Crank

Teague is really going to have to step up if Kirk can't go because we can't depend on Jamal 'can't defend a chair' Crawford to defend Rose

no one one can defend Rose thinking Teague can is a surefire way to get swept .

Im so glad this series is over they made it way harder than it had to be

I cant wait either lets get this started now !!!!!!!!!!!

I find it amazing that they are doubling OUR FRICKIN SIXTH MAN !!!!!!!!!!!

Joe ,Al ,Josh should be feasting .....actually I would feel so disrespected that they would think they could leave me at any point if I was either on of them .

But to be honest I think thats the issue with this team for our best players winning and losing is .. its not personal ....and it should be .

Im behind them 100% . I really want them to put it to them good though. I put this loss on LD simply not being able to push the right buttons last night pregame because I guarantee you that many of us here wouldve known exactly what to say to get them focused.

Im not nervous The Magic fought hard at home like we all knew they would . In the end they still only shot 41% as a team the problem is our offense just disappeared and squashed any kind of comeback .

But after seeing How the magic were dancing around the bench and Dwight was posing and everything after a dunk . Its not if we win but by how much . This is the time when you put the foot on the throat and dont let up to the horns sounds.

After finally watching the second half this morning after passing out at halftime last night I must say our biggest problem was that we didnt match the Magics energy.

I also thought that LD shouldve did something a little bit different in spots like play Teague and Damien early off the bench . SVG made all these adjustments thinking we werent gonna do anything different well last night is when you toss your wrinkle into the equation and you tell both along with Zaza no layups. IMO it wouldve been enough to throw them completely off in the first half when they made there run.

I also think that at this point we need to look at the assistant coaches because its obvious there is no tell it like it is guy on the bench alongside LD and I dont see anyone doing that

We simply have different standards if simply being a better perimeter defender then Bibby automatically makes you at least average. I believe you can be a better perimeter defender then Bibby but still be below average. People have blown by Crawford, Bibby, and Smith all season long.

Smith's perimeter defense is below average in my mind. In my mind perimeter defense = on ball defense around the perimeter.

His help defense is excellent.

His off the ball defense is excellent.

His post defense is a little above average.

People have blown by everyone on this team at one time another .

Everytime I see one of these threads touting someones defense that player gets his butt smoked all game .

There simply are no lockdown defenders in the league there are simply players who can make you work harder than others .

There are no more PippensJordans ,Paytons etc who can remove a player from the equation . For as much talk of Artests defense I saw Ariza eat his lunch all night and Ariza is not known for his offense .

Team defense is the way to go and teams that can get this philosophy installed and ran properly tend to do very well.

I think Joshs defense is overall pretty good but hes very undisciplined and gambles too much .

I saw these numbers posted on a game preview

Of the 192 minutes played so far in these playoffs, the Magic have led just 42 minutes, three seconds. The rest of the time they have either trailed the Hawks or been tied.

Of the 16 quarters played so far, the Magic have had a lead at some point in only seven of those quarters. Even worse, they have led in only three of the eight second-half quarters so far. And twice already – in Games 1 and 4 – the Magic never led in the second half.

Of the 96 minutes played in Atlanta in Games 3 and 4, the Magic led a grand total of 2 minutes, 15 seconds. They never led by more than two points at Philips Arena and never longer than 1 minute, three seconds.

The Magic have had one double-digit lead in the series – 14 points in the fourth quarter of Game 2 – and they let it shrink to two before pulling away. The Magic led by as many as four points in Game 1, by 14 in Game 2 and by as much as two points in Game 3, but never led in Game 4. Conversely, the Hawks have had a double-digit lead at some point of all four games so far.

and yet the Hawks are catching major flack

if we're not resigning Jamal....

I'd love to move Marvin in a trade to get Mayo

so a team with Rudy Gay would trade a productive scoring guard for a player who plays the same position as Gay ?

I want Marvin to do well but Ive never see a top ten pick as bad as Marvin last this long with one team .By now you have normally your niche in the NBA but Marvin simply hasnt done that .

I think this team has held him back just as it has done for Josh.

Winning in 5 helps the Lakers chances of getting Dwight not ours .

Teams FEAR THAT INCH... He has been busting Jameer's *ss with that 1 inch. It almost looks personal the way he goes on the attack when Jameer is guarding him. It's like he's trying to create a poster factory or a highlight room.. or a highlight factory.

I want to see more wide open shots too. However, knowing that we don't have a consistent low post threat, our guys will have to hit some contested shots.

exactly JJ Reddick is a good spot up shooter

Crawford is a starter caliber sg that comes off our bench .

can people not see this difference.

We dont have a Dwight or CP3 creating insanely good open looks for our team . Jamal would be averaging 30 in this series if he actually could some open looks .

"We don't have the Jamal Crawford or a Joe Johnson, guys who can break you down off the dribble,"

Jamals has his warts but there is not a coach in the playoffs that would not take those couple of errant shots a game to reap the benefit of what he brings .

al horford needs to work on his own post game as well, because of right now it's nonexistent

Both Al and Smoove do because I dont think considered how hard you have to work to consistently carry a team offensively from the post.

They have to work on there footwork and positioning both in the low blog and on the pick and roll

The words were actually "The Hawks are not playing Champioship basketball." Its hard to argue with that after we gave up another 16 point lead to an inferior team.

The Magic were 2-23 on 3pt FGs and we still almost lost due to the Hawks own bone headed mistakes on offense.

The Hawk did win that game but Orlando was right there till the end with a chance to tie at the buzzer.

The truth should not hurt so bad guys. I think we have gotten too used to Nique and Bob being homers rather then giving us the truth.

I really like what Kerr said about Crawford when comparing him to Vinny "the Microwave" Johnson. Kerr basically said: Its great to have a guy like him who can give you instant offense off the bench for 25 - 30 minutes a night but you don't want to play guys who play that style over 40 minutes a game b/c you will get diminishing returns due to them forcing shots at the expense of your other players not being involved enough........Its great to have a guy who can create and hit difficult shots to win a game but the problem is when they think they should pull those same high degree of difficulty moves in the middle of games where you should be looking for better and easier shots and that hurts the other players on your team..........When the Hawks were up by double digits they should have been looking for better shots the circus is-moves. There is alot of truth inwhat Kerr said.

Hawks fans should be glad the Hawks are up 3-1 but in reality they are playing far from perfect basketball.

Except that jamal very rarely plays 40 minutes for us so I take it as another off the wall comparison,Hes always within the 29-33 minutes range no matter what .

Jamal Crawford is not a good bench score who talent restricts him to a the bench he is a starting caliber scoring guard who happens to come of our bench .

Ben Gordon is a Vinnie Johnson type as Johnson was only 6'2 and jamal can give you minutes at both guard spots

I dont watch them for expert analysis I watch them for entertainment purposes. Just listen to what they say about each team throughout the playoffs and you find they contradict themselves all the time .

They pick favorites and they adjust there analysis accordingly .

If we win tomorrow they will expect Derrick Rose to run all over us.

If anyone watch there analysis of the last two bulls game and how they played and then listen to how they call us out you know they are biased

With the way Kirk and Jamal are shooting the basketball and the way we have been able to pick up fouls on dwight that would actually play into our strategy. It worked in game two because Al was out for extended stretches

You are comapring Joe to a guy like Jamal who is flat out on FIRE in this series and is just making tough shot after tough shot, the only other person that could get in his type of rhythm in the NBA is a guy like Kobe or Durant. Every other player who gets Jamal's type of scoring numbers attack the rim constantly. Right now Joe is in his equilibrium where he is not forcing up a whole bunch of shots but at the same time is doing what he has to for the team as long as Jamal is on fire. If we had Joe try to find his groove jacking up 20+ shots, we lose. Right now it's a team win and you simply can't say that if player A stops playing, then the team loses. If you noticed before Jamal came in during the first quarter we were practically blowing out the magic, and before Joe got in foul trouble, he scored 8 consecutive points to start off the momentum. One could argue that had it not been for that boost of energy that the Hawks would never have that huge lead that they did in the first. Also, Joe has never been the guy to score HUGE numbers ala Jamal, someone who can just get 25 on a consistent basis in the playoffs, but he is one that you can depend on down the stretch and someone who can give you a consistent 22,5, and 5 on game by game basis.

When jamal checked into the game were were up 12 -9 at the 4:01 mark of the first quarter . I think people see those couple of nice plays in the start of the game and assume we were rolling when we are not .

We scored 12 points the first 8 minutes of the quarter without jamal and 13 points in final 4 minutes of the quarter with jamal was on the floor

The same thing applies to the second half when we were up 56-50 at the 5:11 mark . We scored 8 points the first 7minutes of the quarter without jamal and 10 the final 5 minutes which includes 3 missed free throws

I must say though that Im ok with what Joes done so far I thought last night he finally kinda got in terms of how he made his move quick decisive and attacked . He could do better but overall I felt hes brought it when needed .

The problem is the timing of the shots. He comes down and dribbles then shoots. He doesn't even think about passing. He takes bad shots at the very worst time. Like I said in the chat if we have a lead, Marvin should be in the game not Crawford.

except he was leading the team in assists and you saying Marvin should be in the game means you havent seen a game this series .

My only problem with JJ is that he doesnt make his moves quicker and kinda helps the defense guard him . Other than that Im not gonna be upset at him when hes putting the ball on the floor and driving it like he was tonight .

How do we know that someone else would not have made shots with better passes and easier attempts. No one else got a chance to shoot so why is it a given that someone else would have missed the shots when Crawford made them? The fact still remains is half of Crawford shot were bad one and eventually will catch up with the Hawks if he is allowed to continue to dominate the offense. No one in their right mind can defend that last 3 attempt under those circumstances! The Hawks seem to move the ball to start games and have very good success but then when a double digit lead is established, they go one on one play with either Joe or Jamal which sometimes end up in a Josh Smith 3 attempt which is God awful. We can fool ourselves all we want by saying "we won the game" or Jamal scored 25 points and "he won the game" but eventually', you will be cursing them and want team changes.

and that ball movement that you are speaking doesnt create points wake up !!!! When jamal came in we had 12 points after 8 minutes and points after 11 minutes.

The reason he can say that no one else would make those shots is because we go through stretches where we dont score period turn it over and never get a shot . Are you telling me that watching this game you were saying throw the ball to Powell or Armstrong so they can create ?

I bet you were one of the ones who said we were gonna get swept out of the series now you are gonna tell us that something bad is gonna happen ?

maybe Ill just keep cheering and hoping for the best and being pleasantly surprised instead of panicking and hoping for the worst and being disappointed when you dont get it .

It was a hard fought game... and if we win game 5, I say we put up a permanent poster of the possum...

We are the playoff possums.

I was hoping no one would notice until we were actually there :protest: :)

When Crawford came in during the first half we had scored 12 pts as a team in 8 minutes

When Crawford came in during the second half we had scored 8 pts in 7 minutes

This offensive is stagnant alright but it aint because jamal enters the game.

Ill take these ugly wins because we play better in those and it never allows the team to get big headed because they dont handle success very well.

he just has to realize when he has the hot hand and when he doesn't. first half, i wanted him taking shots because he was on. second half, he was just forcing bad shots.

55% is good for the game, but what are the percentages when you break it down by the half?

I wanna say 4-8 for 50% he also had 4 assists .

He had a great game overall but that 3 he took late was flat out awful and the only difference between it and the miracle from game 3 was that this one was an air ball. But overall a very good game for Jamal and he was a major reason why we won this game.

oh that last shot was a bad shot but he basically kept us in it up to that point . I felt that since because he had a bigger player in Qrich on him he shouldve drove it to the basket because that jumper let Qrich off the hook.As soon as jamal wouldve turned the corner Qrich wouldve fouled him . .

25 and 6 on 55% shooting ....yeah he is killing us ......

Jamal said as much that they tried to run a pick with Joe but the defender stuck with Joe so you are right about that. And yes Jamal had a tremendous size advantage and he's a very clutch 3pt shooter but under no circumstances is a 28' contested 3pt considered a "good" shot. I'd rather have him take that shot than anyone else taking that shot but I'd still greatly prefer for either he or JJ to drive the ball and get a lot closer.

Id rather that we try not to put the refs in a situation where they have to choose between the defensive player of the year or giving Joe or jamal a foul call . I have way more confidence in jamals ability to make tough shots then I do for us to get a foul call against Howard and co in that situation

Redick and Q rich don't score 30 because they suck. Not because Crawford is playing lock down defense on them. When is the last time either of those guys has scored 30?? I'm not sure what you are proving by showing Jameer's stats since Hinrich guards him the majority of the time. If someone wants to look up how many points Jameer has scored on Crawford you would find that his scoring rate goes up massively when Crawford is on him.

again you dont get it if someone doesnt play any defense it doesnt matter who is guarding them they can score . ....JJ Redick cant shoot ? roflmao