Hawks - Hornets

[Plainview1981]

Yeah i am sure marvin being out caused JJ to find his shot.

I guess you're being sarcastic... But they're 9-1 without Marvin starting. Marvin should come off the bench. Unless I'm mistaken on what Rathburn said earlier.

Looking over the stat log, I must have heard him wrong. But they do have a 4-0 mark when Marvin doesn't play.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Hotlanta1981

[Guest]

Great win tonight. Good team effort tonight. Joe's best game since the game against Chicago. ZaZa gave a good effort. Law had a good few minutes also, but he was starting to play abit reckless right before he got yanked. The team is now 9-1 when Mo starts instead of Marvin Williams. That doesn't look good on Marvin.

Marvin has missed 5 games this year, so there haven't been 10 times that Mo could start instead of Marvin. Mo has started 10 games though, maybe he would be better fit as a starter than off the bench? I certainly don't think it means that Mo is better than Marvin.

[Plainview1981]

Marvin has missed 5 games this year, so there haven't been 10 times that Mo could start instead of Marvin. Mo has started 10 games though, maybe he would be better fit as a starter than off the bench? I certainly don't think it means that Mo is better than Marvin.

I could have swore that I heard Bob say they were 8-1 when Marvin didn't start. The win tonight would make it 9. I either didn't hear him correctly, or he meant over the last 2 seasons. If I heard him wrong it's my bad. But they do have the 4-0 mark this year when he doesn't play.

No... Mo is not the better player.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Hotlanta1981

[benhillboy]

Impressive win for the men. If Josh focused more on boxing out, he could be one of the best tap-out men in the league. Double-digit boards should be second nature to him. Was that Acie Law The Fourth with the energy, the dribble-driving, and dishing? Total surprise, on the floor with Chris Paul no less. We sweep the Hornets this year? Who would've thunk it. A minor consolation prize this year for not taking Paul. Years of reparation still due.

Flip was the usual Flip: playing like no one can guard him (has anyone ever seen Flip overly bothered by any defender in the league?) True, I am far from a Joe fan, but it seems as if he is more aggressive and more cognizant of the shot clock and situation recently. He looks like a different player with strong drivers on the floor with him (Flip, Acie.) Why do we never talk about Josh's underrated passing? (when he's fortunate enough to finish his dribble safely near defenders.) I like Al's confidence and deciciveness on his mid-range game. Stellar team defense throughout and down the stretch (another patented Woody-coached performance), especially denying the patented Paul-Chandler alley that many teams can't figure or simply don't have the personnel to diagnose and stop after screen action. Solo seems to have a penchant for making a great play at a crucial juncture. Old Zaza, playing for respect, and getting it. Why can't we seem to put it together with everyone healthy? I can't help but think that the rationing of Marvin's minutes to the rest of the squad yielded a better result than if he had been here, through no fault of his own.

With all that said, though, the Hornets haven't really impressed me this year. I always felt the Lakers' main dilema through the years was finding a player to simply play near Kobe's focused intensity. That player without a doubt is Trevor Ariza, who is as important to that team as Bynum (probably more). Who the heck is going to be an extension of Paul's intensity? David West disappears too often and favors the elbow much more than the block. Tyson Chandler still has laughable offensive skills. Peja is cotton candy. Janeiro Pargo made that team go when Paul sat, and added a new dimension when on the floor with Paul. At this point, he seems way more valuable than Posey. In the second half, it seems as if Paul gets very discouraged in his team amidst the opposing team's run, and it snowballs. That team shouldn't be far from demolition and rebuilding if they are handled in the first round, because everyone knows their best player is a championship-caliber one who is only scratching the surface of his B-Ball knowledge and expertise, yet I don't see a single player alongside him who can defend and score consistently 18 feet and in.

Let's go Hawks. Defend and hit the three. Simple enough. Ask the Spurs. They've had some success doing it.

Edited March 10, 2009 by benhillboy

[Cwell]

I could have swore that I heard Bob say they were 8-1 when Marvin didn't start. The win tonight would make it 9. I either didn't hear him correctly, or he meant over the last 2 seasons. If I heard him wrong it's my bad. But they do have the 4-0 mark this year when he doesn't play.

No... Mo is not the better player.

that's the record for when Mo starts,not when Marvin doesn't.

[High5]

I'll say it again, the Hawks at their best are a lot of fun to watch. Why they can't always play with such defensive intensity I don't know.

[lethalweapon3]

I could have swore that I heard Bob say they were 8-1 when Marvin didn't start. The win tonight would make it 9. I either didn't hear him correctly, or he meant over the last 2 seasons. If I heard him wrong it's my bad. But they do have the 4-0 mark this year when he doesn't play.

BR might've been referring to the Hawks's record over the past 3 seasons sans Marvin, but the inference of "not starting" as evidence of his bench value is a bit misleading since he played in only one of those games where he didn't start. That was 12/8/06 against the Lakers, his first game back since starting off that season injured. The Hawks have won the next eight games where he didn't start (and didn't play), including 1 in 2006-07, 2 in 2007-08, and now 5 this season after tonite's game.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3928/g...ZPaB4?year=2006

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3928/g...ZPaB4?year=2007

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3928/g...ZPaB4?year=2008

~lw3

[Plainview1981]

that's the record for when Mo starts,not when Marvin doesn't.

That makes more sense then. Thanks.

[Popeye]

Great win tonight. Good team effort tonight. Joe's best game since the game against Chicago. ZaZa gave a good effort. Law had a good few minutes also, but he was starting to play abit reckless right before he got yanked. The team is now 9-1 when Mo starts instead of Marvin Williams. That doesn't look good on Marvin.

:thumbsupsmileyanim:

[Plainview1981]

Welp, Miami and Detroit both won. Which means tonight's games basically didn't happen. I swear, Chicago is a useless basketball team. How have they managed to win more than 10 games? They had the ball with about 11 seconds and a turd like John Salmons let Wade steal the ball and win the game. I don't know why somebody would even want John Salmons on their team.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Hotlanta1981

[DJlaysitup]

Yeah i am sure marvin being out caused JJ to find his shot.

Statistics do count - you know - wins and losses.

[Chris18]

Welp, Miami and Detroit both won. Which means tonight's games basically didn't happen. I swear, Chicago is a useless basketball team. How have they managed to win more than 10 games? They had the ball with about 11 seconds and a turd like John Salmons let Wade steal the ball and win the game. I don't know why somebody would even want John Salmons on their team.

That's the second time they've done something like that against the Heat. The good thing is Miami has a very tough schedule ahead of them and most of the games are on the road.

[Admin]

I have faith in us and I think we'll handle the Hornets tonight and win by 6-10 points. We rarely fail to show up at home against a good team and I suspect that trend will continue tonight ... at least we aren't on national TV so that we won't lose by a point!

I'd like to take a moment to pat myself on the back for calling this one so early :)

[Swish]

I'd like to take a moment to pat myself on the back for calling this one so early :)

Got any lotto numbers?

[DrReality]

From ESPN:

ATLANTA -- Mike Woodson might be getting a lot of calls from Western Conference coaches in the coming days and weeks, because his Hawks appear to have found a formula for doing something virtually no other team has accomplished: Shutting down Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets.

Atlanta held the Hornets to 40 percent shooting and a mere 12 free throw attempts en route to an 89-79 win Monday night that snapped the Hornets' seven-game winning streak -- the second time in two meetings the Hawks have held the Hornets to 79 points. New Orleans, which came into the game ranked eighth in the NBA in offensive efficiency at 107.2, rates a meager 91.3 in its two games against the Hawks.

The Hawks' approach is tailor-made to stopping the Hornets because they switch every screen-and-roll and have big men with enough dexterity to keep Paul in front of them and turn him into a jump shooter.

"The way they switch, it's not really too much of a mismatch because they're all the same size," said Tyson Chandler. "We wasted a lot of time on the shot clock dribbling back and forth."

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So while Paul still finished with 24 points and 10 assists, he needed 19 shots to do it and committed six turnovers -- usually with Al Horford or Josh Smith blocking his vision and turning him into a jump shooter.

"We missed Peja [stojakovic]," said Hornets coach Byron Scott, "because when they're switching they're sitting all in the paint, so it's hard for [Paul] to break the guy down because there's another guy waiting. But it's a pretty good strategy if you've got athletic guys that can do it."

However, of greater concern for New Orleans were two recurring problems that again reared their ugly heads -- a no-show from Chandler in the middle and another disastrous performance by the bench.

Chandler had played well during the team's seven-game winning streak, perhaps chastened by his near trade to Oklahoma City at the trade deadline, but on Monday he finished with two points and five rebounds in 39 minutes and appeared to have trouble dealing with Hawks wide-bodies Horford and Zaza Pachulia.

Meanwhile, the Hornets' bench scored only seven points, and coach Byron Scott essentially used a six-man rotation. The one stretch where he went deeper was in the decisive second quarter, when an eight-point lead turned into a seven-point deficit as the Hornets scored only 12 points.

"The second quarter was awful," said Scott. "I thought our guys came in and did a terrible job, giving them layups, offensive rebounds. Whatever we could do wrong in the second quarter we did, and we're just putting too much pressure on our starters to play the heavy minutes they're playing."

As a result, it appears the Hornets' second unit will again be in flux. Scott said that Devin Brown would be back in the rotation and Ryan Bowen might as well, but didn't seem nearly as bullish on the prospects of Sean Marks and Hilton Armstrong, who combined for nine minutes without a rebound.

"I have to make some changes," said Scott. "I can't sit there and watch this. I'm trying to give [Paul] rest until the 6-minute mark in the second quarter and get [David West] 5 or 6 minutes, but when I do that, leads evaporate."

From the Hawks' side, they won't get to torment the Hornets with their switching until next season, but one big takeaway is the return of Joe Johnson. Because for all the trouble Atlanta gave New Orleans on defense, it also helped cut off the Hornets' running game by making baskets. Johnson, who scored 30 points in a game for the first time since Dec. 27, was the key to that attack, and it was a very welcome recovery considering the Hawks went 16-18 since he last dropped 30.

They'll need Johnson to keep playing at a high level because the schedule doesn't get any easier. While the Hawks are in a stretch of 12 games with 11 at home, their next opponent is Utah, which may be riding in on a 13-game winning streak -- the second stop in what's being dubbed locally as the Hawks Draft Regrets tour, in which Paul, Deron Williams, Danny Granger and Brandon Roy all pay visits to Philips Arena in the same week.

"This is what we worked towards," said Woodson, "starting out with 14 of 22 on the road. We hit a lull the last couple months in terms of trying to maintain, so this is a month and a half we were looking towards."