Another road loss

[Guest]

Somebody fire Lon now.It doesn't matter who is

playing we can't win a road game to save our

life.

[dimes4life]

It is jsut the pre-season. And you know what, I thought you were the one saying "the Hawks are going to win 50 games and got to the NBA finals. I've got a realtiy check for you. The Hawks are going to lose some games early in the season to teams that they should beat, and the result of this is the adiitions of Big Dog, Dickau and Chicken, no I mean turkey, no I mean Ham..THe dude who just absolutely crams all over people when he dunks. And for the "Fire Lon" thing, just calm down. It is the pre-season. You don't see me complaining that Dickau is doing his best or that Bibby broke his foot and is out for 6-8 weeks. Do you? No! Because the Kings are stacked and Dicka is a rookie. Just please calm down.

[Guest]

Well we won exactually 10 road games last year.

" I thought you were the one saying "the Hawks

are going to win 50 games and got to the NBA finals."

That was from the excitement of getting Big Dog.I

pulled back on that pretty quickly.Excitement

makes you say dumb things.

"And for the "Fire Lon" thing, just calm down. It is the pre-season."

Look at the win/loss record the last two years.This

guy can't coach a really good team at this level.

I'm the one that told you it was stupid idea to trade

Terry for a rookie PG.Granted I have lighten up on

Dickac ALOT but he's not really to contribute on a

consisant basis yet and you probably wanted to trade

Terry to start him this year.If SO,who looks like the

fool?

And remember this...your team won 61 games last

year and ours won 33 in the leastern conference.It's

just alittle different don't you think?

[hds428]

Hotlanta, it is a disturbing trend, 1-2 in preseason with 2 road losses now. But remember it is preseason, that puts alot into perspective. I see us getting squeaked alot on the road this year, but I don't think it'll be nearly as bad as last year. If we can raise our road w/l record by just 7 and keep the home record the same, we have 40 wins right there. Keep in mind what we talked about in the chat tonight, no GRob, starters playing limited minutes (we did have what, a 17 point margin before the scrubs came in?), Ira's first game back and Dickau still settling in. These are'nt excuses, just facts bro. Don't hit the panic button just yet. We still have'nt played a game that counts yet.

[Guest]

Dude, chill.

The starters played sub-par minutes, giving plenty of pt to those still on the bubble for the last roster spot. Lon's still trying to figure out where people are (see Hendu really stepping up) and what do about that roster spot/ rotations/ units/ starting 2 guard. Plus, we got the DNP from Dogg again, just resting his quad I assume.

Theo came out at after a monster 21 minutes - 18 pts on 5/8, 8/8 from the stripe, 6 boards (3 offensive), 3 blocks, and a steal. Yet he got his minute quota (slightly above actually) and Lon showed the restraint to stick to his guns and not play him anymore for the night.

We had way too many turnovers and I would have liked to have seen JT shoot a little more, but the 5 assists in 24 minutes isn't bad...boxscore makes it look like Email was productive in his time...I've said it before, but his role may be bigger this year with JT at the point - another ball handler on the court, esp. with Dogg out, is going to be needed at times.

[Blunt91]

Looks like AL Harrington had a big night for the Pacers with his 20pts. I guess he had his way with whomever was guarding him. You all might be saying it is just preaseason and Big Dawg did't play but Reggie Miller didn't play for them nor Croshere or their defensive specialist Ron Artest. It would be a tough series if we made it to the playoffs and had to face these guys.

[Guest]

It's not a secret - they're probably the all-round deepest, most talented, most athletic team in the East, perhaps the League (I dunno, Mavs are pretty stocked as well, esp. if they get Redd).

[hds428]

True Blunt, but what you failed to mention is that during the late 3rd and most of the 4th quarters Indie was playing their starters against guys who wont even be in ATL come Nov. 1st. That's when Harrington really started going off, playing on guys like Antonio Harvey and George Williams. My biggest concern with tonight's game was building confidence and momentum on the road, which in preseason obviously isn't as huge a concern as resting starters and evaluating unguaranteed players. Look at the minutes, their starters outplyed ours by as much as ten minutes in most cases and we still only lost by 2. It's way too early to panic.

[Traceman]

Theo is obviously doing better and that's great! As long as we have guys healthy, we are going to be fine.

As for the score, we were up 62-50 when DD repaced JT at PG late in the 3rd and JT never returned. They mounted their comeback against the end of our bench and Harvey, Shirley, House, Williams and DD finished the game. You guys are worried about the final score? Please! Sure its nice to win but as I said before, health and execution are far more important than winning at this point in the season.

[Guest]

I'm still worried about our road record.We don't

play well on the road and we didnt play well in

this either.

JT has only took like 11 shots in the last two games.

[Diesel]

I would have added Hendu to that list but anytime Hendu pulls down 9 boards in 19 minutes, it''s not that bad.

Ira didn't produce anything but Steals. Email the same.

Now, we talk about this being preseason and us not having Big Dog, however, they beat us without Reggie and really without Oneal.

The one thing you want to do in preseason is show the opposing teams in conference that if we really wanted to we could have easily beat you. That's how the Bulls used to intimidate everyone in preseason. However, we didn't do that tonight. IN fact, Indy might have sent that message to us by sitting Reggie and Oneal and beating us with their Second team.

BTW, didn't we draft Jeff Foster and trade him to GS?

[Diesel]

In fact, I don't think 41 will either. 41 wins was the cutoff and few yrs ago and I think overall teams in the east have gotten better since then.

[Guest]

WOW one preseason game and you are sounding

desperate.

Jeff Foster had his jumper blocked by Dan Dickau

lat night.Besides his numbers come of the soft

a** Nazr.

"The one thing you want to do in preseason is show the opposing teams in conference that if we really wanted to we could have easily beat you. That's how the Bulls used to intimidate everyone in preseason. However, we didn't do that tonight. IN fact, Indy might have sent that message to us by sitting Reggie and Oneal and beating us with their Second team."

O'Neal hurt his ankle.Or atleast it said so in a recap I read.Damn you reach for the dumbest of things.lol

"They sent a message to us by not playing O'Neal"

and he left the game with a ankle injury.Funny stuff.

[Guest]

Oh and Miller still isn't over his injury and I'm

not sure that he has or will play any of this

preseason.

[Blunt91]

What Dan Dickau can jump and block shots? I didn't know he was that athletic.

[Guest]

"Artest is out for at least the next two weeks (finger). Croshere (ankle) is still two weeks away from doing any weight-bearing work and Miller (ankle from world champs) could return to the floor at anytime.

Jermaine O'Neal joined the injured Saturday night when he suffered a mild sprain of his left ankle late in the first quarter. He returned at the start of the second quarter and then left the game two minutes later." - Indiana Star Tribune

[Traceman]

to make something out of nothing. We were up by 12 when the starters left for good. What did you want Lon to do, put JT, Reef, Theo, Ira and Ham back in just to make sure we won this meaningless preseason game? Hell, Nazr, Hendu and Dion weren't even in the game when Indy came back and took the lead! I guess we had better throw in the towel for the season even though the only player on the floor at the end of the game who will even be in uniform when the season begins is Dickau. Give me a break!

[capstone21]

Dude, you do this every year when we lose a game.

It does not matter if we win or lose these preseason games. The guys are learning the system and learning to play together. This is a team with a lot of new players and a lot coming back from injuries. (theo, Email, DD, Ham, Big Dog.) I don't care if we win any more preseason games as long as the guys start to feel comfortable together out there and with each other.

The thing that was really good last night was that THeo played really well. 18pts, 6 rebs and 3 blocks. That is the things to look for from these games....not wins or loses.

Remember, preseason games, everyone is getting the oppurtunity to play even the guys who are not going to make the team. Preseason gives coaches the oppurtunity to try different things and rotations they would not normally do in the regular season. The key players only play 20 minutes and winning/losing is all a crap shoot.

I thought people were getting a little too excited about the Orlando win, well this is the same thing about this lose. Its nothing to get worried about. All of these wins and loses mean nothing except preparation for the regular season.

[hds428]

I guess we're gonna have to agree to disagree there, I think 40 wins will have us in the hunt (honestly, my magic number for us is 42). As far as your Bulls analogy, we did intimidate Indie, IMO. With starters on the floor we had a significant margin, which is exactly why I think they still had their starters on the floor ten minutes after we'd gone to the sub bench players. They needed to save face infront of their home crowd. Like I said, the fact that they overplayed their starters and still only won by two is a bigger statement than the win or loss itsself.

[Guest]

"Dude, you do this every year when we lose a game. "

3-4 bad seasons will do that to you Cap.Or I hate

to lose so I know it does it to me.