Peachtree Hoops: Game Recap: Atlanta Hawks 84 New Orleans Hornets 74

[Hawksquawk]

Bill Haber - AP

Jamal Crawford made is pre-season debut for the Hawks on Saturday night in a win over the Hornets. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

View full size photo »

Hawks vs Hornets recap

Hawks vs Hornets boxscore

The Atlanta Hawks got their first win of the Larry Drew era this season with last night's victory over the New Orleans Hornets 84-74 in Johnson City Tennessee. What you saw in this game was a couple of contrasting takes to a pre-season game. The Hornets rested a lot of players while the Hawks due to the injuries of the past week, went with the regulars a little more. The result was a bad shooting night for both clubs as they both look to shake off some more rust before the regular season starts.

• Could have been the strange arena but it was a cold shooting night for both teams. The Hawks shot 40% while the Hornets shot 38%. Neither team was really good from three point range either with the Hawks shooting 5-18 (27%) and the Hornets shooting 2-15 (13%)
• The Hawks committed 16 more turnovers with Joe Johnson (4), Jamal Crawford (3), and Zaza Pachulia (3) being the main culprits. The Hawks did force the Hornets into 20 turnovers themselves. 
• Joe Johnson once again led the way with 22 points on 8-14 shooting in just over 32 minutes of action in this one. In the last three pre-season games, Johnson's turnovers have been the only negative to his game as he has been shooting the ball exceptionally well.
• Marvin Williams made his return and once again was very involved in what the Hawks were doing offensively. Williams played 32 minutes while scoring 15 points on 4-10 shooting. He got to the free throw line seven times making six. He also had five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. 
• Jamal Crawford made his pre-season debut for the Hawks playing about 28 minutes and scoring nine points on 3-7 shooting. He missed both of his three point attempts and went 3-4 from the free throw line. Crawford also led the team in assists with five. 
• Mo Evans also made his pre-season debut playing just over seven minutes of action and had one of the Hawks five three point makes on the night. Evans had been recovering from off season knee surgery. 
• With many of the regulars back Jordan Crawford was only regulated to nearly 17 minutes of action in this one. The team has gotten a great luck at Jordan in the last couple of games with him playing 45+ minutes in each contest due to the Hawks lack of healthy guards. This however may be a sign of things to come for Crawford as when this team is healthy there isn't going to be a lot of minutes available for him on most nights. 
• Evan Brock, Richard Delk, Ricardo Marsh, Jason Collins, and Etan Thomas did not receive any playing time in this one. Collins is recovering from an injury but was thought to be available to play in this one. With a lot of the regulars making their debut or coming back from injury, the Hawks shortened their rotation a good bit to get them some much needed action. 

A lot will probably be made that the Hornets didn't play many of their starters past the first quarter. In fact neither Chris Paul or Trevor Ariza played after the first. Neither Emeka Okafor or David West played in this one either. While it was good to see the Hawks get their first win, it was more important to get the starters back on the court together and let them play. If anything the injuries have probably set the team back as far as where the coaching staff would like to be at this point.

I would expect to see the rotation starting to look a little more like what we may see during the regular season with just three pre-season games remaining. The Hawks are back at home on Monday against Orlando in a game that will be televised on NBATV. 

View the full article