HAWKS @ THUNDER, WE ARE BACK ON THE ROAD

[thesheedera]

Mason was scoring everything he touched? It seems like every post you just throw something in that you pull out of thin air. Like Marvin only having a couple of 20 point games last year. If someone going 4-11 upsets you then I'd say our defense did pretty good. There were a handful of ugly breakdowns, but we held them under 40% shooting, blocked 9 shots, and had 10 steals. That's pretty good with or without Josh.

Overall a good defensive game. Many of Durant's points came on shots that are impossible to defend. No one on their team shot for better than 50% other than Wilcox and Swift - both at 1-1. We also forced a lot of turnovers with pressure and Horford's 5 blocks are the epitome of "stepping up" in Smith's absence.

We were just inconsistent. During a few stretches we lost focus and looked horrible on D. But we had enough stretches of excellent D to make up for it. Itw ill take time to adjust to life w/o Smith on defense, and in the end it will likely make this team much better all around.

Flip was enormous, JJ looks as good as at any time he's been a Hawk, Horford is my favorite Hawk in years and makes an enormous impact even when shooting poorly and only taking 6 shots. And Marvin was very solid. He's looking aggressive on O, on the boards, and very good on D. He (and the rest of the team) had several shots rim out that would have made for a very different game had they dropped in.

What were his 3 TOs? One was a crossover on the left wing that must have been a carry but looked clean to me on the replay.

He had a feet shuffling one closer to the top of the key I think that was the right call.

Can't remember the 3rd. Good news - they were the results of being aggressive and forcing the issue. Bad news - his dribble drive still needs some polish.

He flat out when STRONG to the hole a few times, which is definitely new/refreshing.

Not nut hugging, just discussing my (now) second favorite Hawk.