferry will be in his den, likely with a Highball and an Alka-Seltzer handy, the many works of Tayeb Salih piled high beside the Barcalounger. He’ll have his eyes affixed to the telly with his fingers crossed, “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” playing subtly in a loop on the Bose Surround Sound system.

    Pay no attention to the warmup act during last month’s preseason game in Miami, where The Man from Sudan went a mere 1-for-6 over the course of 20 minutes. Tonight’s contest between the Atlanta Hawks and the newish-look Miami heat (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, SUN Network) is the one that Luol Deng has circled in his mental calendar, ever since we all discovered our General Manager palling around with his Mean Girls superiors and serving up a steaming pile of summertime shade masked as basketball-insider intel. For Deng, who has been nothing if not classy the whole time, it’s the first matchup with Atlanta that counts. You watching, Danny Boy?

    The top free agent acquisition for the defending Eastern Conference champion heat (5-3), Deng has done an uneven yet decent job undergirding the offense of the paleozoic-looking Chris Bosh (21.8 PPG, 9.3 RPG, career-high 1.3 3FGs per game) and the paleozoic-feeling Dwyane Wade (career-low 32.4 minutes/game and OUT tonight with a sore hammy), while also doing his most versatile defensive work on the other end. No one on South Beach is crowing “Not Three! Not Four!” anymore, and nobody in their right mind is pressing Deng (14.3 PPG, career-high 51.7 FG%) to carbon-copy the production of You Know Who. Plus, the 29-year-old Deng must feel good about not having to wear himself down for 35-plus minutes per night, as was the case when he’d routinely lead the league in floor time with the Chicago Bulls.

    Yet before and after this game, the media will swarm the visitor’s locker room crafting a dozen permutations of the same question for Lu: “So, are you really, like, over it, or what?” The Hawks (4-3) want to be “over it” even more than he does, and they sure don’t need his postgame commentary to be prefaced by a career-night.

    I can’t speak for you, but my groin would stay strained for another day or two if I could avoid D’ing up Deng for this particular game, especially as he'll get more touches with Wade out. While that’s certainly not DeMarre Carroll’s aim, not having JYD suited up makes it much harder for Atlanta to make the narrative of tonight’s game about anyone other than Luol. After doing a good job shooing off Utah’s Gordon Hayward on Wednesday and helping Carroll with Carmelo Anthony this past week, Thabo Sefolosha (season-high 10 points vs. Utah) will be depended upon to put in another fine on-ball defensive effort against Deng, whose 17.2 PPG and 48.9 FG% vs. Atlanta are already his second-highest.career marks against Eastern Conference clubs (82.7 career FT% vs. Atlanta being the highest).

    Miami fans (the ones still around, anyway) got to see the best and the worst of their team in the space of the last five days. The heat’s first impressive road win came on Sunday in Dallas, shooting a season-high 55.3 percent on the floor with Deng pouring in 30 points (13-for-19 FGs). Three nights later, Miami played a game against the Indiana Pacers that, safe to say, will never make the cover of Paper magazine. Frank Vogel’s undermanned squad came into Miami and ground the heat to a halt, Roy Hibbert and the gang outrebounding Miami 53-28 as Deng and Bosh went a combined 5-for-23 on FGs.

    The Philips Arena floor crew can keep the 3-D projection thing going in the painted areas if they want to, because neither team is spending much time there. Both teams are in the bottom-six of the league for rebounding percentage, and bottom-five for Points in the Paint. Hawks’ opponents are shooting an NBA-high 58.8 FG% in the paint, albeit at a low volume.

    Miami’s waving their white-hot-flags in the paint as well, their 45.2 opponent FG% outside of the restricted area ranking second-highest in the league. Chris Andersen is back after missing time with a rib injury but the Birdman may not be fully up-to-speed yet. Second-year seven-footer Justin Hamilton (groin strain) remains questionable for tonight. Much like Atlanta’s Elton Brand, O.G. big man Udonis Haslem is pretty much backdrop at this point of his career. On offense, Miami’s 7.6 FGs per game in the paint (non-restricted area) is by far the lowest in the league.

    With both the Hawks and heat wallflowering from 16 feet and out, somebody is going to have to break the ice and tango around the rim. Jeff Teague (13.0 Team PPG off his drives, 6th in NBA) and Dennis Schröder (12.5 Team Points per-48 off his drives, 2nd in NBA; Teague is 7th) need to shake things up and draw Bosh and Miami’s bigs to defend them, opening things up outside the paint for Al Horford, Kyle Korver, a returning Mike Scott, et al. Miami will try to counter by picking off kickout passes, as they have four players (Mario Chalmers, Deng, Bosh, the injured Wade) in the NBA Top-50 for steals. Without Wade, Miami’s defense will have to rotate quickly, the guards unable to sag off Korver to help defend an assertive Teague.

    Horford has been going through the motions lately, Scott has been hurt, and Pero has been Pero. But fortunately, Atlanta had Paul “MILSAP” at the ready to hand an “L” to Utah on Wednesday, posting his best output of the season with a diversified 30 points, plus 17 rebounds (6 offensive). Having shot 7-for-12 from deep in his past two games, Sap should be a tough cover for whichever Miami starting forward tries to lock him up.

    Ex-Bobcat Josh McRoberts (2.6 PPG) briefly terrorized the heat in the 2014 playoffs. He will eventually become the straw that stirs the heat’s offensive drink, but he’s been on a strict floor-time limit as he’s struggled with mobility after offseason toe surgery. He put in a season-high 22 minutes versus Indiana on Wednesday. To improve the offense, the heat could sure use a fully-healthy McRoberts along with fellow free agent pickup Danny Granger, who has been out all season with hip and hamstring issues.

    In addition to Deng and McRoberts, helping coach Erik Spoelstra spackel the crater left behind when his star took his talents to North Lakeshore is yet another stretch-four. 6-foot-10 journeyman Shawne Williams is having a career-year (10.8 PPG) in the starting lineup and has been given the green light all season long (2.3 3FGs/game, 47.4 3FG%).

    If Ferry’s fortunate tonight, he won’t see too much of swingman James Ennis either. Ennis, a preseason surprise (10.9 PPG, 5 preseason steals vs. Atlanta) who stuck with the heat roster after finishing third in scoring, was shipped away on draft night by Ferry in exchange for a far-in-the-future second-rounder. He may get a good mid-game run to make up for the loss of Wade for tonight.

    Chalmers (40.3 FG%, 34.6 3FG%, 3.3 APG, 2.6 TO/game) has gone from being the guy infamously questioned for getting shots in the clutch to the guy heat fans question for even seeing the floor in the fourth quarter, ahead of new everyday starting point guard Norris Cole (45.3 FG%, 3.5 APG, 1.3 TO/game). While Chalmers remains a heady defender, it's more likely he's being showcased, such that it is, for a future trade.

    Miami’s former superstar suggested the drafting of Shabazz Napier out of UConn, and while the Hungry Husky has received ample minutes as a reliable passer (2.6 APG, 1.3 TO/game), his shooting is not yet sound enough to be effective beyond the third quarter of a close game, although Coach Spo has used him in that manner on occasion.

    It will remain to be seen what the Hawks will do against a team that likes to pick up the tempo a little bit. Including tonight’s bout with Miami (93.0 possessions per-48), Atlanta’s last four games were against three of the four lowest-paced teams in the league. The Hawks have also beaten the second-slowest team, Indiana, while the fifth-slowest, the Cleveland Cavaliers, are tomorrow night’s opponent.

    Atlanta’s win over Quin Snyder’s Jazz kicked off a highly entertaining stretch of nine games (Deng! LeBron! Kobe! Smoove... Wall! Lou! Unibrow!, Lance…), seven at home, to close out the month of November. This run of games could provide an excellent opportunity for the Hawks to build confidence and positive exposure, while making an aggressive move toward the top of the Southeast Division, beginning with a home victory over Miami. Assuming Mr. Deng won’t, like, destroy us tonight.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  13. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Jazz

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Greetings!”


    Will the Student become the… oh, never mind that. No one should be getting a Bud Versus Pop vibe when Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz stroll into Philips Arena for a mid-week entanglement with the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Root Sports Rocky Mountain). Unlike the Spurs, Mike Budenholzer’s Hawks (3-3) are still out to prove they’re ready for prime time. Meanwhile, nobody should confuse the well-traveled Snyder, Budenholzer’s assistant for just one season, with a spring chicken.

    Snyder was brought to Salt Lake as a player development guru, and his crew has just one minor player, Steve Novak, with over four seasons of NBA experience under his belt. He is deploying a low-pace style (93.2 possessions per-48, second-lowest only to the Knicks) allowing the youngsters on the Jazz (3-5, 2nd almost by default in the Northwest Division) to get acclimated to his offensive schemes. He’s combined that with a low-pressure defensive approach that relies more on Utah’s potential to win rebounding battles than on disrupting their opponents’ offensive flow. The Jazz have snared 61.8% of their rebounding chances, 4th highest in the league.

    With all due respect to Born Ready, how much trouble might the Southeast Division be in if the Jazz chose not to match Charlotte’s summertime offer to Gordon Hayward? Guarding the newly Flowbee-coiffed swingman (career-high 19.4 PPG and 6.3 RPG; team-high 5.1 APG; 97.2 FT%, 4th in NBA; 61.0 2FG%) has been a hair-raising experience for many an NBA opponent this season, and the Hawks’ degree-of-difficulty is heightened as they will be without DeMarre Carroll (groin strain). In addition to a large heaping of Thabo Sefolosha to try and contain (or at least partially offset) Hayward, look for some meaningful minutes out of Kent Bazemore. Opponents have shot just 22-for-66 with Bazemore on the floor, and one of the makes was Lance’s miracle game-winning bankshot 3-pointer last week.

    The Jazz have been turning to Hayward in the clutch to pull off victories, including a well-screened buzzer-beating jumper to fell a cavalierly-passing Cleveland team. Hayward scored the final 11 points in the last five minutes for the Jazz on Sunday, turning the tables on Detroit for Utah’s sole road win so far. Bouncing back from a disappointing contract year where he tried to do too much under Ty Corbin to compensate for Utah’s losses of Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson, Hayward is finding his groove in Snyder’s offense.

    Conversely, Delta is the only Burke around who could be shooting the basketball worse than Trey right now. Through seven games, the young point guard is hitting jumpshots at an atrocious 21.7% clip. 2013’s collegiate player-of-the-year managed to bring that percentage down even lower on Monday with a 2-for-12 performance (1-for-8 on threes) during the loss to Indiana.

    You never know when a young offensively-volatile player like Burke (whose 22nd birthday is today) is going to go off, such as last March when he piled up a team-high 20 points and four threes in Atlanta, mostly in the second half before the Hawks could pry the game away in the closing minutes. Burke remains the starter for the Jazz because of his ability to take care of the ball (8 assists and no TOs at Indiana; 2.5 Assist-to-TO ratio past four games) and his ability to occasionally get stops (1.3 steals/game, only Jazzman with more than one per game), something on that team that’s as rare as the Wasatch mountain air (NBA-low 11.1 opponent TOs per game). Still, the clamoring from Jazz fans for 2014 lotto-rookie guard Dante Exum (44.7 FG%; 3.5 Assist-to-TO) in the starting lineup, supplanting either of Burke or shooting guard Alec Burks (39.8 FG%), is growing louder.

    Lacking NBA-quality quickness for his size, Burke could stand to use screens from his sizable starting bigs to drive more to the hoop for layups and to get to the free throw line (90.3 FT% last season). In any case, Burke’s wayward shooting is creating ample offensive rebounding opportunities, none moreso than for Atlanta native Derrick Favors (career-high 54.3 FG%, 2.8 O-Rebs per game).

    The Hawks, who cede an NBA-high 19.3 second-chance PPG to opponents, will have quite a time keeping Favors, Enes Kanter and stringbean Rudy Gobert out of their defensive paint. Atlanta’s frontcourt corps is depleted further without Mike Scott (back soreness). One will have to wait and see if rookie Adreian Payne, out at the season’s start due to plantar fasciitis, will be brought in tonight to help Atlanta on the boards, or if the Hawks will rely more on one of Elton Brand or Mike Muscala. Jazz rookie wing player Rodney Hood has had the same foot ailment as Payne and remains sidelined.

    Utah’s most significant major free agent pickup was former Wizard Trevor Booker. While he was initially perceived to be the starting power forward, the advancement of Kanter and Gobert has allowed Booker (career-high 9.4 PPG; 61.1 eFG%, 11th in NBA) to thrive offensively off the bench behind Favors. As was the case for Paul Millsap last season, Booker has been pushed by Snyder to expand his range a bit, and the player who was 1-for-10 on three-pointers over four seasons in Washington is now 6-for-14 beyond the arc through just 8 games this season. To breach the lineup in crunch time, though, he’ll have to pick up his shooting from the free throw line (52.9 FT% this season; 61.3 career FT%).

    Consistent with Budball, the Hawks shoot a league-low 13.3 FG% on pullup threes (2.5 shots per game, 3rd fewest in NBA); but 43.6 FG% (2nd in NBA) on catch-and-shoot treys, a league-high 9.7 makes per game. Staying consistent in the flow of the offense should give Atlanta the points it needs to outlast the Jazz, even playing against a team coached by someone that knows their gameplan quite well.

    In addition to playing sounder defense from the jump, Budenholzer will look to Jeff Teague to set the table and adhere the Hawks offense to one dependent on motion and ball control, a task that’s a bit harder tonight without either of Scott or Carroll. Dennis Schröder (team-high 65.2 FG%), who starred in the fourth quarter on Monday as Teague sat, continues to perform admirably in a reserve role, but will need to boost his passing efficiency in order to fully move past Shelvin Mack on the depth chart.

    As defensively deficient as Utah has been (109.2 opponent points per 100 possessions, 3rd worst in NBA), they remain a threat so long as their foes’ shots aren’t falling. They’re 3-0 when opponents shoot under 42 percent from the floor, 0-5 otherwise. Atlanta has shot 40.7% and 38.0% from the field in the two-game series with New York, so superior shot-selection will be key to putting the Jazz on ice like Riunite.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  14. lethalweapon3
    "This hat comes equipped with one match and twelve birthday candles. We're sorry, but our 'Fudgie the Whale' version is currently out of stock."


    No NBA team can be a winning team without pulling off some victories on the road. Following a pair of close shaves last week, the Atlanta Hawks will try to avoid becoming the first Eastern Conference team this season to go Bagel-for-4 away from home. They’ve traveled to Manhattan for their second game in three nights against the New York Knicks (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth in ATL, MSG Network in NY, NBATV), hoping to keep Spike Lee and Friends sitting on their hands a little longer.

    While a 2-5 record sounds bleak for New York, they started out last season 3-13 before closing out the season 34-32. The Knicks have an opportunity to right their ship as they start their four-game homestand tonight at MSG, the Hawks being followed by the Magic, Jazz and Nuggets this week.

    Knicks fans perhaps felt an uneasy yet familiar pang during Saturday’s loss to the Hawks, after their team squandered a 15-point lead they established just before a layup by Jeff Teague (8.2 APG, 4th among active NBA players) ended the first half. In the midst of Atlanta’s February freefall last season, New York came to town and, despite a double-OT loss to Orlando the night before, built up a 17-point third-quarter lead on the Hawks, who were then without All-Star Paul Millsap. Then, the combination of Teague, Lou Williams, DeMarre Carroll and Mike Scott collectively brought the Hawks all the way back to win with relative ease, paving the way toward their sole victory in a 15-game stretch.

    That February game started a losing string for the Knicks as well, and the winning streak that commenced two weeks later was not enough to overtake the Hawks for the final playoff seed, nor was it enough to salvage Mike Woodson’s coaching job.

    Pablo Prigioni remains questionable for tonight, while Jose Calderon remains sidelined. Without their primary playmaking cogs to execute the Triangle Offense, the New Yorkers have struggled to find the horsepower to finish games. They’re still awaiting their first triple-digit offensive performance even despite hanging 61 on the Hawks through the first half on Saturday. Carmelo Anthony put up 14 points (6-for-10 FGs) in the first quarter, but after Carroll and Thabo Sefolosha were able to sink their teeth into Melo defensively (6 points the rest of the way, 2-for-10 FGs), his teammates proved to be hopelessly incapable of picking up the slack.

    The offense let New York down in the third quarter (5-for-18 FGs), and their defense followed suit in the fourth. While they were able to play at their desired pace, once Iman Shumpert, Tim Hardaway, Jr., and Anthony started piling up fouls, the swingmen found themselves unable to either close out on Kyle Korver (27 points, 10 in the fourth quarter; NBA-leading 75.2 true shooting percentage) or create the transition turnovers they needed to wrest back the momentum (two Knick steals the whole game). Thanks largely to Korver, and to Joe Johnson and the Nets the game before, New York’s perimeter defense (48.3 opponent 3FG%) is now the league’s worst.

    Courtesy of Samuel Dalembert, three Hawks (Teague, Carroll, and Millsap) continued to experience the bitter taste of Spalding leather on Saturday, the Hawks’ 7.2 shots-blocked per game second only to Orlando’s misfortune. Among active NBA guards, only Magic rookie Elfrid Payton (2.3 shots blocked per game) has been returned-to-sender as often as Teague (1.8 per game) so far this season.

    However, dealing with a little rejection may be part of Mike Budenholzer’s intention to keep the trio of Jeff, DeMarre and Paul persistently going at the rim and forcing the action, particularly whenever an inexperienced, lackadaisical or slower-of-foot player is guarding them. The drives paid dividends in more ways than one on Saturday. Once the referee whistles started blowing, Teague and Millsap’s 12 made free throws eclipsed New York’s paltry 11 attempts. New York’s 19.6% FT rate (FTAs per 100 FGAs) is now the league’s worst.

    Millsap continues struggling to find his shooting touch this season (11-for-38 away from the rim, 2-for-12 3FGs), but he did gather 10 of his 13 rebounds in the second half against New York.

    Knicks coach Derek Fisher has continued to tinker with his starting lineup, and while the smallish lineup of Shane Larkin, Hardaway, Shumpert, Anthony, and Dalembert helped the Knicks race to a comfy first-half lead, the starting lineup of Larkin and Shumpert with Melo, Quincy Acy and Dalembert was the one set of starters during New York’s two victories. Fisher is reliant on Dalembert (1.6 APG; 0.5 career APG) to be “our best post passer out of our offense,” in which case one must pray for the Knicks.

    Jason Smith will be looking to bounce back after a sloppy stint of three turnovers and four fouls in under 11 minutes of floor time. He, Anthony and the Knicks (10.9 second-chance PPG, 4th lowest in NBA) have to work harder in the frontcourt to build a decided rebounding advantage. New York’s 30.3 PPG in the paint (fewest in the NBA) is inexcusable, especially for a team that’s committed to post play in a Triangle Offense.

    On halfcourt defense, Smith, Dalembert, Amar’e Stoudemire and the Knick bigs could afford to hang around the rim and flail away at Teague and the assortment of driving guards, but in the Battle of Hispaniola, Dalembert will have to draw himself out of the paint if the mid-range shots of Al Horford (3-for-13 FGs on Saturday) start falling.

    While the Knicks are supposed to be a team with a myriad of players contributing in unconventional ways, it was the Hawks who performed in that manner on Saturday night – Kyle Korver with three blocked shots, Dennis Schröder with five steals in twenty minutes off the bench, Thabo Sefolosha with four of Atlanta’s elusive 12 offensive rebounds. With Korver (team-leading 37.0 minutes per game) likely needing some rest, Budenholzer may look to several bench players to surprise tonight, perhaps Mike Muscala and Elton Brand, or Shelvin Mack and Kent Bazemore to get it going after some early struggles.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  15. lethalweapon3
    “Yeah, you're back. But is Jesus Shuttlesworth still available? 'Cause We Still Ain’t Got Game!”


    Brand Nubian. The Georgia Highway Patrol. Gregg Popovich. The Beatles. Clyde Carson. Steve Clifford. Selena Gomez. Loose Ends. Frank Vogel. Derek Fisher. All of them want you to Slow Down.

    With tonight’s game (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth) the Atlanta Hawks will have played four of the NBA teams in the bottom half of the league for pace, and the fifth, Toronto, ranks 15th. None are more gruelingly slow than the New York Knicks, who the Hawks play in a home-and-home series, the follow-up game on Monday in Madison Square Garden. Their 91.0 possessions per-48 is the lowest pace of play in the league. Before picking things up a little last night in Brooklyn, the Knicks’ pace would have extrapolated into the lowest by any team in the past six seasons.

    It’s kinda nice to see Fisher in a suit and tie, and not flopping all over the hardwood and hitting the occasional backbreaking three. The rookie coach’s competitive goal is strangulation by triangulation. It’s going to take a lot of trial-and-error, and patience, for the Knicks to master the execution of the Triangle Offense, and gurus Fisher and Phil Jackson hope fans and opponents alike will Excuse Their Mess while they sort things out on the court.

    Aside from two critical endpoints of the Triangle, Carmelo Anthony (career-lows of 37.9 FG%, 19.5 PPG and 4.0 RPG through six games; career-high 4.3 APG) and the injured Jose Calderon (calf strain), Fisher is relying on a lot of players who will not likely be around for the long haul. Whenever the Knicks wear down the shot clock, if nobody’s open for a decent shot, they’ll just kick the ball to Anthony, clear the heck out, and hope for the best. If the Knicks (109.8 defensive rating; 3rd worst in NBA, worst in the East) can play just enough defense to keep teams close to the vest, they can get to Melo Time (43.5 FG% for Anthony in the fourth quarter, 8 of his ten FGs unassisted) and find out if it’s enough to eke out a victory.

    It’s hard to tell if a return to modest mediocrity is in the offing anytime soon for the Knickerbockers. They seemed surprisingly impressive spoiling jittery Cleveland’s home opener about five or ten assists ago. But three of their four defeats have come by double-digits. The common thread in their two victories (against the Cavs and Hornets) so far was making at least half of their field goal attempts through sound team execution, whereas they’ve shot just 39.6% on 2FGs in their four losses. Former Yellow Jacket Iman Shumpert’s long-range shooting (60.0 3FG%) and scrappy Quincy Acy’s second-chance production (17.5 O-Reb%, 2nd in NBA) have kept the offense from becoming a disaster of a Kobeian scale.

    The Knicks are playing their fourth game in five nights and their third in four nights, technically, on the road, after dropping their inter-borough scrimmage with the Nets last night in Brooklyn. In that game, Fisher sat both Jason Smith (59.5 FG%) and Samuel Dalembert after early foul trouble. Both big men should be well-rested to play big minutes today, but the Knicks are imperiled if these two succumb to fouling issues again. Without their defensive presence in the paint, perhaps the one thing that’ll keep Atlanta from hanging 120 points on the Knicks is the double-overtime drama the Hawks went through right up I-85 less than 24 hours ago.

    New York's defense against three-ponint shooters has gotten regressively worse with each game: 29.2 3FG% against the Bulls, 37.5% against Cleveland, 40% against Charlotte, 44.4% versus the Wizards, 47.8% against the Pistons (the Pistons!), and then the Nets went 14-for-24 from deep (58.4%) last night. It could be Bombs Away again tonight if the New York's forwards stay packed around the paint and leave it to Shumpert and Tim Hardaway, Jr. to close out on Hawks perched around the perimeter.
    J.R. Smith returns after a one-game suspension for whacking Glen, Jr. in the Rice-a-Roni during the Knicks-Wizards game. Pablo Prigioni remains questionable after missing the Nets game with an ankle sprain. Andrea Bargnani would give the Knicks an offensive spark, but he’ll remain out for both games against Atlanta as he continues to deal with a strained hammy.

    With Dalembert and Amar’e Stoudemire, the latter looking occasionally impressive with modest floor time (29.0 D-Reb%, 5th in NBA), New York will want to exploit Atlanta’s league-low 17.2 offensive rebounding percentage to their advantage. That percentage may extrapolate out to become the lowest in recorded NBA history (i.e., since at least 1974).

    While the Hawks’ shooting accuracy (52.8 eFG%, 6th in NBA) could be used as an excuse, the five teams out-shooting Atlanta from the floor so far have O-Reb percentages ranging from 20.1% (Golden State, 28th in NBA) to 29.1% (Houston, 7th in NBA). Through four games and a combined 247 minutes, Pero Antić, Elton Brand, Kyle Korver and Shelvin Mack are still awaiting their first offensive rebound of the season. Korver and DeMarre Carroll must find ways to balance their sniping skills with the need to help the bigs on the interior.

    Keeping the Knicks in the ballgame will involve keeping the Hawks offense limited to one-and-done possessions. With players needing rest, Fisher may try and Wear down the Hawks with a surprise pickup from training camp, 6-foot-10 forward Travis Wear, who started out Summer League with Atlanta before impressing the Knicks’ brass.

    New York’s Triangle Offense is dependent on players taking up multiple roles in halfcourt motion, and so far Anthony and J.R. Smith (4.2 APG) lead their team in assists. Jeff Teague will need to apply defensive pressure on second-year point guard Shane Larkin (2.7 APG, 1.5 TO/G), who’s filling in admirably for Calderon and Prigioni, and make it difficult for the Knicks to get the ball to the forwards to set up the plays they want. For Atlanta to get their second win on the season, the best point guard on the floor for New York has to be Derek Fisher.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  16. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Hornets

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Look, we are paying you quite a Bit-O-Money, Lance. So Don’t Blow It!”


    It’s time for that discussion about The Birds and The Bees. Relax, not that one! This one’s about two teams, the Atlanta Hawks and the Charlotte Hornets (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth), in the Queen City hoping to even up their records at .500. Following the “See, Whut Happened Wuz” play that flubbed the closing seconds of the game in San Antonio, Atlanta (1-2) is eager for an early-season road victory against a division foe.

    Charlotte finally reached the postseason after record-breaking futility, once owner Michael Jordan stopped becoming a Meddler Extraordin-Air. Following a perceived high-profile free agent splash and a lottery pickup over the summertime, NBA 2K15 for the Hornets (2-3) is now Rated E for Expectations. With a reclaimed name and a revamped game, the purple-and-teal-clad Hornets are desperate to avert a buzz-killing letdown.

    Scoring just 95.0 points per 100 possessions (4th lowest in NBA) in their first five games while shooting 42.5% from the floor, though, probably won’t get it done. In their home opener, Charlotte had to claw back from 15 points down in the fourth quarter and needed an overtime jumper from Kemba Walker just to edge Milwaukee.

    Perhaps saying more about Miami than Charlotte, the Hornets did manage to end their 16-game losing streak against another in-division opponent on Wednesday. Against the previously-undefeated HEAT, Charlotte got off of their three-game skid thanks to a season-best game (28 points, 10 boards, 3 swats) from their anchor, Al Jefferson, a 6-foot-10, 265-pound contortionist-in-the-paint who must have been a holy terror playing Twister as a kid.

    He’s hit the fourth most field goals in the league to this point despite just two of them coming on dunks, relying on a silent-but-deadly array of layups, putbacks and hook shots. His post-moves have long been par excellence, and the Hawks will want to do whatever it takes to goad El Jefe into settling for jumpers (30.3 FG% on jumpshots), also denying the most simplistic of entry passes. If Jefferson gets a high volume of shots, Al Horford and the Hawks' defenders will prefer him positioned on the right side of the honeycomb floor, where he is far less of a threat (5-for-16 FGs) than the left side (26-for-52 FGs).

    On the other end of the floor, Hornets coach Steve Clifford has slowed the game down enough where Jefferson can beast a little on defense, too, as he’s tied for 4th in the league for blocks (2.2 per game). The inclusion of Lance Stephenson and former Hawks-fan punchline Marvin Williams into the starting lineup to play with the shot-revamping Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (game-time decision due to bruised ribs) and Jefferson, plus rookie Noah Vonleh (newly active, post-sports hernia), Gerald Henderson and occasional impediment Bismack Biyombo off the bench, makes Charlotte potentially the best defense in the league from the 2-through-5 spots.

    Jumping from a $1 million contract to one that pays him a heady $9 mil per year, it is likely Stephenson came to the Carolinas to become an earth-shaking NBA headliner, and not just the superb role player he was in Indiana. Clifford is not quite convinced the Hornets’ summertime free agent prize was either Born or Ready to take over games in the clutch. Stephenson (6.6 PPG) sat on the bench in the fourth quarter of Charlotte’s game versus Memphis (a two-point defeat), during most of the final quarter in the wannabe-rapper’s home town of New York City (a three-point loss), and in the final quarter at New Orleans (a nine-point loss).

    Lance has alleviated not only the pressures of defensive rebounding (10.0 RPG, 7.8 defensive RPG; 1st among NBA non-bigs) for Jefferson, but the table-setting responsibilities (5.6 APG, 3rd among non-NBA lead guards) for Kemba Walker as well. Despite that, Clifford has been more inclined to put Stephenson on Front Street than on Trade and Tryon, resulting from a combination of wayward shooting (26.7 FG%, 0-for-5 on threes), and perhaps errant passing (3.8 TO/game, through the first four games) in the precious few offensive sets Charlotte has. Clifford has turned toward the likes of Gary Neal (11.6 PPG; 39.6 FG%) to try and seal the deal, in lieu of Stephenson.

    “He just didn’t play very well. I coach to win,” Clifford declared about Lance after last Saturday’s loss to Memphis, piling on the shade with a suggestion that he only deploys players “that know what they’re doing out there.” It wasn’t until Wednesday’s game against Miami that, armed with a 14-point lead, Clifford turned to Lance to hold the fort in the closing quarter. Stephenson is going to have to make better decisions in the flow of Clifford’s offense before he can be considered a reliable option at the end of close contests. And he has to avoid keeping the frustration to a minimum, unlike Wednesday when he got T’d up for a chippy flagrant foul punch aimed at Mario Chalmers, who sold the glancing blow like a WWE Intercontinental Champ.

    Now, there’s no need to be seen getting close enough to foul a Hornet around the three-point line (Kyle!), as Charlotte’s shooting a subpar 30.3 percent while making 5.4 per game. Kemba Walker is connecting at a shade below 40 percent, but the Law of Averages applies to him. He and Neal (43.8 3FG%) are both shooting threes above their 2FG percentages for now, but they are merely setting opponents up in hopes of blow-by opportunities to create points from the elbows and in the lane. And we all know Marvin’s Little Jack Horner impression by now, but rather than lofting treys from the left corner (1-for-7 corner 3FGs so far), he may be more inclined to let some fly from above the arc (4-for-5 3FGs on the right side).

    It will be intriguing to see whether we’ll see more of Dennis Schröder after his stunning 4th-quarter display against the Spurs, or if Shelvin Mack gets his lion’s share of backup minutes again. In either case, Atlanta had better have a gameplan ready for backup point guard Brian Roberts, who tended to have his way with the Hawks as a Pelican (17.5 PPG and 5.5 APG vs. Atlanta) last season.

    It remains to be seen if Marvin can put up enough resistance for Paul Millsap, whose 23.3 PPG was the highest scoring average last year against Eastern Conference teams, and whose +24.4 plus-minus average versus Utah (El Duckue’s former team) was the second-highest against anybody. If Paul commands a double-team it opens lots of options up for Atlanta’s offense. Charlotte may opt for a bigger body in Cody Zeller or Jason Maxiell as a counterweight, but they’ll want to keep up with Millsap around the perimeter as well.

    The Hornets (93.5 Pace, 4th lowest in NBA) want to play as much halfcourt action as possible and eat up the clock. Atlanta (10.0 steals/game, tied for 3rd in NBA) can avoid the flytrap by constantly pressuring their distributors, disrupting the Hornets’ execution, and creating turnovers and fastbreak opportunities.

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  17. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Spurs

    By lethalweapon3,

    “…and starring Tim Duncan, in POETIC JUSTICE 2.”


    ((DISCLAIMER: Two words. “SAMPLE SIZE!”))

    Is today the day the Student finally becomes the Teacher?

    Mike Budenholzer is 0-for-2 against his former head honcho, having left a probable coach-in-waiting gig with tonight’s opponent, the San Antonio Spurs (8:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Fox Sports Southwest) to pursue a coach-right-now opportunity with the Atlanta Hawks.

    Last season, Gregg Popovich successfully set out to show he can earn rings and gold balls either with or without his former next-in-command. But after coming away victorious after the last dress rehearsal at AT&T Center, Coach Bud hopes to come away with the Hawks’ first regular-season triumph in San An in over 17 years, going back to when Dominique Wilkins played for the Spurs. While still trying to get its sea legs, Atlanta nearly pulled it off last season. Alas, Bud’s evil scheme was foiled by Punisher-superfan Tim Duncan’s 16-foot jumper at the close of last December’s 102-100 nail-biter.

    If you think the Hawks (1-1) are all rested up, with three days off between games, imagine how anxious Grouchy Gregg and his defending champion Spurs (1-1) are, having not played since losing in Phoenix on Friday night. “A pain in the neck,” Popovich described an early schedule layover that most NBA teams would kill for. A five-game-in-seven-day stretch, beginning with tonight’s affair against Atlanta, is a literal hangnail as far as Coach Pop is concerned.

    The time off has granted Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard additional time to recuperate from an eye infection, and given center Tiago Splitter time to return after missing the preseason with a calf strain. Having both dressed will make it possible for the Spurs to sink their teeth into opposing offensive schemes, as is their custom.

    Marco Belinelli, Matt Bonner and Austin Daye were thrust into the starting lineup during their initial two games, plus Aron Baynes got additional playing time. Leonard’s (Game 1) and Splitter’s absences became evident by way of porous defense in the paint (76.3 restricted-area FGs per 100 possessions, 3rd most in NBA) and on the more palatable mid-range twos (8.5 opponent FGs and 47.2 opponent FG%, NBA-high through 2 games). Tim Duncan and catalyst-français Boris Diaw have done the best they could to stop their fellow bigs, but the Spurs have been caught in the fourth quarter trying to hold the fort against penetrating guards like Isaiah Thomas, Monta Ellis and even Devin Harris.

    The wide-wingspanned Leonard did not manage to grab a contract extension in the offseason, but that should work out fine, as another strong season should lead to a hefty restricted-free-agency payday next summer. A reigning All-Defensive second-team member, Kawhi will be around to help Danny Green try and cool off Kyle Korver, who had to wait until the fourth quarter against the Pacers to get back to dive-bombing the basket. Leonard, Green, and Manu Ginobili were a combined 1-for-15 shooting on Friday against a Phoenix team (two steals the whole game) that wasn’t trying too all that hard to make stops. A return to defensive intensity around the perimeter is paramount for the Spurs, especially if this trio remains offensively tepid.

    Korver will be ready-to-go tonight, after an undisclosed illness kept him out of practice until Tuesday. But even if he’s not feeling 100%, Atlanta may hardly skip a beat on the offensive end if Mike Scott gets his touches. Scott and Korver momentarily rank first (95.8%) and second (95.3%) in the NBA in effective field goal percentage (minimum 15 minutes played), the duo trading places in the league rankings for total shooting percentage.

    In a battle among two of the NBA’s most traditional point guards (JUST KIDDING! WHAT’S UP, Y’ALL? LOL), Jeff Teague can open things up even more for his sharpshooters by getting around Tony Parker and actually converting on occasion amidst the trees in the lane, drawing defenders instead of just rebounders. As @TheFuzz, @macdaddy, et al., aptly alluded to in the pre-pregame thread, Jeff and Tony are both among the league’s top-8 driving guards, but the senior Parker distinguishes himself by shooting 62.5 FG% on his drives this season, compared to Teague’s 33.2 FG%. Teague has made 7 of his 17 shots inside the restricted area through the first two games, but 8 of his 9 field goal attempts outside the restricted area, including a pair of mid-range gems late in the fourth quarter to put the Pacers to bed on Saturday.

    Buoyed largely by the dynamic catch-and-shoot duo of Korver and Scott, the Hawks are presently behind only Dallas (52.4%) for field goal percentage (50.3 team FG%). The Spurs escaped their banner-dropping season-opener against those Mavs with a 101-100 victory on a last-minute three-pointer by Parker.

    Meanwhile, only Golden State (39.5%) has had better fortune than Atlanta at keeping opponents dissatisfied at the other end of the floor (39.8 opponent FG%). So, why haven’t the Hawks looked like world-beaters thus far? With all the missed shots they’re engendering, they’re not securing defensive rebounds as they should (29.0 opponent O-Reb%, 6th highest in NBA), despite Al Horford’s best efforts (81.0 rebounds per 100 chances, highest among starting centers). Paul Millsap (36.1% of rebounding chances, lowest among NBA players with double-digit chances) has to pick up the slack on the defensive end when Al sits, while Pero Antić and Elton Brand must make their limited minutes count.

    Also, the Hawks are leaving 8.0 PPG on the table at the free throw line (68.0 team FT%, 4th worst in NBA), despite Jeff Teague’s best efforts (13-for-14 FTs; 10-for-10 vs. Indiana). It’s not helping that their opponents’ 83.3 FT% ranks second only to the foes of the Spurs (84.0 opponent FT%). Atlanta’s whiffed freebies can turn games where they should be cruising into nail-biters, leaving otherwise benign teams like the Pacers within Chris-Copeland-shooting-distance of the lead. Millsap (6-for-13 FTs) is again the team’s biggest offender, but Horford (just two free throw attempts in two games) and the team’s more accurate shooters have to pursue forays inside the paint and draw contact.

    No, a loss tonight to Budenholzer’s Hawks won’t make Popovich happy. But then again, whatever does, really?

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  18. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pacers

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Ain’t got no time for Pacers. Just Live Your Life! Ay!”


    Who around here wants some Mediocre?

    Apparently, not Clifford Harris, Jr. (you can call him “T.I.”, if you prefer). Good ballers only!

    This Douglas High School dropout-turned-three-time Grammy-winning rap artist knows a thing or two about Bankhead-bouncing back from a spell of bad publicity, or two, or three… Who better to T.I.P.-off the Atlanta Hawks’ home opener at the Highlight Factory than The Rubberband Man, who’s still got fam from Peru to Japan?

    With a packed house yellin’, who will the Hawks’ Hustle Gang be fellin’? The Indiana Pacers (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth), that’s who!

    Hold up… ((record scratch)) are you sure THOSE are the Indiana Pacers? You know, those same cats that escaped the Hawks’ clutches in seven games last season? Okay, whatever. Bring Em Out, Bring Em Out!

    When Pacer fans ask how you doin’, you tell ‘em “Better than you!” After clinching the East’s top seed and reaching the Conference Finals last season, the Pacers’ prospects for title contention wound up Dead and Gone before the calendar could even roll to September. In the space of a few weeks this summer, they lost superstar Paul George to the season-long I.R. and mega-pest Lance Stephenson to the Hornets via free agency. Then the cuts became even more unkind with a rash of preseason injuries: point guard George Hill (knee bruise), power forward David West (ankle), backup point guard C.J. Watson (foot) are all missing time.

    This spell of crappy fortune results in the recently contract-extended Head Coach Frank Vogel leaving ballhandling duties largely to a man who got his first cup of NBA tea in January 2012, playing against the Pacers in a Hawks uniform on a ten-day contract. Donald Sloan was on the depth chart behind Jeff Teague and Jannero Pargo, but was clearly the best point guard on the floor that day. Sloan’s acquitted himself quite nicely so far in two games, averaging 14.0 PPG and 7.5 APG while shooting 46 percent from the floor in about 35 minutes per night.

    Still, Indy’s pretty thin at the point behind Sloan, relying on scorers like C.J. Miles and perennial Hawks Killer Rodney Stuckey (46.0 career FG% vs. Atlanta, most vs. any Eastern team) to save the day. The Pacers tallied just 19 assists and committed 18 turnovers while hosting Memphis last night. ATL needs “The Ones” (Teague, the option-accepted Dennis Schröder, and Shelvin Mack) to skate all over Indiana’s crew like Mario Lemieux. Mack (1-for-6 FGs but 5 assists in 15 minutes vs. Toronto) and Schröder have to defend better, while Teague can’t be as sloppy with the ball (6 of the Hawks’ 17 turnovers) as he was against the Raptors. Atlanta's wing defenders can help with the occasional Trap (not that kind) to put the Pacers under additional pressure.

    There should be No Mercy for the Pacers coming in on the second night of a back-to-back. The Grizzlies’ Grindhouse defense bared its teeth in the third quarter on Friday, Memphis making a 26-2 run after Indiana blazed to an 8-point halftime lead. The Pacers seem to have just enough firepower to give opponents two really good quarters of competition. They allowed the lowly Sixers to go into halftime on Wednesday with a 3-point lead on their floor before pulling away in the second half.

    Don’t You Know We Got Kyle By The Three? Hey Vogel, What You Know about that? No one from the corner three-spots has Swagga Like Us right now. Now, you never want to rely on your shooting guard to have to go 6-for-7 from downtown every night just to keep you in the game. But it’s nice to have that efficiency in your back pocket on occasion, Kyle Korver teaming up with Mike Scott (4-for-6) and DeMarre Carroll (2-for-3) to fill up the buckets in Toronto at a 59 percent clip. The Pacers will try to counter Money Mike off the bench with shot-jacking Chris Copeland as well as 28-year-old Yugoslavian rookie Damjan Rudez, a 6-foot-10 forward who connected on three of his four three-point attempts versus Memphis.

    The Hawks have to start shooting at least that well at the free throw line, and not the lousy 52 percent they shot against the Raptors. Toronto’s bigs never got into foul trouble on Wednesday, offering trips the foul line to only four Hawks. Atlanta’s guards and wings have to demonstrate better balance by attacking Indiana’s interior, giving Al Horford and Paul Millsap (9 of Atlanta’s 10 O-boards in Toronto) opportunities to clean up on the glass and score inside.

    You never want to leave any Tiny cracks open for other playas to exploit. For the Hawks, that means boxing out when the clanked shots come from the Pacers. Toronto managed to get 26 second-chance points on the strength of 16 offensive boards.

    There’s no reason Why You Wanna let the Pacers build any confidence while playing shorthanded in their first road contest. Yet Indiana will stay in this game so long as Roy Hibbert (22 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks versus Philly), Ian Mahinmi, Luis Scola, and starting power forward (by default) Solomon Hill are allowed to cherry-pick and get Whatever They Like around the rim. The Hawks’ wings must do their job and keep the lanes clear for their double-double machines (Millsap and Horford) to do their thing.

    It’s Saturday Night! Let’s get some Big Things Poppin’! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  19. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Raptors

    By lethalweapon3,

    “Is... that… the Player of the Month trophy?”


    So… yeah, Basketball!

    You remember Basketball, dontcha? Round, dimpled leather, rubber interior shell, bounces nicely off the maple hardwood, slides nicely through an iron ring and into a cotton net when you pass it around and aim it just right. Basketball!

    Our Atlanta Hawks hit the floor today trying to get themselves, and their fans, refocused on the whole Basketball thingy, and not the telenovela that publicly unearthed last month and plunged the franchise’s ownership, management, and fan base into multiple tiers of discomfiture. They’ll start by setting their sights on the Toronto Raptors (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth), and Hawks fans might as well get reacquainted with everybody who’s here for all that basketball stuff.

    Howdy, Mike Budenholzer! Sure hope your hands aren’t too full! The coach that came here to reform Atlanta basketball into a championship-quality image has, for the foreseeable future, the added lead responsibility of roster management and personnel decisions. Bud’s pal, would-be-GM Danny Ferry, toils away in probationary obscurity, seeking out ways to wash the taste of his own foot out from his mouth after a faux-pas of epic, and hopefully transformative, proportions. In the interim, Bud, a man who prefaces almost every other comment with how much “We Like Our Group,” gets to put the depths of his adoration for his players to the test.

    Welcome back, Al Horford! As the Hawks were starting to gel around Budball last December, Horford (21.1 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 3.0 APG that month) was on quite a tear, right up until his as-yet-untorn pectoral muscle went on quite a tear of its own. The lost chemistry, plus a spate of additional injuries, had the Hawks in a tailspin for months. Atlanta was 16-13 with Horford on the floor (on pace for at least a 45-win season) in 2013; 22-31 without him. The recovery period did grant Horford ample time to study on-floor strategy with the Hawks coaching staff, and they and his teammates will be eager for him to lead the way into 2015.

    Even with the Eastern Conference in flux due to major personnel shifts, in order to compete and contend, the Hawks must have Horford not just healthy, not merely functional, not only competent, but dominant, vocal, focused and assertive on a regular basis. For at least the next couple months, the top lottery pick from the 2007 NBA Draft must be a guy wearing an ATLANTA uniform. For the Hawks to win back, and win over, the hearts and minds of an understandably skeptical Atlanta sports fanbase, this town must become Al-lanta.

    Sup, Jeff Teague? No longer peering over his shoulder for a coach’s hook in favor of a more seasoned player, Teague helped the Hawks right the ship at the close of the regular season, and after some Billupsian big-shot baskets, he compelled the NBA world to sit up and take notice as he helped push the Pacers to the brink of elimination. Demonstrating what a bellwether he has become under Budenholzer, Atlanta was 29-3 last season when Teague registered a plus-minus of +6 or higher (7.5 APG, 2.5 TO/game, 37.1 3FG%), and 0-23 when Jeff finished games with a plus-minus of -6 or worse (5.5 APG, 3.3 TO/game, 21.7 3FG%).

    Teague’s scoring efficiency rebounded nicely after the All-Star Break, up to 17.9 PPG and 48.2 FG% compared to 15.6 PPG and 41.2 FG% pre-Break. But Teague and the Hawks’ offense lost its way without Horford around for lobs and pick-and-pops. Jeff was among the NBA leaders at 8.2 APG through December, but managed just 5.7 per game the rest of the way. He’ll get a chance to reestablish his budding chemistry with Horford, now that Al’s back in tow. Teague comes into 2014-15 as stable in his career as ever before. It’s hoped that a persistent and consistent lead guard won’t need any introduction to Atlanta fans by the time next season rolls around.

    It’s good to have you back for a little while longer, Paul Millsap! The 2014 season concluded on a sour note for the All-Star forward, after rough Game 6 and Game 7 shooting performances against a desperate Pacer squad. But if you’ll notice, Paul has a pep in his step of late, not the least of which because the league’s offseason infusion of media-contract cash is likely to result in next summer’s free agents crooning like Johnny Kemp.

    Even a modest regression in scoring, while deferring more to Teague and Horford, won’t stop Sap from joining Horford as a nightly double-double double-threat. The NBA’s second-leading power forward in steals last season also showed he’s no slouch defensively. For a brief spell this summer, he and Kyle Korver had a chance to compete alongside some of the NBA’s best in Team USA’s preparation for the FIBA world championship. While Paul’s stay with Team USA was short, the good news is he’ll come into the regular season healthy and chomping at the bit to keep Atlanta’s offensive engine humming.

    Hey, Kyle, we were just talking about you! No one player buys into what Budenholzer and Ferry have been trying to build as robustly as Korver. His ability to peel off multiple screens and slip free for deadeye perimeter shots can be downright maddening to opposing defenders who know what’s coming yet struggle to stop it. While he spreads the floor for his teammates, Kyle also understands that a modest defensive effort on his part keeps him from having to go 6-for-8 from deep every night just to give the Hawks a chance at victory.

    So nice to see you again, DeMarre Carroll! While we may not be seeing as much of the Junkyard Dawg this go-round (32.1 minutes per game last season, almost double his career-high from 2012-13 in Utah), that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Atlanta’s two defensive-minded free agent additions, Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore, will keep DMC from having to wear himself out against every opposing threat on the wing, especially shooting guards. Sefolosha, considered a washout in OKC, surprised in the preseason with his shooting and rebounding. The upbeat Baze will not only be a whirling dervish on the floor, but the league’s preeminent towel-waving celebrator on the bench.

    Yo, it’s the return of the Mack! Considering the poise with which Shelvin handled the rock last season (3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio, 10th among NBA point guards), it’s easy to forget he’s merely 24 years of age. Re-upping Mack for three years is emblematic of the faith the Hawks’ brass have in developing players suitable for their so-called system.

    Mike Scott, Pero Antić, Elton Brand, Mike Muscala, fancy seeing you all here! The odds weren’t high that this quartet of backup bigs would all be brought back, but yet here they are. Following wretched offensive playoff performances, Antić and Brand (each 16.7 FG% in the 7-game series) are eager to show their age and/or health won’t render them liabilities on the floor.

    As for our young second-round draftees, the emoji-spotted Scott and the freestyle-rapping Muscala hope they’ve added enough wrinkles to their game to earn upticks in floor time. Scott will particularly be a spark whenever the Hawks’ offense seems to bog down, perhaps fully supplanting a role Lou Williams once handled admirably. All of these players’ minutes, though, will be suppressed by first-rounder Adreian Payne as the season wears on and the rookie gains traction.

    Did somebody mention rookies? Oh, wait, we can’t call Dennis Schröder that anymore! The second-year point guard was aggressive but inefficient last season, and he intends to cut down on the rookie mistakes in Year 2. He has few issues using his handle for forays into the paint, but he struggled to execute Plan B once opponents took Plan A away. He’s shown enough spark in the summer league and preseason, though, to nibble away at Mack’s second-string minutes, at least in the near term.

    Whoa, John Jenkins, what are you still doing here? Atlanta customarily (at least, under Ferry) sticks with a 14-man roster, but Jenkins’ solid preseason shooting, and his apparent recovery after health issues plagued him last season, make him a pleasant keeper for depth on the Hawks’ roster. It’s unlikely that his and Schro’s pending contract extensions hang in the balance based on how they perform in limited minutes of this season opener. But it’ll be fun to pretend as if they do.

    Tonight’s tipoff brings together two Eastern Conference rivals not only with on-floor upside, but perhaps the most continuity among their returning starters. Nine of Atlanta’s 11 leading scorers from 2013-14 check back in with the Hawks this season. Meanwhile, ten of the 11 top contributors on the Raptors’ playoff squad remain, along with Dwane Casey’s entire coaching staff. In fact, the biggest player movement transactions Toronto made during the offseason were with Atlanta.

    Well, speak of the devil! Hello there, Lou Williams! You all remember Lou, right? South Gwinnett’s Finest was playing streetball in Atlanta’s local parks over the summer when he was shipped to the Great White North for the talent equivalent of a bowl of lukewarm poutine. Probably suspecting that he wasn’t a Ferry Guy in more ways than one, Lou will be out to show everyone back home that he’s still capable of huge offensive performances. And he’ll get every opportunity to do that, coming off of Casey’s backcourt bench alongside an equally determined Greivis Vasquez.

    Bebe, is that you? Que pasa! You folks remember Bebe, back when he was just about yay high? He’s been drinking milk and getting himself stronger. Now the 2013 Hawks first-rounder is in a Raptors jersey, and the seven-footer would love to make his NBA debut against the very team that drafted him. The propensity for Toronto’s bigs to get into foul trouble (22.1 personal fouls per game, most in the East last season) could mean Bebe will get some time to shine tonight.

    Before Ferrygate dropped, the award for Best Verbal Slip-Up by a GM of 2014 was all set to be engraved for Masai Ujiri. Perhaps after having too much of whatever the Ford Brothers were having, Toronto’s general manager grabbed the mic on stage before Game 1 of the Raptors-Nets series and delivered a colorfully dismissive diss of the Brooklyn team/borough.

    Although the Nets, and the league, eventually made him pay for his choice words, Ujiri’s gaffe endeared him to a rabid Canadian hoops fanbase. They’ve entrusted him and Casey to get the Raptors to 50+ wins, amazingly, the sole NBA franchise that has yet to do so. Ujiri’s and Casey’s diligence paid off with a franchise high 48 wins last season, along with Toronto’s first division title and playoff appearance in six years.

    Ujiri’s main offseason goals were to extend their defensive-minded coach for three more seasons and to do all he could to ensure the point guard who came alive in 2014 didn’t get wooed away. Extending Kyle Lowry for four more seasons, and satisfying Casey’s thirst for defensive play by bringing James Johnson back following a career-year in Memphis, allowed Ujiri to sit back and enjoy the balance of the summer while his team bonds.

    Back in May, one Paul Pierce deflection was all that stood between Lowry and stratospheric stardom. Now, Toronto’s wiry yet fiery ballhandler can’t wait to prove he’s an All-Star talent who’s worth every penny of his new four-year, $48 million deal. The point guard battles between Lowry and Teague should continue to be highly entertaining.

    Lowry would love to join the East’s third-leading scorer from last season on the All-Star squad. DeMar DeRozan paired with Lowry (40.6 combined PPG) to wind up just a shade behind The Splash Brothers (42.4 PPG) as the league’s highest-scoring backcourt. The Hawks could stymie the Raptors’ offense by forcing Lowry and DeRozan to settle for tough shots without fouling. Both are decent free throw shooters who accounted for nearly half of Toronto’s free throw attempts last season (DeRozan 7th in NBA in FT attempts per game).

    Jonas Valanciunas’ prospects for this season brightened after strong offensive performances at the FIBA World Cup buoyed Lithuania to a 4th-place finish, and after the obligatory offseason workout with Hakeem Olajuwon. His newfound fake-and-shakes in the post could help Toronto shoot more than 27.6% of their shots around the rim, the league’s lowest proportion last season.

    How far Big Valley advances this season, though, depends a lot on what he does on the defensive end. Despite Toronto’s overall defensive efficiency, the Raps were next-to-last in defending opponent shots around-the-rim. They gave up 3.2 more points per 100 possessions with the Jonas brother on the floor. Bebe and Greg Steimsma were brought in to make sure someone other than Amir Johnson (1.1 BPG) averages more than a blocked shot per game.

    Toronto’s veteran bigs can be leaden at times getting back on defense, so the Hawks have to push the pace and force the Raptors to play on their heels, with Teague (3rd in the East with 3.8 fastbreak PPG in 2013-14, behind LeBron and John Wall) leading the charge.

    The specter of 4th quarter collapses appeared throughout the preseason for the Hawks. They don’t want a facsimile of the final stanza against a Toronto team that put clamps on opponents with an NBA-high +2.4 plus-minus in fourth quarters last season. On Atlanta’s last trip to the Air Canada Centre in March, there was no Kyle Korver (50.0 3FG% vs. Toronto last season) around to save them from a 36-15 fourth-quarter drubbing (Lowry with 13 points), the Raptors swinging an 11-point deficit into a ten-point victory.

    Despite not quite reaching the second round, Toronto did just enough in the space of five short months to become the darlings of basketball’s media pundits coming into this season. But pushing the pace, keeping Toronto’s offensive stars bottled up without copious trips to the line, and minimizing the Raptors’ second-chance points will go a long way toward the Hawks making a strong first impression on the league.

    They the North, but We the South! And I don’t mean that in a bad way!

    Let’s Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  20. lethalweapon3
    WIN… and THEY Go Home!


    The outcome of today’s Game 7 (5:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, TNT), a game that was not supposed to happen, will not provide easy answers for either the Atlanta Hawks or the Indiana Pacers. But it sure will help clarify a lot of questions.

    The Pride of Pike High School, Jeffrey Demarco Teague was still at Wake Forest when the Indianapolis Star acclaimed “The Magnificent Seven”, a Rushmore of top Indianapolis-area high school talents bound for greatness in the NBA. Greg Oden, Eric Gordon, even Josh McRoberts and Rodney Carney were adorned with honorary membership. There was no effort from the Indy Star to modify the name to “The Great Eight” once Teague entered the league in 2009.

    Today, Teague has an opportunity to secure his place in Naptown lore with his first NBA playoff series victory as a starter, beating not just any #1-seed, but the team he grew up watching on TV and reading about in the local rag.

    Of the #8-seeds to pull off a first-round upset, the 1999 Knicks were the only team to win twice on the opponent’s floor, back then in a five-game series. Can Teague (94.1 FT%, tops in the East; 34.3 assist percentage) restart the Hawks’ offensive ball movement that was the hallmark of their regular season?

    Can he force defensive stops against George Jesse Hill, Jr., the Pride of IUPUI and Broad Ripple High and gold-plated “Magnificent Seven” member? Can he guide the Hawks to an unprecedented third road playoff victory, and the fourth in a month over the Pacers, the team with the league’s best home regular season record (35-6), in Indiana’s own building?

    Emanual David Ginobili was on the floor starting in Games 5 through 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, replacing Tiago Splitter and nearly doubling his minutes from an already ineffective first four games in the series with the Miami HEAT. After a solid Game 5 helping San Antonio gain a 3-2 lead, Manu was entrusted to close out Games 6 and 7. He responded by toying with the basketball for over 60 minutes, well beyond his expiration date, like a rhythmic gymnast tripping on acid. “Dirty pictures” were about the only plausible explanation remaining after the third member of the Spurs’ Big Three tossed his umpteenth turnover into the second row, Tony Parker unable to commandeer the ball, Matt Bonner watching hopelessly from the bench when the Spurs desperately needed a three-pointer in the clutch.

    LeBron James eventually would win Finals MVP, but viewers across North America wondered aloud if an LVP award was being molded for the Argentine. One particular game previewer in Atlanta was left to wonder: was Ginobili’s mystifying minutes allocation the design of Gregg Charles Popovich, or that of his trusted assistant, Mike Budenholzer?

    One could argue Teague’s inexplicable rest periods in the second halves affected the eventual outcomes of Games 2 and 6 in the Hawks-Pacers series, both games falling in Indiana’s favor. With this series now riding in the balance, will Budenholzer leave this game in the hands of his most effective point guard? Or will he continue to reserve crucial minutes for Shelvin Bernard Mack, just one year Teague’s junior, as some kind of valuable learning experience?

    “It’s On Me!” Paul Millsap was just a pup in 2007, as Tracy Lamar McGrady, Jr., issued a declaration about the consequences of his favored Rockets conceivably losing another first round series, this time to Millsap’s Utah Jazz. Millsap only played seven minutes in Game 7 but experienced the joy of winning his first playoff series, as All-Star Jazzmen Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams toppled T-Mac and Yao Ming in Houston.

    Will Millsap’s Game 7 experience positively influence the quality of his play in tonight’s final matchup with the higher-seeded Pacers? Can he put tonight’s outcome “on him” and dominate his matchups with David Moorer West, and/or Ian Mahinmi, while avoiding foul trouble?

    DeMarre LaEdrick Carroll has well exceeded the defensive output the Hawks got from DeShawn Stevenson in last year’s series with the Pacers. Can the self-proclaimed Junk Yard Dog make an indelible name for himself in the league by slowing Paul George’s roll, or will he be tamed under the weight of his first Game 7?

    After a rough start to the series for the league’s top three-point shooter, Kyle Elliot Korver has his accuracy back up above 40 percent from downtown, while averaging a career-high 12.5 PPG and 5.7 APG. But in last year’s elimination game, Korver shot 0-for-7 on threes against Indiana. Will that guy show up, or the guy who buried the Pacers with five threes to sew up Game 5? Can a committee of Carroll, Teague, Millsap, Lou Williams and Mike Scott make Indiana pay for overpursuing Korver?

    Five points, three rebounds, two blocks. Not much was needed of Elton Tyron Brand just two years ago, as the starting center for the #8-seed Philadelphia 76ers. The bloom was off the Rose for the top-seeded Chicago Bulls after their superstar guard went down in Game 1, and their starting center in Game 3, of the series with the Sixers. Tom Thibodeau hardly had the presence of mind to play Korver in the deciding Game 6 to help his team’s cause. All Doug Collins required of Brand were 35 minutes to fend off something called Omer Asik, setting the stage for a semi-heroic Game 6 victory in the City of Brotherly Shove.

    Two seasons later, Brand is deferring his minutes (7.5 minutes in Game 4, 6 minutes in Game 6, no fouls, both losses) to something called Pero Antić. Can the esteemed 35-year-old provide the defensive energy and offensive boost in the post that has been lacking for Atlanta throughout most of this series? Will Budenholzer grant his veteran center, in possibly his final trip to the playoffs, the opportunity to do so?

    As president of the Pacers, Larry Joe Bird determined in 2007 that Rick Carlisle lacked the coaching mettle to lead an NBA team to the Promised Land, and brought in a new crew featuring Frank Paul Vogel as a lead assistant. Four years later, while Carlisle was leading a different NBA team toward the Promised Land, Vogel was settling in as the new top dog on the sidelines, turning the Pacers’ fortunes around in mid-season to reach the playoffs while angling for the head coach job full-time.

    Now, in 2014, today’s Game 7 could serve as a referendum on Vogel’s fitness to continue on as Bird’s coach of choice. No matter how successful anyone aside from Popovich has been, losing a series to a #8-seed puts them essentially into Avery Johnson-status going forward.

    Budenholzer has been singing throughout this series like Mic Murphy, adhering both teams to play within his system, even when it’s not bearing fruit (25.7 3FG% in Game 6). He’s compelling Vogel to be the coach constantly making adjustments even though Indiana has the superior talent.

    Vogel was able to rely in 2013 on a then-sane Roy Denzil Hibbert, who truly came alive against Miami’s donut-holed defense by averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds in the conference finals. Vogel was roundly criticized for yanking Hibbert late in Game 1 of that series, and kept him in for Game 7, only to watch helplessly as Hibbert and Paul George absorbed their fifth fouls before the third quarter ended. Eleven months later, Indiana’s All-Star center has gone from averaging 22 and 10 versus Miami, to totaling 24 and 19 over the course of six games against Atlanta, even with little discernible competition from the Hawks at the 5-spot.

    Aside from the ones in Hibbert's head, this game is for all the marbles. Knowing this could be his last stand before a side-eyed Pacer fanbase, and a possible stretch-provision casualty if things continue spiraling downward, will Hibbert finally emerge in Game 7 to be at least average? Or will Vogel finally acknowledge Hibbert is a lost cause for 2014, paving the way for Mahinmi to officially take charge?

    Lance Stephenson, Jr. would have you believe he was Born Ready for this moment. His playoff scoring and overall shooting are highs for his four-year career. But his shot selection for most of the series could nicely be described as erratic. Headed toward a free agent payday with somebody this summer, how will Stephenson perform with the season on the line? Which team’s cause will he help more?

    George was about a hokey-pokey step away from imperiling his availability for Game 7. Last season ended in Game 7 of the conference finals in Miami, hounded into 2-for-9 shooting and, perhaps trying to overcompensate, fouling his way out of the contest with under eight minutes to go.

    The newly-24-year-old swingman gets a $10 million raise next season as part of his super-max contract extension. Accordingly, can he demonstrate to his fans that his ceiling remains higher than that of a Pippenesque character, needing an Alpha-dog to lead him to a title? A convincing, redemptive victory today won’t prove that, but it will go a long way to clarifying how super this star truly is.

    Burning questions won’t necessarily get doused with definitive answers today. But the outcome will result in even more intrigue, both for the Washington Wizards’ next opponent, and for the team looking toward an eventful offseason. We’re all about to find out which team is which.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  21. lethalweapon3
    “The 'Ship be sinking!”


    Larry will be on it, for sure. Paul, Lance, Frank, and Roy, too. But how about Mike Epps? Or Babyface?
    “Jared” from Subway, or “Schneider” from “One Day at a Time”? Which one of Jim Irsay, Andrew Luck, Robert Mathis, T.Y. Hilton, or Trent Richardson? Which one among them carries the bass? And who gets to hold the bottle of milk?

    These were not the type of dilemmas the contracted crew for TNT’s “Gone Fishin’” series were supposed to be pondering so soon. This week’s Photoshop issues were supposed to revolve around burning questions like: Porsha, Kenya, or Mama Joyce? Lil Scrappy, or Waka Flocka? Which one of Jeff Teague, Mike Budenholzer, Kyle Korver, or Paul Millsap holds the trout? Should Al Horford be encased from neck-to-waist in bubble wrap? Do you put them all on a Ferry boat? And who gets to don the Cobb Braves jersey?

    The Atlanta Hawks have altered the immediate plans of America’s Photoshoppers. They might modify the longer-term designs of their opponent, the Indiana Pacers, with a victory in Game 6 tonight before a red-clad, sold-out, rabble-rousing crowd at Philips Arena (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Indiana, NBATV). Indiana has had their backs to the wall, by a 3-2 deficit, on ten other occasions in NBA playoff history, and lost all ten Game 6s. After two losses to a #8-seed in their house, the Pacers’ season-long, obsessive quest to leverage homecourt advantage against Miami may now be drowning in a sea of a whole other team’s red.

    The Hawks have proven that Paul George isn’t All-World enough to beat a losing-record entrant in the NBA Playoffs by himself. His Game 5 tallies made him the first NBA player since 2000 (Gary Payton) to record 25 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals in a playoff game. He’s also the first such player to do all that and lose. Tied for the league lead this postseason in both threes made and defensive rebounds while second in total steals, George could also finish tonight as the only NBA playoff participant other than Dirk Nowitzki to average 20-and-10 while shooting above 50% on threes.

    Yet, as the chosen face of the Beasts of the East, and the anointed star of this season’s junk food ads, it’s George and not his wilting teammates that bears the brunt of his fans’ ire, each and every time the Pacers’ deficit swells to double-digits. Roy Hibbert would share some of that too, but The Big Chill can’t even stay on the floor long enough for Pacer fans to shout “Boo!” Depending on the outcome of Game 6, George may or may not find reason to celebrate his 24th birthday when the clock strikes midnight.

    None of this is Jeff Teague’s problem. Strategically limited by Budenholzer in floor time (33.4 minutes per game, down from the past two postseasons), for better or worse, Teague has maintained an exemplary level of facilitation when he’s on the floor. His postseason assist percentage of 38.5 per 100 possessions ranks second only to his Demon Deacon alum and insurance pitchman Chris Paul (38.7 per-100). That’s despite Teague being covered for much of the game by a defensive maven in George. To lead Atlanta to his first playoff series victory as a full-time starter, Teague will need a stout defensive gameplan to neutralize George Hill (16 points, 6-for-12 FGs) and/or C.J. Watson (15 points, 6-for-10 FGs), both of whom were sidelined in Pacer practice yesterday to rest nagging hip pointers.

    The Hawks’ point god also ranks second among NBA starters in playoff free throw percentage (92.0 FT%). Teague guides a roster that has built a significant advantage from the charity stripe (22.0 FT made per game, 82.1 team FT%) over their Pacer opponents (14.4 FTM/game, 69.9 team FT%) without having to pack themselves in the paint. In this series, Atlanta has prevailed in all three games were Teague gets five or more free throw attempts (19-11 in the regular season, including both wins over Indiana). On offense, threes 'n frees have helped the Hawks control the series, even though the top-seeded Pacers have more total field goals.

    Assuming Hibbert will be psychologically M.I.A. once more, Pacers coach Frank Vogel has to commit David West and Luis Scola to banging away in the offensive post and not camping out along the perimeter. It can help draw more Hawks into foul trouble. Lance Stephenson often has a size advantage when the Hawks go small in the backcourt, but he doesn’t exploit it, preferring to hang out in the corner (5.2 3FGA/game, 30.8 3FG%) when he’s not helping to rebound.

    Thirty-year-old second-year forward Chris Copeland has opened Pacer fans’ eyes twice in the past two seasons. In the 2013 playoffs, he shot 55% on threes for the Knicks in their second-round series with the Knicks. In Game 5 against the Hawks, he was dusted off in the second half, in a last-ditch attempt by Vogel to get the final score respectable. While his shooting wasn’t stellar (2-for-7 FGs, both threes), he helped Indiana space the floor out with a legitimate perimeter threat (aside from George and Watson) and chipped in admirably on the defensive end (three blocks and a steal). The catalyst for the Pacers as they whittled a 30-point deficit back down to single digits, look for Copeland to be much more than a white-flag option in Game 6.

    Go ahead and bottle that stretch of Hawks magnificence called the second quarter of Game 5. There’s no reason to expect anything tonight matching that 41-19 rout that made Atlanta just the second playoff road team in the NBA’s shot clock era to drop 40-plus points in a single quarter while holding their opponents below 20. The Hawks may not get another performance quite as mind-numbing as what they got from The Mikerowave, Mike Scott (17 points… all in that quarter!). But if they can get another bench performer like Lou Williams to warm up the nets, they can put this series on ice.

    George expressed amazement at Millsap’s ability to draw fouls (18 points in Game 5, 8-for-12 FTs), relative to his paper-tiger contemporary in David West (16 points in Game 5 on 6-for-13 FGs, but just 4-for-8 FTs). But unnoticed by George and many others were Shelvin Mack’s ten stealth free throw attempts on his way to the first 20-point tally of his playoff career. Mack’s dimes to Scott (three of Shelvin’s five assists, just one turnover) established Atlanta’s first-half advantage while his aggressiveness and accuracy at the free throw line in the second half kept the Pacers satisfyingly at bay.

    If Atlanta can get another strong offensive finishing performance out of DeMarre Carroll (15 points on 6-for-9 shooting in Game 5; 53.3 playoff 3FG%, 4th in NBA) , complementing his defensive hustle, and get anything substantive out of starting center Pero Antić besides being a foul sponge, they will take a ton of pressure off of Millsap, Korver, and Teague to carry the day.

    In a metropolis loaded with carpetbaggers and bandwagon jumpers, many Atlanta athletes of years’ past have been preoccupied with who shows up to the game, how many show up, who is rooting for who, who is booing who, who the TV crews are talking up. There’s often enough self-imposed distractions to give their opposing visitors a decided edge on the floor/diamond/ice/field/pitch.

    This season’s Humble ‘n Hungry Hawks are not clamoring for anyone’s attention, and that adds to their newfound attractiveness, locally and beyond. They know their limitations, but those obstacles don’t include an inability to out-pace the Pacers, the NBA East’s #1-seed, in either team’s building. These Hawks aren’t out for international accolades or local respect, just a win, preferably tonight. They understand the respect stuff, like the Photoshopping, takes care of itself.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  22. lethalweapon3
    “Why, I’d be honored to take a picture with one of my finest doormen!”


    The Atlanta Hawks took two out of three games in their series with the Indiana Pacers (8:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, NBATV). After having the Pacers on the ropes with minutes to go in Game 4, Atlanta now has to take two out of three games again. With a third road victory this month at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the Hawks can earn a chance to close out a momentous playoffs upset in front of their home fans.

    Paul Millsap (21.8 PPG, postseason-high 29 points in Game 4) has matched Indiana star Paul George point-for-point in this series. Being the team’s primary rebounder, he must be more judicious in his commission of personal fouls. His fourth foul, early in the third quarter with Atlanta up by nine, was a significant turning point in Game 4. Millsap amassed three total fouls in Atlanta’s two victories, and nine in their two defeats.

    The Hawks (Millsap, and Mike Scott in particular) will have to continue putting pressure on David West to make stops on defense. He’s been whistled for just one personal foul in his last two games after settling for short stints due to foul trouble in Indiana. West shot 7-for-13 in both games in Atlanta, including the dagger three-pointer (just his fifth all season) in the closing minutes of the game. He also contributed three steals and two blocks in Game 4.

    Also critical to the Hawks’ fate is the aggressiveness of Jeff Teague. In the Atlanta games, with George switching onto him more steadily, Teague became more of a passer, but was less effective as a finisher (12-for-35 combined shooting in Games 3 and 4). He’ll need to be more assertive in getting touches on halfcourt sets, initating the ball movement and resetting the offense when plays break down. He can get by George and make good things happen, but when he kicks the ball out his teammates must convert on their shots so Indiana will spread out some more.

    Teague must also bounce back with a stronger defensive effort against George Hill (team-leading 58.3 2FG% this series), who bounced back from a 1-for-11 night in Game 3 to shoot 5-for-8 for the third time in this series, including his first two three-pointers of the playoffs and a layup in the final minute of Game 4. Continuing through the playoffs, this season the Hawks are 31-3 when Teague posted a plus-minus differential of +6 or higher, and 1-28 when his plus-minus was -5 or worse.

    Teague and the Hawks’ small guards ought to create better looks for DeMarre Carroll (10-for-15 shooting in Atlanta’s two wins, 3-for-11 in their two losses), who ought to be collecting hazard pay trying to keep George (40.5 2FG% this series, down from 45.6% regular season) in check for most of the game.

    While Roy Hibbert has been the center of attention in this series, the Hawks are getting little value out of Pero Antić as a starter. Now shooting 3-for-17 from beyond the perimeter and 3-for-10 within, he’s added just two assists and one block while averaging over 25 minutes per game. Negligible activity from the center spot hurts the Hawks more than it does the Pacers, who are now free to double-team Millsap and Teague or give extra help chasing Korver. The Pacers were able to climb back at the end without needing a single fourth-quarter contribution from Hibbert.

    Meanwhile, Elton Brand is getting even less floor time (15.3 MPG) than he did during the regular season (19.4 MPG). While his patented shot from the elbows hasn’t fallen so far (2-for-10 FGs), he continues to be a sound shotblocker and a rebounder on both ends. It is certainly time to ramp up his contribution, relative to Antić’s, if the Hawks desire to close this series out quickly.

    Indiana’s ability to tighten up the interior defense has resulted in a precipitous decline in Atlanta’s effectiveness inside the perimeter (47.8 2FG% in Game 1, 42.0% in Game 2, 41.0% Game 3, 35.8% in Game 4). With no centers to draw the Pacers attention, Indiana sat back and swatted 11 shots in Game 4, one more than the prior three games combined. The Hawks’ top four reserves (Lou Williams, Scott, Brand, and Mack) have been particularly anemic (32.6 FG% in this series).

    On the other end, Atlanta gambled vigorously on defense in Game 4 (series-high 8 steals, including 4 thefts by Williams) but could not create sufficient defensive pressure (series-low 10 Indiana turnovers). With Indy shooting just 14-of-43 from three-point range in the last two games, Atlanta can afford to keep their post players around the paint, increasing the likelihood of unforced errors from clock-hogging Indiana like charges and offensive three-second violations.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  23. lethalweapon3
    "Man, I haven’t felt this rotten since… since… May 18, 1988?"


    This series was supposed to be a referendum, about whether a 38-44 Atlanta Hawks team deserved to be invited to the NBA’s postseason party. In the course of one week, the Humble and Hungry Hawks managed to flip the theme into an open reconsideration of the postseason worthiness of the 56-26 Indiana Pacers, who seem quite content hanging out at the NBA’s pity party.

    No one is going into Game 4 of this series at Philips Arena (2:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, TNT) pondering over whether the Pacers have the physical and mental fortitude to beat the Miami HEAT anymore. The defending champs are a distant memory now. The burning question is, now, do the Pacers have the focus and the will to seize Game 4 from an 8-seed with a losing record, much less three of the next four games, and get their homecourt advantage back?

    Head Coach Frank Vogel has remained non-committal (“We’ll see,” he has said repeatedly) as it pertains to the status of his starting center and point guard. Roy Hibbert is shooting 28.0 FG% in the series and averaging just 8.9 points (9th among all Pacers), 6.9 rebounds (6th on the team) per-36. He has not blocked a shot or stolen a ball in the course of 73 minutes, and has shown a disturbing disinclination toward fighting for 50/50 balls. George Hill isn’t accomplishing much, either (0.0 3FG%, 40.7 2FG%, 3.5 assists and 0.7 steals per-36). He’s leaving much of the pass production to the forwards, Paul George and David West each averaging 5.0 APG. Even if Vogel plans to roll these two out again, the hook has never been shorter than it it today.

    Vogel has options should he elect to bench Hibbert again, although most of them involve pairing two power forwards up front. It’s pretty bad when much of the free world is clamoring for Ian Mahinmi, who’s shooting just 28.6 FG% and hasn’t been any more effective a rebounder as Hibbert (3.2 defensive rebounds per-36). But he has been a deterrent around the rim (3.2 blocks per-36), and it’s not as if he has to worry about banging around with Pero Antić (0-for-4 3FGs, 0-for-1 2FGs, 3 rebounds in Game 3) in the paint. Luis Scola is more likely to at least be a pest around the perimeter, while fighting for boards on the offensive end (series-leading 4.3 offensive rebounds and 24.2 points per-36). Also acquired in the Danny Granger-Evan Turner deal, Lavoy Allen has been sorely underutilized to this point in the series.

    Hill was traded by San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard on then-Spurs assistant Mike Budenholzer’s recommendation. Three years later, the Hawks head coach seems to have put together a sound scouting report to neutralize Hill’s impact in this series so far. C.J. Watson (55.6 3FG%) has helped spread the floor a little more for Indiana, but he’s not finishing inside (16.7 2FG%) or setting up teammates well (3.2 assists per-36). Due to his defensive deficiencies, former Hawk Donald Sloan will only be deployed in case of extreme emergency.

    Atlanta has yet to lose a first quarter in this series. For the Pacers to get going strong early, they cannot afford early foul trouble to their top offensive threats in the starting lineup, George or West, a consistent problem in each of the past three first halves. George (47.4 3FG% this series) has to exploit matchups with Kyle Korver (4-for-7 3FGs in Game 3) and make the Hawks’ sharpshooter expend as much energy on the defensive end as he does getting looks on the other end of the floor.

    Without an active defender at the point guard spot for Indiana, the erratic Lance Stephenson is left to pick his poison between Jeff Teague (22 points and 10 assists in Game 3; 88.9 FT% this series) and DeMarre Carroll (18 points, zero turnovers in 40 minutes of Game 3).

    To put a tight grip on the series, Atlanta could use a less uneven game from Paul Millsap. Millsap ranks 6th in the playoffs for total shooting percentage (56.9 TS%), just a shade behind George. As he has done all season, even when his shot isn’t falling efficiently against a tight defense like the Pacers (2-for-7 2FGs, 1-for-4 3FGs in Game 3), Millsap finds other ways to help him team remain competitive (7-for-8 FTs; 14 rebounds, all defensive; 4 assists). Millsap has to continue to avoid foul trouble, but pick his spots helping out on the offensive glass. He also must be more protective and decisive with the ball (6 TOs in Game 3).

    The Hawks don’t want to be the guys at the bar this summer watching the Pacers in the NBA Finals, humblebragging about how they had this opponent on the ropes and really put a scare into them for a minute. They’re fine with all the attention and media pressure on the other team, and to keep it that way, they have to keep doing what it takes to win, especially at home.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  24. lethalweapon3
    "This kid helped me beat Lance Stephenson for the Locker Room title belt. Thanks for that steel chair!"


    WE… BELIEVE? Don’t be surprised to see fan rally towels declaring “WE’RE NOT SO SURE!” when the Atlanta Hawks return to the Highlight Factory for Game 3 of their series with those Fightin’ Pacers (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, NBATV).

    While guarded optimism reigns supreme in the stands, on the floor, the #8-seed Hawks arrive clutching home-court advantage, and knowing they were just 24 basketball minutes away on Tuesday from engendering a complete Indiana Implosion.

    A 2-0 deficit would have been an eight-count for the Pacers, just days after Lance Stephenson and Evan Turner were caught dropping knobs on the eve of the playoffs, their teammates not completely certain that it would help their own cause to intervene. No big deal, they insist now. Of course, they’re right, now that they actually pulled together to win a game. But if they don’t come away with at least one road win in the next two games, Michael Buffer may be joining them on the flight home.

    Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll have each uttered the phrase “Humble and Hungry” (“Hongry,” if we’re being phonetically consistent) to describe the contrasted attitude of their team in this series. After one half of hoops in Game 2, our Humble ‘n Hongry Hawks came out with a lead and looking quite satiated, while the top-seeded Pacers were more than happy to be the ones doing some humbling, finally turning the blows they reserved for each other onto their playoff opponents.

    Head Coach Mike Budenholzer’s approach to this series is yet another contrast to his counterpart Frank Vogel, who’s pulling strings behind the curtain. While Vogel’s making adjustments all over the place, Coach Bud is steady-as-she-goes, insisting the postseason is all about his players “improving” and “getting better” at executing his system as they go along.

    The Hawks’ starters coughed up the lead early in the second half of Game 2, but rather than seeing birthday boy Shelvin Mack’s misguided and overwhelmed play as a cause for substitution, Budenholzer chalked up the reserve guard’s extended stay to a necessary and valuable learning opportunity. By the time Mack and Lou Williams returned to the bench in the final quarter (for Jeff Teague and Carroll, respectively), a three-point deficit ballooned to 22, while Paul George (27 points, including the routine quarter-ending dagger, 10 rebounds) and his fellow Pacer starters rejoined Luis Scola (13 first-half points off the bench) in experiencing regained confidence.

    The Pacers learned to stop worrying and love Atlanta’s three-point bombs. Atlanta followed-up a mediocre performance from the perimeter in Game 1 (11-for-30) with a similar effort in Game 2 (10-for-29, including 11 consecutive missed threes). Blanketed at turns by George and Stephenson, Kyle Korver has yet to go off in this series (3-for-11 on 3FGs), while Pero Antić (1-for-5 on 3FGs; 3 rebounds in 25 minutes of Game 2) is looking more like an empty threat. Until Atlanta heats up from outside, Indy can converge on anyone driving into the paint, including Teague (14 points, 5-for-11 on 2FGs, just 2 FT attempts after 10 in Game 1).

    With Atlanta insistent on remaining spread out across the offensive floor, but not hitting shots, Indiana knows they can force tougher shots from Millsap and driving guards with defensive help in the paint, cut down on the hacking (18 personal fouls in Game 2, 11 fewer than Game 1), and reassert themselves on the glass (30-21 defensive rebounding advantage; 32-33 in Game 1). The Pacers pulled away 101-85 in Game 2 despite taking 11 fewer shots from the field.

    In Game 3, we’ll get to see whether the Hawks have “improved” with ball movement against the Pacer defense, as Atlanta’s season-low 13 assists in Game 1 was matched in Game 2. Dennis Schröder showed enough confidence with his shot in garbage-time of Game 2 that he may get more of the tutelage time previously set aside for Mack.

    Antić, the starting center with zero defensive boards in Game 2, has to “get better” at mixing it up on the interior and flustering David West and Roy Hibbert. If he doesn’t, expect more of Elton Brand showing Antić how it’s done (team-leading 7 rebounds in 18 minutes, 3 offensive boards). Korver and Carroll can do a better job in navigating across the paint to get better looks at the rim, while Teague (4 assists, 3 turnovers in Game 2) can make better use of the pick-and-pop game when he’s driving into the teeth of the Pacer defense.

    If they do most of those things, and do a better job closing out on shooters defensively, the Hawks can return all of the pressure onto Indiana, ramping up the likelihood they’ll resort once again to internal pugilism before the series ends.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  25. lethalweapon3
    You could always just throw it in, Roy!


    Blue Collar.
    Red Dagger?

    Five higher-seeded teams lost Game 1 of their opening-round playoff series at home over the weekend. But from the looks of it, after a thorough thrashing at the talons of the Atlanta Hawks, one would think the Indiana Pacers went down three games to zero in their best-of-seven series.

    They’ll get a chance to even the series with the Hawks in Game 2 (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, TNT). It’s probably a must-win if the #1-seed Pacers’ intend to win the series, but it’s definitely a must-win for their increasingly fragile psyches.

    Last season, Denver boasted the league’s top record (38-3) at home. But they dropped Game 2 of their first-rounder against #6-seeded Golden State, and Nuggets fans never got to see a Game 7 materialize. This season, the team with the NBA’s best home record (35-6) will likely have to get it done tonight in front of their shell-shocked fanbase at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse, or their chances at NBA title contention will fade from bleak to pitch-black.

    The home-court-advantage they’ve toiled so hard to obtain this season could become as useless as David West’s black belt in whatever. Since the All-Star-Break, the Pacers have been particularly less-than-stellar outside of the Hoosier State. On just five occasions has Indiana come away victorious in their last 17 away games, and all of those wins were against tankerrific teams (Bucks twice, Celtics, Sixers, Pistons in OT).

    Their last road win against a playoff team was in Atlanta on February 4, right as the Hawks were missing Pero Antić and just initiating their deferred slide out of the top half of the conference. With a second disappointing loss tonight, just to have a chance in this series, Indy would have to nail down two victories at a Philips Arena that, with or without raucous Hawks fans, has been a house of horrors for their franchise over the past eight years.

    At least momentarily, the #8-seed Hawks seized the dominant position in the series without really even playing Hawks Basketball. Up against one of the top perimeter defenses in the league (Indiana’s 34.6 opponent 3FG%, 4th best in NBA), Atlanta lofted up 30 three-point attempts and only sunk eleven of them, including Kyle Korver going just 2-for-7 from downtown. The team topping the Eastern Conference in assists per game, Atlanta dropped just 13 dimes, the fewest by any Hawks team in over three years. There was scant offensive contribution from (16 cumulative points, 5-for-14 FGs) from Atlanta’s reserves, most notably Lou Williams and Mike Scott (combined 2-for-5 over 29 minutes of action).

    And despite all of that, it was the Pacers, and not the Hawks, who came away flustered beyond all recognition. Teams like Indiana that worry about Atlanta’s three-point bombardment often neglect that it’s inside the perimeter, not outside (36.3 3FG%, 13th in NBA), where their top-ten accuracy makes their offense dangerous (50.2 2FG%, 8th in NBA… that’s even with Jeff Teague’s occasional blown layups included).

    Teague’s ability to shed one defender after another and get inside, with Pacers spread across the floor, snubbed any momentum the Pacers tried to build in Game 1. The Hawks could use more effective offense tonight from their backcourt bench mob (Williams and birthday boy Mack, in particular) to keep the Pacers scratching their heads.

    Also, the media punditry has placed so much focus on how Indiana’s vaunted defense was rendered futile by Atlanta’s attack that nary a paragraph of attention has been placed on what has been happening on the other end of the floor, aside from Kyle Korver getting his Tree Rollins on against Roy Hibbert at the rim.

    While we’ve been left to believe Indiana’s offensive power outage was entirely self-inflicted (41.7 2FG% in Game 1), the Hawks did a solid job keeping Indiana’s forwards clear of the rim, forcing their top offensive threats into uncomfortable, out-of-rhythm “Plan B” shots (Paul George 6-for-18 FGs, West 4-for-10, Hibbert 4-for-9, Luis Scola 0-for-6; Lance Stephenson 5-for-12 2FGs), and helping one another secure rebounds. Paul Millsap, Elton Brand, and Antić got help from DeMarre Carroll and Korver and kept Indiana off the glass until desperation-time finally kicked in for the Pacers, largely avoiding foul trouble.

    Head Coach Frank Vogel has left the impression his Pacers have gone back to the drawing board to figure out how to handle Teague (9-for-19 FGs, 9-for-10 FTs). They can help their own cause by avoiding cheap fouls and disrupting passes from Hawk teammates to him, including inbounds and bringing the ball up the floor. George and Lance Stephenson will work to be more aggressive with Teague before he can get a chance to read Indy’s defense and set up a play.

    On the offensive end, the Pacers (George Hill, in particular) have to get Roy Hibbert actively involved in the offense in spots where he’s most effective -- the corner is not the place to get him the ball. He and West have to do a better job going right up with shots (Hill might want to try some lobs for Hibbert to get him going). If defensive help comes, they must pass to their cutting teammates like Hill (5-for-6 on 2FGs in Game 1) and George, rather than waste valuable time exposing the ball by over-dribbling in the post.

    Pacer preoccupation with “stopping” individual Hawks (Teague, Korver, and Millsap in particular) obscures Indiana’s real challenge: to counter Head Coach Mike Budenholzer’s team-oriented approaches to scoring and defensive rebounding. Indiana will get at least another 48 minutes tonight to figure out how to do it.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
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