The road to the finals looks doable.

[Diesel]

We can beat Washington.

We can beat the Celtics..

I can see us in the finals vs.  Indiana, Toronto, or Milwaukee.

Spoiler... I see Indy giving Cleveland a lot of trouble.

 

[Bankingitbig]

You had me until the 3rd line.

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, Bankingitbig said:

You had me until the 3rd line.

 

[Alex]

5 hours ago, Bankingitbig said:

You had me until the 3rd line.

He lost me at the start of line 1.

[benhillboy]

Deez wilding.  The Wiz shoot .475 from the floor and .374 from three with massive talent advantages on the perimeter knowing Prince and Bembry aren't playing.  We gonna get smoked.

[Guest]

So does your mom.-kg (responding to this thread title)

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

knowing Prince and Bembry aren't playing.

They aren't?

[Thomas]

Believe Prince will get over half the minutes at SF most games if not every game.

[benhillboy]

2 hours ago, Thomas said:

Believe Prince will get over half the minutes at SF most games if not every game.

I hope you're right but I can't see Bud playing rookies over vets Dunleavy and Calderon.  We all know Hump and Kelly ain't getting no run so maybe.  What's Bud's playoff rotation man average, 10 or 11?

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

I hope Bud and in particular Dwight are paying attention:

Quote

“We know that they are a team that likes to have their bigs play back in pick and roll coverage,” said Washington’s Bradley Beal. “So we took full advantage of it and were able to come off screens for jumpers or get in the lane and create for someone else.”

Beal’s teammate — star point guard John Wall — added on to that assessment.

“They are a type of team that closes out the paint first, then closes out on shooters, so with me and Bradley being aggressive in pick and rolls, guys just have to be ready to shoot.” said Wall. “More teams are just going to give me the shot in pick and rolls by allowing me and Gortat to play two-on-tow or take us away and let the weak side score.”

 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I hope Bud and in particular Dwight are paying attention:

 

What to do with these great minds in Wall n Beal....boy...I'm scared..:-|

[ViewsFromTheSquawk]

In our winning streak here recently Bud has played all players that were dressed and active... really don't see that changing just because it's the playoffs... buds learned from his past playoff matchups and we seen him use younger guys or guys you wouldn't expect to get playing time during the postseason.... One prime example of this was when we played Washington the last time 

The lineup for that last stretch was Schröder,Mack,Baze,Muscala,Pero

 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Spud2Nique said:

What to do with these great minds in Wall n Beal....boy...I'm scared..:-|

Head to head match-ups 2016-17:

Dennis vs Wall

 

THjr vs Beal

[Lurker]

Guess its time to post it again...

If Bud is all of a sudden going to change his mind and put Bazemore and Sefolosha back in the starting lineup, he's going against what he's done this year which is different from previous years, and this is out of this world crazy. In previous years, he has sometimes had returning injured players come off the bench when they return, but it's just been for a game. This year he's done it for multiple games.

I don't think Bazemore starts again at all this year. He returned earlier than Millsap did and you'd think if he was going to be starting, he would have returned to the starting lineup on Sunday when Millsap did or even earlier.

Sefolosha is harder to gauge but again, with how Bud has worked this year, we probably are not going to see him in the starting lineup either.

It's out of this world crazy if he does it because this team has never had good chemistry and it does not need to be spending a round one while they're the underdog trying to get back to just below average chemistry.

Say hello to Bazemore and Sefolosha, bench players. I think Prince's game vs Boston just nailed it down.

[macdaddy]

I hope its tim/prince starting.   If you would have told me a month ago that Prince would be starting for us in the playoffs I'd have said you were crazy. 

[Lurker]

I already said it at realgm, but backcourt vs backcourt isn't the story of this series, it's Millsap vs the Morris twin that is. If Millsap continues to forget how to play sensible basketball against a stretch 4, the Hawks are going to lose this series pretty badly. If he remembers how to play sensible basketball against a stretch 4, all bets are off and throw out what happened in the regular season.

[JTB]

1 hour ago, Lurker said:

I already said it at realgm, but backcourt vs backcourt isn't the story of this series, it's Millsap vs the Morris twin that is. If Millsap continues to forget how to play sensible basketball against a stretch 4, the Hawks are going to lose this series pretty badly. If he remembers how to play sensible basketball against a stretch 4, all bets are off and throw out what happened in the regular season.

I can agree with this....during the regular season millsap seemed to ...im not sure which but....Sap either forgot Morris could hit a 3 or just plain and simple disrespected his offense game all together or like @Lurker said just forgot how to defend perimeter 4s. 

I doubt he forgot how to defend perimeter 4s but there was something going on with Sap vs Morris this season and it is a matchup that need to be payed attention to! Any other time I'd say Sap wins that match up without a doubt but unfortunately his regular season play vs this team and Morris directly has me a bit nervous on the defense end.

[Bankingitbig]

2 hours ago, ViewsFromTheSquawk said:

In our winning streak here recently Bud has played all players that were dressed and active... really don't see that changing just because it's the playoffs... buds learned from his past playoff matchups and we seen him use younger guys or guys you wouldn't expect to get playing time during the postseason.... One prime example of this was when we played Washington the last time 

The lineup for that last stretch was Schröder,Mack,Baze,Muscala,Pero

 

Bud used those guys because we were getting blown out in that game. Then our deep bench brought us back into the game and Bud will usually always roll with those players after a comeback.

That said, Bud doesn't usually change much in his rotations from regular season to playoffs. Most teams will shorten their rotations and play their starters more, but he doesn't seem to. I don't expect to see Kelly, Bembry, Humphries or even Delaney on the floor unless its a blowout. Muscala will get minutes, but I expect a rotation of Millsap/Howard/Ilyasova for our bigs. Muscala will get more minutes if he plays like he has recently. I am actually curious to how Bud will play his guards against WSH. Will Schröder step his defense up to be able to stay with Wall/Beal? Can't hide Schröder on Porter.. Schröder needs to be more defensive minded now that THJ is in the starting lineup and play like he did when he was a backup PG in terms of defense/aggressiveness.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Bankingitbig

[willthepureshooter]

13 hours ago, benhillboy said:

Deez wilding.  The Wiz shoot .475 from the floor and .374 from three with massive talent advantages on the perimeter knowing Prince and Bembry aren't playing.  We gonna get smoked.

Over-hyping much, eh? Washington has a mediocre bench and Wall will find a way to keep us in the game. The only threat is Beal, but I doubt he will put up superstars numbers consistently.

[Guest]

ESPN Stats and Information 

According to ESPN's BPI, the Hawks have a better shot at beating the Wizards if the series is extended to six or seven games. However, the Wizards went 3-1 against the Hawks this season and they'll have to face John Wall, who had career highs in points per game, assists and steals this season.