Official Game Thread: Hawks at 76ers

[NBASupes]

6 minutes ago, AHF said:

A number of guys struggling to hit the broad side of a barn today including Dwight, THJr, and Humphries.  Still stepped on their throat after they pushed to within 10 late in the 3rd and won going away.  Gotta win these and this wasn't remotely close.

I know it's early but Atlanta is dominating all of the team NBA stats. 7th in Off Rtg and 1st in Def Rtg by a country mile. 

[NBASupes]

1 hour ago, Lurker said:

"Little things" help but they don't hide big weaknesses. Despite Horford's best efforts he did not stop the Hawks from being thoroughly roasted by perimeter players last year and since he wasn't in the paint, his great perimeter defense did not help at all...

But we wasn't getting killed like that. For all measures, we were strong statistically in that last year. We were the 2nd best defense in the NBA last year. 

[Thomas]

Bembry is another guy we should mention. He seems a natural moving up and down the court but also handles the ball really well. Easy to watch. If Baze had his handles his game would be so much more complete. Very satisfying game today.  

[Gray Mule]

Still a work in progress.  1st time any of our old Hawks have ever saw a friendly giant

in an Atlanta uniform and the first time that he has ever played "Bud Ball!"

I know it's early but someone forgot to follow the script - - We're supposed to be

LOTTERY BOUND!!

GO ATL HAWKS !!

[lethalweapon3]

Peeked at Yahoo! Sports' NBA page for a Hawks headline. Nothing doing... but, "It's Joel Embiid's second game, and he's already swatting Dwight Howard." Golly, imagine what he could do if he was seven feet tall!

ESPN's NBA page: BIG picture of J.E.sus on the cover. Nothing in "TOP HEADLINES"... but, if you'd like a video, they do have one there: "Embiid blows by Millsap for nice layup." Wow, Embiid just ran roughshod all over those poor Hawks! Hopefully, Atlanta could keep their deficit within double digits...

NBA.com: no Embiidapalooza there... but no links to the game under "LATEST NBA NEWS." (The "LATEST"? "Westbrook goes for 51 points in triple-double") Nothing on CBS Sports, NBC Sports, FOX Sports... not without clicking on the matter-of-fact game links. Did we all just dream this game happened?

It is a bit early, so let's give 'em all another 3 hours or so to realize it's Saturday.

Go, Atlanta Dangerfields!

~lw3

[turnermx]

11 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Peeked at Yahoo! Sports' NBA page for a Hawks headline. Nothing doing... but, "It's Joel Embiid's second game, and he's already swatting Dwight Howard." Golly, imagine what he could do if he was seven feet tall!

ESPN's NBA page: BIG picture of J.E.sus on the cover. Nothing in "TOP HEADLINES"... but, if you'd like a video, they do have one there: "Embiid blows by Millsap for nice layup." Wow, Embiid just ran roughshod all over those poor Hawks! Hopefully, Atlanta could keep their deficit within double digits...

NBA.com: no Embiidapalooza there... but no links to the game under "LATEST NBA NEWS." (The "LATEST"? "Westbrook goes for 51 points in triple-double") Nothing on CBS Sports, NBC Sports, FOX Sports... not without clicking on the matter-of-fact game links. Did we all just dream this game happened?

It is a bit early, so let's give 'em all another 3 hours or so to realize it's Saturday.

Go, Atlanta Dangerfields!

~lw3

I hope all the media pundits keep on ignoring us all the way to the Finals :D

[Thomas]

3 minutes ago, turnermx said:

I hope all the media pundits keep on ignoring us all the way to the Finals :D

You know they probably will no matter whats happening in our games. Its been such a weird bias for a long time now.

[Dnice]

Meh early ass game on a Saturday afternoon, if I wasn't a hawk fan I'd hardly care myself.

[turnermx]

23 minutes ago, Thomas said:

You know they probably will no matter whats happening in our games. Its been such a weird bias for a long time now.

I know this is early but barring major injuries to key players, with the depth we have and how good we are already despite not even gotten fully there with team chemistry, there is NO way this team doesn't challenge Cleveland and Toronto for 1/2 seed in conference.  We have depth we've never had before on this team now.  And then once we face Cleveland or Toronto in the playoffs the team should be fresh with a full season of developed chemistry behind them. If healthy this team could have finally have the recipe for victory by augmenting the strengths of the team 3 years ago and addressing its weaknesses (lack of DOMINANT low post scorer / rim protector / rebounder). 

[GameTime]

 

13 minutes ago, turnermx said:

I know this is early but barring major injuries to key players, with the depth we have and how good we are already despite not even gotten fully there with team chemistry, there is NO way this team doesn't challenge Cleveland and Toronto for 1/2 seed in conference.  We have depth we've never had before on this team now.  And then once we face Cleveland or Toronto in the playoffs the team should be fresh with a full season of developed chemistry behind them. If healthy this team could have finally have the recipe for victory by augmenting the strengths of the team 3 years ago and addressing its weaknesses (lack of DOMINANT low post scorer / rim protector / rebounder). 

I think this team without D8 could win 45-50 games. We have elite role players at each position.

[Thomas]

14 hours ago, GameTime said:

 

I think this team without D8 could win 45-50 games. We have elite role players at each position.

Elite role players is an unique term but feels really accurate for us right now. Tremendous three point shooter who is healthy and a great defender who now all of a sudden is looking to score and is scoring. Two rookies or is that three with Delaney that will come on stronger and stronger this year and ESPN really won't know what the heck hit them. They'll always look foolish at ESPN and they will never notice us. Very serious balance here for our Hawks.    

[BigDog90]

4 hours ago, AUhawksfan said:

Thabo and Moose. Well done guys. Delaney looked like a solid backup too. 

Dwight didn't do much but honestly we didn't need him to. Not every game will be like this. 

Should be a good measuring point game for him. Embiid is a new age center - a center that can shoot 3s and bang for rebounds. Cousins will be a good match up for him Monday. 

[NBASupes]

2 minutes ago, BigDog90 said:

Should be a good measuring point game for him. Embiid is a new age center - a center that can shoot 3s and bang for rebounds. Cousins will be a good match up for him Monday. 

Cousins isn't Sacramento center anymore. Koufos is their starting five

[RandomFan]

6 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Cousins isn't Sacramento center anymore. Koufos is their starting five

 

[DS17Fanboy]

Howard is far from being an integral part of the offense, but both Embiid and Okafor had facial expressions and body postures like they came close to breaking some of their ribs. The old man did his one way or the other...

[High5]

Much better game from Dennis and another stellar outing for our bench. Moose is playing with so much confidence on the offensive end. Needs to play better defense without fouling, though. Timmy really forced his first 3 and that may have set the tone for the rest of the day. Would like to see him take an open 3 within the offense or look for an easy 2 to start with. Bazemore and Dwight are totally lost in the offense to start the season. I think Dwight only had 1 shot today that wasn't a putback attempt. For all the Embiid hoopla, he had more turnovers than rebounds, so Dwight was still doing some work out there. But we are going to have our work cut out for us when we face a good stretch 5 who isn't on a minutes restriction.

I think as long as Dennis is playing better the rest of the starters will follow. Korver had it going today. Can't be mad at the team being +47 after two games.

[AUhawksfan]

It is crazy that a 32 point beating away from home could receive this much comments about how we can do better but I think that speaks to who we are as a team. 

The fact that we all see how much we can improve upon even after this victory is a good sign honestly.  When you have good team principles and expectations the bar starts to get set pretty high - a la the Spurs.

[Atlantaholic]

Can't wait for us to play a good NBA team to see how we hold up. Wiz and Sixers are both trash. Wiz will win around 35 games and the Sixers will be lucky to get 25.

[Alex]

Bazemore gets handed a nice contract and all of sudden he's awful.  I know it's 2 games, but he's been the worst player out there.  

[Diesel]

I have been watching some NBA action and I will speak on the Hawks.

 

1.  Philly is not a bad team at all. 

I watched the Philly OKC game the other day. I was impressed.   I watched them play Us, I was impressed.  I think Embiid will be a monster very soon.  IN the future, He and Anthony Davis and Karl Anthony Townes will bring back a big man renaissance.    So, this wasn't a bad team by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, they jumped out on us thoroughly . 

The thing that I liked that they did was PNR.  They exposed our defense with several great PNRs. 

 

BUT...

2.  We punish teams over time. 

I've seen it in two games thus far, we have so many players that are playing at a good level that it's hard to stop the bleeding and over time, we just outwork other teams.

THE KEY:

Korver, Baze, Sap, D8, Thabo, Moose, and Ball movement. 

We just have so much to our features that we will run over below .500 teams.  I think we will give some above .500 teams problems too.    

Concerns:

PG.  I have not like Schröder or  Delaney thus far.   Delaney is a chucker.  Schröder is who I thought he was.  I like the fact that he can run a pick and roll well and he has leadership but his head has to be on. 

Bench big.   So far, Moose and Humphries can platoon at the C position.  However, those Philly guys gave us a small taste of how Moose and Humphries can be outsized.  When Walter got in the game, I recognized that he's not ready and will probably not be a viable option for 2 years if ever.  He's slow for this game. 

Who is this Thabo guy?  I probably have been the biggest Thabo critic.   However, this guy is playing the defense I expected 2 years ago.  Teams we play will learn one thing:

The Passing Lanes are OURS.

Dwight is blocking shots and rebounding.  

The combo of Dwight followed by Humphries is killing the boards.  Think about it, as soon as you get a 6'11" guy muscling you for rebounds off the floor, here comes a 6'8" guy who just knows how to fight for position coming into the game to muscle you some more. 

Looking forward to Saturday vs. Houston and Tuesday @ Cleveland.