Good win. Now...here's the thing..

[PatheticATLfan]

Can this team maintain the consistency it needs to ward off anymore terrible losses this year? Its one thing to lose to a good team at home but to lose to an injury depleted mediocre team on the road is definitely not aceptable. Thats what is so frustrating about this team. We can put 146 on the board and play lights out one night and then the next game we may not show up. The loss to Detroit was all about effort. We got outworked by subpar medioce players and got a loss hung on us for our efforts. Consistency is thelast hurdle for this team to clear to move up in the elite teams statis of the NBA.

[ATLSmith]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Good teams sometimes loose to bad teams. It happens. They just need to make sure it doesn't happen too often.

I must say that they've started out much better than I thought they would. It would be awesome if they can capture the 3rd or 2nd seed in the East so they have a better chance at getting home court advantage in the 2nd round.

[macdaddy]

This was a good bounce back from a poor effort. The 2nd unit broke away and then the starters came back and hammered. I'd say its proof that the bench can be very effective but lets face it the Raps weren't bringing anything. Great win. Good play all the way around. Poor showing by the fans (including me). Z, Joe Smith, Teague, Horf all looked great. Marv, Smoove, Joe, RandMO!

How big does the blowout have to be for Othello to get in the game? Or is he inactive. Does it seem like we have too many scrub bigs and not enough guards?

I have tix to the Nets game. Oh boy.

[PatheticATLfan]

I have tix to the Nets game. Oh boy.

We better put our foot down on them. Last thing we need is a mediocre effort against the lowly Nets.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Please stop acting like every game is do or die for the Hawks. The NBA is not a 30-game season, it's an 82-game season. There will be more eggs laid on the road, you best believe that. But all you have to do, is look at what Phoenix has done this week. Every "good team" in the league will do exactly what we did at some point in the season.

That's just the nature of NBA basketball.

[Plainview1981]

It looks like the Big three teams has regrouped and have the 1-3 seeds as expected. Things are looking more and more like they were expected to look at the start of the season.

[ATLSmith]

It looks like the Big three teams has regrouped and have the 1-3 seeds as expected. Things are looking more and more like they were expected to look at the start of the season.

Hawks are tied with Cleveland for 3rd and are 1.5 games behind Orlando and Boston... what's your point?

:snowballfight:

[RLHawk]

I think the point is that in the period of a week, the Hawks went from the best record in Basketball to 8th in basketball and tied for 3rd in the East.

In the NBA, there are too many top teams for dry spells to not hurt your standings.

If we come back and win 8 in a row, then we will climb back on top.

If we have another week like the past one very soon, we may fall far enough back to never get above 4th place.

My opinion is...We need to dominate the month of December to prepare for January's gruel. January will tell us if we are contenders or not.

[Gray Mule]

:write a letter:

Falling down is so easy. Hawks went from the top team to 3 or 4 in the east. To do this

all that was required was losing a couple of games.

Now, fighting our way back to # uno will take some gigantic effort on our part and some

slippage by those teams in front of us.

Hotlanta says, "We're where we thought we would be." That's true. Before the season

began, we thought the Hawks were a solid #3 or #4 team in the east. That's where we are.

It's a long season and now it's still early. Many things can happen between now and the

playoffs. Some of these top teams can fall flat on their face for a spell. No team is exempt

from injuries.

:conversation:

[thefloydian]

I think the Hawks are better than both Boston and Cleveland. Orlando is a pretty horrible matchup, though. I don't think we have any shot at beating them.

[Plainview1981]

Hawks are tied with Cleveland for 3rd and are 1.5 games behind Orlando and Boston... what's your point?

:snowballfight:

I think Boston, Orlando and possibly Cleveland are starting to establish themselves while this team has fallen back to earth a bit. Cleveland and Boston might not reach the dominance of last season, but it looks like the same guys will take the 1-3 spots. Granted, that doesn't really matter as much in the playoffs, but I'm saying the season is starting to look more as it was expected to look.

[Crank]

Id rather have early season upsets than late season shockers

This is a growing up process and would much rather them peak late in the year than early in the year . These losses believe it or not are making it much easier on Woody to push them and hammer home certain points . the only thing that really concerns me and I said this in preseason is the level of energy that Al and Smoove have to bring everynight . One of Zaza,Marvin, or Joe smith really needs to step it up and be that big baby or Brandon bass for us .

[ATLSmith]

I think Boston, Orlando and possibly Cleveland are starting to establish themselves while this team has fallen back to earth a bit. Cleveland and Boston might not reach the dominance of last season, but it looks like the same guys will take the 1-3 spots. Granted, that doesn't really matter as much in the playoffs, but I'm saying the season is starting to look more as it was expected to look.

I hear ya. The Hawks record is still impressive though and they are barely a game behind the top 2 teams. To me, the Hawks are still doing better than expected and it is great to see them doing this well.

The Hawks are still in the mix. If one of the teams ahead of us goes into a slump for 2 to 3 games then we're back on top. If the Hawks go into a slump for 2 to 3 games we still hold onto 4th which is still pretty good. This is giong to be fun to watch.

:beer:

[Buzzard]

I think the Hawks are better than both Boston and Cleveland. Orlando is a pretty horrible matchup, though. I don't think we have any shot at beating them.

I agree we can compete better with Cleveland and Boston. Orlando right now is a little more talented and not as old; the Cavs and Celtics are talented but are aging at some important positions.

Do not think its a lock we will win any series against the big three. They all have good half court schemes on both ends of the floor. The Boston win was one of only three we've had this season in which we did not score 100pts. I think Cleveland is the weakest one but if Shaq gets it together in the playoffs, he will give any center in the league trouble ..... even Howard.

And no I am not writing him off. As long as the Cavs can get and keep him healthy, he is a solid player. People forget he averaged 17.8 and 8.4 just last season. I don't think Boston or the Cavs care about being the #1 seed. As long as they are in the top 4 and healthy is IMO their primay goal. Leon Powes rehab is reportedly going well and he could be back practicing ahead of schedule in late January.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Buzzard

[Buzzard]

It looks like the Big three teams has regrouped and have the 1-3 seeds as expected. Things are looking more and more like they were expected to look at the start of the season.

It looks that way but I do think the only teams in the east that have a chance of winning it all, if the Lakers are in the finals, is Orlando and a healthy Celtic team. Kobe would love to get Shaq in the finals and IMO this would end up being Shaqs worse nightmare...

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Id rather have early season upsets than late season shockers

This is a growing up process and would much rather them peak late in the year than early in the year . These losses believe it or not are making it much easier on Woody to push them and hammer home certain points . the only thing that really concerns me and I said this in preseason is the level of energy that Al and Smoove have to bring everynight . One of Zaza,Marvin, or Joe smith really needs to step it up and be that big baby or Brandon bass for us .

Definitely agree.

While all losses in the standings count the same, a loss to a depleted Detroit team in March, while fighting for playoff seeding, would be a much more damaging loss then, than it is now. And you're right about how Woody can approach these losses. So far, this team hasn't had more than a 2 game losing streak and has only had one bad week of poor play.

No way I'd ever think we'd be 13 - 5 right now.11 - 7 . . . 10 - 8 maybe . . . but not 13 - 5.

To match our start from last year ( from the beginning of the season, to the 1st of the year . . in which we went 21 - 10 : .677 winning percentage), we need to go 8 - 5 . . . definitely attainable. I say we go 10 - 3, to give us a 23 - 8 record.