Hawks - Bobcats

[lethalweapon3]

Still tripping on tryptophan right now, and road-tripping too, so I’ll keep this one brief!

In my opinion, barring a major collapse, Mike Dunlap can lock down Coach of the Year tonight. His seventh win of the year this month would match the Charlotte Bobcats win total from 2011-12.

To keep Black Friday from becoming a bleak Friday, the Hawks must keep the Bobcats’ point guards from penetrating to score. Both Kemba Walker and backup Ramon Sessions are top 15 in the NBA in shot attempts at the rim, with Kemba attacking the rim more often than even Russell Westbrook. No worries if they’re kicking the ball to the perimeter: the Bobcats are the league’s worst 3-point shooters (27.5 3FG%).

The Hawks’ bigs have to resolve the contagion of bad free throw shooting. Atlanta’s 29^th in free throw shots taken due to their style of play, but dead last (30^th) in free throws made due to foul shooting that is just foul (68.7%, ranked 28^th). Josh is working slowly to get out from under his funk, going 3-for-3 against the Wizards, but Al Horford’s 1-for-infinity performance turned the Washington game into an actual contest. Ivan Johnson is now 5^th in the NBA for field goal percentage wamong players taking 3 or more shots per game, but will have to get his reliability at the line (37.5 FT, 72% last year) if he wants to see more of the floor. The futility looks even worse to Hawks fans because opponents are shooting an NBA-leading 81.3% at the line, despite taking the fewest shots per game.

Go Hawks!

~lw3

[bird_dirt]

i have never understood how some of the best basketball players in the world can be such AWFUL free throw shooters. I mean, come on, it's a FREE SHOT. it's not contested, you aren't in motion, it's not from far away, it's not a game of horse even. you can practice hundreds of the same exact shot every single day. surely sooner or later if you practiced it enough you could get it to a respectable percentage. seriously, is 70 something % too much to ask for? it drives me absolutely insane.

[yungsta]

i have never understood how some of the best basketball players in the world can be such AWFUL free throw shooters. I mean, come on, it's a FREE SHOT. it's not contested, you aren't in motion, it's not from far away, it's not a game of horse even. you can practice hundreds of the same exact shot every single day. surely sooner or later if you practiced it enough you could get it to a respectable percentage. seriously, is 70 something % too much to ask for? it drives me absolutely insane.

its all mental....

[Guest]

Looks like I will get Steve Martin for this round. ACC BABY!

[DatWerkk]

Not to excuse anybody, but from what I've heard some big guys say, shooting a free throw is significantly harder once your hands reach a certain size. Just imagine trying to use proper free throw form while shooting a baseball. Slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.

[MrMeltdown]

Team looks disorganized when Teague is out

[ag82]

It is absolutely mindboggling why ld won't put teague in. He's a +18 today with 13 and 9 in only 23 mins.

[ag82]

He looked bad when he came back in, but should have stayed with him when he was hot earlier. Lou should not be running the point ever.

[ViperXX79]

He looked bad when he came back in, but should have stayed with him when he was hot earlier. Lou should not be running the point ever.

Even though he wasn't shooting well in those 5 minutes, he had 4 assists. If he comes in earlier instead of being cast away the game is over with little drama.

[TheTruth]

6 of 14 FTs from the team tonight. *Sigh*

[Deeman]

7-4 i'll take it.

[cam1218]

Good road win for the Hawks. Bobcats have been playing decent ball and we seemed to have the game in control even when they made their runs. Next game against LAC will be a big test.

[Gray Mule]

Somehow, even with their good record this season, Hawks looked

like the superior team tonight.

Somewhere it was said that Charlotte couldn't hit the long shots.

Well, tonight, they could! Nothing wrong with their long bombs

against the Hawks. It kept them in the game.

Another thing, we heard, before the season started, that Atlanta

would score a lot of points but, with two starters from last season

no longer here, we would have no defense.

Gee. Someone didn't really know what they were talking about.

Hawks may not be great at defense, but they are certainly a lot

better than we were led to believe.

Good game, as we feel most of them are when we win. We're

above that .500 mark for the season and games like tonight's

will keep us there. We ain't great, but, dang, we're pretty good!

GO HAWKS!!

[Colin]

Zaza needs to be starting, 9 & 7 in 15. Four rebounds in 39 for Josh.

[MrMeltdown]

He looked bad when he came back in, but should have stayed with him when he was hot earlier. Lou should not be running the point ever.

We are not watching the same games.

[rusty]

It appears that LD would rather lose than give JT his minutes.the team looks so much better with JTon the floor.it seems that everybody can see that but LD.

[Ruckus]

I've been calling for Teague at the end of games more all season. Tonight did not help his cause. He didn't look in control to me at the end of the game. Nonetheless great win tonight. 4 in a row in the NBA at any point in the season is something to be proud of. Tomorrow night is a big test for us. I hope we treat it as so.

[APE]

I've been calling for Teague at the end of games more all season. Tonight did not help his cause. He didn't look in control to me at the end of the game. Nonetheless great win tonight. 4 in a row in the NBA at any point in the season is something to be proud of. Tomorrow night is a big test for us. I hope we treat it as so.

He's improved drastically from last season IMO. Taking control in crunch time is the next level for him.

[ag82]

We are not watching the same games.

Sorry what did I miss? Teague missed all of his shots when he came back in and had a couple of turnovers (did have a couple of nice assists though). He was great early on and should have had more than 23 mins halfway through the 4th. And the team looked totally lost and gave up a big lead with lou at the point. What game were you watching?

[Sothron]

Teague who? The player that has been the most impressive this year is Al Horford. He is showing in spades that he deserves to be the focus point of our offense.