Official Game Thread: Hawks - Lakers

[lethalweapon3]

It's another Nocha Latina night at Staples Center for Los Lakers de Los Angeles, who will don unis en espanol and try to get back to the Mendoza line of .500 for winning teams.

It'll be right on time as Dwight Howard, El Passivo Aggresso Grande, will look for pick-and-roll dimes and lobs galore from Steve Nash. Zaza Pachulia will have his work cut out on defense, but showed encouraging signs screening off the roll men in Utah and Detroit.

Earl Clark was once thought of as a throw-in from the D12 trade but is now a crucial starter for a Lakers frontcourt depleted by the absence of Pau Gasol (plantar fascia tear) for a few more weeks and the loss of Jordan Hill (hip) for the season. Clark will draw dominating Dominican Al Horford, who has been en fuego of late. Nailing his second three-pointer at the conclusion of Friday night's listless 92-87 loss to Phoenix gave Horford 20 points for the eighth straight game. His seven rebounds against the Suns were the lowest in that string.

Josh Smith will need to play in the paint [/brokenrecord] against Metta World Peace, making the latter a post defender and hacker instead of a perimeter stopper. Smith planting himself outside the paint and shooting like he did against Phoenix (0-for-5 on threes) frees up MWP to shift to the Hawks' legitimate shooting threats, plug Jeff Teague's dribble-drives, or pick off passes to the interior. Antawn Jamison's "ole!" defense poses no problems for Smoove in the paint, either. Smith forcing his pal Howard to help on defense will free up Al for numerous mid-range jumpers and layups.

Teague will have free reign to challenge Dwight at the basket with Steve Nash at his heels. Look for the Lakers to relieve Nash with a more physically imposing Steve Blake, in lieu of Chris Duhon.

Did I forget anybody? Oh yeah, El Mamba Negro. Kobe Bean Bryant (35.0 PPG in his last 4 games) has had no problems finding his shots (career-high 47.2 FG%; 1.7 3FGAs, most in last 4 seasons), and improved his passing in the absence of Nash earlier in the season.

Kobe has been occasionally lax on the defensive end, so Kyle Korver, John Jenkins and DeShawn Stevenson will look to keep him active defensively. Look for a mix of Dahntay Jones, Stevenson (starting), Anthony Tolliver, and Smith to try and up Kobe's degree of difficulty on offense. Coach Larry Drew will be rotating a lot to minimize foul trouble against a team that, thanks to Kobe and Dwight, draw the second-most fouls per game in the NBA.

The good news for Atlanta is, while the Lakers get to the line a ton (27.4 FT attempts per game, 1st in the league), they struggle to make the shots when they get there (68.9 FT%, last in NBA). Securing those missed second shots will allow some run-and-gun opportunities for the Hawks.

Go Hawks! Vamos Halcones!

~lw3

Edited March 4, 2013 by lethalweapon3

[DJlaysitup]

Thanks lw3 -

This should be a good one - not too late of a start for West Coast time.

Tomorrow is a workday but who cares. I'm only 55 years old so if I lose my job I can always start over

Fire up the Coors and off to the chatroom !!

GO HAWKS!!

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

The Fight for Dwight

Edited March 4, 2013 by PSSSHHHRRR87

[Gray Mule]

GO HAWKS!!

Let's get back on the winning side!!

[DrReality]

71% for lakers and we've stayed with them

[DrReality]

Oh for six josh from line

[MrNique]

Larry Drew getting killed tonight so far. Lakers an old slow team that gets murdered in transition. See their loss to Denver last week where Denver ran it down their throats and made 3s in transition. So what did LD do? Made sure we had a slow Center that is not an offensive threat out there eliminating our ability to run and shoot. Al's range would help pull Dwight out of the paint I would think too.I'm not an LD hater just feel like he made some bad matchup choices tonight. At least so far. Still in 3rd.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Larry Drew getting killed tonight so far. Lakers an old slow team that gets murdered in transition. See their loss to Denver last week where Denver ran it down their throats and made 3s in transition. So what did LD do? Made sure we had a slow Center that is not an offensive threat out there eliminating our ability to run and shoot. Al's range would help pull Dwight out of the paint I would think too.I'm not an LD hater just feel like he made some bad matchup choices tonight. At least so far. Still in 3rd.

Dwight would have 25 right now and Horford would be fouled out. Denver has 3 athletic centers at their disposal. Two different situations.

[DrReality]

Devin with hot hand

[DrReality]

Harris was hot and they took him out???!!!

[dalamchops]

if we lose, we lost on all the missed freebies

[DrReality]

And the calls they give in Bryant's favor

[benhillboy]

That was sickening.

[HalfHawk]

You can never rely on Josh to score.. NEVER.

[tonegully]

How the heck Josh blew that possession. Man he is just blows my mind sometimes. Like seriously. Just run plays for Horford from now on. Grief that was a freaking win and we let it go

[Admin]

Man that was a tough loss! LD is the mother f'n man when it comes to drawing up plays!! I'm not blaming that last one on Josh as after looking at it a few times the pass was a little hot coming in and by the time he caught it I believe he's already past the rim. Maybe he could have flushed it, but I'm not sure. That easy miss by Horf in the final 2 minutes at the rim really hurt and while Josh has certainly improved as a perimeter defender, he cannot guard Kobe 1-on-1 out there. How it must feel for the Lakers to beat the Hawks and have the atmosphere like they just won the championship.

[DrReality]

Sucks

[ryandauwalker]

How was that travel not called on Kobe? Then add a terrible foul call in the critical spot? Ugh.

[yungsta]

old fashion atlanta choke job.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Have to agree that all of the missed FT's are the reason we lost this game...Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk