Hawks - Clippers

[lethalweapon3]

@zaza27 on Twitter:

Had a great opportunity to win the game but blew it up.I'm very disappointed.Hope I'll be in same situation soon and will execute it better.

I know the Hawks are still pretty shallow roster-wise, particularly with Marvin (duck ischium) added to the mix of incapacitated players. But a little foul trouble may be worth the risks tonight. Because when it comes to LA’s frontline, Hack-a-Clip seems to be the order of the day. Free throw shooting late in games has been a culprit in their recent 4-8 slide from the top of the Pacific Division. Their top frontcourt players at the free throw line are shooting 55.5% (Blake Griffin), 47.8% (DeAndre Jordan), 44.4% (Kenyon Martin), and 52.1% (Reggie Evans). Collectively, only the Clippers and Magic are shooting free throws below 70%. Atlanta will want to play the Clipper bigs aggressively whenever they’re given the ball and they bring the ball down toward the floor. We may need a heavy dose of Dampier to keep guys like Blake and DeAndre out of fingertips’ reach of the rim. Zaza and Reggie Evans will be tons of fun!

With Marvin out and L.A. probably reliant on a small-ish backcourt, I think Joe Johnson could best be deployed defensively against the small forwards. Doing so shouldn’t pose much of a challenge. Caron Butler’s shooting has been all kinds of awful since the break (27% FG and 6.9 PPG), so the Clips may turn more toward Bobby Simmons. The former NBA Most Improved Player, who became the NBA’s Most Regressed Player one big contract later after leaving the Clippers for Milwaukee, Simmons was recently re-signed after a two-season stint with our Reno Bighorns, now on the second of two 10-day contracts. He’s getting nearly as many minutes as Butler as a swingman, and while his shooting isn’t leaps-and-bounds better (35% FG and 4.6 PPG), he has been a better threat thus far from the outside (46% on 3-Pointers).

Calling all three-point shooters! The arc is open. The Hawks exploited the Nuggets from this range last night with 14 treys, and they go from the team who gives up the most threes per game in Denver, to the team behind only the Nets in opponents’ three-point field goal percentage (37.9%). Only Denver and Miami’s opponents make more 3-point baskets than the Clippers’.

Assists have been harder to come by for Chris Paul and the Clippers as of late, particularly without Chauncey Billups in the fold. Since the All-Star break, LAC’s 18.8 assists per game rank fourth lowest in the league (21.4 per game pre-All-Star). A slight boost in floor time for Randy Foye and Eric Bledsoe hasn’t picked up the slack in this area. And don't necessarily freak out over the prospects of LOB CITY all night long, either. CP3 ranks behind Steve Nash, Andre Miller, Jose Calderon, Rajon Rondo, Ricky Rubio, John Wall, and Jeremy Lin (and tied with Ty Lawson) among players' assisted-baskets-per-game at the rim (3.2 per game).

If the game gets out of hand in either direction, it will be intriguing to see whether Del Negro dusts off Atlanta metro products Travis Leslie or Trey Thompkins to get some burn. Leslie was just recalled up two days ago from the D-League’s Bakersfield Jam after a weeklong stint.

Aside: “Trey” is nicknamed as such because he is Howard Thompkins III. His pops, Howard Thompkins, Jr., was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 9^th round of the 1981 NBA draft.

Go Hawks!

~lw3

[benhillboy]

Should be a good one. Always good to see the franchise PG who got away in leui of (Stephen A. Smith voice) Marvin freakin Williams. Thanks again, BK.

Edited March 14, 2012 by benhillboy