Peachtree Hoops: Atlanta Hawks News and Notes Post Cavaliers Game

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Apologies for the News and Notes posts hiatus of late, hopefully things are slowly getting back to normal around here. 

As mentioned in the game recap, Michael Cunningham has was a guest on Sekou Smith's hang time podcast this week along with heavy hitters Michael Lee of the Washington Post, Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post, and Alan Hahn of Newsday. That in addition to Sekou, Lang Whitaker of SLAM, and Micah Hart. I am a devoted listener each and every week and you should be too.

Coach Drew post game on the Hawks attacking mismatches as quoted by Ken Sugiura:

"We tried to exploit some mismatches that we thought were to our advantage. That’s the way we have to play. That’s the way we want to play. As I told the guys, we have enough play sets that we can get into different things where teams can’t lock in on us. Certainly, when you see what you think is an advantageous matchup you’ve got to go right to it and that’s what we did tonight."

Also

"Didn’t do a whole lot as far as any type of adjustments, but what we did was I thought we did thing sa lot harder we were fighting through screens a lot harder. We were making a conscious effort of boxing out. We were pushing the basketball off the boards and when we got out there and started running, that’s when we were at our best."

I thought Jeff Teague did a lot to get the Hawks to play at a faster tempo in both halves

KS on on the strong second half and combined stats of the Hawks frontcourt:

Of the 

Hawks

' 22 second-half baskets, 15 came on assists. For the game, forwards

Marvin Williams

and 

Josh Smith

, center 

Al Horford

 and Johnson shot a combined 32 for 55 (58.2 percent).

Phil Foley of SB Nation Atlanta talks Joe Johnson's performance on the day that ownership lawsuit was settled:

Atlanta on the other hand hopes that it's good times ahead for Johnson.  It was the trade of the Atlanta forward to the Hawks that sparked the split between owners five-plus years ago.  And on the night of the settlement, Johnson had his best game since returning from right elbow surgery, connecting on 9-of-17 from the field en route to notching his first 20-plus points game since returning to the lineup.

Bret LaGree of Hoopinion on Atlanta's defensive performance:

A win's a win but there's little more the Hawks can take away from a fairly desultory performance against inferior opposition. Outside of

Al Horford

's post-

Anderson Varejao

ball-screen efforts to keep

Mo Williams

and Boobie Gibson away from the basket, Atlanta's defensive resistance was minimal.

Cavaliers SB Nation Blog Fear The Sword has a collection of quotes following the game this one is from head coach Byron Scott:

"It was another solid effort by our guys, but we ran into a little bit of a buzzsaw in the third quarter. They go 10-for-10, and we played some pretty good defense. As good as they are, and as athletic as they are, then obviously it's an uphill battle. Again, I thought our guys fought to the end. We played another very good basketball team." 

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