Peachtree Hoops: Atlanta Hawks News and Notes From The Air Canada Centre

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Coach Drew on Jamal Crawford's impact on the game and the Hawks:

"He’s every coach’s dream when you talk about a guy who can come off the bench and get you going," L.D. said. "He knows what I expect from him. When the team is not going well and we need productivity off the bench, he comes in there and I run plays for him to get us going and tonight he kept us around that first half and then we found a way at the end."

Bret LaGree of Hoopinion says the Hawks were very fortunate to leave Toronto with a victory:

The

Atlanta Hawks

were extremely fortunate to win this game. Without any of 1)

Jamal Crawford

's 30-footer at the culmination of yet another stagnant offensive possession* against Toronto's 2-3 zone with 1:45 left in the game, 2) DeMar DeRozan's willingness to foul three-point shooters, or 3)

Al Horford

, on Toronto's penultimate possession, demonstrating, once again, that he's Atlanta's best perimeter defender the Hawks would have lost to a very bad basketball team.

ESPN True Hoop Blog Raptors Republic recaps Leandro Barbosa's performance:

Barbosa:

 possibly his best game of the season. It’s as if he saw Crawford come in, make us look foolish, and decided that "ah, nah, mah, homey don’t play that" and tried to one-up him. Some pretty dishes, great shot selection, blurring..all the elements were on display. If not for him coming alive, the game would have been lost early.

Raptors HQ points to the free throw disparity as the reason this game was so close:

However Toronto's defence allowed the Hawks to hang around, and while the Dinos shot 54 per cent from the field, they didn't do many of the little things in this one to close it out, losing the rebounding, fast-break points and free throw categories.  The Hawks in fact shot 31 freebies on the night to Toronto's 12, a big reason this one was as close as it was.

In case you missed it, Bret has an excellent recap of Pape Sy's day 1 and day 2 performances in the D-League Showcase. 

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