Game Thread: Up next...San Antonio

[hawkrule152]

KIRK IS BACK TONIGHT!! I just hope he gets Willie Green's minutes and not Pargo's

[lethalweapon3]

Jeff Teague will have his hands full yet again, ad Tony Parker has been superb offensively in Manu Ginobili's absence. He's scored 20+ in 7 of his last 9 games, including a double-double of points and assists in the last two.

With 28 points plus the game-clincher, Tim Duncan was heroic in the last game against New Orleans, and they need every bit of his heroics to offset a continuing annual slide of the one-time defensive juggernauts on that end of the floor. Their last two opponents were shooting at a 50% clip (as was the case in 6 of the Spurs' 7 losses), and opponents' 46.3 FG% is fifth-highest in the league, on par with the Bobcats, Cavaliers, and Wizards. They were fairly well out-rebounded against the Hornets (just 4 offensive boards) and out-rebounded in 3 of their last 4 games.

As Jarrett Jack did (26 points, 9 assists, 1 turnover) to match Parker (20 points, 17 assists, 4 turnovers) in San Antonio's last game, Teague will have to find his shooters in advantageous spots, forcing the Spurs' three-point shooters (Richard Jefferson, Gary Neal, Matt Bonner, Danny Green) to expend energy on the defensive end, and get the Spurs' bigs in foul trouble.

We've seen any one of our bench players getting hot offensively in recent games (excepting maybe Milwaukee), but it would be nice to have 2 or 3 of them catching fire at the same time tonight.

Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

You lost my interest at "du Jour". Damned dirty French!

Maybe Timmy D retired today and that's why he isn't listed?

I'll consume a Super-Sized serving of Freedom Fries if that was the case!

Kirk is back? C'est magnifique!

~lw3

[Admin]

What really sucks for me is that this is the one game a year that is always blacked out. Guess I will have to watch a crappy online stream of it ... But it's better than nothing I suppose.

I predicted that this would be our lone loss on this 5 game trip but I'm feeling good about the game tonight now fur some reason.

[Guest]

Not looking foward to this game.

The hawks have not won in San Antonio in 15 years, and the spurs are 9-1

at home this year.

Nique was playing for the spurs that last time the hawks won there.

Didn't now that...think Dominique helped to lose on purpose to help the Hawks .

Time to change this 15 year trend...Let's GO HAWKS!!!

[benhillboy]

I hope Timmy plays heavy minutes. As I get older, I appreciate him more and we don't have much time left to watch the Big Funds. Nothing flashy about him. He's only won more than anybody not named Kobe. Much Respect. We talk about our team getting slighted in the media, but Tim doesn't get a fraction of the respect he deserves because he's not "sexy", but the cool thing about it is he could care less. As much as I hate Chuck, he always makes a point to refer to Tim as the Greatest 4 Ever and I respect that.

[Guest]

I hope Timmy plays heavy minutes. As I get older, I appreciate him more and we don't have much time left to watch the Big Funds. Nothing flashy about him. He's only won more than anybody not named Kobe. Much Respect. We talk about our team getting slighted in the media, but Tim doesn't get a fraction of the respect he deserves because he's not "sexy", but the cool thing about it is he could care less. As much as I hate Chuck, he always makes a point to refer to Tim as the Greatest 4 Ever and I respect that.

I unlike a lot of people enjoy watching the Spurs play, what some see as boring, because they don't have the high flyers or yellers, I see good team, fundamental bball.

[EAambassador]

Great start thus far...its good to see Joe with a bounce in his step. Looks like he may still be feeling good from the second half against the bucks

[Plainview1981]

Yeah... This is probably another loss. Greg P owns this team. No Manu and little from Duncan..... Does... not matter when it comes to the Hawks and Spurs. The starters would probably lose to the Spurs backups. They never beat these guys.

[Admin]

Yeah... This is probably another loss. Greg P owns this team. No Manu and little from Duncan..... Does... not matter when it comes to the Hawks and Spurs. The starters would probably lose to the Spurs backups. They never beat these guys.

I'm having to watch it on NBA Companion so no video but it looks like we've made a nice run to get back into the game after it looked like a blowout was coming. If we can come out and actually take it to the Spurs in the 3rd instead of having our typical collapse then who knows we might steal one in SA.

[Gray Mule]

Some games you can't lose. This was one of those. Unfortuantly, that applied to the Spurs,

not to the Atlanta Hawks. That makes it 14 in a row we've lost there.

Captain Kirk looked like he had never been off. JT had one of his best scoring games and

together these two carried most of the scoring load for us. JT is a thief!

Whoever was supposed to guard Bonner, didn't. Whoever was supposed to rebound, didn't.

Our scoring duo of Josh and JJ, didn't.

What's with our 3rd quarter? Hawks rallied to pull within 4 at halftime. Early in the 3rd. they

cut it to 2 points a couple of times. Then, suddenly, or so it seemed, it was all over.

It's just one game. In fact, it's only one half game. Hawks were "Right there" at halftime.

We fell from 1st place to 3rd place, just like that. Bang. The second half was good for

only one thing. It can serve as a bad example for Atlanta. It's perfect for that.

GO HAWKS!!

[WraithSentinel]

Hawks never play well in Texas. Especially in Houston and San Antonio. The seasons & teams may change. One thing is constant. Hawks do not play well in Texas. Only Mavs is about the only team Hawks had any chance against in Texas. We play these teams better in our own Arena. So you learn not to take certain defeats too seriously. Some teams just historically struggle playing in certain cities. Hawks own the Nuggets in Atlanta for example.

[DJlaysitup]

Well...on the positive side...we came back and were only down 4 at the half .

Of course the second half was basically a thorough arse kicking...in detail. Plenty of blame to go around - but I have to single out a couple guys.

1. Marvin. Honestly, it's getting to the point where we can no longer afford the "goof plays" and the lack of explosiveness inside. He gets too many shots blocked inside and his fast breaks/drives are too often a mess. Scout's honor - when Marvin took off on that fast break with a defender close behind I thought "this should be interesting". I certainly didn't expect him to double-dribble with the ball (dribble with both hands at the same time) while running down the court. I haven't seen that since I did it in 8th grade.

2. Zaza. The guy just doesn't have it offensively inside. There is no reason IMO to try to feed it in to Zaza unless he is WIDE open under the basket. He doesn't have the hands or the moves to be successful more than about 25% of the time in traffic. LD needs to "tactfully advise" the other guys of this.

Edited January 26, 2012 by DJlaysitup