hawks @ heat

[jy23]

Josh is by far the most irritating player I've ever watched.....Y in the heck do I like this guy? He's played horrible the past 2 games and makes absolutely no adjustments because......really I dont know y he doesn't he just doesn't. He stood and watched so many plays at the rim without even trying to contest them, its like he has this idea of himself that really has nothing to do with what actually happens on the court, we need a player who actually cares about rebounding and defense and altho Josh has all the tools to be this player he will NEVER be that guy.....there has to be someone who steps in and knows their role on more than just one side of the floor. I'm beyond sick of watching him try and dribble around defenders while actually standing in the same spot and then tossing a fade away jumper from the base line....WHO THE #### DOES HE THINK HE IS???????

I give Drew mad props for sitting him the in the 4th of last game and starting Powell in the second half of this game......at some point josh has to understand that his attitude just doesnt cut it and it looks as tho coach Drew is trying to get that message across sooner rather than later.

And good game by Al and good team defense overall we just couldnt get the shots to fall..... I love and I mean LOVE Powells effort on the court, the guy earns his check every game and great d by mister wilkins tonight, glad to have u on the team sir

[CWebb]

Our defense has really been very good the last few weeks. I have no idea why we went away from Horford on offense. After 14 third quarter points he gets his first shot with 3 minutes left in the fourth. Mystifying.

I CORRECT : our defense has not always been that good.. Look at the stats from the last 2 games.. in The first half against the sixers there was no defense. The same against the heat.

[tremor]

I'm more angry on Smoove for not outboxing Bosh than anything else. CB scored 3 or 4 easy baskets thanks to that.

Drew was looking for optimal line up and when he found one in the third he sticked to it until Horford had to sit to get some rest. Good coaching.

You have to play better offense to beat the Heat, that was kind of game where Joe would have made the difference.

[Outlaw]

lol i told u we'd get destroyed by the heat. we cant beat a team that has one 'Superstar', let alone 3 superstars.

[Atlantaholic]

I'm more angry on Smoove for not outboxing Bosh than anything else. CB scored 3 or 4 easy baskets thanks to that.

Drew was looking for optimal line up and when he found one in the third he sticked to it until Horford had to sit to get some rest. Good coaching.

You have to play better offense to beat the Heat, that was kind of game where Joe would have made the difference.

I disagree absolutely with this. Horford logged 31 minutes tonight. Why the heck was he not in during the first half of the fourth qurater??? What are we resting him for exactly? Shouldn't we rest him in a game where we aren't playing our division rival who is fighting for our playoff seed???

The guy was our only offensive player with anything going on and he doesn't take a shot after the third quarter until 2 minutes left in the fourth. Why are we playing Horford 32 minutes a game??? The guy should be averaging around 36, he is by far our best player and is 24 years old. The guy picks up 2 fouls and then he gets yanked for the entire second quarter... WHY? This is really crappy coaching if you ask me, I can't think of any team in the NBA that will yank their best player for the entire HALF after picking up 2 fouls. I guess you could argue the strategy is for him to be able to play in the second half but then the guy rides the pine for half of the 4th freaking quarter, so I'm not sure what the benefit of that move is at all. This is the same crap Mike Woodson did (to even a more extreme degree to be honest with you) and to me it is totally idiotic coaching.

Edited December 5, 2010 by Atlantaholic

[CWebb]

I disagree absolutely with this. Horford logged 31 minutes tonight. Why the heck was he not in during the first half of the fourth qurater??? What are we resting him for exactly? Shouldn't we rest him in a game where we aren't playing our division rival who is fighting for our playoff seed???

The guy was our only offensive player with anything going on and he doesn't take a shot after the third quarter until 2 minutes left in the fourth. Why are we playing Horford 32 minutes a game??? The guy should be averaging around 36, he is by far our best player and is 24 years old. The guy picks up 2 fouls and then he gets yanked for the entire second quarter... WHY? This is really crappy coaching if you ask me, I can't think of any team in the NBA that will yank their best player for the entire HALF after picking up 2 fouls. I guess you could argue the strategy is for him to be able to play in the second half but then the guy rides the pine for half of the 4th freaking quarter, so I'm not sure what the benefit of that move is at all. This is the same crap Mike Woodson did (to even a more extreme degree to be honest with you) and to me it is totally idiotic coaching.

I agree. I mean , I can understand why Drew benched Al in the first half but not playing him right from the beginning of the fourth was a silly mistake...

[Atlantaholic]

I agree. I mean , I can understand why Drew benched Al in the first half but not playing him right from the beginning of the fourth was a silly mistake...

But this has been happening almost all damn season. Why is a 24 yo player having a career year seeing the least amount of minutes since his rookie season??? You see players like Tim Duncan at this stage in their careers and they were playing close to 40 minutes. It's not like we have fantastic options off the bench to replace him either. The guy is by far our best Big and he is seeing borderline sixth man type of minutes. It's absurd to me.

I mean, I don't think people understand how out of this world Horford is playing so far this year. Really, the only thing keeping Horford back are his minutes.

Check this out: Per 36 minutes stats (at age 24)

Duncan: 20 ppg 11 rpg 2.8 apg 49% FG 61% FT PER 23.8 Win shares per 48 mins: .2

Horford: 19 ppg 10.5 rpg 3.7 apg 60% FG 85% FT PER 25.6 Win shares per 48 mins: .258

Edited December 5, 2010 by Atlantaholic

[DJlaysitup]

Our defense has really been very good the last few weeks. I have no idea why we went away from Horford on offense. After 14 third quarter points he gets his first shot with 3 minutes left in the fourth. Mystifying.

I can't figure it out either holic. Either we have selfish (I want my turn) type players or we have clueless players. Either way, the real culprit is the coach. Surely LD saw in that 3rd quarter that Horford was our best threat. A coach like Sloan wouldn't put up with this stuff. I always liken it to the football coach who says they are going to make their opponents stop the run first. They run the ball - the opponents can't stop them - then they call pass plays anyway and suffer interceptions.

If your team is not smart enough to play to their strengths in specific situations to maximize your chances of winning you may as well not even have a coach. Plus, it's not like Al Horford was just some backup having a career quarter...the guy is an all-star and we nuetrelized him ourselves. Spo had to be saying to himself "thank goodness they got away from Horford in the 4th, he was killing us".

Nice to see Damien get some time :biggrin: ...I hope he is the shot in the arm this team needs going forward.

P.S. - I can't help but wonder if some of the problem isn't the agents' doing. LD likely preaches team ball and unselfishness all day and then the agent calls and says "with Joe out, this is the time to get yours".

Edited December 5, 2010 by DJlaysitup

[Supporter]

lol i told u we'd get destroyed by the heat. we cant beat a team that has one 'Superstar', let alone 3 superstars.

We didn't get destroyed, we were within 2 in the fourth quarter.

[macdaddy]

Horford is great and has been awesome all year. He played lights out (mostly against Z) the entire 3rd and needed some rest. Notice that his points are almost all short jumpers and the occasional drive around his guy. But he hasn't learned to pass out of a double team, made some turnovers, and missed his free thows at the end. He is obviously our best player and is doing great but I wouldn't say he's a guy you can ride offensively at the end of the game like Duncan...at least yet.

A little late on this one but in 6 years Woodson never benched Smoove for taking bad shots. LD did it already. The dude is a major upgrade. He just has some kinks to work out.

[DJlaysitup]

...He is obviously our best player and is doing great but I wouldn't say he's a guy you can ride offensively at the end of the game like Duncan...at least yet....

well we'll never know if we don't ride him. I mean it's easy to say "we don't think he's ready for that challenge yet".

[tremor]

I disagree absolutely with this. Horford logged 31 minutes tonight. Why the heck was he not in during the first half of the fourth qurater??? What are we resting him for exactly? Shouldn't we rest him in a game where we aren't playing our division rival who is fighting for our playoff seed???

The guy was our only offensive player with anything going on and he doesn't take a shot after the third quarter until 2 minutes left in the fourth. Why are we playing Horford 32 minutes a game??? The guy should be averaging around 36, he is by far our best player and is 24 years old. The guy picks up 2 fouls and then he gets yanked for the entire second quarter... WHY? This is really crappy coaching if you ask me, I can't think of any team in the NBA that will yank their best player for the entire HALF after picking up 2 fouls. I guess you could argue the strategy is for him to be able to play in the second half but then the guy rides the pine for half of the 4th freaking quarter, so I'm not sure what the benefit of that move is at all. This is the same crap Mike Woodson did (to even a more extreme degree to be honest with you) and to me it is totally idiotic coaching.

Horf played until he had Anthony against him and had no open jumpers anymore. Drew rested him maybe little to much in the 4th but Heat made decisive run with Al back on the court anyway.

I agree that overall he could be played 2-3 minutes more per game and sticking so strictly to "2 fouls - bench" rule is not the best idea. On the other hand Drew tries to activate bench players, with some success, and it means starters won't play 35+ mins.

[macdaddy]

well we'll never know if we don't ride him. I mean it's easy to say "we don't think he's ready for that challenge yet".

I agree with that which is what Lenny did with Smitty. They turned him into the goto guy. But the difference there is Smitty had all the offensive tools already. He just needed the attitude. But in the absence of anyone else stepping up on offense I think you're right. Go to him until it doesn't work.

[High5]

lol i told u we'd get destroyed by the heat. we cant beat a team that has one 'Superstar', let alone 3 superstars.

How did we get destroyed? It was a 2 point game in the 4th quarter without our best player and the Heat's "big 3" played as well as they had all year. Horford will be able to do whatever he wants against their terrible front court. When Joe gets back he'll play better defense against Wade than Mo or Crawford. He'll also improve our rebounding. Josh certainly shouldn't play that poorly against Bosh ever again. Being an Atlanta fan I tend to be more of a glass half empty guy, but I feel a lot better about playing the Heat after last night.

[BudBall]

I dont feel good at all. So far this season if we play a decent team we fold like a tent. I mean damn our best win is against the knicks.

[terrell]

Too much dead weight on this team (Jeff Teague, Mo Evans).

Dont forget about Zaza.

[CWebb]

Yeah Zaza is missing some easy baskets.

We really should work on boxing out. i got the feeling we got outrebounded every single game..

[Outlaw]

We didn't get destroyed, we were within 2 in the fourth quarter.

Destroyed even if we had JJ, WE CANT HANDLE SUPERSTARS BECAUSE WE HAVE NONE TO MATCH EM. JJ is just a star and nothing else.