Official Game Thread: Jazz at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“She BLINDED me! With SCIENCE!”

 

They’re playin’ BAD-sket-ball! We loathe that BAD-sket-ball!

“Escape From New York” wasn’t even on the cutting room floor the last time the Knicks put up 143 regulation points on a team as hapless as our Atlanta Hawks. They escaped, quite scathed, from New York. But waiting for them at State Farm Arena is another NBA opponent slowly climbing out from its early-season struggles. An “SLC Funk!”, if you will.

Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, AT&T SportsNet in SLC) hope to be the next team to use the Hawks as a steppingstone. So you don’t have to look it up, Utah’s regulation scoring record is 151 points, twice in 1982, four seasons before the Jazz scored 153 while still in New Orleans.

There’s a clear cleaving of the NBA’s Top 11 squads away from the… Others. If the Commish were to entertain the rest of us with a mid-season Badsketball tourney, the Jazz (16-11) would be the #1 seed and prohibitive favorites. The Hawks would probably need to head to Dayton to reach the second round.

GM Dennis Lindsey knows that, just because all your offseason moves aren’t panning out, your team doesn’t have to take a dive. Utah’s biggest acquisition, Mike Conley was supposed to be the defensive backcourt complement to center Rudy Gobert (career-high 13.9 RPG, season-high 19 boards vs. ORL on Tuesday), supplanting Ricky Rubio, and he was supposed to give diminutive off-guard scorer Donovan Mitchell (career-high 25.2 PPG and 4.7 RPG, career-low 2.3 TOs/game) more time playing off-ball. His hamstring, sadly, just will not cooperate.

Conley’s out maybe for a few more weeks after his attempt at a return from a weeks-long absence failed, in Tuesday’s 109-102 home loss to Orlando. His struggles to create inside on drives (36.9 2FG%) has a lot to do with replacing a high-post center, namely his former Memphis partner-in-grind Marc Gasol, with a post-plugging pivot in Gobert (67.8 eFG%, above his NBA-high 66.9% from last season).

Ed Davis (1.7 PPG) was supposed to help make up for the team dealing away Derrick Favors for future second-round picks. Emmanuel Mudiay was supposed to be the quality guard depth that Dante Exum was not. Jeff Green (38.1 FG%) was supposed to be no worse than the Jeff Green the Wizards got last season. These things aren’t really working out.

But one free agent signing is hitting it out the park, and it may be enough to save the Jazz’s season. Bojan Bogdanovic’s interior scoring (44.4 2FG%, down from 53.8% last year w/ IND) is suffering similar to Conley’s due to the Gobert Effect. But that’s not why he was brought here.

The former Eurostash has been canning triples (46.1 3FG%, 9^th in NBA) to become the Jazz’s other reliable 20-plus-point scoring threat (career-high 21.1 PPG). His 8-for-13 3FGs and 8-for-10 FTs helped Utah stiff-arm the Warriors last Friday. Bojangles then paired up with Mitchell to score 30 apiece (incl. 17 of Utah’s last 19 points in 4.5 minutes) as the Jazz came back late to dust off the Magic.

Conley (team-high 4.6 APG) returning to the shelf leaves a lot of the passing duties in Snyder’s offense to Joe Ingles (4.1 APG, 1.8 TOs/game), the 32-year-old swingman who Lindsey signed to a two-year contract extension back in October. His jump-shooting was setting off not Jingle, but alarm bells, well into the start of December (35.8 FG% through first 22 games). But his recent turnaround (55.3FG%, 6.6 APG in last five games; season-high 23 points in a win at Minnesota on Dec. 11, the Jazz’s last road game) has rebuilt Utah’s confidence as the team has won four of its past five.

The Jazz really cannot afford to mail it in. Their contributing core is essentially set through at least the trade deadline of next season. The 2020 first-rounder they shipped to Memphis for Conley is protected only 1-7 if they fail to make the playoffs. So it’s 2020 postseason or bust, and while a nice run could entrench them in the back end of the Western Conference, a road slide or two could have them scratching and clawing with as many as seven conference peers for the final three playoff slots.

Although they hope to keep up their winning ways going tonight, the Jazz have hit a few sour notes. Over the past three weeks, they’ve suffered losing margins of 19, 20, 9, 25, and 14, mostly to contenders, although their last one came ten days ago at the hands of 6MOY/MIP candidate Dennis Schröder and visiting Northwest Division rival OKC.

Minnesota, Phoenix, Golden State and Memphis have been the Jazz’s sole road wins. They’re hoping to build up their record versus Eastern Conference teams with this 3-game swing through the Southeast, after recent losses at Milwaukee, Toronto, Philadelphia and Indiana.

The best defensive rebounders in the West (75.6 D-Reb%, 3^rd in NBA), and the most accurate three-point-shooting team in the league (38.6 3FG%), Utah has found itself slipping whenever they leave the Beehive State (72.2 D-Reb% and 36.8 road 3FG%; 16.2 road TO%, 5^th-worst in NBA).

While the bench situation is not as dire as it has been for Atlanta (league-worst -4.1 bench plus/minus), Snyder has struggled to get productive minutes out of his reserves when it comes time to hold leads or keep deficits close (41.3 bench FG%, league-low 1.7 bench SPG; -2.0 bench plus/minus, worst among teams with winning records).

The good news for Utah is they have spent about as much consistent time working out in Atlanta (6-whatever) as the Hawks seemingly have. The scheduling run with few breaks has taken its course for Lloyd Pierce’s club, as a string of 4-games-within-5-nights that has been ongoing since the season opener ended, with Tuesday’s loss in New York, a break of sorts that continues through January 3^rd. But the lack of confidence-building homestands in the forthcoming schedule remains glaring.            

A two-game road trip for Atlanta follows tonight’s game. Then, when the Hawks come back from Xmas break to have Giannis and the Bucks waiting for them, a three-game road trek follows that. The first three game homestand of the New Year offers no cupcakes (Indiana, Denver, Houston), while the three-game stretch at State Farm Arena around MLK Day won’t be much easier (Detroit, Toronto, Clippers).

To turn things around before the season gets completely away from them, Atlanta is going to have to string together wins, and impressive ones, in front of the home crowd. And the lack of defensive awareness evident in the Big Apple, particularly in transition and on halfcourt screen actions, cannot rear its ugly head again.

The Hawks must force turnovers out of a Jazz team that is likely to get Badsketball-sloppy with the rock, with Conley out of the picture. Atlanta must run and convert transition opportunities into points by pressuring the rim, forcing Utah’s bigs into foul trouble, and by finding open shooters in the corners on the fastbreak. Players cannot get stagnant in the halfcourt offense, allowing Ingles and Mitchell to pick away at perfunctory passes. As was the case in New York, it is simply a matter of being mindful and making things easier on themselves to be in position to win by night’s end, especially players not named Trae Young.

The Hawks learned in NYC there’s no Snake Plissken swooping in to rescue them from their Badsketball-playing themselves. Beginning tonight with Utah in town, we will see if the Hawks take advantage of their latest wake-up call and straighten up like SLC’s Stevo. If Atlanta’s “supporting” cast, specifically the veterans wasting away on the bench, don’t figure things out, soon, they could go out as sad as Sean the Beggar and Heroin Bob.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

13 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Bojangles

Great thread this had to be acknowledged  

[GameTime]

 

[lethalweapon3]

This time when the Jazz start waltzing around in the paint, Bruno's gon' be like...

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

20 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

They’re hoping to build up their record versus Eastern Conference teams with this 3-game swing through the Southeast, after recent losses at Milwaukee, Toronto, Philadelphia and Indiana.

Oh boy! Probably not the best time to see them as they might be looking for an east coast W. Nice work lw3 as usual. Like you mentioned we gotta drive to the hole 🕳 and get their bigs in trouble and that starts with your summer dynasty fav Monsieur Gobert! What a flyin Frenchman huh I mean... wow just a tower. I marvel at that crazy wingspan, Giannis like. Imagine a team of Giannis and Gobert on D!  

Jazz fav by 7 over/under 225
 

Go Hawks!

 

ps I initially didn’t like Conley for rumors that he didn’t want the Hawks to draft him in 07. He’s been a pros pro though and probably the best backcourt player to not make an all star ️ team in forever.

[Spud2nique]

7 minutes ago, GameTime said:

 

Yessss! 5/6 top players in the starting lineup minus Collins! We might gain some fans tonight and pull an upset.

[AHF]

Tough to finally give Bruno a start and make it against the DPOY who is 4 inches taller.  I hope this isn't one of those "here is your token start in a really rough matchup, screw it up and back to the bench with you" situations.

[NBASupes]

11 minutes ago, GameTime said:

 

Aye! I will be here live to see it too!

[Spud2nique]

Just now, AHF said:

Tough to finally give Bruno a start and make it against the DPOY who is 4 inches taller.  I hope this isn't one of those "here is your token start in a really rough matchup, screw it up and back to the bench with you" situations.

I don’t think so...  

I think Bruno has something waiting for him.  

>  

#freebrunonight 

[AHF]

Just now, Spud2nique said:

I don’t think so...  

I think Bruno has something waiting for him.  

>  

#freebrunonight 

I'll be cheering for it.  We could use a skrong game tonight.  

Bruno:

[Spud2nique]

Just now, AHF said:

I'll be cheering for it.  We could use a skrong game tonight.  

Bruno:

Ahhhh that brings back memories! Not good ones for me personally. But I watched a lot of friends dominate in that game. I was the double dribble guy.

Ps I’ve never looked forward to body language between Hawk teammates as I am tonight in quite a long time. Hoping it’s positive. We just need a win. 18/21 L’s feels bad  

Go good guys. 

[JayBirdHawk]

26 minutes ago, GameTime said:

 

@TheNorthCydeRises....come...quick...your booooy....is....STARTING!!!

 

3 Rookies in the starting lineup...and 2 2nd year players....wow!

It's a 'yute' revolution and I'm ok with it.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

hahaha....Pierce like we ain got shit to lose.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

It's about damn time!

But once again, LP is going with a super small lineup.   And you're forcing De'Andre Hunter to play the 4.  

He could've very easily have started Len and Bruno.  But if we're going to be bad, I'd rather be bad watching the kids, than watching old vets who can't get it done.

This lineup is still going to have problems rebounding the basketball if De'Andre and Cam don't help Bruno, who will be battling the rebounding beast in Rudy Gobert.

[JayBirdHawk]

Is this an 'ef-fu' to the grumbling Vets, that it's about the 5 'yutes'

Steve Koonin on radio earlier this evening pretty much said these current vets aren't part of our future and it's about developing our young players.

[Buzzard]

22 minutes ago, AHF said:

Tough to finally give Bruno a start and make it against the DPOY who is 4 inches taller.  I hope this isn't one of those "here is your token start in a really rough matchup, screw it up and back to the bench with you" situations.

Second this and hope its not a token 5 minute start then to the bench. I like DeAndre getting a shot at the four with Reddish at the three. DeAndre is not as big girth wise as Parker, but wing span and effort count on D as well. We will be pretty tall and long at SG and SF tonight.

Edited December 20, 2019 by Buzzard

[JayBirdHawk]

22 minutes ago, AHF said:

Tough to finally give Bruno a start and make it against the DPOY who is 4 inches taller.  I hope this isn't one of those "here is your token start in a really rough matchup, screw it up and back to the bench with you" situations.

I agree with this.

Show us what you got Bruno.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Three things to watch with Bruno starting.

 

1) If his solid screens can free up Trae to get off open 3s as he's running the pick and roll

2) If he can find open shooters and cutters, when he does touch the ball in a "threat" position ( i.e. - facing the basket )

3) Can he stay out of foul trouble, seeing that he's battling a guy 4" taller than him.

 

The Hawks are still putting out a very undersized lineup on the floor.  But it's probably the fastest lineup they can go with.

[AHF]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Is this an 'ef-fu' to the gru6nbling Vets, that it's about the 5 'yutes'

Steve Koonin on radio earlier pretty much said these current vets aren't part of our future.

Had the same thought.  If there was a rift developing between the youngsters and the vets, LP just sent a very clear message whose corner he is in.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

24 minutes ago, AHF said:

Tough to finally give Bruno a start and make it against the DPOY who is 4 inches taller.  I hope this isn't one of those "here is your token start in a really rough matchup, screw it up and back to the bench with you" situations.

 

It could be exactly what this is.