I've been congratulatory, now.. a little more crit

[Diesel]

ical.

1. Our whole team struggle with JT, Harris, and JJ Berrea... Those "little guys" sped past everybody, jumped into a lot of people and scored.

I can give Law the benefit of the doubt based on Experience. But everybody else just seemed Slow.

2. Who here believes that Smoove sees himself as a PF?? BY application, Smoove plays SF.

3. I know he's the reigning MVP, but down the stretch, Dirk had his way with Chillz, Marvin, and Smoove. When he took it to the basket, he was wide open.

4. Can my team get a fair call at home? JJ is getting hammered...NO call. Dirk and JJ Berrea is flopping all over the place and getting the call.

I fear that our defense against bigs that can move is going to be iffy... Dirk is not really an inside player, however, last night, he scored on Smoove inside with the little curl he was doing.

Wait.. One more.

Woody.. how does our defense work. Ball rotation leads to guys being wide open... IS that a blown assignment or is that just the flaw in our defense?

Otherwise...

Great Job Hawks!!!

[Blunt91]

Yes we could really use Speedy claxton. AJ looked terrible last night. He looked better than this last year when he came over. I guess old age has set in at the age of 33. If he continues to play like that he will be waived by the trade deadline. We wouldn't even be able to get a 2ndrounder for him. AJ could at least looked to outlet the ball down court since he is slow of foot but he doesn't even try to do that. At least T. Lue can score so he warrants time out on the floor. Please hurry back Speedy!!!

[thesheedera]

Quote:

---

ical.

1. Our whole team struggle with JT, Harris, and JJ Berrea... Those "little guys" sped past everybody, jumped into a lot of people and scored.

I can give Law the benefit of the doubt based on Experience. But everybody else just seemed Slow.

2. Who here believes that Smoove sees himself as a PF?? BY application, Smoove plays SF.

3. I know he's the reigning MVP, but down the stretch, Dirk had his way with Chillz, Marvin, and Smoove. When he took it to the basket, he was wide open.

4. Can my team get a fair call at home? JJ is getting hammered...NO call. Dirk and JJ Berrea is flopping all over the place and getting the call.

I fear that our defense against bigs that can move is going to be iffy... Dirk is not really an inside player, however, last night, he scored on Smoove inside with the little curl he was doing.

Wait.. One more.

Woody.. how does our defense work. Ball rotation leads to guys being wide open... IS that a blown assignment or is that just the flaw in our defense?

Otherwise...

Great Job Hawks!!!

---

1 - Harris came to play. I was very impressed with the way he forced the issue. And we all know that JT can score at will whemn he's on. Berea shocked me. We will definitely ahve trouble with the little guys that have a knack for scoring. Law and Claxton are our only hopes. Law's gonna have growing pains and Claxton....well...I'm not holding my breath.

2 - He was chucking long balls but he also spent plenty of time inside. After a brilliant start he had a long stretch (3rd quarter maybe?) where he just kept forcing it out of the flow of the offense (if it even exists). We seemed to resort to the one on one game when we had our backs against the wall during that stretch, and it almost let the Mavs off the hook. Smith does so many great things that it's hard for be to be too critical of him, but sometimes he just makes you go crazy with his decisions. I don't think Josh sees himself as a 3 or a 4. I think he sees himself as a superstar that can do anything. Ain't there yet, but there are advantages (and obvious dsadvantages) to that mindset.

3 - I was actually pleasantly surprised at the way we treated Dirk for most of the game. I mean my God, he's gonna get hot at some point, and he's an IMPOSSIBLE matchup when he's feeling it. We played him aggressivley and forced him into a lot of bad decisions for a good portion of the game, but at some point he's gonna do his thing. To me oit looked like our effort was there (which is a nice change of pace), but we don't have anyone that can really stop him. Who does?

4 - Several awful calls. That Barea flop made my stomach tuen. Acie's got a lot to learn about the way these games are gonna be called. My guess is that he figures it out.

Ball rotation - another spot where I felt the effort was evident, but this is a really good team we were playing, and if you move the ball well enough you're gonna find the open man. One more than one occassion they made the extra pass and still had someone in their face, but drilled the shot. I was very happy to see the effort, but the execution needs a lot of tuning.

I was more disappointed in our half-court game. When push comes to shove, we rely on one on one. That's gonna be fine on some nights, but it has to change.

We didn't let Acie do much after the 1st quarter. Several times he didn't even bring the ball up. I mean come on, let the playmaker make something happen! Lue and AJ just weren't facilitating anything at all and I didn't think Law got the proper opportunities.

Hopefully just a matter of time.

Great win, that place was jumping for the entire second half. I can only imagine the feeling of playoff basketball in Philips.

[chillzatl]

2. Who here believes that Smoove sees himself as a PF?? BY application, Smoove plays SF.

not sure what the point is. I'm sure he see's himself as a SF because he knows he doesn't have the size/game to consistently be a PF, but what about those holes in his SF game? remember, tweener!

3. I know he's the reigning MVP, but down the stretch, Dirk had his way with Chillz, Marvin, and Smoove. When he took it to the basket, he was wide open.

you said it, he's the reigning MVP. When he gets going you can't stop him.

4. Can my team get a fair call at home? JJ is getting hammered...NO call. Dirk and JJ Berrea is flopping all over the place and getting the call.

It's been this way for 15 years man..

I fear that our defense against bigs that can move is going to be iffy... Dirk is not really an inside player, however, last night, he scored on Smoove inside with the little curl he was doing.

Good thing there aren't a ton of players like that in the league. Then again, most every team struggles to defend those players. I would expect Dirk to score on Josh Smith at will. As a man up defender against bigger or faster players, Josh is an average defender at best.

[BusBoyIsBack]

Quote:

---

Woody.. how does our defense work. Ball rotation leads to guys being wide open... IS that a blown assignment or is that just the flaw in our defense?

---

This is really the biggest question that I want answered.

We would not have won this game if Dallas knocks down those wide open 3s.

I don't know what's the deal with that.

As far as Smoove, he's as much a 4 as Dirk. I at least commend Smoove for trying to post up late in the game. Even though it could have been a bad time to try such a thing which led to two turn around air balls.

But if he develops that part of his game, look out!

[AtLaS]

Quote:

---

As a man up defender against bigger or faster players, Josh is an average defender at best.

---

Actually he played great on Dirk for pretty much the entire night. Dirk got hot when Smith wasn't on him, then Smith returned and Dirk continued scoring. Smith is not a below average man defender at the PF position IMO.

[lunar]

yeah, dirk and terry really didn't go off until they started doing that pick and roll taking smith off dirk and forcing marvin to guard him. good thing though is that we figured it out and got johnson to switch off on him which made him get cold again.

[HawkNJersey]

Serious...underating Smooves defense last night, IMO. I'm pretty sure it was Marvin on Dirk...when he got hot. Smoove switched to him and couldn't slow him down. But, it wasn't like Smoove was outta positon. I just rewatched the game on NBA.com and Smoove had a hand his face almost everytime. Dirk's great player and a few inches taller than Smoove. Sometimes you have give the offensive player credit and not blame it on the defender. No other player in the league, has Dirk's skillset and size.

If we wanna talk about his performance on O, that's a different story. He was trying to do to much. He needs to watch film of the first quarter and go from there. We had no PGs leading the break.

[Diesel]

The point about Dirk... Yes, he's the MVP, but he didn't score on us last night with his normal arsenal. He did things that he's uncomfortable doing and we let him do them. He doesn't drive the lane as much as he did and we ushered him to the basket most of the time.

If this happens with Dirk, I fear what will happen with a pF who does play that way or play in the low post.

[Peoriabird]

Quote:

---

The point about Dirk... Yes, he's the MVP, but he didn't score on us last night with his normal arsenal. He did things that he's uncomfortable doing and we let him do them. He doesn't drive the lane as much as he did and we ushered him to the basket most of the time.

If this happens with Dirk, I fear what will happen with a pF who does play that way or play in the low post.

---

Let face it, Dirk threw some stuff up there and it when in! Especially that shot he took running to his left and shot it with his right falling away with Smoove draped all over him. I thought that Hawks did a good job guarding their big men! Just got to work on slowing down future Hall of Famers like Barea

[Traceman]

I thought we did a great job of contesting his long range J and forced him to put the ball on the floor where he is less comfortable. Any time you hold Dirk to less than 50% shooting and you limit his 3 point attempts, I think you have done a good job.

As for other PFs, how many can put the ball on the floor like Dirk?

[BossTweed]

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Woody.. how does our defense work. Ball rotation leads to guys being wide open... IS that a blown assignment or is that just the flaw in our defense?

---

This is really the biggest question that I want answered.

We would not have won this game if Dallas knocks down those wide open 3s.

I don't know what's the deal with that.

---

Yeah, I was wondering about the rotation on defense as well. We let them get plenty of open looks and we lucked out that they didn't lead to a ton of points because they didn't shoot a very good percentage. I might have to go back and watch to see who and when we were doubling that led to those open looks.

[Diesel]

Dirk putting the ball on the floor is not one of his best assets. I agree, it's good we contested his outside shot. I'm just sorta disappointed at how easily he made it to the basket doing what is uncomfortable for him AND I was a bit disappointed at how easily he drew fouls doing that.

However, I was very disappointed in the reffing.

[TroyMcClure]

Quote:

---

However, I was very disappointed in the reffing.

---

At least they were calling the blatant travels.

[Diesel]

I wonder if Zaza would have been out there, if he would have gotten as many flops as Harris, Barrea, and Dirk were getting.

[Atlantaholic]

The call on the Barrea flop on Law almost made me puke. I hate how "rookies" get called a different game than the rest of the players and everyone is "ok" with it.

[DrReality]

Rookie call is right. I got the sense that law could handle him straight up if they let them play. Law is a physical specimen and will be able to hold his own with most of them.