Official Game Thread: Hawks - RAPTORS

[lethalweapon3]

^{“Sure, you can have ‘em. Jeff Teague shook me out of these.”}

The Kings. The Bobcats. The Knicks. The Pistons. The Cavs. The Celtics. The Magic. The Bucks. The Sixers. The Jazz. The Bobcats again.

The Atlanta Hawks have had a particularly underwhelming season on the road, an 11-24 mark that’s currently as bad as Cleveland’s. For a team that professes to want to make the playoffs as a low-seed, and do a little something once they get there, it behooves them to demonstrate they can beat a team with a winning record, in their house, sometime soon.

Just a day-and-a-half after succumbing to the LBX (The Luke Babbitt Experience), the Hawks will get another chance to defeat a team above-.500 (0-17 so far) with a trip north of the border to face the Toronto Raptors (1:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, SportsNet). Atlanta needed overtime, Paul Millsap’s first-ever triple-double and 11-for-11 on free throws plus career-high scoring from Jeff Teague just to beat the Raps in ATL on Tuesday evening.

The degree-of-difficulty for today’s game is heightened in part because of the return of Toronto center Jonas Valanciunas. JV left the Tuesday game with a back sprain after putting up 16 points in just 20 minutes, but is healthy and put in 45 minutes against the OKC Durants on Friday.

The road to a decent road victory is also bumpier without the services of Kyle Korver, who remains home while dealing with back spasms. The need for opposing defenses to respect Atlanta’s ball movement is predicated primarily on the threat that out there, somewhere, Korver is about to bust a triple on their heads. Kyle “only” shot 3-for-8 on threes against the Raptors on Tuesday (one of them to give the Hawks their final lead in regulation), but his teammates were a mere 8-for-26. That was foreshadowing for Friday night’s action at Philips, when the Korver-less Hawks were just 8-for-28 from downtown against the Pelicans, and outdone by a rusty Babbitt in crunch time.

Korver’s ability to help on the other end of the floor was missing as well on Friday. Mike Budenholzer has to find someone on the bench willing to fight for loose balls, strip opponents in the restricted area, and deflect cross-court passes. Without those elements in Atlanta’s defensive approach, DeMarre Carroll (2-for-10 against the NOPes, team high 7 rebounds and 4 steals) will again be heavily overtaxed today against DeMar Derozan and Terrence Ross.

The overtime loss to the Hawks is already a distant memory after the double-overtime Friday night affair that featured Kevin Durant draining shots from the CN Tower, out-rebounding everybody, out-assisting everybody, replacing light bulbs and cleaning gutters. Amir Johnson (25 points and 12 rebounds vs. OKC; 56.2 FG%, 5^th in NBA) did all he could to keep the Raptors in it, and he’ll be aiming for his third double-double in four games today… that is, if he can keep from fouling out (3.6 personal fouls per game, 2^nd in NBA). Paul Millsap banging away in the paint can make that last part difficult, while Jeff Teague needs to go at him and Valanciunas in the paint at every opportunity.

Go Hawks!

~lw3

[benhillboy]

I didn't feel good about this game, the guys showed me. We should be up about 12 at the half, but it's cool. If I were an owner I'd just give DeMarre a suitcase full of money under the table Prokorov style like "here you go, bruh". Sure there are guys with more skill or talent, but very few play as hard. Lets finish up.

[Duff_Man]

Great first half. Better keep DD and Lowry in check.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

I think we can end the Lowry vs. Teague comparisons. Lowry showed up in the fourth and Teague disappeared. We desperately need a guy like DeRozan.

[Gray Mule]

Dang! Can't hold onto a 4th quarter lead at all. We sure miss

Korver but this melt down is ridiculous. In two games in a row,

Hawks defense has completely gone away in the 4th.

Ahead by 7 entering the 4th, then lose by 10. Ugh.

[benhillboy]

I think we can end the Lowry vs. Teague comparisons. Lowry showed up in the fourth and Teague disappeared. We desperately need a guy like DeRozan.

An athletic scoring 2 is top priority for sure. We need a big like Valanciunas to get us 13 and 13 too and we'll be set. And yeah, I think I'd take Lowry. He's developed into a good leader, I doubt we'd ever be able to say that about Jeff. Lou got in the game and just sucked the life out. Without Kyle we see good defensive stretches, but replacing him with Lou in the offese is a complete 180. Edited March 23, 2014 by benhillboy

[Sothron]

So any one of those laughable "Teague is better than Lowry" posters want to show up now?

[BrazilianHawk]

BS game with a lot of BS calls for the Raps and non-calls for us.

Still, could have won it if Scott hadn't blow 3 layups. Those were hard to watch.

Edited March 23, 2014 by BrazilianHawk

[Admin]

I think we can end the Lowry vs. Teague comparisons. Lowry showed up in the fourth and Teague disappeared. We desperately need a guy like DeRozan.

No we can't do that according to PeeBird Teague is the greatest PG ever and Lowry is trash.

[cam1218]

I think we can end the Lowry vs. Teague comparisons. Lowry showed up in the fourth and Teague disappeared. We desperately need a guy like DeRozan.

I was thinking the same thing. Seemed like Teague was trying his hardest to win that battle but kept coming up short. Teague missing that floater that would have put us up 5 (after Millsap hit the three) was a huge momentum killer.

[NBASupes]

No we can't do that according to PeeBird Teague is the greatest PG ever and Lowry is trash.

PeeBird is a troll at this point. He has no basis for his Teague love but will attack anyone if they don't agree.

[ViperXX79]

So any one of those laughable "Teague is better than Lowry" posters want to show up now?

Of course not. When Jeff does his disappearing act so does his fanboys. They'll be back next week when Jeff has a good game though...

[Eddielives]

Come on New York....keep that winning streak alive. We need a lottery pick!!!!

[Plainview1981]

BS game with a lot of BS calls for the Raps and non-calls for us.

Still, could have won it if Scott hadn't blow 3 layups. Those were hard to watch.

Mike Scott has been terrible lately it seems like. The last 2 to 3 weeks.

[Plainview1981]

I was thinking the same thing. Seemed like Teague was trying his hardest to win that battle but kept coming up short. Teague missing that floater that would have put us up 5 (after Millsap hit the three) was a huge momentum killer.

Teague misses way too many shots around the basket. I'm sick of his inability to finish around the rim at times.

[Eddielives]

Hey Knicks. We're trying to hand the 8th playoff slot to you. Could you please not lose to inferior teams the rest of the way please?

[CrazyEye]

i wouldn't put the blame on teague alone, imho we made many stupid TO at the beginning of the fourth Quarter and this came from different players which gave Toronto the chanche to catch up.

[Guest]

Payroll(Nique) Antić has one of the best shot fakes in basketball. Thing of beauty.

[macdaddy]

So any one of those laughable "Teague is better than Lowry" posters want to show up now?

I didn't see the game and i'm confident that i never said teague was better than lowry. But since i've been a defender of teague i would say that last week when teague got the best of lowry there was a lot of 'you can't judge who's better by one game'. And now after this one game the actual quote is 'i guess we can put to rest who is better between teague and lowry'. So i guess the moral is that you can judge by one game if it helps make your case?

[Admin]

I didn't see the game and i'm confident that i never said teague was better than lowry. But since i've been a defender of teague i would say that last week when teague got the best of lowry there was a lot of 'you can't judge who's better by one game'. And now after this one game the actual quote is 'i guess we can put to rest who is better between teague and lowry'. So i guess the moral is that you can judge by one game if it helps make your case?

I agree you can't make a decision based on 1 game, but I believe so far between them at least this year Lowry has won 2 out of the 3 matchups.

@TheNorthCydeRises it looks like there's a flaw in your hoopstats W-L thing as it has Teague winning this game, but against Vasquez because he played 1 more minute than Lowry did.

http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/atlanta-hawks/players/jeff-teague/profile/14/1/14