Official Game Thread: Hawks at Cavaliers

[Rick]

1 hour ago, capstone21 said:

That and Thabo's one on one D on Lebron

I totally agree here. Yep Baze and Dennis had big games, but Thabo was excellent on LeBron with very little double team help all game.

[Sothron]

This game is why I have been begging along with others like @Diesel to get a real center on this team for YEARS. We finally get a big man that can rebound and is a legit low post threat and it changes the entire dynamic on both ends of the court for us. There is no way in hell we win this game tonight if Horford was still here at center.

[jy23]

Cavs will definitely come with a different look next time we play them bc they know TT is not going to be effective against D8. So hopefully we combat that with some shuffling of our own...I trust Bud so I'm not really worried 

[kurupt]

It wasn't a perfect game from the Hawks. Everything and everyone could have been better at something or at some point. And they still won against the reigning Champions!

This is why they made the changes in the offseason and it worked: Even when the Cavs made runs and the Hawks had a series of bad plays/possessions, these guys never wavered and never backed down. They were in it to win it from start to finish and (out)matched the Cavs in intensity all game long.

There is still so much to improve on, but boy is it fun to not get pushed around by Lebron, Kyrie and Thompson and instead doing some of the pushing and bullying :)

[Lurker]

I wish I could be happier about this game. I watched all of it and enjoyed it while listening to music. But yet...

It's November, but two things I saw different in this matchup was the team was willing to fight in the paint and Dennis confidently took it to Kyrie.

[TheTruth]

Unfortunately, I did not watch the game. But quick question: Do you think we win this game had Kyle started?

[Gray Mule]

Great win.  Hawks won the rebounding part and shot well throughout the game

-------BUT -----

Remember when the Cavs hit 11 three point shots in a row and had forty eleven in a 4 game sweep?

The great big difference in this game was from behind the arc for the Cavs.  This their weapon of choice.

Last night they hit 11 from downtown.  They missed 31 !  Atlanta played some great defense and grabbed

a bunch of rebounds from those missed threes.  However, remember this.  When they were beating us

like a drum, they were making these three pointers.... 

This is a great win for Atlanta ! - -

This is a small bump n the road for Cleveland !

[QuantumHawkz]

Moose played a hell of a game. That put back dunk was powerful. I really hope his back doesn't keep him out for long. 

Moose is leading the NBA in FG%! Great win by the good guys. 

[yungsta]

7 hours ago, Sothron said:

This game is why I have been begging along with others like @Diesel to get a real center on this team for YEARS. We finally get a big man that can rebound and is a legit low post threat and it changes the entire dynamic on both ends of the court for us. There is no way in hell we win this game tonight if Horford was still here at center.

I was too on the get a real center bandwagon. Its hilarious how we made 1 personnel change in the line up and all of a sudden we went from a 28th rebounding team to a top 5 rebounding team. It was ridiculous the excuses people were making for our rebounding saying we need to "team rebound" better while over looking how our center is 6,9 and rebounds like a small forward. 

Our scoring is always going to be an issue since we don't have that kind of offensive talent. But getting destroyed on the glass like we use to leaves us with a zero margin for error in order to win games against elite teams come playoff time.

 

 

[Guest]

Awesome Win!!!

Gave Cleveland there first loss and broke an 11 game losing streak - What's not to love and be happy about  Lurker.

I will not nitpick a thing about Dennis in this one - he gave us exactly what we needed.  Any mistakes he made is a good teaching moment for him and Bud to review.  He'll only be better.  He plays hard on defense.

Moose is an NBA player guys, finally.

Baze was on fire.

Good to see The rook play...loved that drive and score he had to the basket.

Thabo doing Thabo things along with Do-It-All-Paul

17 rebounds for Dwight, then he said to Tristan........

 

 

 

 

Gotta clean up the turnovers, get that under control and we will be even better.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Awesome Win!!!

Gave Cleveland there first loss and broke an 11 game losing streak - What not to love and be happy about  Lurker.

I will not nitpick a thing about Dennis in this one - he gave us exactly what we needed.  Any mistakes he made is a good teaching moment for him and Bud to review.  He'll only be better.  He plays hard on defense.

Moose is an NBA player guys, finally.

Baze was on fire.

Good to see The rook play...loved that drive and score he had to the basket.

Thabo doing Thabo things along with Do-It-All-Paul

17 rebounds for Dwight, then he said to Tristan........

 

Wherrrreee's the beef?

Anyways, what I loved about this game is the fact that they never looked scared.  For better or worse, Dennis doesn't believe Kyme is/should be better than him.  Our last pg starter seemed to play as if he accepted that he wasn't supposed to outplay Kyme.  

D8 doesn't fear LeBron or any of the other Cavs.  For better or worse, Howard probably still remembers putting James out of the playoffs years ago.  And, of course, when Alicia sniffed a little Tristan in the air he tucked tail and ran.

[Thomas]

Yeah, so heres that rough start to the year for Dwight so far. Shooting over sixty % and a PER of over twenty four.

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/2384/dwight-howard

[RedDawg#8]

7 hours ago, TheTruth said:

Unfortunately, I did not watch the game. But quick question: Do you think we win this game had Kyle started?

Nope. Not at all. The fact is that Thabo was able to single handedly disrupt Lebron for the entire first half, Kyle starting would have kept him on the bench most of the night.

We were able to stay with Kyrie and JR a lot better than in the past too. Defense set the tone for us for sure. Having Kent guard Lebron instead of Thabo changes the entire dynamic of our defense. You saw the few times Kent was switched on to him Lebron immediately tried to body him up because he simply isn't afraid of Kent. At least he respects Thabos presence

[macdaddy]

Great win!   That was a fun game despite being on election night.     It's just hard to imagine that anyone is still thinking that making Dennis our starter is a bad idea.   The dude is playing great. 

And a Prince sighting!   He played well too.

Here's what i realized last night.   What's working for the Hawks is that we have two teams.    With Moose in and Dwight out we are the same effective ball movement team that won 100+ games the last two years and with Dwight in we are a physical, rebounding team that forces the opponent into jump shooting.      We closed the game out with Dwight on the bench but we never would have been in the situation if he hadn't been a beast on the defensive end.      

[aali34]

I agree. Offensively Muscala has so far in the season done a good job in bringing what Horford brought us last year. Although his defense hasn't been as good Its still not bad, especially for a backup. I am impressed and hope this trend continues.

Mike Scott may or may have not been crossing his fingers after Mooses dunk. Lol

Edited November 9, 2016 by aali34

[macdaddy]

14 minutes ago, aali34 said:

I agree. Offensively Muscala has so far in the season done a good job in bringing what Horford brought us last year. Although his defense hasn't been as good Its still not bad, especially for a backup. I am impressed and hope this trend continues.

Mike Scott may or may have not been crossing his fingers after Mooses dunk. Lol

That's going to be interesting.   Moose is playing great and grabbing most of the 4/5 backup minutes.   Humph gets a little bit of time.   Where will Scott and Splitter go when healthy ?  Splitter/healthy Splitter/healthy.   Sounds weird doesn't it.  

[macdaddy]

Quote

* Dennis Schröder had a career-high 28 points on 10 of 16 shooting with six assists.

* Kent Bazemore had 25 points, including four 3-pointers, on 8 of 13 shooting.

* Paul Millsap had 21 points, including four 3-pointers, on 7 of 16 shooting.

 

And Howard was huge.   It's an early season test but it's nice to see that the guys that Budcox have chosen to invest heavily in show up in big games.   The last time I can remember beating the Cavs it took a 3 point barage from Shelvin Mack to prop up our starters.     I realize I may have re-written history to fit my narrative but that's ok now.   

[High5]

Prince definitely looked like a rookie, but it's easy to see how effective he could be with some experience. He wasn't going to be denied on that first drive. 

[macdaddy]

10 minutes ago, High5 said:

Prince definitely looked like a rookie, but it's easy to see how effective he could be with some experience. He wasn't going to be denied on that first drive. 

The dude is big.   If he can stay in front of people he's going to be a great addition. 

[Diesel]

12 hours ago, Sothron said:

This game is why I have been begging along with others like @Diesel to get a real center on this team for YEARS. We finally get a big man that can rebound and is a legit low post threat and it changes the entire dynamic on both ends of the court for us. There is no way in hell we win this game tonight if Horford was still here at center.

 

Facts!!!

This proves...  Horford was SAWFT and holding us back.