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lethalweapon3

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Blog Entries posted by lethalweapon3

  1. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Suns

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Suns would probably be rising in the East. Alas, Arizona is in the Wild, Wild West. So tonight at the US Airways Center, we get the Atlanta Hawks and the Phoenix Suns (8:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Arizona), two teams whove tumbled down to the same precarious 8th seed in vastly different ways.

    From the outset, no one had high hopes for this Suns team. They were mired in a ruthlessly competitive Western Conference. They were being led by a rookie head coach in Jeff Hornacek, following just three seasons as an assistant with the Utah Jazz.

    They were absent any accomplished and healthy frontcourt players after dispatching five of its top seven rebounders in exchange for upstarts and draft picks. Their lottery-pick center was not ready for prime time action and could not develop during the summer due to ankle surgeries.

    And they were handing the keys to its future to a perennial backup guard who never exceeded 8.5 PPG in his first three seasons. Never mind the muted expectations for the shuffling Hawks to approach championship contention in 2014: even a low-lottery pick seemed pie-in-the-sky for the Suns.

    Last seasons leading scorer, Goran Dragic was supposed to be trade bait once Eric Bledsoe was brought on board to be the Suns go-to franchise player. Instead, Hornacek insisted on an aggressive pace pushed by a double-barreled point guard attack. Bledsoe became an 18.0 PPG scorer, and even after he went down with a meniscus tear in December, Dragic resumed the full-time alpha-dog role and became a borderline All-Star, upping his usage and scoring efficiency to average 22.8 PPG since January 1.

    Dragic is now among five NBA players (Lebron James, Stephen Curry, John Wall, and Kevin Durant) ranked in the top 20 for per-game points, assists, and steals. One of four NBA players shooting above 50% from the floor and 40% from three-point range (minimum 1.0 three-point attempts per game), Dragic dropped a career-high 40 on the Pelicans to break Phoenixs three-game losing string on Friday night. His big night against New Orleans topped the previous career mark (35 points) he set five days before.

    30-year-old Channing Frye was supposed to ease himself back into Phoenixs rotation after returning from last years season-ending heart defect. Instead, he has started every game, his long-range shot (2.2 3FGs per game, 2nd most among NBA bigs) too useful to leave on the bench. Second-year center Miles Plumlee seemed like a throw-in after totaling 13 points and 22 rebounds in 14 garbage-time appearances for the Pacers in 2012-13. Instead, hes started every game as well, still averaging 8.7 RPG and 1.4 BPG despite a swoon over his past 30 games.

    Throw in energized power-twin reserves Markieff and Marcus Morris, highlight-reel-maker Gerald Green (career-high 14.8 PPG, 9th in NBA for three-point attempts), and gritty wing player P.J. Tucker (second on the team with 6.5 RPG and 1.2 SPG), and the Suns came into this season ready to burn one unsuspecting team after another.

    Even without Bledsoe, Phoenix (34-24) made it at high as 5th in the Western Conference (29-18 as of February 1). But while treading water in the East might raise a team up into the 4th spot, doing the same out West slides teams like the Suns potentially out of the playoffs. Phoenixs record in the East would have them sitting 2 games above 3rd-seeded Toronto. Instead, they have 9th-seeded Memphis just one game behind them out West. To keep the good Cinderella vibes going, they cant afford slip-ups at home to teams like the Hawks (26-31), losers of ten of their last eleven, including their last six road games.

    Yet the Suns are vulnerable. This game pairs up the team with the most assists per game in the league (Atlantas 25.2 APG) with the team making the fewest (Phoenixs 19.1), the latter value inclusive of the absent Bledsoes 5.8 APG. Aside from Dragic and Jeff Teagues former Demon Deacon teammate, Ish Smith (2.6 APG), no Sun averages two or more assists per game.

    The Suns will have to step up their aggressiveness on defense to disrupt Atlantas ball movement, and then score on the fastbreak. The Hawks have given up 20.3 PPG off turnovers in February (4th most in NBA).

    With the starting frontcourt seemingly on the decline defensively, the Suns opponents are attacking inside more (46.4 opponent FG% in February; 46.5 opponent points in the paint in February, second-most in the NBA). Patrolling the paint, Plumlee has to rely on help from a pair of understandably distracted Ukrainian backups in Alex Len and Slava Kravtsov, the latter questionable anyway with an ankle sprain.

    Without the Hawks player most suited to piling up points in the paint, Paul Millsap, Atlanta will hope to find Mike Scott and a returning Pero Antić (hopefully, alleviating Elton Brand) at the rim. The Hawks point guards should find a steady stream of swingmen cutting to the hoop.

    Both teams rely heavily on the three-point shot to open things up on the interior, the Suns 25.2 three-point attempts per game exceeded only by the Rockets, and the Hawks 24.9 per game the most in the East (4th in NBA).

    Fortunately for the Suns, they have played soundly effective perimeter defense, opponents shooting just 33.0 3FG% (2nd lowest in NBA) and tied with the foes of Atlantas next challenger, Portland, for the fewest three-point makes (6.3 3FGs per game). Phoenixs chance of winning tonight will hinge on their ability to hold Kyle Korver (NBA true shooting percentage leader, 65.9 TS%) and DeMarre Carroll in check.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  2. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Celtics

    By lethalweapon3,

    This is a pretty big game. For the Boston Celtics.

    Even Aaron Hernandez has shown more fight of late than the Celtics, losers of their last five games with no victories over playoff contenders since January 22. Now a solid 12-seed in the putrid Eastern Conference, the Celts already have one foot firmly established in the water for the 2014 NBA Draft Lottery.

    To make it a double, though, they need BOTH the Brooklyn Nets and tonight’s opponent, the Atlanta Hawks, to suck hard enough to fall out of the playoffs. It’s a hard sell given the firewall the Knicks, Cavs, and Pistons are putting up, but 8-seed Atlanta (one win in their last 10 games) is doing all it can to make the prospect tantalizing. The Hawks are kicking off their six-game road-trip tonight, while the Nets are in the tougher back-end of their seven-game tour.

    Boston (19-39) blew their last three chances to control that destiny, including a blown fourth-quarter lead against the Hawks on December 31, yet they get another shot at engendering double-lotto-ball euphoria tonight at TD Garden (7:30 Eastern, SportSouth, CSN New England).

    Like Atlanta (26-30), who is without Paul Millsap (season-highs of 34 points and 15 rebounds vs. Boston on Dec. 31) Boston will likely be shorthanded on the floor. Starting forward Jared Sullinger (15.3 PPG, 10.9 RPG in February) has been Head Coach Brad Stevens’ best play over the past month but is recovering from a mild concussion sustained last Friday. Sully is the team’s third-leading scorer, and the second-leading scorer, guard Avery Bradley, remains out as he deals with an ankle sprain.

    That leaves Rajon Rondo (10.8 PPG, 7.8 APG), back from his own year-long hiatus after an ACL tear, leading a starting lineup that would make you wonder if Billy Knight recently moved to New England.

    Gerald Wallace (season-highs of 7.0 PPG and 4.1 RPG in February) cannot look any more like a broken man than he has lately, yet Crash (58.9 2FG%, 29.7 3FG%) was recently shifted to the starting shooting guard slot, making room for former reality star Kris Humphries to play center. There’s no chance for a buyout since Wallace is still owed $20.2 million from somebody over the next two seasons after this one. He'll get a bit of a break tonight as Stevens will go with former Grizzlie Jerryd Bayless, his first Celtics start after logging 30 minutes and putting up 13 and 16 points in his past two games.

    Essentially, the idea by Stevens is to establish a Pick-and-Pop Festival for the newly-28-year-old Rondo, who needs a big night to help the media get over Birthdaygate. With Wallace dispatched back to the bench, the forward slots go to leading scorer Jeff Green (22.0 PPG, 38.6 FG% post-All-Star-break) and Brandon Bass. Rookie Kelly Olynyk (21 points and 5 assists vs. Atlanta on New Year’s Eve; 21 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists vs. Utah on Monday) usually joins the party off the bench, but he's out with a sprained toe. On defense, Jeff Teague and the forwards will be busy trying to disrupt Rondo's efficiency with the Pick-and-Pop execution.

    It’s a nice approximation of what Rondo had back in the glory days alongside Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. After all, he’s managed six double-digit assist tallies in six of his last seven games, four of those games a double-double. He’d have many more if his teammate’s shots fell through the nets nearly as proficiently as their Celtic forebears’ did.

    Boston’s 43.4 team FG% is the fourth-worst in the league, and the 32.6 3FG% is the third-worst. Only Madison Rising and Don King have been as cringe-inducing as the Celtics offense whenever Phil Pressey (28.4 FG%) subs in for Rondo. So their chances for winning on their parquet floor rest heavily on Humphries, Bass, Green, and Wallace’s collective ability to crash the boards when shots go up. The Celtics have a 3-22 record when their total rebounding percentage drops to 49% or below, 16-17 otherwise.

    The Hawks will want to shoo Boston out of the corners, where the Celtics shoot 40.7 3FG% (3rd highest in NBA… watch out for Chris Johnson) on the season, and lay off them above-the-break (30.4 3FG%, 2nd lowest in NBA), where no player aside from Rondo shoots above 35%. Atlanta needs to be more careful with the shooing aspect, though. Were it not for the epidemic of fouling three-point shooters, Atlanta might lead the league in fewest free throw shots allowed per field goal attempt (24.7% opponent free throw attempt rate; 5th lowest in NBA).

    Tonight’s game concludes a run of six back-to-back games in the past month for the Hawks, including four pairs in a row. Atlanta will get a chance to rest and reload for a few days before the heavier part of their road trip (at Phoenix, Portland, Golden State, the Clippers, and Utah) kicks in. Their 9-19 road record is already worse than that of Detroit (10-15) and the Knicks (9-17), so a win tonight on the heels of the close-call versus Chicago could build some positive vibes going into that road trip.

    With Millsap unavailable to repeat his Lewis Scott impersonation at the Garden, the heavy rebounding duties fall once again on the venerable Elton Brand and the Hawks’ forwards (DeMarre Carroll, Kyle Korver, Mike Scott). Also look for more floor time allocated to Dexter Pittman (3 offensive rebounds in under 2.5 minutes last night vs. the Bulls) and Cartier Martin, who only logged 2.5 minutes last night.

    "Rondo. Everybody says I play like Rondo." Dennis Schröder has heard that for much of his hoops-playing life. He was a DNP-CD yesterday but would greatly relish an opportunity to get some run against one of his perceived mentors. Either way, Schröder would match up favorably with anyone else Stevens trots out to run point, as would Stevens' former star at Butler, Shelvin Mack (17 points, 7-for-9 on 2FGs vs. Chicago), who will start the game alongside Teague at the 2-spot.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  3. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bulls

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Atlanta Hawks rebounded against the Knicks on Sunday to crawl out from under an eight-game slide. But will they be able to rebound at all tonight (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, WGN) against the Chicago Bulls?

    The Bulls (29-26; five-game streak snapped Monday at Miami; 17-8 since January 1) registered 57 and 52 rebounds in their last two wins against Atlanta (26-29), their offensive rebounding percentages (43.5% and 42.5%, respectively) the highest they’ve achieved so far this season. Last year, Tom Thibodeau’s charges piled up 59 and 53 in the last two meetings of the season, and those were with the presently-injured Al Horford starting in the middle.

    In the January 4 game, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, and Taj Gibson all recorded double-doubles for points and rebounds. Deng was subsequently traded, but Jimmy Butler (game-time decision tonight; bruised ribs) stepped up in the February 11 contest, contributing a season-high 13 boards to complement Gibson’s 24-and-12 and Noah’s triple-double.

    Neither game included an appearance by Chicago’s leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, Carlos Boozer (14.7 PPG, 8.5 RPG). He’ll be back in uniform tonight. Atlanta’s leading active scorer and rebounder, All-Star power forward Paul Millsap, participated in both games but won’t be suiting up tonight. His absence results in 220-pound DeMarre Carroll doing yeoman’s work once again at the power forward spot, this time against the 260-pound Boozer.

    If Carroll (season-high 24 points vs. the Knicks while pestering Carmelo Anthony) and Mike Scott (career-high 30 points against NYK) can get some help from his fellow swingmen in defending Boozer in the low post, they can beat him down the floor for buckets and have another nice offensive night.

    The first game had Pero Antić manning the center spot, while Gustavo Ayón played the 5 in the second game. Neither will be available tonight to help the Hawks’ cause. That puts Elton Brand in a tight spot. He’ll have to secure defensive boards without excessive fouling and help the guards push the pace in transition. The legendary Bob Rathbun notes that the 15-season veteran has logged more minutes over the last four games than in any four-game stretch in almost two years.

    Dexter Pittman has been called up out of the Hawks’ unofficial D-League squad, the Austin Toros, after a five-game February spurt where the dormant center put up 16.4 PPG on 63 FG%, plus 9.8 RPG and 1.8 BPG. If for not much above six extra fouls, his participation tonight will be a virtual imperative.

    Atlanta’s chances of winning this game, or at least surpassing 95 points versus Chicago for the first time since January 2012, rest in the hands of the player GameTime affectionately called “Jeff Tease.” Even with Jeff Teague’s scouting report from his former coach in hand, Raymond Fel(t)on and Tim Hardaway, Jr. could do nothing to keep the Hawks point guard from showing a little something on Sunday. Teague beat them to the rim at will, and earned a career-high 15 free throw attempts on his way to 28 points, his best scoring output in 2014.

    The Bulls’ glacial pace and heady defense from ex-Hawk Kirk Hinrich won’t allow a repeat of those volumes. But he and the Hawks’ point guards can get lane penetration against Hinrich and D.J. Augustin, opening up the perimeter for Carroll, Kyle Korver, Mike Scott and Cartier Martin. According to StatVu stats, the 10.7 PPG the Hawks score whenever Teague drives ranks 5th in the NBA.

    The guards must also put pressure on Chicago’s ballhandlers, while the forwards must be ready to disrupt passes from Noah (three 10-plus-assists in his last seven games). Chicago’s 14.8 turnover percentage and 15.8 turnovers per game are each the third-highest in the league, while the Hawks rank 4th in the league for steals (8.7 SPG).

    Even with Noah and Boozer clogging the middle, forays into the paint will be beneficial for Atlanta. Even when seemingly open, two-point shots taken outside the paint are a waste of time against the Bulls. Despite the limited possessions available when playing Thibo-ball, Chicago’s opponents take 27.1 mid-range shots (3rd most in NBA) but shoot just 37.8 FG% on them (5th lowest in NBA).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  4. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Knicks

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Mike Woodson Job Conservation Tour continues tonight!

    While the Atlanta Hawks honor Lenny Wilkens this evening at Philips Arena, more than a few New York Knick fans will be in attendance, surprised that another ex-Hawks coach still roams the sidelines for their team, particularly after losing in overtime at home to the Western Conference’s worst team going into the All-Star Break. It was the Manhattanites’ fifth loss in six games before the break.

    Now, after their second loss in post-break three games, in double-overtime last night to the inferior Orlando Magic, and facing a daunting schedule next week, fans holding out hope that the Knicks (21-34) can make a 1999-style run into the postseason are watching tonight’s matchup with the Hawks (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, MSG) very intently.

    It’s the conclusion of a four-game road string for the Knickerbockers, interrupted by the distractions of trade-deadline speculation for guards Iman Shumpert and Beno Udrih, an untimely injury to Shumpert and, now, word directly from that NYC native Metta World Peace that he is working on a buyout deal. The Knicks may be working to buy out Udrih as well.

    Much of the blame for the discord on the bench is directed to Woodson and his staid rotations, essentially for freezing out these veterans while also being slow to bring youngsters like Tim Hardaway, Jr. into the lineup.

    In any event, these latest developments serve to level the playing field for the Hawks, losers of eight straight, seeking to avoid nine for the first time since the start of the 2005-06 season, a streak that ended when Al Harrington’s 34 points bested Dan Dickau’s Boston Celtics. Atlanta started out much better in the first half against the Detroit Pistons, but could not overcome the size disadvantages in the paint and the late lapses on offense.

    The shorthanded Hawks get to host a Knicks team also playing a back-to-back but further hampered by injury, dissension, immaturity, and a superstar constantly prodded to convince everyone he has no designs on leaving the Big Apple anytime soon. Carmelo Anthony (27.8 PPG, 2nd in NBA; career-highs 8.6 RPG, 41.7 3FG%, and 0.7 BPG) put up 44 points and 11 rebounds, largely for naught in last night’s 129-121 double-overtime loss in Orlando.

    The extent of injuries in the frontcourt has directed most of his energies toward a stretch-4 role. Tyson Chandler and Amar’e Stoudemire have just recently returned from injuries and maladies, Chandler limping during the second overtime last night. Melo got little help defensively from his teammates at the wing spots, watching lotto rookie Victor Oladipo put up 30 points and 14 assists while Arron Afflalo added 32 points. Woodson didn’t give World Peace a chance. He employed MWP for less than 8 minutes last night, perhaps a final straw for the former defensive maven.

    There’s no help likely to come for Anthony through the 2014 draft, either. The joy Hawks fans got from the Nets’ early demise is still experienced by fans of the Denver Nuggets, who get the Knicks’ draft spot thanks to the Melo trade made exactly three years ago today.

    With World Peace and Udrih likely available only in an emergency until they’re bought out, Woodson will continue to lean on Pablo Prigioni to create havoc in an undersized swingman role, and he may look to Toure Murry to spell Raymond Felton. Rookie guard Tim Hardaway, Jr. is coming into his own as a scorer (18.0 PPG, 47.6 3FG% post-All-Star-break), but he’s a rookie, so of course Woody would rather not allot him the 45 minutes he logged last night. It doesn’t help that he struggles mightily as a defender. One positive development on the wing is J.R. Smith (15.1 PPG, 43.2 3FG% this month) finally beginning to find his range.

    Woodyball remains a slow-paced affair. The Knicks are at their best when they’re not pressured into turnovers (13.8 per 100 possessions, 3rd lowest in NBA), with Felton driving inside to open up perimeter shooters, and getting the ball to Carmelo, if nothing opens up, near the end of the clock to make a play. On the other end the Knicks do well when they pressure ballhandlers without gambling and fouling, and then boxing out (75.6 defensive rebounding percentage, 7th in NBA) to limit extended possessions.

    Paul Millsap (23 points, most in his last six games) was a little banged up during that superb second quarter last night in Detroit, DeMarre Carroll says his hamstring remains a little weak. Head Coach Mike Budenholzer will look to the returning Jeff Teague (ankle) to return and push the pace against Felton, and for more offensive boost from Mike Scott (season-high 20 points on 9-for-16 shooting vs. Detroit) and Cartier Martin, the latter likely thrilled to stick with the roster for the remainder of the season. Felton struggled in both November outings to contain Teague, the latter leading the Hawks in scoring on both occasions (25 and 16 points).

    Kyle Korver picks his spots as well as just about anybody, but it will be interesting to see if he passes up fewer shot opportunities to keep the Hawks competitive. Atlanta is 6-1 when Korver’s usage rate is 18.0% or higher, the sole loss coming at Madison Square Garden back in December. Only Jared Cunningham (10.4% of team plays) has a lower usage rate on the team than Korver (13.6%).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  5. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pistons

    By lethalweapon3,

    If it ain’t fixed… don’t break it!


    Such appears to have been the mindset of the general managers for two floundering teams that oppose each other tonight, the Atlanta Hawks and the host Detroit Pistons (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Detroit).

    Pistons GM Joe Dumars didn’t meddle with the bog-jam in his starting frontcourt, the brutal inefficiencies in his starting backcourt, or the bench that’s sorely lacking in talent and health. He may not have had any choice in the matter, especially given his unwillingness to float Greg Monroe to other GMs as an available trade target. The only major transaction of the past couple weeks was the toppling of his hand-picked Head Coach, Maurice Cheeks, in favor of Assistant Coach John Loyer. That maneuver was probably ordered from somebody above Dumars.

    Cheeks’ 21-29 record was still the best Detroit has seen since 2009, when Dumars joined everyone else in realizing Michael Curry wasn’t really the guy to get the Pistons over a three-season Conference Finals hump. Yet, Joe D didn’t invest $56 million in Josh Smith and $24 million in Brandon Jennings just to see his team struggle to get over the playoff-seed hump.

    Piston fans, finally understanding the warnings other NBA fans have screamed about since the summertime, have abandoned the Brokedown Palace in Auburn Hills (lowest home attendance percentage in the NBA). They’re now resigned to hopes of an entertaining tank job to conclude the season, Rising Stars MVP trophy-breaker Andre Drummond leading the way.

    Dumars, to the contrary, sees a 9th-seed that could soon overtake the Hawks or the Bobcats, a Detroit team that could use a couple days of postseason revenue with the HEAT in town, and a team that might still salvage his employment despite at least a half-decade’s worth of missteps. That is, if only Loyer proves himself the right guy to pull the strings and find a player rotation that actually works.

    Charles Barkley stammered his way through a sizing up of Drummond’s Dilemma during All-Star Weekend festivities. “He’s a terrific player who’s playing with those other idiots up in Detroit. And they’re not going to win… they’ve got some idiots on that team.” It remains to be seen how self-aware the alleged “idiots” are. “They’ve got some talented players who are not going to ever get it.”

    As for the other end of the floor, not since the days of Rowan and Martin has anyone experienced a laugh-in quite like what Hawk fans enjoyed yesterday, when GM Danny Ferry went out and made the remains of forward Antawn Jamison the big prize of Trade Deadline Day. Jamison was freed from the Clippers’ grasp for the low-low price of the rights to Cenk Akyol; presumably, the Clips saw all they needed of Sofoklis Schortsanitis, and want no more of him.

    The dandruff-inducing Lou Williams Experiment was perhaps the first sign that Ferry is signaling to his small yet devoted Hawks fanbase, “What, who, us? Tanking? No, that’s so beneath our culture! We wouldn’t dare do such a thing! ((looks around))... Shhh! Of course we’re tanking! What, are you crazy?” Yesterday’s stand-pattery was just another hint of Ferry having realized the wet dream of Billy King handing him their lottery pick, or any pick in 2014, is much less likely to become reality.

    Atlanta may drop eight-straight for the first time since 2006-2007, a funk that was only temporarily interrupted when Zaza Pachulia dropped 22 points to help the Hawks, minus an injured Josh Smith, top Elton Brand’s Clippers.

    Having seen his team finally crumble after too many injuries and fundamental lapses, Ferry’s content with letting Jeff Teague work out his wayward shooting in a Hawks jersey, Williams extending his Local Boy Made Good Victory Tour, and watching Kyle Korver and Paul Millsap scratch some sense of relevancy out of the remainder of the season while getting hounded mercilessly by opposing defenses.
    Teague told the AJC he’s fine tonight after spraining his ankle against the Wizards, but if he looks a little gimpy, this may be a good time to kick off the Shelvin Mack Experiment, too.

    Ferry isn’t even sure Jamison is a keeper for the rest of the season. He tells the AJC he plans to “look at” Antawn (Antwan! Antwaun! Antwoné!) over a couple days, just to see if he Feels Good about him as a fit on this roster. As if there is no place to fit the guy. (EDIT: NEVER MIND! Ferry just needed a couple hours. Jamison has been jettisoned.)

    Just to make room for Jamison’s make-believe-acquisition, the Hawks had to cut loose Cartier Martin for a second time. He’s since been re-signed for the rest of the season, and hopefully he’s already still with the team, since they all went up to Detroit early.

    Otherwise, in one year’s time, Mike Scott will have transformed from a man hopelessly buried in the Hawks depth chart to Atlanta’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, their only hope to come off the bench at the forward spots and at least look like he knows what he’s doing.

    Scott could even start at the 3-spot if DeMarre Carroll continues to deal with a nagging hammy and Martin's not yet available, although it’s more likely Head Coach Mike Budenholzer will go small-ball and play Korver at small forward again. Would you like to play a little center, too, Mike? That can be arranged. Because Pero Antić’s status with his bum ankle remains up in the air as well. After a couple of weeks in a funk (6.2 PPG, 35.1 FG% last 5 games), look for an offensive outpouring from Scott, tonight and in many games going forward.

    Detroit can only hope the Hawks’ forwards don’t bait Josh Smith into a Long-Range Shawty shooting contest. He’s actually played good-soldier over the past four games with Loyer taking over as the designated emergency manager, shooting just nine three-pointers (of course, making one). He’s dialed down the playmaking production (last 4 games: 14.0 PPG, 37.1 FG%, 7.8 RPG, 2.5 APG, no steals in the past three games) on many fronts lately, perhaps in an attempt to get Jennings and Monroe more consistently involved on both ends of the floor.

    Of Detroit’s many problems with their beleaguered frontline, maybe their most revealing flaw is their unrelenting focus on scoring at the offensive end of the floor. The Pistons lead the league by far with a 31.4 offensive rebounding percentage (14.6 per game), Drummond leading the league at 5.5 offensive boards per game and “Moose” Monroe (2.9 per game) not all that far behind. The putbacks help them lead the league with 51.9 PPG in the paint. But, the incessant cherry-picking results in many instances where opponents are beating those bigs down the floor, even on inbounds after they make a bucket.

    Those offensive rebounding chances for Drummond and Monroe arrive largely because of crappy shot selection and proficiency by their teammates. Led by Smoove and Jennings, the Pistons’ 29.7 3FG% above-the-break is dead-last in the league, while their 35.0 2FG% outside the paint is the worst in the East. Only one of their top 9 three-point shooters hit at above 35 percent (reserve Kyle Singler’s 37.0 3FG%). Aside from Drummond (60.8 FG%, 2nd in NBA) and Monroe, none of their top 11 field-goal shooters connect above 45 percent. They are also very likely to call their own number on the shots they take, their 15.4 assists per 100 possessions the worst in the East.

    Thanks to the Piston bigs not getting back in time, only the 76ers give up more fastbreak points than Detroit among Eastern Conference teams (13.7 opponent fastbreak PPG), and no one in the East gives up more points in the paint (43.6 PPG). Add in some nonchalant perimeter defense from the Piston guards and wings (42.5 opponent 2FG% outside-the-paint, highest in NBA; 40.9 corner 3FG%, 6th-highest in NBA) and the Pistons’ 51.7 opponent effective field goal percentage ranks second-highest in the league, despite their imposing starting frontline.

    The Pistons will try to wear down Atlanta’s wafer-thin frontline. But whenever the Hawks snare rebounds or steal the ball, they have to make smart outlet passes and beat their men down the floor for easy buckets. They must force Jennings and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to make defensive plays or force Smoove to try and chase down shots from behind.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  6. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Wizards

    By lethalweapon3,

    Well, is it finally time for a changing of the guard or not?


    Not “guard,” as in "a member of the Hawks’ backcourt." That can wait, at least until Thursday afternoon.

    Ever since Dwight Howard started getting all wishy-washy about his stay in the Magic Kingdom a couple seasons ago, the Hawks have comfortably held the role of the Atlanta Also-Rans: the second-best team, essentially by default, in the NBA’s Southeast Division.

    There are two teams that would kill for that undistinguished designation right now. The Charlotte Bobcats have reached the postseason just once in their history, but sit in the 8th seed, just two games behind Atlanta (25-27). The second squad is tonight’s opponent for the Hawks, the Washington Wizards (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Washington), who haven’t finished a season in that spot since the salad days of Gil Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison.

    Despite having dropped three straight games and five of their last six, the Wiz (25-28) get a chance to earn the red ribbon by breaking another Hawks Hex and winning their first game at Philips Arena in twelve tries. It’s a losing string that goes back as far as their last win in Atlanta in November 2008, when DeShawn Stevenson stepped up for an injured Agent Zero to upend the Hawks in overtime.

    Back in December, Trevor Booker (24 points and 14 rebounds) led a fourth-quarter charge to lug the Wizards into overtime, despite the absence of Bradley Beal and a bad shooting night (6-for-22) by John Wall. Inbounder extraordinaire Pero Antić brought his A-game in the extra frame, lobbing a pass across the court to Al Horford for the game-winning ten-foot jumper.

    No one is hungrier to seize the tarnished silver medal than former Hawks player and current Wizards Head Coach Randy Wittman, the victim of his own insufferable temper as he got T’d up and tossed while protesting a fourth-quarter charge call in Washington’s 103-93 home loss to Toronto last night. Like the Hawks against the Pacers, Washington was listless in the first quarter, falling behind by as many as 17 points to the Raptors, before scrambling late to make the final score respectable.

    Wittman’s been at his wit’s end for three seasons trying to get a modicum of job security, and a strong finish leading to a postseason berth could accomplish that. There are three Southeast teams angling for a playoff spot without any shot at a division title, and finishing second in this division greatly enhances the likelihood of opening the first round against a team like the Raptors or Bulls, instead of the HEAT or Pacers. A conference semifinal trip would likely mean Wittman finally earns himself a full 2014-15 season without teetering on the edge of a pink slip.

    All-Star Weekend was kind to both franchises. Paul Millsap, Dominqiue Wilkins, Pero Antić each got to watch their teams win their contests, Harry the Hawk got to feast on Kevin Hart, and fans around the world discovered that Sir Foster’s crunk classics blaring on an organ aren’t so corny when they serve as background to quality on-floor talent. Meanwhile, Wall vaulted over his headbanded mascot (I think that was really Al Harrington in there) and was awkwardly handed the Slam Dunk Contest trophy, while Beal made a final-rack run to send Nelly into St. Lunacy and force an extra session with Marco Belinelli in the Three-Point Contest.

    The weekend festivities were a coronation of sorts for Wall (career-high per-game averages of 19.8 points, 8.5 assists, and 2.1 steals), now the top all-around point guard in the East, pairing with Beal (career-high 16.9 PPG, 2.0 three-pointers per game, 3.4 assists per game) to form what has become the top backcourt in the Southeast. It remains vexing, however, that Wittman can’t seem to get these two playing well at the same time for any stretch. Wall still struggles with his outside shot (32.1 3FG%; 35.8 2FG% outside the paint), and Beal is the only Top 100 NBA scorer who shoots worse from within the three-point arc (40.4 2FG%) than outside it (42.7 3FG%). It's like chocolate and peanut butter that can't form a Reese's.

    The duo has scored 20+ points in the same game just once all season, back in mid-December. In 12 games where Beal exceeded 20 points, albeit largely on dishes from Wall and Trevor Ariza, Wall’s scoring average dipped to 14.6 while he shot a mere 33.9% from the field. To make waves in the postseason, the Wizards’ backcourt shotgun cannot be firing off one barrel at a time.

    Wittman is also carefully monitoring the floortime for his most efficient two-way big man. Nene is scoring 16.0 points per game in February after getting shelved in mid-December (and brought off the bench for nearly a month after) to deal with a host of calf, Achilles, and foot injuries. If the Brazilian misses extensive time on the back end of their playoff push, the Wizards, and by extension Wittman, are likely sunk.

    The Polish Hammer, Marcin Gortat, provided 18 points and 11 boards against the Raps but has been fairly inconsistent. As the trade deadline approaches, nary a GM is clamoring for the cluster of disappointing draftees in the Wizards’ stead (Trevor Booker, Otto Porter, Jr., Kevin Seraphin, Jan Vesely). In the 30 games since dropping 24 on the Hawks, Booker has not scored more than 13 in any game, his rebounding and scoring way down after Nene returned full-time.

    GM Ernie Grunfeld is in the final year of his own contract, and could really use a phone call to arrange a deal that bolsters D.C.’s front line. One target might be Dunwoody’s Chris Singleton, who is playing a little more efficiently in his third season but hopelessly buried at the 3-spot behind Ariza, Martell Webster and Otto Porter.

    To avoid losing seven straight games for the first time since March-April 2007, the Hawks must out-produce the Wizards along the corner-three zones. The Hawks top the East with 7.1 corner-three attempts per game (40.8 corner 3FG%, 4th in NBA), and the Wizards are right behind them at 6.8 per game (39.7 corner 3FG%, 9th in NBA). Ariza (46.2%), Webster (45.5%), and Beal (43.7%) are the obvious culprits in this area for the Wizards, as are Korver (47.6%) and Lou Williams (45.5%) for Atlanta.

    Korver will again be stretched thin defensively if DeMarre Carroll (hamstring) remains unavailable, but he, LouWill and Paul Millsap must disrupt kick-outs and make perimeter shots tough on the Wizard wings without foolishly fouling.

    Millsap must avoid foul trouble and dominate the forward matchup with Nene, working his way around Gortat to get to the rim. Elton Brand must avoid foul problems as well, especially with Gustavo Ayón and Pero Antić out of action.

    Meanwhile, dunk champ Wall must be rendered a jump-shooter. Wall shoots 62.7 FG% in the front half of the painted area, and 40.6% on the right side above-the-break on threes, but just 32.6% anywhere else on the floor.

    According to SportVu stats, Jeff Teague (5.2 PPG) actually outscores Wall (4.0 PPG) on drives to the basket, but only a handful of NBA players with similar production shoot a worse percentage than Teague on drives (40.7 FG%). Teague has to take advantage when Gortat gets occupied elsewhere on the floor.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  7. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pacers

    By lethalweapon3,

    Showcase? Or Glass Case?

    While the Atlanta Hawks are somewhat refreshed from the All-Star Break, you’re likely to see, and experience, a bit of the Gas Face. This freefalling team will be trudging through an uphill battle with the Indiana Pacers tonight (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Indiana), then will try to fend off Slam Dunk champ John Wall and the Wizards tomorrow.

    Lineups can get funky in the days before the NBA’s trade deadline passes, and the next two Hawks games should be no exception. If you’re Head Coach Mike Budenholzer, do you trot out Lou Williams (min. 20 minutes per game last 17 games, 8.3 PPG, 4.2 APG, 36.7 FG%) for even more floor time as a sixth-man point guard? Do you green-light Jeff Teague (13.0 PPG, 5.4 APG since January; February usage down to season-low 22.5%) in the mold of a gung-ho pick-and-roll driver? Or do you give each of them short hooks in an effort to keep them fresh and vacuum-seal their trade value?

    If you’re Danny Ferry, do you save Coach Bud the trouble of making those decisions in the first place? Trade value isn’t likely to matter either way, but it would if a player gets hobbled before the general manager can finalize a deal. Pero Antić (ankle) has already been declared out for the Pacer game, while DeMarre Carroll (hammy) is a game-time decision.

    Look for someone down on the Hawks bench to have a sudden breakout in offensive touches over the next couple games, much like Gustavo Ayón’s boost in touches (career-high 18 points on 9-for-11 shooting, 10 boards) versus Toronto on the second night of a dreadful back-to-back.

    That mystery player might be rookie Dennis Schröder, who couldn’t find his shot against the Raptors but accorded himself well in a short stint against C.J. Watson during the Hawks’ 89-85 loss to Indy on February 4. Or, especially if Carroll’s a no-go, it could be Cartier Martin, who led Atlanta’s bench with ten points against the Raptors despite hitting just one of his four 3-point attempts.

    Fresh from his All-Star appearance alongside Pacers Paul George and Roy Hibbert, Paul Millsap may struggle once again to find the basket (3-for-21 last two games vs. Indiana) with David West and Hibbert all over him. Yet he continues to find ways to keep the Hawks competitive on the floor when his shots aren’t falling, contributing 12 rebounds (four offensive) and four steals in the February 4 game at Philips Arena, and chipping in five dimes when the Hawks tipped over the Pacers in Atlanta on January 8.

    Sitting pretty atop the East at 40-12, even tonight’s hosts have some intriguing playing-time decisions to mull over. Danny Granger’s $14 million expiring may be in play, although some of that salary may be getting earmarked for NBA All-Contract-Year 1st-teamer Lance Stephenson. Might Indiana roll the dice and seek out an upgrade at point guard? Or bolster their bench beyond Andrew Bynum?

    Pacers Head Coach Frank Vogel is likely to give his All-Stars a break in the middle quarters. If they can secure an early lead, perhaps he’ll unearth Chris Copeland and Ian Mahinmi, lightly-used players with guaranteed contracts next year, or youngsters like Orlando Johnson, rookie Solomon Hill and ex-Hawk Donald Sloan. It would be surprising if they throw Bynum out there right away.

    However they play it, the Pacers have no intentions of dropping consecutive games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (NBA-best 25-3 home record) for the first time this season. Indy started their All-Star break a couple days early, shooting a season-low 32.1 FG% and posting just four second-chance points against Dallas in an 81-73 setback, as George (4-for-17 shooting) left it to Granger and George Hill (combined 6-for-13 on threes) to carry the offense. If those two (and forward Luis Scola) aren’t playing significant minutes tonight, it could signal that Larry Bird and Kevin Pritchard have something cooking on the hot stove.

    If the Pacers do slip up again tonight, it’ll be because they got sloppy with the ball and didn’t get back in transition. They’re a pedestrian 5-4 when they commit 20 or more turnovers. On the season, the Hawks’ opponents give up 14.9 turnovers per game (7th most in NBA), leading to 17.5 points per game for Atlanta (9th in NBA).

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  8. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Raptors

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Atlanta Hawks appear to be stuck in the Land of the Lost. That perception adds a dash of irony to their game against tonight’s opponent, the Toronto Raptors (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, TSN2).

    The matchup with Atlanta’s favorite Atlantic Division team (#netswatch) is yet another case where the opponents will be aiming to shake off a Hawks Hex. Atlanta has come up to Air Canada Centre and vanquished the hosts in five consecutive outings. The last Raptors home win against the Hawks came on St. Patty’s Day 2010, when they needed last-minute heroics from Chris Bosh to overcome Mo Evans’ 16 points (in place of an injured Joe Johnson) and Jamal Crawford’s 33-point bonanza off the bench.

    These modern-day Hawks come in having dropped four straight, getting savaged on the interior while making do without Al Horford or a viable substitute. Last night, Joakim Noah looked as fresh as Yannick did in 1983, controlling both ends of the floor against an outclassed Gustavo Ayón, while tag teaming with Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler to keep Paul Millsap and the Hawks off the glass.

    If you can call it a break, the Hawks actually got one when the Bulls’ leading scorer, Carlos Boozer, had to sit out of the Tuesday night game. They may get another one tonight, as starting power forward and extreme Christmas-tree-topper Amir Johnson (54.2 FG%, 2.4 offensive RPG) remains questionable after bruising an ankle. While the Bulls had an established defensive stalwart in Taj Gibson ready to step up and dominate the action, Head Coach Dwane Casey would need another stellar outing from Patrick Patterson (season-high 22 points in a win against New Orleans on Monday) to neutralize Millsap.

    Kyle Lowry struggled on defense to contain the passing wizardry of Jeff Teague (12 assists, 1 turnover) in their first meeting of the season, a 102-95 Hawks victory at Philips Arena way back on November 1. Of course, that was November Kyle Lowry, whose play was so bad that GM Masai Ujiri heaved leading scorer Rudy Gay to Sacramento just to get Lowry some competition (Greivis Vasquez) and all but declare him trade bait going forward.

    As it turned out, Gay was merely stunting the progress of not only Lowry but All-Star wing DeMar DeRozan (team-leading 22.2 PPG). Lowry boosted his production from 13.5 PPG and 6.3 APG (43.8 FG%; 37.6 3FG%) in October/November to 18.3 PPG and 8.2 APG (45.3 FG%; 44.1 3FG%) in January, helping the Raps rise out from the doldrums of the East.

    Now, as the trade deadline draws near, he’s gone from a trade certainty to a likely mainstay in a matter of months. Earning ample minutes (36.3 MPG, 13th in NBA) on the floor while Vasquez continues to disappoint, Lowry has since surpassed Jeff Teague in the assists per game rankings, at 7.5 APG to Teague’s 7.2.

    It remains to be seen if Lowry is coming back to Earth now that the All-Star push has concluded. But through five February games he has dropped to 16.8 PPG and 6.8 APG, while shooting just 41.4 FG% (27.6 3FG%) and again struggling to disrupt opponents’ passing games (Pelicans Brian Roberts and Tyreke Evans combined for 41 points and 12 assists on Monday). For his part, Lowry is coming off a near triple-double against the Pelicans on Monday (19 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds). Tonight will be his final chance to showcase himself in the event an emergency All-Star injury replacement becomes necessary.

    Up in Ontario, only Rob Ford and Justin Bieber get as high on the regular than DeRozan and reigning All-Star Dunk Contest champ Terrence Ross. Unless the Hawks want to have an unfortunate feature role in All-Star Weekend previews, they must get bodies out in front of these two guys in transition, and keep lanes to the rim closed in their halfcourt defense.

    DeRozan gets a little too satisfied with the jump shots outside of the paint (9.0 mid-range FG attempts, 4th most in NBA; 39.5 mid-range FG%), so it will be crucial to keep Patterson and Jonas Valanciunas off the offensive glass, something the Hawks failed to do last night in the Windy City. You also want Ross not only away from the rim on the fastbreak, but off the 3-point line when uncontested (40.0 3FG%, compared to just 42.4 2FG%).

    Valanciunas (team-leading 8.7 RPG) may be a little more ornery than usual coming into tonight. Still coming of age, JV was particularly chippy after absorbing a People’s Elbow from New Orleans’ Greg Stiemsma, getting called for a technical after trying to return the favor. He quickly got himself in foul trouble as the Pelicans made their late charge to nearly erase an 18-point lead. Casey, for his part, is pleading for his young center to channel his emotions toward sound, tough basketball play.

    “We just need clean physicality: screening. That, to me, is nasty,” Casey told the National Post on Tuesday. “Setting a screen is nasty. Boxing out is nasty. Those are the kind of nasty things we need. We don’t need elbows. We don’t need [demonstrative] facial expressions.”

    As in previous seasons, the Dinos still remain a bunch of Hackasauruses. Only the Kings rack up more personal foul calls than the Raps (22.7 personals per game, 2nd most in NBA). Johnson's 3.6 fouls per game ranks 4th in the league, while Lowry's 3.3 average ranks 6th and leads all NBA guards, with Valanciunas (3.1 personal fouls/game) not far behind.

    However, their opponents only average 24.2 free throw shots per game (14th most in NBA), so a lot of the whistles are apparently from Toronto committing non-shooting and offensive fouls. Still, the hesitancy and pump-faking from Ayón and the Hawks that Chicago refused to bite on may work more favorably against the defensively hyper, less-disciplined Raptors.

    With Ross and now possibly Patterson promoted to the starting lineup, bench production is a challenge for Casey’s crew. On the season, Toronto’s reserves put up just 25.9 PPG (26th in NBA, 2nd fewest in East) while shooting just 41.9 FG% (25th in NBA). Despite a horrid first half, experimental subject Lou Williams (an eventual 13 points vs. Chicago, on 6-for-11 shooting) and key Hawks bench players (Elton Brand, Mike Scott) made a single-digit game out of what was turning into a laugher for the Bulls. These guys will be needed to build an advantage for the Hawks on the scoreboard, relative to the detritus Toronto has to occasionally trot out (Vasquez, Tyler Hansbrough, Quincy Acy, Steve Novak, Chuck Hayes) due to their starters’ persistent foul troubles.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  9. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bulls

    By lethalweapon3,

    Will the power outage continue tonight? The Atlanta Hawks’ offense (102.1 PPG, 2nd in Eastern Conference) was flying high until it ran head-on into the Pacers, Pelicans, and Grizzlies over the past week. It gets no easier soaring against the Chicago Bulls (8:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Chicago), who hope the charge past the Hawks in the Eastern Conference standings.

    The Hawks (25-24) have been unable to control the pace-of-play in their last three games, all losses. There’s no reason to believe that won’t continue against Head Coach Tom Thibodeau’s Bulls (90.6 possessions per-48, 2nd-lowest pace in NBA). In 11 regular-season games coaching against the Hawks, his Bulls’ defense has kept Atlanta under 90 points in nine of them. That includes last month’s 91-84 win at Philips Arena where the Bulls held the Hawks to 37.2% shooting (28.6 3FG%).
    Only Golden State has reached the century mark among the Bulls’ last eight opponents. The Bulls force uncomfortable shots outside of the paint (27.4 opponent mid-range shots, 2nd only to Indiana), and effectively seal off the rim area to minimize foes’ second-chance opportunities.

    That’s not to say the Bulls (25-25) are scorching the nets either (92.1 PPG, last in NBA). They’ve surpassed 100 points in regulation just twice in their last 15 games. Their 97.3 points per 100 possessions exceeds only the wretched 76ers and Bucks. But in their case, that’s largely by design. Unlike some fans, Chicago’s aren’t coming to the arena solely for the faint hope of a free cheesesteak. Absent Rose, the Bulls are perfectly fine scoring under 100 if they can consistently keep your team below 90.

    Nikola Mirotic’s seat-warmer, Carlos Boozer (14.8 PPG) has been out of action for about a week with a strained calf. With Luol Deng not-so-hot in Cleveland and Derrick Rose in a suit for the rest of the season, if Boozer can’t go, say hello to Chicago’s leading scorer… D.J. Augustin (13.9 PPG).

    Left for dead after getting cut by Toronto (2.1 PPG, 8.2 minutes per game), Augustin has averaged 16.5 PPG and 5.6 APG since Deng was dealt. He’s shot 45.1 FG% and 45.9 3FG% over the past 30 days, but it’s safe to assume that, when he has a clunker of a game, the Bulls are losing big. Since mid-December the Bulls have dropped eight games by double-digit deficits, and in those games he’s shot a combined 34.2 FG%. Conversely, in their six double-digit wins he’s made half of his two-point and three-point shots.

    Atlanta touts a record of 20-2 when Jeff Teague (3-for-10, 4 assists and 4 turnovers vs. Memphis on Saturday; one steal in last three games) registers a plus-minus of +1 or higher (18-1 when Teague’s plus-minus is +5 or better), but is an unsightly 0-16 when it’s below -5 (3-20 when -1 or worse). He and the Hawks’ point guards have struggled containing second-tier point guards late in games, and will want to play tighter shot defense on Augustin on the left side of the floor (49.3 season FG%), than the right side (38.2 FG%).

    The Bulls do apply patience to their ball movement before settling on shots. Only the Hawks (67.6 assists per 100 possessions) have a higher assist percentage than the Bulls (64.3 assist percentage). The downside for Chicago is they expose themselves to turnovers (15.7 TOs/game, 5th most in NBA, 2nd most in East) trying to scramble as the end of the shot clock nears. It’s not so much the pickoffs (8.3 opponent steals per 100 possessions, 4th most in East), it’s the non-transition errors like offensive fouls, traveling, and shot-clock and three-second violations. Still, the Hawks can’t waste valuable scoring opportunities, and must come away at least with free throw attempts when transitioning off of steals.

    Boozer’s potential absence won’t simplify matters for Paul Millsap (16 points and 12 rebounds, 6 of them offensive vs. Chicago in January, 5-for-18 shooting), as Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah (20 points and 13 boards vs. the Lakers on Sunday) can gang up to keep him off the glass. As was the case in recent games facing talented defensive bigs, Millsap doesn’t have the benefit of a Pero Antić to draw Noah away. Nonetheless, he’s put together four straight games with ten-plus rebounds and three games with double-doubles in his past four games (18.3 PPG, 11.5 RPG). He’s also credited with an average of 3.8 steals in his past five contests.

    The Bulls’ defense will be stretched thin if Gibson, Jimmy Butler and ex-Hawk Kirk Hinrich are caught trying to keep up with the Hawks’ hot wings along the perimeter. DeMarre Carroll will join ex-Bulls Kyle Korver and Cartier Martin (combined 11-for-21 on three-pointers in past two games) to spread Chicago out. The Bulls will try to counter offensively with Mike Dunleavy (team-high 20 points on 9-for-14 shooting at Atlanta in January). It will be the responsibilities of Teague, Millsap, and centers like former Bulls draft pick Elton Brand to exploit the lane when Gibson comes out to help.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  10. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Grizzlies

    By lethalweapon3,

    A little rest for the weary? Both the Atlanta Hawks and tonight’s opponents, the Memphis Grizzlies (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports South in Memphis viewing area) each got to enjoy an extra day or two off before a couple of daunting schedules kick in.

    For the Grit ‘n Grind Gang, the Atlanta game initiates a four-games-in-five-nights swing versus Eastern Conference teams preceding the All-Star break. They get the Cavaliers in Cleveland tomorrow night, then fly home to play the Wizards Tuesday before they’re back out to take on the Magic in Orlando Wednesday. Today’s the final home game before the break for the Hawks, who hit the road for back-to-backs in Chicago and Toronto, then head to Indiana after All-Star Weekend.

    Memphis got on a roll after lynchpin center Marc Gasol returned to action in mid-January, after spraining his MCL in November. The Blue Bears went on an 8-1 stretch to move within a whisker of the Western Conference playoff teams. Then, another keystone, point guard and leading-scorer Mike Conley, sprained his ankle last Friday. Since then, the Griz won at home to white-flag Milwaukee, ran into the Kevin Durant buzzsaw in OKC, then fell apart at home in the second half to a team they’re chasing, the Mavericks.

    Gasol struggled with just 12 points and 4 rebounds in 37 minutes against Dallas, who now sits 2.5 games ahead of Memphis in the West’s 8th seed. He dished out 5 assists but also turned the ball over a season-high six times. Gasol is still playing through some discomfort in his knee, noting his MCL recovery “is not done.” In Memphis, Conley is perhaps as vital to MG as 8Ball is to MJG. Since mid-November, the Grizzlies are 13-2 with Conley, Gasol, and Zach Randolph all starting together. Six of Conley’s 13 assists came in the fourth quarter to fend off the Hawks in Memphis (108-101) back on January 12.

    Jeff Teague and Shelvin Mack struggled to contain that kid rocking the Bride of Frankenstein hairdo on Wednesday. Brian Roberts has taken over for Jrue Holiday and his eight fourth-quarter points led a nightmarish close to the Hawks’ 105-100 loss in New Orleans. Today’s understudy challenge for Teague and Mack is “rookie” Nick Calathes, whose hairline is veering closer to Riff Raff’s from Rocky Horror following a couple years of international play.

    After starring for the University of Florida, Calathes didn’t stick as a 2009 second-round draftee, finding his way onto Panathinaikos Athens and the Greek National Team, then won the Eurocup MVP with Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia. Now he’s had an up-and-down stretch filling in for Conley in the starting lineup. He’s averaged an impressive 15.3 PPG in his 3 starts (including a career-high 22 against the Bucks, and 16 versus the Mavs), shooting 51.4 FG%, but just 3.7 APG as he defers to the veterans to set up plays. His six three-pointers in the past three games exceed the five that he made in his previous 34 appearances.

    To say Grizzlies fans are giddy about a couple of mid-season roster additions would be an understatement. Unshackled from Boston in the Jerryd Bayless trade, Courtney Lee (15 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the floor vs. Atlanta in January) has been granted a greenlight from Head Coach Dave Joerger, averaging 14.1 PPG while shooting 60.6% on two-pointers and 90.2 FT%. Hawks’ preseason castaway James Johnson (season-high 17 points vs. Dallas on Wednesday) has infused such defensive energy into games for the FedEx Forum faithful that the team has scheduled a “Neck Tattoo Night” giveaway for a home game in a couple weeks (Johnson’s tat “NAYMIN” is for his prematurely-born son, who turns 11 months old today).

    Together with Tayshaun Prince, Johnson and Lee will likely collaborate to try and neutralize the similarly-well-tatted Mike Scott (team-leading 3 treys vs. Memphis in January) and the blazing-hot DeMarre Carroll (season-high 22 points on Wednedsay) around the perimeter.

    Last name 10, first name 20. Zach Randolph has rebounded, literally, from a December shooting slump (40.8 FG% in December). With Gasol back to space the floor, Z-Bo boosted his scoring to 18.5 PPG and 11.8 RPG in January. He’s been living up to his moniker in the first three games this month (20.3 PPG, 10.7 RPG). Paul Millsap did a solid job (26 points, 10 rebounds) matching his fellow newly-minted All-Star Anthony Davis’ offense Wednesday. Playing tonight despite being a bit under the weather, he’ll need help at both ends of the floor from Elton Brand and Gustavo Ayón if the Atlanta frontcourt expects to outpace Randolph and Gasol.

    After a failed experiment to speed things up in November , the reversion of Joerger’s offense to a Lionel Hollins-style halfcourt tempo is now complete (89.7 possessions per 48 minutes, 30th in NBA). They still don’t exactly dig the longball (17.4% 3-point attempts/FGA, lowest in NBA), but with players like Mike Miller (41.5 3FG%), Jon Leuer (47.4 3FG%), Calathes (39.3 3FG%) and now Lee (40.9 3FG%) in tow, Memphis is willing to trade off volume (Atlanta’s 30.3% three-point attempt rate ranks 2nd in NBA) for efficiency. The Hawks need to stay close to these guys near the end of shot clock, and must be ready to push the ball and score in transition off missed shots.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  11. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pelicans

    By lethalweapon3,

    This battle is for the birds!

    Down in the Big Easy, victories don’t come either big or easy for the Atlanta Hawks or their ornithological opponents, the New Orleans Pelicans (8:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Fox Sports New Orleans).

    Tom Benson’s other team has taken flak for their creepy choice of a mascot. I’ve got a suggestion that’s even creepier but almost as apropos: Elijah Price, from the movie Unbreakable. This team’s key players seem to be persistently at risk of tearing or breaking or straining something, far more than most NBA teams. If Head Coach Monty Williams had hair to tear out, he would. He has to be thinking there’s a polar-opposite team somewhere that’s in picture-perfect health.

    The Pelicans made a 2013 draft-day ploy to swap their lottery pick (and this year’s first-rounder, top-5 protected) to attain 2013 All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday. They got 34 modest games out of Holiday, before a stress-fractured tibia sidelined him for the remainder of the season.

    Highly salaried guard Eric Gordon (career-low 15.8 PPG) was playing at the start of the year while suffering through a knee ailment, and later a sore hip. Right before the Pellies’ season opener, their leading scorer Ryan Anderson suffered a chipped toe in practice. Anderson was slowly returned into the starting rotation, only to collide with a Celtic in January and get carried off the parquet floor with a probable season-ending herniated disc.

    Starting center Jason Smith returned from a season-ending shoulder injury last year, then bruised his knee in December, then went under the knife for season-ending cartilage removal.

    Tyreke Evans (team-leading 27.4 % usage) missed all of the preseason with an ankle sprain, re-aggravated it over the past couple months, and now has a rib contusion to help him forget all about that ankle. He had to take himself out of New Orleans’ 102-95 loss to the Spurs on Monday, and his status remains questionable for tonight.

    Finally, there’s Anthony Davis, shut down last April to heal an MCL sprain. After starting this season, Davis rushed back ahead of schedule in December a week after sustaining a non-displaced fracture in his left hand while dunking. Now, he plays through pain from a finger he dislocated on the same hand in January.

    Keeping this flawed jigsaw puzzle together would be much easier for Monty Williams in an Eastern Conference loaded with teams tripping over each other in a race to the bottom. Unfortunately, he has to stay afloat not only in the tougher conference, but the toughest top-to-bottom division in the conference. The Pelicans have a gaudy 12-5 record against the East (6th best in NBA) but a paltry 8-22 in the West. All four of their division mates (Spurs, Rockets, Mavericks, Grizzlies) could make the playoffs.

    So who’s left? Well, even 90% of Davis (3.4 BPG, 1st in NBA; up to 20.4 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 1.5 SPG) is still pretty doggone good. He’ll be showcased in a couple weeks during All-Star Weekend, and wouldn’t mind a call to play in the big game that Sunday as an injury replacement.

    And then there’s also our old friend Anthony Morrow, shooting a NBA-leading 46.5% on threes, just ahead of Atlanta’s Kyle Korver (46.3 3FG%). Ammo ranks 4th among active players in career three-point accuracy (42.7%), again just ahead of Korver (42.3%). With Anderson out of the picture, Monty Williams is leaning on Morrow (20 points against the Spurs on Monday), Gordon, Brian Roberts and Darius Miller to help the Pelicans keep up in games when they’re getting blitzed around the perimeter. The Pelicans are 3-13 when they allow more than 8 three-pointers by their opponents.

    There are signs that the P'cans are finally listening to Monty and turning the corner with their beignet-soft team defense. After giving up 100 or more points in 27 of their first 38 games (15-23), they’ve won five of their past nine while holding teams to double-digits in six of them. The undermanned Spurs needed a 38-point final quarter to reach 102 points and upend the Pelicans at New Orleans Arena on Monday.

    To bolster the interior D so Davis won’t feel pressed to do everything, they brought along French pastry Alexis Ajinca to start at center. The former Bobcat hasn’t been in the league since 2011, but with his seven-foot-plus height, he and various and sundry other stiffs (rookie Jeff Withey, Greg Steimsma) allow the 220-pound Davis to slide over and bedevil power forwards like Atlanta’s All-Star Paul Millsap (2-for-11 shooting last night vs. Indiana, 0-for-4 on threes). Davis and Ajinca will try to approximate the vice work David West and Roy Hibbert put on Millsap yesterday, while Davis will seek to get Millsap in foul trouble on the opposite end.

    Ajinca will tip off against Gustavo Ayón, who made his mark in this arena as a rookie free agent signing for Monty Williams in the 2011-12 season. Ayón was more of a facilitator last night against Indiana, and needs to crash the boards effectively tonight. He managed zero rebounds in over 18 minutes last night despite his starting role. He is the only true weak link on the active roster when it comes to free throw shooting (33.3 FT%).

    Jeff Teague (3.2 TOs/G, 5th most among NBA PGs) may be reaching a new comfort level as a ballhandler in Mike Budenholzer’s system, and right on time. He has turned the ball over no more than twice in the last four games, while ringing up at least seven assists in each of his last three.

    To keep starter-quality minutes (29.7 MPG since January, down from 34.4 in December; 24.5 minutes last night), Teague must demonstrate improved mastery of the offense. Shelvin Mack and Dennis Schröder (10 minutes last night, including a critical juncture in the fourth quarter) are showing positive signs of developing and gaining Budenholzer’s confidence. Despite the Hawks’ last two losses against the Spurs and Pacers, they’re still 11-5 when Teague keeps the turnovers to two or fewer.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  12. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pacers

    By lethalweapon3,

    With such relatively sparse and often opponent-friendly crowds, it can be astounding to discover that Philips Arena can be such a veritable House of Horrors for certain opponents of the Atlanta Hawks. No matter which Kevin leads the way, Minnesota cannot seem to trump the Hawks in ATL. The Timberwolves scampered home on Saturday night after losing there for the 11th consecutive season.

    Atlanta’s next opponent, the Eastern Conference’s top-seeded Indiana Pacers (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Indiana), come into tonight’s affair trying to avoid dropping their 13th straight regular season matchup at the Highlight Factory. They’re looking for their first win here since December 2006, a time when D4L and snap music looked like the Next Big Thing. Despite boasting the East’s best record for away games (14-8), this is one of those tasks they are desperate to scratch off the “To-Do” list.

    Loss Number 12 came at the hands of the Hawks just last month, a wire-to-wire 97-87 victory for Atlanta that righted their ship on the heels of a three-game losing streak. The Pacers (37-10) went on from that January 8 defeat to rattle off five straight wins, then had an up-and-down road trip featuring losses in Phoenix and Denver, before coming home only to lose to the shorthanded Suns again.

    Paul George (22.8 PPG) added 12 rebounds to his obligatory 28 points against the Hawks, but got little help from his teammates (38.7 FG%), most notably his fellow All-Star Roy Hibbert (two points, 1-for-8 shooting, one block, zero free throws, four rebounds in 22 truncated minutes). Hibbert couldn’t use Al Horford as an excuse for playing poorly, and he won’t have Pero Antić (16 points) to blame if he struggles tonight, either.

    “I couldn't really guard anybody,” Hibbert told the Indianapolis Star after the Hawks’ latest hex. “They didn't really have a low-post threat so the spread-five is always something difficult for me. … That was a tough guard for me.”

    It will likely be Gustavo Ayón’s turn to play “Betcha Can’t Do It Like Me” versus Hibbert (1st among NBA centers in defensive rating; 2.5 BPG, 3rd in NBA, 12.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG), specifically if he can spread the floor a little and make Hibbert pay for camping out around the rim. Over his past seven games, Ayón’s been shooting 61.9% in the paint, but also has shot 4-for-7 outside the lane.

    A would-be All-Star, Lance Stephenson (15 points and 12 rebounds versus Orlando on Monday), was unavailable to help the Pacers’ cause on January 8 due to a bruised knee. Born Ready is out to show NBA coaches they screwed up by allegedly selecting Joe Johnson in lieu of him, but he also wants to be front-and-center among ASG injury replacements if needed. The guard has a knack for crashing the boards, leading the league with four triple-doubles, twice the amount of anyone else, to go along with a team-leading 15 double-doubles.

    The Pacers’ top-notch defense (41.3 opponent FG%, 1st in NBA) keyed in on All-Star Paul Millsap (1-for-10 shooting, 4 points, 6 rebounds). But unlike Paul George, Millsap had teammates who made their opponents pay. Absent any on-the-ball pressure from Stephenson, Jeff Teague got inside and to the line freely (15 points, 6 assists, 5-for-6 FTs), and the Hawks committed only ten turnovers, shooting far more efficiently from three-point range (10-for-23 3FG) than Indiana (9-for-27 3FG).

    Teague (8.0 APG and 1.0 TO/G in his last two games) still struggles with his shots, but should continue to establish a dominant role as a lead guard against Indiana’s George Hill, who has been even more deferential than usual as a passer lately (2.7 APG since January) in preference for drives and cuts to the hoop. If Teague outworks Hill, Stephenson and George will be stretched thin as help defenders for Teague and Millsap, opening things up nicely for Kyle Korver (season-high 8 FT attempts vs. Minnesota; 60.0 3FG% last 4 games) and the emerging DeMarre Carroll (15.7 PPG, 56.9 FG%, and 53.3 3FG% last 7 games).

    Only two Pacers in that game drew fouls, George (3-for-4), and Danny Granger (5-for-5) in his only start of the season. Granger (36.3 FG%, 32.9 3FG%) has struggled to find a steady role in the Pacer rotation since returning to NBA action in mid-December. But he did break out with 16 points against Orlando, and must continue finding ways to get free throw opportunities (95.2 FT%) to reestablish his confidence.

    Elton Brand has had to give up much of the offensive responsibilities he had over the bulk of his 15-season NBA career. But despite career-lows in offensive production (11.0 points per-36; 13.7% usage; 8.2 offensive rebounding percentage), his defensive productivity has been stellar (career-highs of 2.6 blocks and 7.1 defensive rebounds per-36). Plus, when his number is called on offense, he’s making the most of it, shooting a career-high 54.1 FG%. His input will be crucial when Ian Mahinmi (playing with a sore shoulder) comes in to spell Hibbert.

    David West played through an ankle injury in last night’s win versus Orlando, but no Hawks will be feeling sorry for him tonight, not after Kevin Love came through here with his ankle woes and dropped 43 and 19.

    The utterances of “Mike Who?” are getting quieter and quieter. That January Pacers-Hawks contest was the first of 11 consecutive games in which the Mikerowave, Mike Scott, put up double figures in scoring, the NBA’s longest active streak for bench players. According to STATS, LLC, Scott’s 27.0 points-per-48 is now the third highest in the league for NBA reserves logging 600 or more minutes. He’s also had three offensive rebounds in each of his last three games. Will Head Coach Frank Vogel gameplan with the intention of keeping Scott away from the rim? If so, he might be the first to do it.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  13. lethalweapon3
    Things are finally warming up around the Atlanta metro area Saturday and, to a lesser extent, a slow thawing is underway for the Minnesota Timberwolves, tonight’s opponent for the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 PM SportSouth, Fox Sports North). The T-Wolves had won five of their last six before a disappointing loss at home last night to the Memphis Grizzlies. Victorious in just one of their last 13 games against the Hawks, Minny will try today to snap Atlanta’s 10-game home winning streak head-to-head.

    Despite being one of the league’s highest scoring teams (105.8 PPG, 4th in NBA), the Wolves (23-23) have been taking two steps forward, one or two steps back all season, bickering internally along the way. Stuck in the hyper-competitive Western Conference, they are in a dogfight with the Grizzlies and Denver, hoping to be in prime position in the event one of the bottom-half of the West’s Top 8 falters. The team continues to struggle to keep key contributors healthy, a factor which will be evident in tonight’s game.

    Love hurts! Hulking center Nikola Pekovic is out for at least a week to deal with bursitis in his ankle. Ronny Turiaf, who just returned this month from a fractured elbow, has been starting in Pekovic’s place alongside All-Star double-double machine Kevin Love (25.1 PPG, 4th in NBA; 13.0 RPG, 2nd in NBA).
    Now, Love is struggling to deal with a sore ankle, suffered in the first half of last night’s game. He finished with 28 points and 16 boards, but was visibly and admittedly struggling after the game with discomfort. Reserve forward Chase Budinger recently returned from a surgically repaired knee, but is still working his way back into the rotation.

    Even with four perfectly functional ankles, Love and Pekovic (18.0 PPG; 4.1 Offensive RPG, 3rd in NBA) have been unable to stop opponents from dominating on one end of the floor the way they do on the other. The Wolves give up 18.6 buckets per game on shots within 5 feet of the rim, with opponents shooting a league-high 65.1 FG%. Whether Love can go or not, Paul Millsap and the Hawks must continue to find ways to pile up points in the paint. Minnesota scores 47.0 points in the paint (5th most in NBA), usually with Love and Pekovic together, but give up just about as many (45.8 opponent PPG in the paint, 5th most in NBA).

    Love is a battlefield. When he is not keeping his team in games with three-point shots (career-high 2.3 3FG per game), Love is masterful with his ability to create leverage under the basket for offensive rebounds. The Hawks will need forwards to be extra-protective around the basket, not only for Love, but for Turiaf and rookie Gorgui Dieng, each of whom have offensive rebounding percentages that exceed Love’s. One-and-done offense neutralizes the Wolves team that ranks 25th in both field goal percentage and three-point shooting percentage.

    Love kills, at times on the other end of the floor. He has become the most proficient player in the league with outlet passes off of defensive rebounds, boosting his passing average to a career-high 4.1 APG. If Love plays tonight, DeMarre Carroll will have to stay back and do his best Richard Sherman impersonation by disrupting outlet passes to the opposite end.

    Eager to reach the postseason for the first time since 2004, Minnesota is sobering to the realization that some of their young pups are not gonna make it after all. The patience wore thin for 2011 second-overall draft pick Derrick Williams, their fourth-leading scorer last season who seemed to regress in the first month of the season. Desperate for greater defensive presence at the wing, Flip Saunders shipped D-Won’t to Sacramento in exchange for the remains of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. Once-hyped lotto pick Shabazz Muhammad (3.9 minutes per game. 26.1 FG%) has barely seen the floor.

    Head Coach Rick Adelman does appear to be resigned to the understanding that it’s WYSIWYG with wunderkind Ricky Rubio. He remains perhaps the most electric passer in the game (8.2 APG, 5th in NBA), and roves the halfcourt enough to lead the league in steals (2.6 SPG). Yet he also remains perhaps the least-effective shooter in the league, his 39.2 effective field goal percentage the lowest by far among active NBA players getting 25 or more minutes.

    The long-armed point guard has not improved significantly as a man defender, either, although his +11.9 on/off per 100 possessions comes on the strength of his cross-court pass pickoffs. Last night, Rubio was benched in the final quarter in favor of J.J. Barea, with Adelman ominously suggesting the latter was the “best option to win.” Now in his 23rd season, Adelman looks the part of a man leaning toward retiring rather than hanging around to see things through with Minnesota’s core.

    The Wolves create advantages on the scoreboard by striving to keep opponents off of the free throw line. They make 20.7 freebies per game (3rd most in NBA), while allowing just 18.3 attempts on average (fewest in NBA). Without Love or Pekovic, Adelman will lean heavily on his top summer acquisition, Kevin Martin (19.1 PPG, 42.8 FG%), to attack the paint and earn whistles from the refs. Martin (88.6 FT%, 4th in NBA) is a virtuoso in drawing cheap fouls, and should be kept away from the heavy-handed Lou Williams as much as possible. Rubio (85.0 FT%) has no business getting his points from anything other than desperation threes and wild forays into the paint.

    Corey Brewer will be primarily charged with chasing around Kyle Korver, who has resumed the top spot in the league for three-point shooting (46.6 3FG%) after a recent swoon by the Spurs’ Marco Belinelli. If necessary, Head Coach Mike Budenholzer has an array of offensive alternatives to Korver. In addition to the red-hot Carroll (62.5 FG% and 63.2 3FG% last five games) and “MoHawk” Mike Scott (16 points in the second quarter of Friday’s convincing win in Philly), Budenholzer has Cartier Martin back at his disposal.

    After getting waived by the Hawks a few weeks ago, Martin spent a pair of 10-day spells with the Chicago Bulls, shooting 62.5 FG% and 60.0% on threes in six brief stints. Scott (14.1 PPG, minimum ten points in last ten games) continues working hard to impress in case the Rising Stars coaches need to find an alternate or two before All-Star Weekend.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  14. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Sixers

    By lethalweapon3,

    The undulating competition level for the Atlanta Hawks continues tonight as a suddenly well-rested club is in Philadelphia, woofing down cheesesteaks and ready to take on the 76ers (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Philly).

    The Gods of Gridlock intervened right on time for a Hawks team that just finished another string of three games in four nights, the final contest a spirited yet crushing defeat at the hands of Kevin Durant and the Refs Oklahoma City Thunder, the top team in the league. The winter weather and subsequent snafu that snarled Atlanta for days kept the Detroit Pistons in Motown on Wednesday. The cancelled game effectively gave the Hawks a couple days off before kicking off their next back-to-back affair, as the Timberwolves and Hawks will arrive back at Philips Arena for a game tomorrow evening, Traffic willing.

    The Sixers (15-31) rolled into the new year on a nice Road Warrior-style four-game winning streak. They hope not to roll out of January like a lamb. They’ve dropped seven of their last eight games at Wells Fargo Center, most of those deficits by double-digits. But after Evan Turner’s buzzer-beater slapped an ugly bow on the worst month of basketball in the Boston Celtics’ history, it’s Philly (the players, not so much the fans) that is hoping to go on just the third winning streak of their up-and-mostly-down season.

    Who He Play For? Charles Barkley would scratch his glossy dome with fervor if presented with the names and/or faces of Hollis Thompson, Elliot Williams, Dewayne Dedmon (there’s an obvious joke awaiting everytime he gets called for traveling), Lorenzo Brown, Arnett Moultrie and/or Brandon Davies. What would otherwise make for a stout lineup for the Delaware 87ers is filling out the end of the bench for Head Coach Brett Brown’s squad and (with exception to Moultrie, who is awaiting his season debut after an offseason ankle injury) getting around 10-15 minutes of NBA floor burn per night.

    Most of their deployment is intended by Brown to help reduce the wear-and-tear on the true healthy talents remaining on the Sixers’ roster. Players like Turner (career-high 18.5 PPG), Thaddeus Young (career-high 17.3 PPG), and Spencer Hawes (career-highs 14.0 PPG, 1.7 3FG/game, 42.0 3FG%, 8.7 RPG) are all balling at a breakneck pace (league-leading 99.6 possessions per 48 minutes). They are wearing their precious hearts out on the floor, not really to help the team win much, but rather to enhance their own trade-bait-ability as the deadline looms closer.

    The motor that keeps Brown’s offense sputtering along is super-rookie Michael Carter-Williams, the dazzling 6-foot-6 point guard who leads all rookies in points, assists, and even rebounds (17.2 PPG. 6.7 APG, 5.6 RPG).

    Lacking any assistance from shelved rookie teammate Nerlens Noel, MCW (40.1 FG%, 69.9 FT%) has to spin an awful lot of straw, given the shallow depth and experience of the talent surrounding him. Carter-Williams’ overall offense is thus emblematic of a team that ranks second in the league in shots (88.5 field goal attempts per game) but has the second-worst efficiency (100.0 points per 100 possessions), shooting just 44.0 percent (23rd in NBA; 31.7 3FG%, 29th in NBA) while committing a league-high 16.9 turnovers per game.

    If Jeff Teague (a gametime decision for tonight after resting an ankle sprain) can go, he’ll need to find a way to offset MCW’s offensive production. Teague looked every bit the All-Star that Kenny Smith imagines he is during the Hawks’ 113-103 victory over the Sixers in Atlanta on November 15. While MCW was sidelined due to injury, Jeff got to the free throw line in a jiffy (12-for-13 FTs), and led the way with 33 points (career-high for a regulation game) and 10 assists.

    If Teague sits again, his duties will fall to Shelvin Mack (15 points, 7 assists and 1 turnover vs. OKC), who was dumped by the Sixers around this time last season after a pair of 10-days, and probably fellow rookie Dennis Schröder, who had a surprisingly strong offensive game (10 points in 13 minutes, 4-for-6 shooting) off the bench versus OKC. Generating points off of turnovers will be crucial for Atlanta, as will keeping MCW from getting shots in the paint (48.1 FG% inside, 31.0 FG% outside).

    Philadelphia’s chances of pulling off a victory often depend on the ability of up-and-comers Tony Wroten and (former Hawks preseason favorite) James Anderson to go for career nights. Wroten ranks 9th in the league for usage (28.1 plays per 100 possessions), the second-highest rate among non-All-Stars. So when he comes off the bench, he isn’t looking to pass. Altogether, don’t be surprised to see a couple Sixer performances that light up the boxscores in a losing effort.

    The losses pile up because players like Turner and Hawes (not a Tom Hanks movie) rarely demonstrate any capacity to make stops on defense. The Sixers give up a whopping 109.5 points per contest. Carter-Williams (2.4 SPG) and Young (2.1 SPG) rank third and fourth in the league in thefts per game, but they often have to leave their man to bail out their defensively flawed teammates, and the Sixers’ defensive rotations are poor. Atlanta’s ball movement (25.4 team APG, 1st in NBA) should be all the more confounding for opponents in the City of Brotherly Shove than it was in OKC.

    He’s been back home for two seasons now, but Philadelphia is still LouWillVille. Lou Williams admits he’s still giddy about the town where he cut his teeth as a fresh-faced phenom out of high school. The feeling is mutual for the man who grew to embrace his sixth-man role, helped the Sixers reach four playoff seasons over a stretch of five transitional years, and once talked his way out of a carjacking there. Williams is eager to make up for his disappointing performance during his return to Philly last season (4-for-12 shooting and 4 turnovers, amid a bad 99-80 Hawks loss in December 2012).

    Back when the Sixers took a magical carpet ride to within a game of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, Williams was their leading scorer in the regular season, and their top offensive rebounder was Elton Brand. You can be sure Brand recalls that his eight-figure salary was amnesthetized (and Williams’ free agency exception rights renounced) the following summer so the Sixers could clear the way for the coming of their savior, Andrew Bynum. Brand should have a good mental scouting report on his former teammate Hawes, who will use his perimeter shot to draw bigs out of the paint.

    Hawes doesn’t stay at home terribly often himself, so when he does, Paul-Star Millsap, DeMarre Carroll and the Hawks’ driving guards should not hesitate take turns converging toward the rim. Opponents take a league-high 10.4 shots at the rim with Hawes in the vicinity, shooting 51.5 FG%. Young (3.2 SPG in his last 10 games) will have his work cut out for him accounting for Millsap while providing help elsewhere on the floor.

    A former Sixers second-rounder, just like Williams, got his big break in the 215. Kyle Korver holds the team’s all-time record for three-pointers in a season, and ranks second in Sixer annals for three-point and free throw shooting percentages. He nailed three of his five three-point tries during the Hawks’ November win, and should find himself far more open along the perimeter than he did when he was sandwiched by Kevin Durant and Thabo Sefolosha on Monday.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  15. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Thunder

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Atlanta Hawks have to be a bit thrown off by the turbulence in the strength of their recent schedule. One day, it’s the HEAT, the next game it’s the Magic. Then they get the Spurs, followed by the Bucks. Before the Pistons come to town on Wednesday, the Hawks spend tonight wrangling with Kevin Durant and the red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder (8:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Oklahoma). Or, should that read, red-hot Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder?

    The Georgia Lottery mascot goat may be the only “Kevin” out there blazing more fire than Durant right now. Not having to defer as much with Russell Westbrook recovering from knee surgery, KD has surged to the front of the MVP race with an uncanny 36.5 points per game (53.5 FG%) in the month of January, accompanied by 6.2 assists per game.

    Durantula has spun off a wicked web of ten consecutive games with 30 or more points, and is now the league’s only player averaging more than 30 PPG. He’s the author of the league’s only two 30+10+10 triple-doubles this season, the most recent coming in Saturday’s win, OKC’s seventh-straight, at Philadelphia (32 points, season-high 14 rebounds, 10 assists) despite a bothersome right shoulder. Defensive-minded Andre Iguodala and Nicolas Batum have each been broasted in this recent stretch by KD (54 points versus Golden State; 48 against Portland).

    Durant (88.3 FT%, 6th in NBA) senses when his jumper (team-leading 2.1 threes per game and 41.0 3FG%) is a tad offline. He compensates by attacking the rim relentlessly and drawing fouls, averaging 12 free throws per game this month while shooting 89.1 FT%. Despite shooting just 9-for-21 from the floor at Philips Arena on December 10, he shot 11-for-15 from the charity stripe to carry the day in a 101-92 Thunder victory over the Hawks.

    KD’s true shooting percentage of 64.3% ranks third in the league, behind LeBron James and a shade behind Atlanta’s Kyle Korver (64.7%). DeMarre Carroll will have to be obstructive, but he must also get help from teammates in denying Durant the ball on the low block and picking off his passes.

    Durant’s received ample support in the paint from Serge Ibaka (53.0 FG%; 2.5 BPG, 3rd in NBA; five blocks in three of his past four games) and the three-headed hydra of starter Kendrick Perkins, pick-and-roll perfectionist Nick Collison, and lotto rookie Steven Adams. Meanwhile, Reggie Jackson (15.1 PPG and 5.0 APG as a starter, 88.1 FT%, 7th in NBA) has filled in admirably in Westbrook’s absence, although his shot selection has been questionable at times (42.6 FG% as a starter; 46.4% as a reserve). Norcross’ Jeremy Lamb has been a solid scorer in his second season off the bench (16.2 points per-36; 7.0 turnover percentage, 5th best in NBA).

    All-Star reserve voting by coaches has concluded, and Paul Millsap’s Eastern Conference Player-of-the-Week performance (21.3 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 2.5 SPG, 2.0 BPG) surely has bolstered his chances for wild card consideration. His production in the past week certainly pales in comparison to Durant, the Western Conference winner. But in a frail Eastern Conference, despite a career-low 49.0 2FG%, his career-high 17.7 PPG, 2.9 APG and 1.2 BPG will impress coaches who watched him lug the 3rd-seeded Hawks (23-20) along without Al Horford around for the past month.

    As for OKC, Ibaka’s fate as an All-Star reserve will remain unknown until Thursday evening. Yet the top-seeded Thunder still has a strong motivation to come away victorious tonight. Thanks to the late surge, Head Coach Scott Brooks will have a chance at clinching the All-Star coaching gig for the Western Conference if his Thunder remains atop the standings by Sunday. Since Gregg Popovich coached last year’s ASG and isn’t eligible, a win tonight is important if OKC (35-10) hopes to get Brooks the nod ahead of Terry Stotts, whose Blazers sit two games behind them.

    It’s the last game in the Sooner State this week, as the Thunder will embark on a three-games-in-four-night East Coast road swing that concludes on Super Bowl Sunday. As was the case for the Spurs, the Hawks will be a warmup act for the Thunder’s next game in Miami. Then they’ll get the scorching Nets, in Brooklyn, and the Wizards on back-to-back nights.

    Perkins doesn’t look like much lately, but he's not needed for his feeble offense. Opponents at the rim are shooting a league-low 36.8 FG% against him. With his help, seal-tight defense from Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka made for tough sledding for the Hawks (35.6 team FG%) back on December 10, particularly for Millsap (23 points, 5-for-18 FGs), Al Horford (3-for-10), DeMarre Carroll (2-for-10), and Jeff Teague (17 points, 5-for-15, 6 assists and 4 turnovers).

    Thunder opponents shoot a league-low 34.9 FG% in the paint (non-restricted area) and 56.5 FG% around the rim (3rd lowest in NBA), along with 33.3% on corner threes (2nd lowest in NBA). Mid-range (37.9 opponent FG%, 5th lowest in NBA) and above-the-break threes (18.2 opponent shots per game, 2nd most; 34.6 opponent FG%, 9th lowest) are about the closest thing OKC have to what could be called chinks in their defensive armor.

    In the December loss, one Hawk who did break through OKC’s impervious D was Shelvin Mack (17 points, 7-for-9 FGs, 3-for-5 3FGs, 6 assists, 2 turnovers), who will get another start in place of the injured Teague. Mack may be able to exert offensive pressure off the dribble against Jackson, forcing the Thunder to adjust and opening up teammates for mid-range shots and threes. Korver (49.0 2FG% outside the paint, 3rd in NBA; 43.9 3FG% above the break, 7th in NBA) is an obvious target for both zones. Mack and Korver should seek out Carroll, Millsap, and reserves (Elton Brand, Lou Williams, and/or Mike Scott) as release valves whenever Korver (1-for-6 on threes, back on December 10) is getting hounded by defensive maven Thabo Sefolosha or Durant.

    Forcing Durant to work on defense interchangeably between Korver and Millsap can only be beneficial to Atlanta’s chances of stealing one in OKC and earning the season’s first road win against an impressive opponent.

    Now among the best free-throw-shooting teams in the NBA, the Hawks (84.2 January FT%, best in NBA; 18.5 January free throws made, 2nd in East) will have to draw shooting fouls and convert against the Thunder, whose opponents have shot a league-low 71.1 FT%, including 67.1 percent in Loud City. With rabid fans applying the thunder to Thundersticks, OKC has been the only NBA town where foes are shooting below 70 percent from the line.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  16. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bucks

    By lethalweapon3,

    The 2012-13 version of the Atlanta Hawks, coached by Larry Drew, lost 20 of their 38 defeats by ten or more points.

    The 2013-14 edition, with Mike Budenholzer at the helm, is now more than halfway through their season, and suffered just their fifth double-digit setback on Friday night. Although it’s the second straight drubbing with a deficit that exceeded ten points, that total still represents less than a fourth of their L’s this season, compared to over half of the losses last season.

    After the Men in Black had their way with Atlanta along the perimeter, the Hawks hope the goring won’t continue tonight, on the road, at the antlers of the Milwaukee Bucks (8:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Wisconsin).

    It’s a bit of a stretch to call tonight’s affair a vengeance match for ex-Hawks coach Drew. That's not only since Drew and GM Danny Ferry engineered a most amicable departure this past summer, but also because Drew, now in charge of the woeful Bucks (8-34), won’t need to gameplan against nearly half of the roster that he left behind from his final season with Atlanta. Al Horford (pec) and Jeff Teague (ankle) are back in Georgia recuperating, as is John Jenkins (back). So the only Hawk reunions going on will involve LD and Kyle Korver, Lou Williams, Mike Scott, and Shelvin Mack. Zaza Pachulia will be stylin’ and profilin’ as usual, but only from the bench as he continues recuperating from a fracture in his right foot.

    In Milwaukee (8-34, one win in the last eleven games), Drew captains a shoddy ship loaded with veteran disillusionment and discord. The perpetually seething Larry Sanders showed everyone what happens when keepin’ it real goes wrong in a nightclub, tossing around bottles of Champale like the world’s worst juggler. Sanders’ absence (to heal a thumb on his bottle-heaving hand, crucial for his sarcastic relations with the refs) pushed Zaza into heavy minutes for Drew, perhaps too prematurely for the sake of his fragile footsies.

    Caron Butler openly barbed with his team in the media, insistent that 24 minutes a night off the bench is not what the Wisconsinite signed up for. O.J. Mayo has taken Butler’s lead, insisting the team needs a “staple”, an identity, without any sense of cognizance about how he might help establish it.

    The play of shooting guard Luke Ridnour (6.5 PPG, 39.6 FG%) has bordered at times dangerously close to self-parody, even as Drew insists on starting him ahead of Mayo. Fresh from the NBA Finals, free agent acquisition Gary Neal reads Spurs box scores nightly and weeps into his Miller Lite. That is, when he’s not feuding loudly with Sanders in front of the beat writers. And were it not for the size of the media market he plays in, Ersan Ilyasova (38.8 FG%, 26.4 3FG%, 9.1 PPG, 5.2 RPG), on the front end of a 5-year $40 million deal, would be fodder for late-night comedians, despite the blame placed on mid-season maladies.

    It’s all a poisonous brew for Drew, who needs to play youngsters to give fans hope for the future, but not lose so badly that he can’t be included as part of that future. His Buckaroos struggled on the road in Cleveland yesterday, falling victim to big runs in the middle frames before succumbing to the subpar Cavs by 15 points.

    Largely with Sanders watching much of the game from the bench, Cleveland outrebounded their venison 52-34, including 21-8 on the offensive end. Atlanta can feel their pain, playing poultry to the Spurs on Friday by getting out-boarded 54-36 (15-9 offensive).

    Resigned to losing, Bucks fans are disinterested in the vets striking out, but ravenous over the potential of some of their stockpiled forwards. None moreso than The Greek Freak. Rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo lacks eye-popping nightly stats but is a tantalizing highlight reel on a short leash. He and sophomore Khris Middleton (as well as John Henson and Ekpe Udoh) are getting pegged for starts lately over the likes of Mayo, Sanders, and/or Butler. Drew has already trotted out 19 different starting lineups this season.

    Aside from Greece Lightning, the only constant of late among the starters has been up-and-down point guard Brandon Knight, the player Milwaukee settled for acquiring once Teague’s offer sheet was much by Atlanta last summer. Even Knight (team-leading 15.3 PPG and 4.5 APG) had trouble getting back in the first unit when Drew became briefly enamored with rookie second-rounder Nate Wolters. Against a steady Shelvin Mack (3.26 assist-to-turnover ratio, 5th among point guards with 10+ minutes per game), Knight will need constant help from his forwards to disrupt Atlanta’s ball movement.

    Ilyasova has been ineffective at power forward on both ends of the floor, and Drew has shifted him to the 3-spot in hopes it will thaw his once-reliable shooting efficiency. This will put either the rangy Alphabet or Middleton on Paul Millsap. Sap got some well-designed rest in Friday night’s blowout at the hands of the Spurs, and will be sought by the Hawks to work his way around the yung’uns and get to the hoop.

    Even with Sanders (1.9 BPG) or Henson (2.2 BPG) waiting in the paint, Millsap will work to draw fouls and thin out the Bucks frontline. The Bucks take just 0.1 fewer field goals than their opponents, and despite their poor shooting (league-low 42.1 FG%; 44.7 2FG% second-lowest in NBA), the few trips they earn at the free throw line creates much of the scoring discrepancy. Opponents shoot 5.5 more free throws than Milwaukee, the third-largest differential in the league. Atlanta can use their newly-improved free throw accuracy (3.3 percentage-point differential on FT%, 5th in NBA, highest in NBA East) to pad the points when the Bucks try to slow the game down.

    One guy looking for a bit of payback is Gustavo Ayón, who was cut in July not long after the Bucks picked up his team option. Ayón (14.3 offensive rebounding percentage, three O-Rebs versus the Spurs) was a key acquisition in the Tobias Harris deal with Orlando, but wound up getting yo-yo’d by Bucks management in the offseason. He’ll come into tonight’s matchup with the Bucks (70.4 defensive rebounding percentage, worst in NBA), a little better prepared after getting tenderized by Tim Duncan last night.

    Closing out on shooters around the perimeter will be crucial for both teams. Absent the roving DeMarre Carroll (still questionable tonight with a hamstring strain), Atlanta failed to do so against the league’s best 3-point shooting team last night, and was buried for their lackadaisical defensive effort (Spurs 11-for-18 on 3FGs). Milwaukee is nowhere near as strong a long-range shooting team (34.5 team 3FG%, 25th in NBA), but they will jack threes as needed to stay competitive and fight the Hawks’ bigs to earn second-chance opportunities.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  17. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Spurs

    By lethalweapon3,

    Can Mike Budenholzer snatch the pebble from Gregg Popovich’s hand this time around?

    The defending Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs (32-10; a half-game behind OKC for tops in the West) pay a visit to The Highlight Factory on Friday night (7:30 PM EST, SportSouth, FoxSports Southwest). For the Atlanta Hawks (22-19), that’s their fun day. They’re just one Iguodala buzzer-beater away from coming into to today’s contest 9-0 on Friday nights. They hope to avenge another last-second loss, one coming at the hands of the venerable Tim Duncan back on December 2 that set the Hawks a game below .500 for the last time this season.

    Timmy single-handedly carried the Spurs to victory with a season-high 21 rebounds to accompany 23 points, the 22nd 20-20 game of his illustrious career and the first man to do it at age 37 since Robert Parish did it with the Celtics while collecting Social Security.

    Hindsight also being 20-20, Budenholzer probably would reconsider playing rookie Pero Antić more than the split-second of floor time he gained against San Antonio, if for nothing else than to help Al Horford with the rebounding and keep the floor spread on offense. Now Horford is out indefinitely while Antić, on the heels of his first NBA double-double against Vucevic-less Orlando, will be sidelined for a few weeks to heal a stress-fractured ankle.

    Gustavo Ayón was DNP-CD’d as well, and since December 6 he has been a special guest of Budenholzer’s for all of 47 minutes in his last 6 appearances. Now the “in case of emergency” starter, GA won’t approximate Horford or even Antić on offense (4 points in those 6 games, all against Brooklyn). But what he can provide are jumpshots at straightaway free-throw distance and along the baselines, including the occasional fake-and-drive toward the rim.

    The Goose also gets loose for offensive rebounds. Ayón came in for just seven minutes against Boston on New Year’s Eve and averaged one O-Board per minute. Ayón’s offensive rebounding percentage (14.0%) ranks 8th among NBA players with 10+ appearances and averaging over 10 minutes per game.

    Popovich’s Spurs are rarely, if ever, distracted, yet you can forgive San Antonio for having to deal with media queries not about tonight’s game, the first of their annual Rodeo-in-Town Road Trip, but the next one. Sunday in South Beach will be the return to the House of Horrors for the Spurs, their first game in American Airlines Arena since the fateful Games 6 and 7 of the NBA Finals.

    “Uh, it'll be a horrible memory walking in that gym,” Popovich told USA TODAY on Thursday. “If I said anything different, I'd be the biggest liar that ever lived. How could I say, ‘Yeah, no problem. Well, it was a tough night.’ That's (expletive). We all know that.

    “So the truth is that it will be horrible walking in there. I'll think about it right off the bat, but it won't be any different than what I think about every day,” Budenholzer’s mentor continued. “At some point during the day, it goes through my head. I've said it a lot of times. My hope is that over time I'll think about it every two days, and then every week and then every month and then that kind of thing.” Surely, Coach Bud feels Pop's pain. Maybe he'll be kind enough to take Pop out for dinner after tonight's game...

    The Spurs come in a little banged up at key spots. Tiago Splitter was starting at center and playing his best offensive basketball before spraining his shoulder a few weeks ago, and he’ll likely sit for a couple more weeks. A week later, guard Danny Green (who struggled against Atlanta and recently regained his starting spot) broke a finger on his left hand and is likely out until the All-Star break. Now Green’s joined on the IR list by starting small forward Kawhi Leonard, who fractured a bone on the other hand during Wednesday’s loss to Oklahoma City and will be sidelined for at least three weeks.

    At first glance, the reduction in depth at the wing spots for San Antonio should make things a little easier for the Hawks, who will be missing out on DeMarre Carroll (hamstring) for this weekend's games. Green and Leonard are the Spurs’ most active swingman defenders, so the Hawks have a chance to outscore Flappy Bird players.

    But the Hawk forwards, particularly starters Kyle “Rio” Korver and Paul Millsap, will have their work cut out for themselves today on defense. They’ll have to help Lou Williams when Manu Ginobili comes off the bench, and help Jeff Teague when Tony Parker beats him off the dribble, and help Ayón in the paint with Duncan, and close out on Marco Belinelli on the perimeter. It’s a tall order.

    Thanks to Belinelli (league-leading 49.3%), Patty Mills (42.6%), Matt Bonner (47.4%) and Parker (career-high 43.6%), the Spurs lead the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage (40.5 3FG%). How successful they are getting catch-and-shoot opportunities will depend on how effective Duncan is in the low-post and how much of a distraction power forwards Boris Diaw (career-high 56.0 FG%) and Jeff Ayres can be.

    In the December game, Teague was Mister Clutch, nailing what looked like a game-winning three with under five seconds left in the game. He was able to spread the wealth among the first unit, and the Hawks made a late charge to seize the lead in the waning minutes. All five starters reached double-figures despite a predictably tough shooting effort (43.8 team FG%; Millsap 6-for-20 shooting), even Lou Williams, who made all of his ten points on field goals despite going 0-for-6 on threes.

    Aside from Elton Brand, what the Hawks lacked in the last Spurs game was production off the bench. Mike Scott (0 points in just ten minutes), Shelvin Mack (7 points and 2 assists) and then-Hawk Cartier Martin (2-for-7 shooting, five fouls in 20 minutes) struggled mightily on defense and non-factors on offense. Mack and Scott are significantly improved since that game, and their playmaking tonight could help the Hawks gain, and keep, an edge.

    Two guys will be on the floor with teammates hoping to help them get attention from the coaches making All-Star Game selections. Parker (37 points vs. OKC) will be aiming for a sixth All-Star nod (and third straight), but he faces an uphill battle with guards Chris Paul and Damian Lillard likely to go. He needs standout performances against Teague and Mario Chalmers this weekend.

    Meanwhile, despite the Eastern Conference’s need for centers in the ASG, Paul Millsap (25.0 PPG, 56.7 FG%, 15-for-17 FTs in his last two games) may be able to lock up a wild card spot, and go back to Louisiana as an All-Star, with a strong showing against the Spurs and the Bucks on Saturday. He could also be in the running for conference player of the week. He’ll need Ayón and Brand to draw Spur centers out of the paint so he doesn’t get Maulsapped trying to pile up points on the inside.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  18. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Magic

    By lethalweapon3,

    Your Atlanta Hawks head down to the Sunshine State hoping their offense will continue heating up against the Orlando Magic (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Fox Sports Florida). Atlanta’s 102.2 points per game trails only Miami (104.0 PPG) in the East.

    In the slightly comfier confines of The Highlight Factory, the Hawks (21-19) foiled the HEAT on Monday evening for their third straight win on COP Drive. It was the eleventh time among the last 13 tip-offs at Philips Arena where the Hawks walked off as victors. In fact, if you extrapolated the Hawks’ “home” record so far this year (15-6, 8th in NBA, blowout loss in London included) out to the full season, they would be tied with their division leaders in the standings.

    Lately this season, Atlanta has routinely managed to prevail over the hijinks of the refs, the opponents, and the occasionally visitor-friendly crowd at Philips. All of which makes it quite confounding that they have such an underwhelming road record. Their official record in away games (6-13, 25th in NBA) is the worst among the East’s Top 9 teams.

    When including An American Whoopazz in London, Atlanta has come out on top in just two of its last 12 games away from Philips Arena. They needed heroics from Jeff Teague and histrionics from Jordan Crawford just to seal the deal in those two wins. While they have impressive home wins against Indy, Houston, the Clippers, and now Miami, their six road wins have come against the Kings, Bobcats, Knicks, Pistons, Cavs, and Celtics. In hindsight, that’s not exactly a Murderer’s Row.

    Atlanta’s assist-turnover ratio of 1.92 in home games (2nd in NBA, to the Spurs) drops to a less-impressive 1.46 on the road (11th in NBA). More telling, their defensive rating of 99.3 (points per 100 possessions, 6th best in NBA) in “home” games (again, Brooklyn beatdown included) surges to 106.6 (7th worst in NBA) in the away games. Their decided advantage in per-game assists at “home” (27.2 to 22.7) is essentially wiped out on the road (23.8 to 23.7). Surely, it’s not Sir Foster’s stylistics on the organ that they’re missing, is it?

    Only Indiana and Chicago have played as few road contests among Eastern Conference teams to this point. With The Circus coming to town by the end of next month, the Hawks will want to iron out the discrepancies in their play soon.

    The road-leery Hawks will get another chance to feel for the floor against the Magic (11-31; one win in their last 12 games; five wins in their last 22 games), who carry the league’s worst road record but are also just 8-13 at home (4th worst in the NBA, surpassing only Larry’s Bucks, Smoove’s Pistons, and Woody’s Knicks). Their sole win in 2014 was a two-point win at Amway Center against the similarly freefalling Celtics. After collapsing early in the second half last night to Joe’s Nets, Orlando returned home on a delayed flight from snowy NYC that didn’t depart until around 1:00 AM.

    The Magic continues to miss out on the services of their leading rebounder, Nikola Vucevic, who sustained a particularly harsh concussion a couple weeks ago in a game against the Clippers and has yet to pass league-mandated testing. Yet by night’s end, Orlando is hoping to boast that one-fourth of their wins this year have come against division-foe Atlanta.

    Keep a close eye on the assist tallies for each team. Orlando’s two highest assist totals this season have come in their two victories against the Hawks (30 assists on December 29 in Orlando, 29 assists on November 26 in Atlanta). The 109-102 win in December is the only victory out of 27 Magic games (1-26) where they’ve given up more than 95 points to opponents.

    Head Coach Jacque Vaughn’s offense is at its letter-best when All-Star candidate Arron Afflalo (20.6 PPG 42.5 3FG%) and opportunistic rookie Victor Oladipo (1.5 SPG) are helping Jameer Nelson exploit mismatches and getting teammates involved in the passing game off dribble penetration and cuts. The Magic held serve with Brooklyn early yesterday, when Nelson assisted on their first five field goals, but fell into ruts virtually everytime they resorted to isolation plays.

    So it goes without saying the Hawks need defensive pressure and offensive composure from their starting point guard. For now, that person remains Jeff Teague, who could barely buy a bucket in Atlanta’s win over Miami (1-for-7, two points) but did manage to put up six assists and just one turnover in under 20 minutes of action. He was spelled for much of the second half by Shelvin Mack (seven assists, one turnover in 27 minutes), who fared much better against Miami’s suddenly suspect D (5-for-10, 13 points).

    Teague (37.7 assist %, 7th in NBA) has been given ample patience to work through his shooting funk (35.2 FG% and 11.1 3FG%, 86.0 offensive rating in January). But extended stints of sound ball-control (3.36 assist-turnover ratio, 6th among NBA point guards) and big shots from Mack may force Coach Mike Budenholzer’s hand soon.

    Both players could continue to use some help in the passing game from Lou Williams and Kyle Korver, authors of 11 of the Hawks’ 33 assists against Miami. That duo will be needed to offset the contributions Nelson gets from Afflalo and Oladipo, and they should continue finding ways to earn trips to the free throw line.

    Korver (92.9 FT%, just 1.0 attempts per game), Williams (82.1 FT%, 2.1 attempts per game), and Mack (82.9 FT%, 1.0 attempts per game) nailed all 11 of their freebies against the HEAT, helping Paul Millsap (10-for-11 FTs, 26 points) keep Miami at bay. Atlanta has converted 87.3% of their free throws in their last eight games. With Al Horford out of the picture, the Hawks (78.1 FT%, 6th in NBA) now have just one player shooting below 70 percent from the charity stripe (Dennis Schröder’s 66.7 FT%).

    Just as Atlanta’s bench came through with offense against Miami to ease the pressure off of their starting unit, Orlando got a boost last night with E’Twaun Moore and, especially, second-year center Kyle O’Quinn (season-high 15 points, four of Orlando’s six offensive rebounds). It was the fifth game in the last six for KOQ with at least 15 minutes of action, and he’s making the most of his newfound floor time with Vucevic unavailable.

    The Hawks will have to find the right balance of Pero Antić and Elton Brand to match up with Glen Davis and O’Quinn upfront. Mid-range opportunities abound for the Hawks against a Magic team that gives up a league-leading 11.3 field goals per game (41.8 opponent FG%, 4th in NBA) on two-pointers outside the paint. Orlando also takes a lot of these shots (11.1 mid-range field goals per game, 2nd in NBA; 42.2 mid-range FG%), so it will help the Hawks to diversify the offensive play calls and keep Orlando guessing.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  19. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - HEAT

    By lethalweapon3,

    Happy MLK Day!

    It’s a day on, not a day off, for the Atlanta Hawks as the Miami HEAT roll into town for some afternoon NBA action (5:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, SUN Sports).

    Wrapping up a six-game East Coast road swing, the HEAT has been pretty tepid of late. They dropped back-to-back contests in NYC to the Knicks and Nets, and then lost to the Wizards after five days rest (a return visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue notwithstanding) for their first three-game losing string since January 2012. Coincidentally, that’s the last month that the Atlanta Hawks pulled off a win against Miami. The HEAT have won every game in Atlanta since November 2009.

    Miami managed to win their previous two away games, in Philly and Charlotte, but their last game required a late comeback and an overtime stanza against a shaky Bobcats team that lost Kemba Walker in the third quarter. That Saturday night game allowed the newly 32-year-old Dwyane Wade to rest up, and with another back-to-back looming (the HEAT facing Boston tomorrow night in Miami) it remains to be seen if Wade will see his first action against the Hawks today. (Breaking: Flash is out tonight, so Ray Allen will start in his place.)

    DeMarre “Big Poppa” Carroll will be back in action, and after the Hawks got mashed like shepherd’s pie in London at the hands of Joe Johnson and company, there’s no doubt he’ll be a sight for sore eyes. He and Paul Millsap will be tasked with trying to achieve what the Bobcats couldn’t: impede LeBron James on drives to the hoop, particularly along the baselines. Carroll will also be looking to bounce back after his “foul” of Allen wound up giving the HEAT an early Christmas gift last month.

    To the dismay of tattoo afficionados everywhere, reserve center Chris Andersen’s status for today is questionable after the Birdman bruised his knee a week and a half ago. If he is unable to sub in and match up with Pero Antić, his injury could open up the possibility of early minutes off the bench for Greg Oden, in what would be just his third game of NBA ball since December 2009. In twelve minutes of floor time he’s shown that he can dunk and make free throws. And that’s about it so far.

    With the need for an inside attack that compels the HEAT to work more on the interior, Antić could use some help off the bench from both Gustavo Ayón and Elton Brand today. Miami remains the league’s worst rebounding team, so winning the battles for second-chance opportunities could keep the game interesting.

    Millsap was a foul-out victim in the December 23 overtime game, and will have his hands full again trying at turns to hold back LeBron James’ drives and to step out and contest Chris Bosh’s mid-range jumpers. He’ll need an offensive boost from his oft-struggling backcourt of Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver, a combined 5-for-22 during in London, including 1-for-11 from three-point range. There should be opportunities along the perimeter for whoever isn’t being hounded by Mario Chalmers, who is playing back into shape after missing several games with an Achilles strain, and Shane Battier. Carroll may make for a nice option whenever both Teague and Korver are covered.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  20. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Nets

    By lethalweapon3,

    Tally-ho!

    It’s just about tea time around here, and what better to do on a Thursday afternoon (3:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, YES Network, NBATV; Friday Encore Presentation on SportSouth at 7:30 PM) than to turn on the tellie and watch the Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets lace up their trainers and hit the hardwood pitch in London for Super Tank Bowl II?

    The NBA’s scheduling bigwigs have taken two of the league’s worst away-game teams among playoff contenders (Hawks 6-13; Nets 5-13) and dispatched them across the pond to face each other for its latest installment of the NBA Global Games at O2 Arena.

    We ought to have a decidedly pro-Hawks fanbase there, right? After all, Al Horford spent a good chunk of his summertime planting amicable Hawk-fan seeds up and down the banks of the River Thames. And let’s face it, there’s only one team rocking a Union Jack colour scheme these days, am I right? There’s a natural visual bond there to capitalize upon. These days, even Manchester United dons red home kits and navy blue when they’re away. Meanwhile, the Nets abandoned their decades-long red-white-and-blue for black-and-white, which is a nice colour arrangement if you’re down with barbaric pirates.

    So, all things considered, shouldn’t Her Majesty the Queen and her subjects be solidly in Atlanta’s corner?

    Okay, maybe not. There are likely plenty more Brits feeling some sort of a Brooklyn connection. Their forefathers did spend an awful lot of time seizing the borough from the Dutch 350 years ago, and had their run of the place themselves for another century after that. On top of that, there will be a few too many people pining for Celtic days of yore, what with Paul McPierce and Kevin O’Garnett suiting up on the other side. And you simply can’t conjure up any more British-sounding names than Joe Johnson, can you? Joe reportedly planted a little more than mere camaraderie at Chinawhite nightclub on Monday, popping the corks off of 10K worth of bubbly to share with the commoners.

    Either way, this is a great opportunity for the Hawks (20-18) to expand their trans-Atlantic fanbase, but that’s likely to happen only by emerging victorious today over the Nets (15-22).

    Despite a slow start and a disappointing shortfall in Memphis on Sunday, our Hawks awaken, somehow, back in 3rd place in the wretched Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, their opponents found themselves back in the 8th spot despite dropping to 1-1 outside the country, a loss in Toronto on Saturday halting their five-game winning streak. Atlanta fans already know how much it behooves the Hawks to shove Jason Kidd’s charges back down into the figgy pudding that represents the bottom half of the conference standings.

    Congratulations to DeMarre Carroll! As JYD and his fiancée joyously bring their very first Junkyard Puppy into the world back here in The States, the Hawks will have to make-do without their defensive stalwart. Carroll’s paternity could give birth to a minutes bonanza for newcomer James Nunnally, fresh from wowing scouts at the D-League Showcase and dressed to impress against a set of ex-All-Stars at the wing spots in Pierce (17.6 PPG in his last five road games), Kirilenko and Johnson (23 points and 9-for-17 on two-pointers vs. Atlanta; no more than 12 points in his last five games outside of Barclays Center).

    Even with the D-and-3-oriented Nunnally in tow, Carroll’s absence will likely result in a higher scoring affair than the 91-86 sluggish-fest in Brooklyn ten days ago, when the Hawks could only muster a season-low 27 baskets and shot just 38.6 FG%. The similarly-shorthanded Nets weren’t much better (41.3 FG%; 29.6 3FG%) but exploited an 18-12 turnover advantage.

    Brooklyn was led at point guard by the lanky Shaun Livingston (6-for-11 shooting and 3 steals vs. Atlanta), pressed into the starting lineup after Deron Williams’ latest ankle injury. They also got a late boost from Mirza Teletovic (16 points, 4-for-9 on threes) to close the Hawks out, despite virtually no significant contributions from ex-Celts Pierce, Garnett, and Jason Terry (combined 13 points on 4-for-16 shooting from the field).

    Paul Millsap may be starting to thaw out of a shooting slump (32.6 FG% in January) after connecting on 7 of 14 shots and getting to the free throw line eight times during that 108-101 defeat in Memphis.

    Despite his offensive struggles this month, today’s game provides a unique opportunity to showcase Millsap’s All-Star mettle. While he’ll be aiming for just his second three-game string of 20+ points this season (December 23-28), he has taken up a more vital role in Head Coach Mike Budenholzer’s ball movement lately. Millsap has five or more assists in each of the last four games, a tally he reached in just three of his prior 33 appearances.

    In Carroll’s absence, Millsap will likely shift to small forward duties during the game, particularly whenever Coach Kidd goes with a big lineup. He is likely to see a lot of Kirilenko, who has been a thorn in the side of opposing offenses (just ask LeBron James) since returning from injury a couple weeks ago.

    At the forward spots, there should be ample opportunities for the Hawks to deploy Mike “Ro Wave” Scott, who continues his reign of terror on opposing defenses off the bench (14.7 PPG, 56.3 FG% last three games). His 28 minutes against the Grizzlies (15 points, 3-for-8 on threes) were a season-high.

    Scott should help out more in the paint and cede some of that long-range shooting to Kyle Korver, who was hounded on Sunday by a feisty Grizzlies defense and could only get off two three-point shots over the course of 34 minutes. After shooting 8-for-14 behind the three-point line in the last three games, Korver will look to untangle himself from Nets after going just 1-for-3 on treys in their last meeting.

    Kyle will also try to keep another streak going on the other end of the floor. He has had at least one steal in 11 straight contests, tying a career-high string from last season (January-February 2013).

    Lou Williams will be relied upon for some veteran leadership, starting today at the 2-guard slot despite going Bagel-for-6 (4 points, all free throws) in Memphis. In his three starts this season, Lou is shooting 39.4 FG% (compared to 36.3% as a reserve) and has averaged 13.3 PPG, including 18 against the Magic back on December 29.

    Largely stuck in neutral shift since his buzzer-beater in Cleveland, if not in reverse (37.5 FG% 13.8 3FG%, 14.7 PPG, 5.5 APG, 4.2 TO/G in January), Jeff Teague managed some late buckets in Memphis for his first 20+-point game since December 29. He was rendered futile in Brooklyn, piling up a season-high seven turnovers while shooting just 5-for-15 from the floor and bewildered by Livingston.

    Teague must forgo the hesitancy he displays when he’s open for jumpers. And if he continues struggling to get around Livingston for baskets, Net defenders will be able to continue keying in on the Hawks’ more reliable offensive threats. It will be beneficial for Euro-rook Dennis Schröder to see the floor and get a chance to make some positive contributions today. Terry may make for a nice matchup for the Menace, who has yet to play in 2014.

    Schröder’s fellow Euro-rook Pero Antić has been resting up after a brief bout with back spasms kept him out of Sunday’s action. He and Elton Brand will be needed to help the Hawks build up a rebounding advantage against Kevin Garnett, who bluntly expresses he’d rather be anywhere but at the center spot, and Reggie Evans. The Hawks cannot allow the Pensacola Pest to impact the game with offensive rebounding and turnover creation via drawing fouls. Meanwhile, if KG starts acting like a stroppy old sod with his antics around Antić, Pero should do as the Brits do, keeping a stiff upper lip and telling that bloke to go put a sock in it.

    KEEP CALM. AND GO HAWKS!

    ~lw3
  21. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Grizzlies

    By lethalweapon3,

    It’s time to rise ‘n grind!

    Your Atlanta Hawks travel to the Bluff City to grapple with the Memphis Grizzlies (6:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSportSouth in Memphis area).

    The Hawks (20-17) haven’t had the greatest of fortune away from the Highlight Factory this year. They’ve gone just 6-12 on the road, worst of any NBA team sporting a winning record. The FedEx Forum has been their comfy confines lately, however. Atlanta is aiming for a victory in this arena for the fourth consecutive time.

    There’s no bellyaching around these parts allowed over integral NBA All-Star-caliber centers getting injured. Marc Gasol went down in November with a sprained MCL, just as his Blue Bears were beginning to gain some traction in the wild Western Conference standings. They have tried to make-do with summer free agent pickup Kosta Koufos (14.3 total rebounding percentage, 4th in NBA), who has been hit-or-miss (44.6 FG%, 8.7 PPG, 8.6 RPG) in Gasol’s place. Ed Davis and Jon Leuer have had to play outside of the PF position to help fill in Gasol’s gap.

    To make matters worse, they later suffered a one-two punch of setbacks, with Quincy Pondexter (foot) shuttered for the season in December, followed by defensive heart-and-soul Tony Allen kicking off the New Year with a ligament injury in his non-shooting hand. Rookie Head Coach Dave Joerger rejiggered his starting lineup by upgrading two accomplished veterans, Mike Miller and Tayshaun Prince.

    The recent trade of Jerryd Bayless to acquire Courtney Lee from Boston leaves the depth behind peripheral All-Star candidate Mike Conley (career-high 18.0 PPG; 30.5 PPG and 6.0 APG this past week, versus the Spurs and Suns) very shallow. Wayfaring rookie guard Nick Calathes is suddenly under high pressure to perform as a passer (team-leading 7.1 assists per 36 minutes), with few other options for Joerger to turn to. His 6-foot-6 height creates a natural size advantage against virtually everyone aside from Shaun Livingston, but his inability to make shots (37.3 FG%) or defend has resulted in a short leash to this point.

    Along with Joerger usurping longtime coach Lionel Hollins, Calathes was integral to Grizzlies management plans to shift this team into one capable of playing at a higher pace, less dependent on rebounding opponents into submission, more dependent on high-wire passing and scoring at expanded range. But that heightened tempo didn’t sit well with Zach Randolph, Conley, and the other Grizzled vets, and it showed in the standings as the 2013 Western Conference Finalists started out an underwhelming 3-5.

    Slowing the game down allowed the Grizzlies (16-19) to rattle off four straight victories before Gasol got hurt, and they’re sticking with that plan (90.0 possessions per 48 minutes, lowest pace in NBA) so long as their other mainstays are on this roster.

    To get restabilized after going 3-10 with Gasol out, Memphis improved their depth at the forward spots with Hawks preseason castoff James Johnson (8.3 PPG through 12 appearances, 15 points against the Spurs on Tuesday). Johnson has been able to spread the floor for interior players, and his butt-kicking energy has been so infectious that the Commercial Appeal was reportedly advised Johnson “would have to show up to work with a crack pipe” to avoid having his contract renewed for the rest of the season.

    Now freed from his perpetual doghouse in Boston, Lee’s addition is hoped to diversify the Grizzlies offense. Even with the shoe-shedding Miller (43.6 3FG%, 8th in NBA) in tow, Memphis has ranked dead-last in three-pointers taken and made. Unless Miller, Conley and Lee are heating up on the outside, Memphis can help their own cause by banging inside with Z-Bo (17.2 PPG, 10.3 RPG, and 2.7 APG, all highest in 3 seasons) and Davis (17 rebounds vs. Phoenix on Friday), getting more threes the old-fashioned way. Their 20.9 free throw attempts per 48 minutes are only slightly more than the Hawks’ 20.8, and ranks 23rd in the league.

    Conley (2.0 TO/game) is a ball-control artist and made All-Defensive Second Team in 2013, both of which spell trouble for Jeff Teague, who is striving to break out of an extended shooting funk (2-for-12 and 7 points against Houston) and needing to create turnovers to get his team going in transition. Teague produced 10+ assists in six of his first nine games, something he has produced just four times since and in none of the eight games since the Hawks lost Al Horford. Shelvin Mack and Lou Williams may have better luck against Memphis' limited array of backcourt reserves.

    The injury to Allen has made defense tough sledding for the Grit ‘n Grind gang, who gave up 98 and 99 points in regulation of their past two games. There should be options along the perimeter for Kyle Korver (18.5 PPG and 63.2 FG% versus Indiana and Houston) and limited help coming for Z-Bo to fend off a hopefully resurgent Paul Millsap. Elton Brand and Mike Scott will be needed to help with the offensive rebounding against the imposing Randolph and Koufos, helping to avoid the one-and-done opposing offensive play the Grizzlies are accustomed to.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  22. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Rockets

    By lethalweapon3,

    Happy Schadenfriday!

    Your Atlanta Hawks are cleared for liftoff against the Houston Rockets tonight at the Highlight Factory (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Houston). If not for that meddling Andre Iguodala, the Hawks (19-17) would be 8-0 on Fridays coming into tonight’s contest.

    If you’re not thrilled about the prospect of seeing the Hawks face the imposing Dwight Howard tonight, know that the feeling is pretty mutual. “I am from Atlanta, and I love the city, but I hate playing the Hawks,” Howard admitted to the Houston Chronicle. For our sake, at least his girlfriend won’t be in the stands rocking a “Hawk Hater” camo shirt tonight. And for his sake, he won’t have old foes Zaza Pachulia and Jason Collins trading elbows with him in the paint, either.

    The Hawks have been keeping their enemies closer for quite awhile now. The last time they lost by more than ten points in an NBA game was back on November 27, when the Rockets ran away with a 29-point victory at Toyota Center without the services of leading scorer James Harden (24.9 PPG, 5th in NBA; three straight games with 37+ points) and Jeremy Lin (injured late in the first quarter) over Al Horford and the Hawks. Now Horford’s gone, while Harden and Lin are back. So, naturally, this will be another squeaker for the Hawks, right?

    Well, the Hawks were also without a few key players in that game, namely Kyle Korver, Shelvin Mack, and Lou Williams. Gustavo Ayón was still getting more minutes than Elton Brand, and Pero Antić was a mere foreigner-fan magnet. One could argue Jeff Teague was a virtual DNP, too (0-for-5 shooting, 4 points, 6 assists in 25 minutes) while Dennis Schröder continued his scattershot play coming off the bench.

    With Lin sidelined and Patrick Beverley struggling to get Houston’s offense going, Head Coach Kevin McHale relied on the reserve backcourt of Francisco Garcia and Aaron Brooks (21 points each, most either has had since then) against the Hawks’ depleted set of guards, which included John Jenkins (13 of Atlanta’s season-low 84 points).

    Houston (23-13) also got what, at that time, we did not know would be a season high 10 points from Omer Asik, allowing McHale to continue resting Howard. Not long after it became obvious that Asik’s hands-of-stone rendered him less than complementary with the Rockets’ newest free agent prize, his Bruised Thigh of Mystery has kept him out of every contest since December 2, around the time his agent and his team agreed they’re better off seeing other people.

    Asik’s deliberate disappearance has cleared the way for second-year forward Terrence Jones (11.5 PPG, 7.9 RPG as a starter) to take over the PF spot full-time. Jones has helped make up for the loss of Asik defensively, but he is just a touch too satisfied with his perimeter shooting (1.6 three-point attempts per game, 29.6 3FG%) while his free throw shooting (59.4 FT%) has him looking like nearly as much a hackable target as Howard (54.3 FT%).

    With Kobe out of action in Tinseltown, the Rocket offense (105.8 PPG, 3rd in NBA) has become the most predictable in the NBA, yet not many can stop it. They loft of league-leading 26.5 threes per game despite shooting just 34.2 3FG% (25th in NBA). Thanks to Harden and Howard bullying around in the paint, Houston is also granted a league-leading 31.6 free throws per contest despite shooting 69.2%, next to last in the league. In a recent win over the Grizzlies, Harden shot just 2-for-9 (1-for-5 on threes) but still managed 27 points, on the strength of an uncanny 29 free throw attempts.

    Needless to say, there is an ample amount of rim clanks and “Short!” yelps in Rocket games, and it will be of paramount importance for the Hawks to provide seal-tight team rebounding on the defensive end to remain competitive tonight. On Wednesday, eight of the nine Pacers snared at least one offensive board around Antić and the Hawks’ frontline.

    Houston players do seem to know their hot spots inside the arc (53.9 2FG%, 2nd in NBA), even though they take the fewest 2-pointers in the league. Led by the tremendously cost-efficient Chandler Parsons (59.1 FG%, 17.2 PPG on $926,500 salary), eight of Houston’s nine regulars are shooting above 50% within the two-point area.

    There is so much Heroball among Harden and Lin, however (20.0 team APG, 25th in NBA), that their opponents are best advised to let the duo wear out the clock and settle for long-range bombs, keeping them from getting their teammates going. Houston’s record is just 6-11 when the team manages fewer than 65 two-point shots in regulation, 17-2 otherwise. DeMarre Carroll and Teague will have instrumental roles in keeping Harden and Lin from making hay out of their dribble penetration.

    Beverley remains out of commission with a broken hand, while Parsons (hammy strain/knee hyperextension) and center Greg Smith (persistent knee sprain) are doubtful to participate this evening. Smith’s unavailability may finally free up seven-footer Donatas Motiejunas from McHale’s doghouse. Donuts has been glazing over his lack of playing time and is the latest to seek a deal out of town, sharing the same agent as Asik. If he plays, he’ll need to show some improvement on the defensive end.

    The Rockets logo is really ancient Far Eastern calligraphy, a symbol for “Our center needs a life raft.” Dwight is getting precious little help on defense (102.4 opponent points per game for Houston, 24th in NBA), aside from Jones, as Lin and Harden are seemingly far too content to allow guards to blow past them into the teeth (tooth?) of the Houston interior. The offensive bounce-back for Jeff Teague (37.3 FG%, 1-for-the year of 2014 on threes) can begin against the defensively lackadaisical Lin, getting runners in the lane and opening up opportunities for Teague’s forwards to go after putbacks and post passes.

    The Hawks, of course, live-and-die by the three-pointer (10-for-23 in their surprising win versus the Pacers), which may not be good news for Houston if they fail to patrol the perimeter well. Houston is 2-9 when their opponents rack up 10 or more treys in a game, 21-4 otherwise.

    When Atlanta’s exploiting their perimeter shooting threats, there is good potential for some high-low action between Pero Antić and Millsap, or even Korver and Millsap, particularly if Korver/Antić can draw Jones or Garcia out of the paint to help out Ronnie Brewer. Dump or lob the ball inside, and make Howard defend Millsap (24.1 FG% last four games) from behind.

    When Dwight is not in the game, it would be a good time to get Mike Scott in. Scott (12.0 PPG, 51.5 FG% last four games) is beginning to relish his role as a top option off the bench, and could provide a spark whenever the Atlanta offense gets stagnant.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  23. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Pacers

    By lethalweapon3,

    The Atlanta Hawks return from a quick wintry road trip where they played a Chicago Bulls team with no Derrick Rose and no Carlos Boozer, followed by a Brooklyn Nets team with no Brook Lopez and no Deron Williams. Learning to live without Al Horford themselves, they sadly came home empty-handed.

    But maybe home will be where the heart is! Fans at Philips Arena will find out tonight when the Hawks try to hang with the Indiana Pacers (7:30 PM Eastern, Sport South, FSN Indiana). Their hopes for a five-game home winning streak were dashed by Andre Iguodala last Friday night, yet the team still boasts a spiffy 12-5 record at the Highlight Factory, offsetting their road woes (6-12).

    How will the third-seeded Hawks (18-17), losers of three straight, fare against the #1 seed in the East, winners of eight of their last nine games? Spirits will have to be enlightened just a bit, after the West’s top-seed went down on the road against bottom-dwelling Utah last night. But as the Jazz needed Gordon Hayward to have a career-night just to steal Kevin Durant’s Thunder, who will be the Hawk that steps his game up to overcome Paul George and the league’s top defensive team (88.3 opponent PPG, 41.0 opponent FG%, 95.2 opponent points per 100 possessions, all best in NBA)?

    Paul Millsap (4 rebounds in 35 minutes against the Nets; 14.7 PPG on 27.2 FG% in the last three games) is the obvious target to be hounded on the interior by Roy Hibbert, David West and the Pacer bigs. With no Horford around to draw defenders out of the paint, Indiana won’t respect anyone the Hawks trot out there at center (the 3-point-jacking Pero Antić, specifically) unless given a valid reason to do so.

    Millsap will need strong rebounding help not only from his centers but DeMarre Carroll (7 rebounds in each of his last three contests) and Kyle Korver (6 rebounds vs. Brooklyn) as well. On the other end of the floor, Antić’s height and Elton Brand’s long arms will hopefully pose a hindrance to the jump-hooking Hibbert and Ian Mahinmi, but the frontcourt needs to complete possessions by boxing out better. Opponents have averaged a whopping 16.0 offensive boards in Atlanta’s three losses this month.

    Korver’s offensive drought (28.5 FG% in his last three games and 19.0 3FG% in his last four games) continues alongside his Threak, as nimble opponents like Paul George can simply rove the perimeter, while his teammates struggle to get him the ball quickly enough in ideal catch-and-shoot situations. Korver recognizes, though, that the very threat of him heating up from long-range makes him also quite useful as a passer. He rang up a season-high six assists against the Nets on Monday.

    The player who was the Hawks’ next-best perimeter shooter, Cartier Martin, has been cut loose, one of a series of NBA waiver casualties yesterday (Pacers roster residual Rasual Butler was spared the wrath of the waiver wire), making the options for an Atlanta team who has already been living-and-dying by the three all the more shallow for Head Coach Mike Budenholzer.

    A veritable newcomer to the arc, Millsap sunk 2-of-3 triples against the Nets on Monday, but has connected on just four of his last 19 attempts. He has to get back to banging in the post for tips, putbacks, extended possessions, and trips to the free throw line. Against slow-paced teams like the Bulls, Nets, and Pacers, Millsap’s fully capable of crashing offensive boards while still recovering back on D when opponents get the rebounds.

    It’s not just Millsap, and Antić, that need to cease laying it on the three-point line so often. In Hawks losses this season, Atlanta has taken 2.0 more three-pointers, but took 4.5 fewer field goals overall and 2.9 fewer free throw attempts. As was the case last season, the Hawks are taking lots of threes not necessarily within the flow of a rational offense, but primarily because they’re spending a good deal of time scrambling from behind to stay in games.

    Ultimately, it is up to the Hawks point guards to control the ball and the tempo, making weakside drives and mid-range shots a priority tonight. Jeff Teague (37.7 FG% and 5.8 APG in last four games) committed seven turnovers against the Nets and averaged 5.3 TO/G in these last three losses. He has to get out on the break against George Hill, piling up layups and drawn fouls. In transition, drawing help defense from George can open up the perimeter for shots from trailers Korver and Carroll.

    Teague and Shelvin Mack have to get open whenever halfcourt plays break down early in the shot clock, getting themselves in position to receive the kickout pass and ready to execute Plan B quickly and decisively.

    For all of its success lately, Indiana (28-6) has not had an impressive road victory in just over a month. Tonight’s the final away-game for the Pacers before a five-game West Coast swing in a couple of weeks, so Head Coach Frank Vogel will be treating this game as a tune-up.

    When you’re winning games, no one recognizes when the team’s star player is shooting poorly. Paul George is shooting just 35.4 FG% in his last five games, 19.3% from three-point territory. To this point, he has been able to rely on heroics from probable All-Star reserve Lance Stephenson (career-high 49.3 FG%, 13.4 PPG, 5.2 APG and 6.6 RPG) and the recently-returning ex-All-Star Danny Granger, but he’ll need more help from his frontcourt stars when he’s struggling from the floor, especially now that Stephenson is out of tonight's action with a reported knee contusion. Granger (9.3 PPG, 37.8 FG% through nine games) will be starting in Stephenson's stead.

    Hibbert’s numbers are down from his breakout effort in last season’s playoffs, while David West’s 12.2 PPG is a nine-season low. The addition of Luis Scola (career-low 8.4 PPG despite 51.0 FG%) doesn’t appear to be as much of a factor as the shift of the Indiana offense to the backcourt, and perhaps a desire by Vogel to keep the big men as fresh as possible for the postseason. The Hawks may have a chance to catch the Pacers’ big men, on the second night of a back-to-back, trying to coast tonight after fending off a late charge from the Raptors on Tuesday.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  24. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Nets

    By lethalweapon3,

    There have been wins, oughta-wins, shoulda-wons, and sure-would-be-nice opportunities to win. But for the Atlanta Hawks, there haven’t been any true Must-Wins on their schedule. Until now.

    The fortunes of the Brooklyn Nets, this season and next, bear significant impacts on the organizational fate of the Hawks. Atlanta will have exactly three opportunities to influence Brooklyn’s ultimate standing in the league this season. In two weeks, they’ll be together in London just in time for a spot of tea. And they have two chances in Brownstone Country, on the herringbone floor of the Barclays Center, once in April and once tonight (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, YES Network).

    We have Danny Ferry and Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson to thank for these opportunities. The options to swap draft choices with Brooklyn in 2014 and 2015 didn’t seem terribly significant back in the summer of 2012, when Billy King acquired the six-time All-Star from Atlanta, pairing him with Deron Williams and Brook Lopez and set his Russian mogul owner’s nine-digit championship dreams in motion.

    Those options caused nary a stir this summer, either, when King went after veterans Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry, and Andrei Kirilenko, trying to heighten the chances for Mikhail Prokhorov’s Eastern Promises to come to fruition.

    But as it stands, even on a two-game losing streak, it’s the Hawks, not the Nets, who remain almost stuck in the third spot of the Eastern Conference, a testament to the competitive spirit instilled by new Head Coach Mike Budenholzer. Meanwhile, the Nets, despite winning two straight, are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. And Hawks fans are salivating. If the Nets stand pat in the East through the spring, they could bring the Hawks no worse than the 11th pick in a reasonably loaded NBA draft.

    With the lower crust of the East so densely packed together in the NBA standings, three wins by the Hawks over the Nets could mean the difference between drafting Jabari Parker and Montrezl Harrell this June, or between Joel Embiid, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Jusuf Nurkic. Atlanta (18-16) won’t have Al Horford around to help their cause, but Brooklyn (12-21) has to make do without their leading scorer and rebounder as well (Brook Lopez).

    Tonight’s affair will be all about control and composure, particularly from the starting point guards. D-Will (13.6 PPG, 6.9 APG) has been maligned for his conditioning and leadership, but he ranks third in the NBA for assist percentage (41.4 assists per 100 possessions), just a couple ticks ahead of fifth-place Jeff Teague (39.2 assists per 100). Williams leads Net starters with 47.6 FG%, but without Lopez he desperately needs a big man he can count on to get decent post position and put the ball in the hoop.

    D-Will has been trying to put a kibosh on recent rumors about persistent soreness in his left ankle, largely to avoid media panic in NYC. But medical staff sent him off to doctors today to get checked out. While he is a gametime decision for tonight, chances are good he’ll play, as Tyshawn Taylor has been assigned to the D-League today, and “Jason Terry, ballhandler” doesn’t instill a lot of confidence these days.

    Last year, future Hall of Famer Jason Kidd was Williams’ crosstown point guard rival. Now he’s guiding Williams as his head coach, insistent on a plodding pace of heavily-halfcourt basketball (91.9 possessions per 48 minutes, 25th in NBA; 8.8 fastbreak PPG, 29th in NBA) to allow several past-their-prime veterans to keep up. Teague and Shelvin Mack can alter Brooklyn’s plans dramatically by pushing the ball up court in transition. But finishing in the paint and ball control remains important. The Hawks are 7-2 when Teague keeps from turning the ball over more than twice.

    The Nets defense (109.5 opponent points per 100 possessions, 3rd worst in NBA) may indeed be the elixir for Kyle Korver’s shooting woes (12-for-40 on threes in his last six games). Foes have had an easier time catching up to the Threaker lately, without Horford around to set useful screens. However, Brooklyn opponents shoot a league-high 39.4 3FG%, and the Nets are particularly vulnerable above the break (39.8 opponent 3FG% above-the-break, highest in NBA). That could also be good news for Cartier Martin (49.1 above-the-break 3FG%, 25.0% in the corners), who has connected on nine of his last 17 treys but has appeared just once (2-for-4 on threes in Boston last week) since returning last week from an injured ankle.

    Also hoping for some positive production tonight is Lou Williams (4.3 PPG and 21.7 FG% in his last 3 games), who tore his ACL on this very floor last January to conclude his season. Having returned perhaps too far ahead of schedule, Lou’s hindered mobility has not helped him to score on drives as much as he used to, so he is settling for three-point shots (51.6% of his FG attempts) at a proportion way above his career rate of 29.5%. The Hawks may want to deploy Williams more as a cutter and allow him to earn trips to the free throw stripe (81.5 FT%). His free throw rate of 0.198 attempts per field goal attempt is just barely over half of his sixth-man-stud career rate.

    Underlying the attention placed on Joe Johnson’s clutchiness, helping Brooklyn avoid a third-straight loss with a buzzer beater in Oklahoma City on Thursday, as well as his three-point bonanza against defensively hapless Philly last month, has been Joe’s woeful offense recently. Johnson has shot just 15-for-50 (30.0 FG%; 7.0 PPG) from the floor in the last five games, including 4-for-26 from three-point range. Versus Cleveland on Saturday, two points on 1-for-7 shooting was all he could muster in nearly 35 minutes.

    To avoid the wrath of a Russian sickle, King and Kidd must get the NBA's highest-salaried team into the East's Top 8, if not Top 5, by season's end. It goes without saying that for Brooklyn to have any shot at a postseason berth in the dreadful East, D-Will has to find a way to get Joe, for now the team’s leading scorer without Lopez, going on a steadier basis. Also, perhaps not since his rookie year in Boston has Johnson been as underutilized as a passer (2.6 APG). Johnson, Pierce, and the recently returning Kirilenko can be useful passers in halfcourt sets if D-Will has to miss any significant time.

    Beverage-spilling ploys aside, Brooklyn’s chances of staying competitive in any game rest heavily on their ability to draw the referees’ attention. Their 26.0 free throw attempts per game leads the East, despite their slow pace of play. By comparison, only Miami takes fewer field goals (78.0 FGAs/game), but unlike the HEAT, the Nets’ 44.4 FG% is subpar, particularly inside the arc.

    Paul Pierce (career-low 12.9 PPG and 40.0 FG%; 33.7 3FG% a ten-year low) exemplifies the Nets offense. His scoring average jumps to 18.0 PPG when he gets at least six free throw attempts. Brooklyn is 2-9 when Pierce (85.3 FT%, 18th in NBA) gets fewer than four attempts, and 0-6 when he gets no more than two free throw shots. The Hawks’ forwards (Paul Millsap, in particular) must force off-balance shots from Pierce without drawing unnecessary contact, and cut off his drives to the hoop from the perimeter, something he has been apt to try a lot recently.

    For Millsap, the double-double machine, continuing to avoid fouling out is a higher priority than worrying about his offensive inefficiency (8-for-32 combined against Golden State and Chicago, his worst shooting efforts this season), although the Hawks are just 1-6 when he shoots under 35 percent.

    In addition to Pierce at power forward, Kidd is also experimenting with Shaun Livingston at shooting guard, shifting Joe to the three-spot. Mr. Livingston, I presume, knows he’s no more reliable a shooter (4-for-15 as a starter in his last two games; five three-point shots all season) than Johnson, but he can be used as a secondary distributor to take some of the ballhandling pressure off of Williams. He is yet another Net who can generate offense with trips to the free throw line (87.5 FT%, 10th in NBA). Kidd will continue rotating Livingston, Alan Anderson, and Mirza Teletovic at the wing positions, alongside Johnson or Pierce, until he finds something consistently effective.

    Is Mirza Teletovic the Bosnian translation of Mike Scott? Teletovic, like Scott, can give you buckets in short order, yet the Monstar from Mostar struggles mightily to stop anyone assigned to him on defense. In a low-scoring, grindingly slow contest, introducing either one of these two forwards will provide a burst of much needed energy to the game, probably enough for both teams. There might be Tecmo Bowl-scale numbers put up if both are on the floor for any significant stretch of time.

    Gustavo Ayón and Pero Antić are the Euroballers particularly susceptible to the mind tricks of Kevin Garnett and Reggie Evans. The cagey KG (career-low 6.4 PPG and 36.7 FG%; 2.9 PF/game) has shifted back to the starting center role in the absence of Lopez, and leads the league in defensive rebounding percentage (31.3%). Evans started in Garnett’s place in Saturday’s win, effectively neutralizing Cleveland’s Andy Varejao. Whichever of Garnett or Evans is in the game should dictate which end of the floor the Hawks’ pivot men should be crashing and exploiting. The Nets are near the basement in second chance points (9.5 per game, 29th in NBA), and Evans probably accounts for half of these.

    Play well tonight, Atlanta Hawks! Your future superstar teammate is depending on you!

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
  25. lethalweapon3

    Hawks - Bulls

    By lethalweapon3,

    Good news, Hawks fans! The Chicago Bulls don’t score 37 points in a quarter!

    Bad news? We won’t, either!

    After a late fourth-quarter collapse against the red-hot Golden State Warriors, the scene shifts from chilly ATL to the downright glacial Windy City, as the Bulls await the Atlanta Hawks for a tilt at the United Center (8:00 P.M. Eastern, SportSouth, WGN).

    D Rose! And then D Fell, again. Sadly, Chicago’s hometown Rated-PG Superstar could only grace the NBA with his presence for 10 games this season. After he exited stage left once with another right knee injury, the Bulls went reeling, losing 11 of their next 14 games. But they may be righting their ship, winners of four of their last six.

    With the combo of Marquis Teague (24.2 FG%, 1.5 APG, 0.9 TO/G, assigned to the D-League), Mike James (no stats worth mentioning, waived) and ex-Hawk Kirk Hinrich (4.8 APG; 33.5 FG%; 28.1 3FG%) bordering on abject failure, the Bulls went after Toronto castaway D.J. Augustin, and so far his approximation of Rose is working just fine (9.8 PPG, 5.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 91.3 FT%). How long D.J. can keep playing that song remains to be seen.

    No matter the weather outside, Head Coach Tom Thibodeau’s bullish bunch knows how to put opposing offenses on ice. Chicago gives up just 92.5 PPG (2nd lowest in NBA), opponents shooting just 43.1 FG% (4th lowest in NBA), with the pace of Bulls games slowed to just 90.9 possessions per 48 minutes (3rd slowest in NBA). The United Center can be a House of Horrors for the Atlanta offense, but only a few Hawks (Jeff Teague, Lou Williams, Kyle Korver, Mike Scott) return from last January's 97-58 stifling at the hooves of the Bulls.

    Toss aside yesterday’s back-and-forth breakneck tempo with the Warriors, as this will be a lot more like the New Year’s Eve game (92-91) against the Boston Celtics, except against a team with vastly superior skill. The same Celtics team that was a wayward Jordan Crawford shot away from Iguodala’ing the Hawks in Boston traveled to Chicago and got thumped on Thursday (94-82), shooting just 39.1% from the floor.

    The Bulls defense tries to shoo players off of that 3-point line (17.5 attempts per game, 3rd fewest in NBA), where talented opponents can proliferate (37.9 opponent 3FG%, 3rd highest in NBA), and drive the ball toward their Vitamix of interior defenders, Luol Deng, Jimmy Butler, Carlos Boozer, Taj Gibson, and Joakim Noah all lying in wait. Boston only got off 12 threes against Chicago, nailing just two of them.

    Can Atlanta find cracks along the perimeter and use their three-point bombardment (9.4 threes made per game, most in the East) to get them over the hump? Chicago is 3-13 when they give up seven or more treys, 10-5 otherwise.

    With apologies to Mike Dunleavy, Jr., Bulls fans are quite fond of what they’ve been missing ever since Korver (1-for-5 on threes vs. Golden State, a pedestrian 8-for-25 since Horford exited with his pec injury) was allowed to skip town two seasons ago. Korver is a tad bitter that he couldn’t match the Warriors’ late-game production from the perimeter to keep last night's lead out of reach. He and LouWill must at least match the offensive output of Mike Dunleavy (team-leading 38.6 3FG%) and D.J. Augustin (1.5 three-pointers made per game).

    Korver's former coach, Thibodeau, has his Bullseye dead-on the Hawks’ recently-dull sharpshooter, particularly making it a goal to stop the Threak. “Well, I don’t like to give up threes to anyone, so that’s the way we’re going to approach it,’’ Thibodeau said to the Chicago media yesterday. “You’ve got to get out to his shot. You’ve got to have the ability to run him off his shot, then you have to do that without being undisciplined, where you’re just giving wide-open shots to other people. So it requires you to be very disciplined and have an awareness of where he is at all times, and he moves great without the ball. If you turn your head on him, he knows how to find an open area. He’s clever.’’

    Gibson, who was limited in practice yesterday, may get promoted to the frontline tonight. Boozer (24.3 Defensive Rebounding %, 18th in NBA) strained his hamstring in Thursday’s game and was held out of Friday practice and this morning’s shootaround, his status a gametime decision for this evening’s matchup. Boozer’s absence would force Noah (12.5 Offensive Rebounding %, 10th in NBA) to play the full court rather than customarily splitting up the rebounding chores.

    Thibodeau also has a mystery player on a minutes-restriction, in addition to ironman Luol Deng (37.7 MPG), and my money is on Noah (31.2 MPG; 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists vs. Boston). Knowing Al Horford isn’t around to bother them, look for a boost in activity for ex-Hawk Nazr Mohammed.

    Doses of Gustavo Ayón and Elton Brand on the offensive glass will help draw defensive help for Noah further in, straining their ability to clear open shooters from the 3-point arc. The Hawks’ last six games have finished within a margin of under ten points, and Atlanta hasn’t lost by 10+ points since November 27. Some timely three-point bombs could break the ice and make the difference against a low-scoring (91.4 PPG, last in NBA; 42.2 FG%, 28th in NBA) Chicago team.

    Go Hawks!

    ~lw3
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