Seven games left...tied with Miami in loss column...two up up in win column

[Alex]

48 minutes ago, BrazilianHawk said:

To be honest. I'd rather have the Hawks paired to the Cavs instead of the Craptors. I don't know why the Hawks always seem to play awful against them. and deRozan hitting shots he almost never makes doesn't help eityher. Not to mention VERY biased referreing like last night's. I'm quiclky becoming a Toronto hater. Everything seems to go their way when we play them, it's almost depressing.

 

BUT we should think about taking care of Round 1 before worrying about it. Who knows, anything can happen.

Agreed 100 percent about getting through round one first.  No matter who the Hawks draw round one is going to be tough hard fought series.  There is no guarantee the Hawks even advance in the first place.  I believe they are a game above .500 against Miami, Boston, and Charlotte.  

[Lurker]

Atlanta is not facing Miami unless they decide to stealth tank because they think Atlanta is their best matchup out of the three teams in the 3-6 seeding and go get the 5th or 6th seed and despite them losing to the LA Lakers, I doubt their plan is to stealth tank until I see Wade decide to sit for "rest" and then maybe they are stealth tanking. Charlotte and Boston are not bad matchups for Atlanta. Seriously what's so scary about them? Especially when if Cleveland is jumped on by Detroit early, there is an excellent chance of all four first round Eastern conference playoff series going to 7 games.

[Lurker]

My main point with the above is every eastern playoff team is in the same boat this year, they're likely playing a long and difficult early series. There's just no separation between teams. Of the series that would happen now if the playoffs started TODAY, I'd pick Cleveland in 4 or anybody's game in 7 against Detroit (because of their volatility), Indiana in 7 over Toronto (although it's a little hopeful as I'm not sure Indiana can do it), Atlanta in 6/7 over Charlotte, Miami in 7 over Boston.

[BrazilianHawk]

That's exactly what I'm saying. ANYTHING can happen, pairings to series results. We shouldn't be concerned with round 2 right now. 3-6 spots are up in the air and I fully expect those series to be VERY hard.

 

ATL vs. BOS? Hard. Evan Turner of all people always gives us fits. Bradley and Crowder could get hot from 3.

ATL vs. MIA? Hard, having Whiteside could be just enough for them to win. Dragic is fast, Wade is Wade. And then they have that Richardson guy. Hard.

ATL vs. CHA? Hard. For some reason Batum always seems to go off on us. Kemba could catch fire.

 

It looks to me the Hornets would be our "easiest" opponent, but "easiest" would still be hard. If the Hawks don't come to play (looking at you, Horf, Baze) we could be in a very bad spot.

[cam1218]

We got some help last night with Portland beating Miami. Today the Hornets play in Cleveland and Boston is playing in LA against the Lakers (who did recently beat the Heat). 

On Tuesday night we will host the Suns, Miami is at home against Detroit and Charlotte is in Toronto. The Suns game is a must win if you want to finish third and hopefully some of these other games go in our favor too.

 

[Guest]

43 minutes ago, cam1218 said:

We got some help last night with Portland beating Miami. Today the Hornets play in Cleveland and Boston is playing in LA against the Lakers (who did recently beat the Heat). 

On Tuesday night we will host the Suns, Miami is at home against Detroit and Charlotte is in Toronto. The Suns game is a must win if you want to finish third and hopefully some of these other games go in our favor too.

 

Yup, looking ahead at each of their schedules, the Hornets have a bunch of tough games coming up with most of them being on the road, the Heat seem content to rest Wade for a few games, and I believe we have the tie breaker against the Celtics in case of a tie, plus the Celtics might be exhausted in LA today due to beating the Warriors and/or partying last night in LA. :-) LETS GET THAT 3rd SEED!!!!

[Lurker]

Miami has at least two losses left in them, more if they decide they're stepping aside in the 3rd seed race and are resting their veterans, not just Wade and someone on twitter said before the Portland loss for them that they were likely one more loss away from doing so.

Considering that Washington is in all likelihood done, Charlotte has three games left that are 50/50. Better hope they lose both of their next two games or Washington finds some life fast.

Boston has three or four 50/50 games left. I think they drop two more games.

[cam1218]

Adding on, we have Phoenix and Washington that are must wins. There is also Toronto and Boston at home. I'd like to win both of those but I can see us splitting it. That puts us at 3-1 and you still have that road game in Cleveland. If we go 2-1 against the playoff teams I bet we wind up #3 assuming we get the win against Phoenix and Washington. 

We hold the tiebreaker against Charlotte. Right now we are 2-1 against Boston. Miami has the edge over us. I'm not sure what happens if we wind up in a three way tie.

[Lurker]

6 hours ago, Lurker said:

Charlotte has three games left that are 50/50. Better hope they lose both of their next two games

And they lost the first one and from what I saw from the box...if Toronto at least goes with DeRozan playing, they're losing to Toronto too.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Lurker

[Plainview1981]

The Hawks never have an easy opponent in the playoffs.

If this team beats Cleveland I will not post for 6 months.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

The Hawks never have an easy opponent in the playoffs.

If this team beats Cleveland I will not post for 6 months.

Pin this puppy!!!!!

[Lurker]

3 hours ago, Spud2Nique said:

Pin this puppy!!!!!

I will go on record to say that if this series happens again, Atlanta can get one game. I mean c’mon, if they can’t it really should spring significant changes. However it’s two max unless Teague really posts a series for the ages and Millsap averages close to 20 a game in it.

If it’s all about the series with Cleveland in the East then the most I can see any team taking them outside of maybe Miami is 5/6 unless they don’t go into the first round interested and a team like Detroit jumps them, then their dysfunction comes into play and makes it a long series.

I will also use this to say the folks that have been angry at me in chat lately are going to be happy Tuesday as I'm not going to be there.

[rd79]

12 hours ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

The Hawks never have an easy opponent in the playoffs.

If this team beats Cleveland I will not post for 6 months.

since there are 5 months offseason, this offer isn't that impressive 

[AHF]

2 hours ago, rd79 said:

since there are 5 months offseason, this offer isn't that impressive 

Man, now who is Mr. Pessimistic?  

[macdaddy]

I feel better about our chances against Cleveland this year than last year.   I think we're a deeper team than the team that hit the playoffs last year.   But I agree that the road to the ECF is going to be much harder than last year.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I feel better about our chances against Cleveland this year than last year.   I think we're a deeper team than the team that hit the playoffs last year.   But I agree that the road to the ECF is going to be much harder than last year.

Despite their lack of playoff success, I'm starting to worry about the Raptors more and more as well. I don't like the fact that they have vets like Scola and a Spurs systems guy like Corey Joseph. Plus their UCLA rookie Norman Powell is starting to develop a lot of confidence which could be big for them. The guy was holding his own against Kawhi and the Spurs on Saturday night. Before I wasn't as worried thinking that we could slow down their backcourt but now all this, not to mention JV big a$$ in the paint. 

[Guest]

[Hawkmoor]

It doesnt matter if the Hawks finish 1st or 8th in the conference.  If they dont find consistent scoring and consistent rebounding,  they arent going anywhere.

[AHF]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Love it!

[Plainview1981]

On 4/4/2016 at 7:12 AM, rd79 said:

since there are 5 months offseason, this offer isn't that impressive 

I don't agree. The lack of movement in the offseason will be as frustrating as it always is.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Hotlanta1981