This is good setting up, give Bernie a Hand!!!

[Diesel]

Quote:

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In their first five games of the season the Hawks will face 76ers star Allen Iverson, New York under Isiah Thomas in their home opener Nov. 3, Atlanta native Dwight Howard and Orlando at home Nov. 5, LeBron James in Cleveland on Nov. 7 and All-Star and former Georgia Tech star Chris Bosh in Toronto on Nov. 10.

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Whoever set the schedule needs to be congratulated!! I think we can come out of that 4-1.

For the first time in years, the Hawks are not going west on a 7-10 game road trip.

I guess the circus is not coming to town.

[AHF]

4-1 is optimistic but I definitely like it better than opening on the west coast.

[macdaddy]

All part of Stern's master plan to rescue our franchise. Next is booting Belkin.

[DJlaysitup]

Well - I'm not so much worried about the first 5 games as i am about the first 20. That's the time of schedule that teams are playing with big effort to establish a territory in terms of record in the conference (IMO). The Hawks can't afford a 6-14 or 7-13 start this year. We really need to win around 50% of our early season games to establish our competitiveness.

[Diesel]

The importance I see in the first five is that in 3 of the first 5 we will be playing against top stars in the league: AI, Bron, Bosh... and I believe we can win all three.

Those other 15 games you allude to will be easier if we can get momentum with the first 5.

In years past, we went on the road and we lost on the road.

Last year it was GS, LAC, and PTL.

The year before that it was Phoenix, Seattle, and LAC... each time, we played against strong western teams at their house.

This year, we play against weaker eastern teams...

I like it.

[swolehawk2]

I think someone realized that our starting schedule last year was just plain digusting.

[Gangstur]

Although this starting schedule isn't as bad as years past, it is still worth mentioning that this will be the 6th straight year with the Hawks starting the season on the road. I don't think that happens to the Lakers and the Knicks.

[GST]

It's going to be interesting to see which team gets the shaft (early west coast road trip) this season. Could it be that the team that gets the bad schedule equals the team that is predicted to suck?

[DrReality]

I think that is incredibly optimistic. I remember the same kinds of predictions last year before we went O for ????????????????? But it is that time of year that we can all be optimistic. If we can stay near 500 I'll be a happy camper.

[Dejay]

I'm not ready to give them a 4-1 start but it should be better than the 2-16 start from a year ago. They don't have the excuses of having to start out on the road to be home opening fodder for western teams now. A .500+ record or near that after the first 20 games is optimistic but possible.