Official Game Thread: Hawks at Clippers

[Gray Mule]

Hopefully, these Atlanta Hawks can say, "Lesson learned."

Terrible way that the Hawks got a 22 point lead, then, instead of playing hard, they chose to celebrate the way things had gone.  A bench player comes in, hits 7-7 or 8-8 and many, many of them from downtown.

While all this was going on, the Hawks go ice cold.  No shot will go.  Defense?  What is that?  

Hard lesson.  "It ain't over 'til it's over."  Yep, everyone of us had the same thought.  We've won!  And, we really, really beat the stuffing out of these guys.  This is so easy.  Wow!

Then all the starters for the LA team found their back sides on the bench.  Their bench came in and slapped the Hawks so hard that they couldn't see what they were doing.  What we didn't seem to believe, if the Hawks could have a portion of the game where they outscored our opponent by 22 points, they could do the same to us.  And, they did.  

If we do this once, a hard lesson learned.  If it happens again, Hawks should hang their head in shame because they didn't learn.  (Yeah, I noticed those missed free throws early in the game.)

 

[sturt]

Prompted to think we might look back on that one, and legitimately consider it our unofficial first playoff game.

[AHF]

48 minutes ago, sturt said:

Would it be an overreaction to say we need some veteran help for Capela?

No more than that we should be really really anxious to see what Dunn can do, imo (... and of course we should be).

 

Related...

I'm one of those who think that the next realization/evolution in pro basketball will be the advent of the equivalent of what the closer is to a baseball team... 5-man units whose primary function on the roster is to come into a game with 5-10 minutes remaining, and effectively shut-down the other team from scoring.

Interesting idea but the whole point of a closer is that he doesn't play until the end so he comes in fresh and pitches with maximum effort to shut the other team down.  He is usually the best pitcher in the pen but always at least one of the better ones.  In basketball, you can't afford to hold key players back and bringing in 5 fresh guys to shut down the opposition means playing inferior players.  

If you are talking about putting together a lineup of guys who play all game anyway but are your killer defensive lineup then that sounds much more workable for stretches.  Something like Dunn, Cam, Hunter, JC and Capela for us could be a devastating defensive lineup.  Tough to see us playing too long without Trae on offense but I could definitely see us playing some key minutes with that Killer D lineup.

[kg01]

20 minutes ago, Sothron said:

Disappointed we lost but...

Clippers shot 72.2% from the floor (13-18) and 66.7% from 3 (6-9) in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Hawks, 37-20.

What else is there to say? When the other team basically doesn't miss for an entire quarter you aren't going to win a game.

 

Yeah that's why, although this sucks, kinda just throw your hands up.  We made mistakes that allowed the comeback but, gall dang, we got beat by some ol' justice league-level heroic shooting that ain't never gonna be repeated.

LAC, if that's what y'all needed to beat us on an off night, well ....

Oh and how good did Hunter look considering it's his first game back?  kg is giddy, y'all.

[sturt]

@AHF check your PMs.

[REHawksFan]

After a night's sleep, I'm going to chalk up the loss to an immature team that couldn't handle a 22 pt lead against a really good western team.  And also some incredible (and statistically improbable) shooting from two backups.  Oh well. On to the next one.  

 

I do have one criticism for Nate though.... he took JC out with the team up 20 with 5+ minutes to play in the 3rd and Trae out with the team up 20 with just under 4 min to play in the 3rd. He puts in Solo and Rondo, neither had done much in this game to that point. Then, as the LAC go on a run to end, no time out and no adjustments to get these dudes out of the game.  Just weird.  I know Trae and JC need rest so you have to sub at some point, but man it felt really sloppy without them on the floor.  

 

[macdaddy]

14 minutes ago, REHawksFan said:

After a night's sleep, I'm going to chalk up the loss to an immature team that couldn't handle a 22 pt lead against a really good western team.  And also some incredible (and statistically improbable) shooting from two backups.  Oh well. On to the next one.  

 

I do have one criticism for Nate though.... he took JC out with the team up 20 with 5+ minutes to play in the 3rd and Trae out with the team up 20 with just under 4 min to play in the 3rd. He puts in Solo and Rondo, neither had done much in this game to that point. Then, as the LAC go on a run to end, no time out and no adjustments to get these dudes out of the game.  Just weird.  I know Trae and JC need rest so you have to sub at some point, but man it felt really sloppy without them on the floor.  

 

Yeah we were really small there for a bit when i thought we could have killed them inside.   I'm still not convinced Rondo is the answer or that 'playoff Rondo' is coming.   Box score says zero turnovers but that's bs.   I'd rather give Mays some burn to see if he can be an answer but i guess they are just waiting on Dunn to come back.  I'm concerned that nate is going to roll with Rondo though.

We've had these lulls before but were able to come back.  this is a good learning experience.

[sturt]

@macdaddy see your PMs

[AHF]

19 minutes ago, Sothron said:

Disappointed we lost but...

Clippers shot 72.2% from the floor (13-18) and 66.7% from 3 (6-9) in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Hawks, 37-20.

What else is there to say? When the other team basically doesn't miss for an entire quarter you aren't going to win a game.

 

They got really, really hot for sure but we also gave up a lot of open looks down that stretch.  Was frustrating to see nobody a hand in their face as their drained 3 after 3.

[Spud2nique]

46 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Oh and how good did Hunter look considering it's his first game back?  kg is giddy, y'all.

Did he? I missed the game. First one is 17 years. Ok maybe like the 3rd one but still. I saw him hit a nice jumper as he had a big on him, thought he was gonna pull the 3 but he danced a bit.

[kg01]

1 minute ago, Spud2nique said:

Did he? I missed the game. First one is 17 years. Ok maybe like the 3rd one but still. I saw him hit a nice jumper as he had a big on him, thought he was gonna pull the 3 but he danced a bit.

Speaking relative to expectation, I suppose.  I didn't expect him to look close to as good as he did before injury so I was pleasantly surprised.

[Spud2nique]

1 minute ago, kg01 said:

Speaking relative to expectation, I suppose.  I didn't expect him to look close to as good as he did before injury so I was pleasantly surprised.

How was his D?

[hawkman]

9 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

How was his D?

He clamped leonard when he was on him. He looked really good. 

[macdaddy]

2 minutes ago, hawkman said:

He clamped leonard when he was on him. He looked really good. 

Yep.  Kind of changed the game with that in the first quarter.   Man it was so fun to watch the Clippers constantly throwing the ball into the stands when our defense was tight.  We really lost focus.   Should have gotten more physical with that bench bunch from the Clips.

[kg01]

7 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Yep.  Kind of changed the game with that in the first quarter.   Man it was so fun to watch the Clippers constantly throwing the ball into the stands when our defense was tight.  We really lost focus.   Should have gotten more physical with that bench bunch from the Clips.

Linnid tried to go at him 1v1 and got stifled a couple times.

Kawhi was all ...

[Spud2nique]

4 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Linnid tried to go at him 1v1 and got stifled a couple times.

Kawhi was all ...

So Len was right! Kawhi and baby Kawhi! Len’s scouting is second to none. He’s great off the floor.

[HawkItus]

What I saw:

[Vol4ever]

We gotta get more physical in the paint.  

[bleachkit]

So is Dunn almost back? Still waiting.

[NBASupes]

28 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

So is Dunn almost back? Still waiting.

He's getting close which is why Atlanta trade options are slim