Peachtree Hoops: Quotes and Links From Game One

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I think these folks are happy the series is 1-0 Hawks....and want to read some links about it.

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We'll keep our part brief (and there will be a Most Important Thing post later in the day), the Hawks showed everything that we previewed in our preview, and the ones I did for The No Look Pass and Hoops Addict, which was:

The Hawks have the talent to sweep this team (and go as far as they want in this tournament), but their level of focus on doing the right things from game to game (and quarter to quarter) always threatens to derail their goals.

That's who they are, that's who they were last night against and undertalented, but always working, Milwaukee team. It wasn't even the least bit surprising and every bit as sobering as a (10) point win over a team in the playoffs could ever be.

Quotes and Links from around the everywhere after the jump:

Let's start on the Hawks side, where Michael Cunningham saw a lot of the same things.

– The Hawks started doing the opposite of the many good things they did in the first half. One problem was they stopped exploiting the matchups in the post Skiles was talking about. "We definitely got away from it," Smoove said. "We’ve got to stay with that gameplan. That’s what’s going to be successful with Bogut being absent."

– But, to be fair, Josh and Al also didn’t respond very well when the

Bucks

started pushing them farther from the basket. The Hawks did try to throw it to the post a few times but the entry passes were sloppy and the Bucks kept easily poking them away. The post-ups and the passes have to be crisper.

Bret at Hoopinion certainly didn't suger-coat the victory, but did allow (tongue-in-cheek) that the Hawks did actually win the game by (10).

Jeff Schultz of the AJC thinks that maybe the second half let-up might be a good thing long-term for the Hawks

I would say that Lang Whitaker of SLAM is more of a glass half full guy with these Hawks, and I can definitely appreciate that (it's needed with the rest of us hand-wringers out here)---and he dedicated the majority of his take post-Saturday to the game.

Our man Sekou Smith over at the L's official website says that the Hawks still have some ground to cover before they can reach the elites.

Kelly Dwyer over at Ball Don't Lie definintely sings the praises of this team, highlighting that the Birds did a solid defensive team nasty.

For the Bucks, Frank over at Brew Hoop recaps from the MIL perspective and finds some solace in the Bucks' second half effort.

There is a similar opinion over at Bucksketball.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel agrees that the first half was just too deep a hole for the Bucks to hustle out of.

By the way, that Brandon Jennings guy was really good.

Finally, Sekou uses the term "rookie" loosely when looking at two of the first time playoff participants in a well written feature coming out of Game One.

Hawks lead the series, 1-0, with Game Two on Tuesday. A ten point win beats any kind of loss on any day---let's go Hawks!

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