Hawks-Magic thread

[Hawksquawk]

Orlando - Hope all are doing well.

Been running all day to get here. Very interested to see what happens, obviously. A couple quotes and I’ll let you all at it.

Josh Smith on Dwight Howard:

“I’ve known Dwight since we were in preschool. We went to the same preschool together. I’ve known Dwight since we were in diapers.”

On playing against him now:

“We talk to each other, but it's not hard because if you don’t have the same color jersey on as me when the ball is thrown in the air, [you're] just an opponent. Then afterward, we come back to our senses and we’re friends. If you see us out there, he’s trying to block my shot harder than probably anybody he’s ever tried to block and I’m trying to do the same thing. It’s real competitive.”

On playing back in the day:

“We’ve played against each other before we started playing with each other (for Atlanta Celtics), different AAU teams. Believe it not, Dwight was a point guard at first. When we were like 11 or 12, he was a point …

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[mrhonline]

Can't decide who's worse at jacking up contested shots - JJ or Crawford.

I don't like watching the Hawks when they play this way...

[mrhonline]

We're getting Crawful'd right now.

[Buzzard]

We're getting Crawful'd right now.

We are getting out coached and out played. It is not just Crawford. Bibby, JJ, Craw, Teague a combined 1 for 15. Van Gundys recipe for our demise; make us beat them from the outside with contested jumpers.

And where is our vaunted Woody D? 7 players shooting .500 or better; only one, Nelson ( 1 for 3) shooting under .500.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Buzzard

[niremetal]

Woody doesn't have the guts to pull JJ even though he's short-arming every shot on offense and disappearing on D.

[Buzzard]

We need to try and make this respectatble. If we are still down 25 to 30 going into the 4th, Woody needs to clear the bench so we at least do not risk a useless injury in a blow out loss..

Edited January 10, 2010 by Buzzard

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Woody doesn't have the guts to pull JJ even though he's short-arming every shot on offense and disappearing on D.

who you going to put in? crawford?

He's 0 - 6 FG

Teague? He looked horrible tonight as well

Just let the starters play about 8 minutes in the 3rd, to see if we can get this game somewhat respectable. Then play the bench the rest of the game.

[Dexmethylphenidate]

Zaza is aweful; the run started the moment he was in and turn it over. Hawks need to play Joe Smith.

[Buzzard]

Just let the starters play about 8 minutes in the 3rd, to see if we can get this game somewhat respectable. Then play the bench the rest of the game.

If your boy Woody gets any of our starters, or Craw for that matter, seriously hurt in this BS game, he should be packing his bags tonight.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Buzzard

[Plainview1981]

Such a bad basketball team.

[Buzzard]

Such a bad basketball team.

We are not bad; but IMO this proves at almost the halfway mark of the season Orlando is better. They did this without the guy ( Carter) people said would be either their downfall or the player who would get them to the next level. I think its safe to say Orlando is at the same level they were last year; and its really just a matter of if anyone ( Celtics, Cavs, Us ) is going to be able to catch up.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Buzzard

[spotatl]

The Magic are just a brutal matchup for the Hawks. Horford can't really bang with Howard without help but the Magic can drag smith out to the outside with lewis an Anderson. And with the Hawks perimeter defense its just a killer when the bigs aren't in position to help. Then on the other side unless Howard is in foul trouble the Hawks have to do pretty much all their damage from the outside. The Hawks don't have a bigman who can try and drag Howard outside so he is free to patrol the middle.

[Plainview1981]

We are not bad; but IMO this proves at almost the halfway mark of the season Orlando is better. They did this without the guy ( Carter) people said would be either their downfall or the player who would get them to the next level. I think its safe to say Orlando is at the same level they were last year; and its really just a matter of if anyone ( Celtics, Cavs, Us ) is going to be able to catch up.

No, this team is weak. They have no guts and they're losers. It's that simple. They could go out and beat Boston Monday and they would still be losers. No other team gets beat by the same team by 30+ points 5 times in a row. No other team does things like this.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Hotlanta1981

[JJFAN4LF]

I would rather see the Hawks face the Celtics than a Vince Carter-less Orlando Magic team. The Magic is probably the worst matchup we have in the NBA. They have players that can easily stop, or at least make our star players off balance the whole game while we don't really have any defensive players that can stop their offensive power. The size and length of the Magic is gonna continue to kill us. Their coaching staff is way better than ours. I honestly find it hard to see us winning a game against the Magic this season.

[Sothron]

This is a horrible matchup with us against Orlando but honestly those refs were killing us. My personal favorite had to be when in the first quarter Josh Smith got killed in mid air for no foul call, we come back down and Joe scores but they call a foul...on Joe. Classic.

[Plainview1981]

Washington and Indy beat Orlando in the last few days.... But theyre just a bad matchup for the Hawks??? Who does Indy have that can stop Howard?

The truth of it is that the players have no guts.

[MaceCase]

Washington and Indy beat Orlando in the last few days.... But theyre just a bad matchup for the Hawks??? Who does Indy have that can stop Howard?

The truth of it is that the players have no guts.

Roy Hibbert, 7'2" 280 out of Georgetown. I hear they coach good bigmen out there with another one on his way to the league. Don't know, could be wrong *shrugs*.

I've said it plenty of times, teams that beat Orlando play Dwight one on one because they know his offense is not going to beat anyone and stick the shooters that way all those wide open jumpers now become heavily contested jumpers by shooters who can't really create their own shots. Dwight was outplayed by Heywood, Hibbert, and couldn't get anything done against Noah in three of the previous four games of their losing streak. What do those guys have in common? They are all defensive centers that match Dwight's height and have great fundamentals despite being nowhere close to Dwight's athleticism. The other game against Toronto they forced Dwight to guard the perimeter where he is a sieve and beat him with their offense.

Our team is a bad matchup against Orlando because one, a PF can't really check Dwight consistently and two, our scheme is to sag the paint regardless to help out. The shooters were having their way last night because we went under every screen, worried about a pass to the inside rather than chasing players that damn near average 90% of their offense off of jumpshots. Every game is like this and considering our philosophy is playing directly into their team's strength it's no wonder why it seems like Orlando hits every shot against us, not hard when you are left wide open on your sweet spot. Honestly it's the scheme and Woody has to take full blame on this because with Dwight out of the game we were still sagging down on Gortat and letting the shooters get their shots.

Our offensive ineptitude is one thing against the Magic but the defense is where Woody needs to take his head out of his *ss. After 5 straight losses of running the same strategy you have to at least tweak the gameplan. If you are so worried about Al getting manhandled by Dwight in the post well you suck it up and you tell either Josh or Al to suck it up also and say they will not be starting this particular game so we can get either Collins or Zaza into the lineup to play him one on one while we stay on the shooters. We match up at every other position against the Magic unlike Boston in the playoffs last year that had no answer for Rashard without KG and then Cleveland that had mismatches all across their frontcourt. Those teams made moves with Orlando in mind for the playoffs by adding more perimeter defenders and one on one post defenders, we did too to a lesser extent but our coach is too brainless/gun shy/unaware to play the matchup rather than believing his scheme can defeat all.

[spotatl]

HIbbert scored 26 points and had Howard in foul trouble all game. Odd example for you to pick.

Edited January 10, 2010 by spotatl

[Atlantaholic]

Howard wasn't even the problem yesterday. Every scrub and their mother was nailing threes in transition against us.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Roy Hibbert, 7'2" 280 out of Georgetown. I hear they coach good bigmen out there with another one on his way to the league. Don't know, could be wrong *shrugs*.

I've said it plenty of times, teams that beat Orlando play Dwight one on one because they know his offense is not going to beat anyone and stick the shooters that way all those wide open jumpers now become heavily contested jumpers by shooters who can't really create their own shots. Dwight was outplayed by Heywood, Hibbert, and couldn't get anything done against Noah in three of the previous four games of their losing streak. What do those guys have in common? They are all defensive centers that match Dwight's height and have great fundamentals despite being nowhere close to Dwight's athleticism. The other game against Toronto they forced Dwight to guard the perimeter where he is a sieve and beat him with their offense.

Our team is a bad matchup against Orlando because one, a PF can't really check Dwight consistently and two, our scheme is to sag the paint regardless to help out. The shooters were having their way last night because we went under every screen, worried about a pass to the inside rather than chasing players that damn near average 90% of their offense off of jumpshots. Every game is like this and considering our philosophy is playing directly into their team's strength it's no wonder why it seems like Orlando hits every shot against us, not hard when you are left wide open on your sweet spot. Honestly it's the scheme and Woody has to take full blame on this because with Dwight out of the game we were still sagging down on Gortat and letting the shooters get their shots.

Our offensive ineptitude is one thing against the Magic but the defense is where Woody needs to take his head out of his *ss. After 5 straight losses of running the same strategy you have to at least tweak the gameplan. If you are so worried about Al getting manhandled by Dwight in the post well you suck it up and you tell either Josh or Al to suck it up also and say they will not be starting this particular game so we can get either Collins or Zaza into the lineup to play him one on one while we stay on the shooters. We match up at every other position against the Magic unlike Boston in the playoffs last year that had no answer for Rashard without KG and then Cleveland that had mismatches all across their frontcourt. Those teams made moves with Orlando in mind for the playoffs by adding more perimeter defenders and one on one post defenders, we did too to a lesser extent but our coach is too brainless/gun shy/unaware to play the matchup rather than believing his scheme can defeat all.

I'll have to give you a +1 on this post, even though I feel that Orlando simply just makes everything against us.

At some point, Woody does have to try to do something a little different defensively. And it probably needs to be a lineup change to start the halves. It's becoming psychological with the players at this point, I believe. There is no fear vs Boston or Cleveland, but against Orlando, something is horribly wrong. When the Magic start making outside shots, it seems as if we try to score more offensively, instead of turning up the intensity on defense.

Bibby is the one who is notorious for going underneath screens, instead of fighting through them. And if we do need to protect Horford a little more, maybe we should think about starting Collins against Dwight ( for the first 4 - 6 minutes of the 1st quarter ), just to see what happens. It's just that he's such a weak rebounder, that it means Smoove, Marvin, and JJ would really have to secure the boards when Horford is out.

Another possible move would be to move Bibby to the bench ( only vs Orlando ). And no, that doesn't mean to start Teague in his place. Teague is better on the ball, but he's just as lost as Bibby and Crawford when it comes to finding shooters he's not directly guarding. But if Woody did go that route, I'm not going to be mad about it.

Preferably, I may even try something like starting Mo Evans in the backcourt with JJ, if we're going to switch out everything anyway. Play Mo those first 5 - 6 minutes in the game, and see what happens. It's not like Orlando prides itself on backcourt defense, so essentially, we'll let JJ play the point to start the game, but let Evans keep a hand in Nelson's face.

Offensively, we can't come out missing shots. Sounds obvious, but that's what it's about when you play the Magic. Up until last year, JJ was routinely having big games vs the Magic. But in the last 4 or 5 games vs them, he's struggled in most games. And if Bibby is struggling as well, that's usually when the blowouts happen.

Something does have to change though, just to see what happens . . I agree.