Official Game Thread: Hawks at Knicks -- GAME 1

[AHF]

11 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

HELLA QUIET!! 

Only Hannah Storm defended us, because they refused to put Trae's game winner in the SportCenter Top 10.  She was surprised it wasn't #1 and jokingly called them out on it.

 

I still have a little bit of a hangover headache from the alcohol yesterday, so I called into work today.

I really want to see what the media says about this game.  Guess I'll have to wait until First Take and Undisputed to get a little commentary on it.  And I may not get it then.

I'll get in my car this afternoon and probably ride around, just to specifically to listen to the Sirius NBA radio talking heads.

 

I see GET UP is FINALLY about to talk about the "thriller" at MSG next . . almost 80 minutes into their show.  Let's see how much time they spend on it.

 

WTF?  This is why I no longer pay attention to ESPN after having watched hours and hours every week back when they had quality content.

[Atlantaholic]

28 minutes ago, HawkingAwesome said:

Hawks have a bunch of guys who can get you 20 - 25 how any do the knicks have? 

For sure, the talent gap is there. Seeing Charles Barkley come to this realization on live TV was funny, as he borke it down you could see the rest of the TNT crew turn pale. Yes, the Hawks are the better team top to bottom. If both the teams play with equal effort and precision Hawks come out on top. I would argue the only team that has a talent surplus on the east relative to a healthy Hawks team is the Nets, and argueably the 76ers, though I would take the Hawks top to bottom there too. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, BrazilianHawk said:

Honestly, we don't need to play OO a lot as well. He seemed pretty lost last night. A 9-man rotation should do. And if I would stretch it to 10, it would be Solo rather than King Kongwu.  

 

Trae/Lou

3ogi/Huerter

Hunter/Tony

Collins/Gallo

Clint

 

We're good. 

 

Nah . . we need OO to get those timely minutes at the 5, because Gallo cannot be trusted defensively.  And we all know that Collins doesn't want to battle at the 5 spot either.

I have no problem with how Nate is playing him 5 - 10 minutes a night, depending on how the game is going. 

[sturt]

*picks up club, and walks toward dead horse*

 

Anybody wishing the ATL GM had been among those pursuing Dieng in March?

 

[BrazilianHawk]

15 minutes ago, AHF said:

What possible complaint could there be on this call?

Oh, I meant the video quality, not Bawb's enthusiasm. That was awesome. 

[AHF]

6 minutes ago, BrazilianHawk said:

Oh, I meant the video quality, not Bawb's enthusiasm. That was awesome. 

I knew you weren't complaining.  What were they complaining about?

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

They fussin' about Steve Holman's call now. W.

~lw3

That wasn't even over the top Holman.  I thought it was a very level call for a home-town broadcast.  It was obviously a huge moment and there is going to be excitement on that one just like there would be with a walk-off home run.

[Atlantaholic]

20 minutes ago, AHF said:

WTF?  This is why I no longer pay attention to ESPN after having watched hours and hours every week back when they had quality content.

As Kwame Brown would say just a bunch of effeminate dudes on that network. Butthurt their little predictions are once again looking stupid. Who cares what anyone employed by that network has to say about anything?

[AHF]

At some credit from the ESPN crowd this morning:

Quote

4. Let's have some fun: Who is the playoff MVP after one game?

Pelton: Luka Doncic. The Clippers tried a variety of defenders on Doncic in Game 1, but none could stop him. Doncic scored (31) or assisted (11) on 58 of the Mavericks' 113 points, doing so efficiently thanks to 5-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc. He also added 10 rebounds for his third career triple-double in seven playoff games, all of them against the Clippers.

Young: Luka Doncic. He showed it against the Clippers in the bubble last year, but Doncic has a game that seems engineered in a lab specifically for playoff basketball. His shot-making ability, knack for sensing momentum-shifting moments and feel for the balance between calling his own number and involving teammates makes him the kind of player you fear going into any game. And he showed all of it in Game 1.

MacMahon: Luka Doncic (31-point triple-double) and Trae Young (32 points, 10 assists, game winner) made strong cases, but I'm going to go with the guy taken at the top of their 2018 draft class. Suns center Deandre Ayton played up to his No. 1 overall pedigree in his playoff debut, absolutely dominating the Lakers. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Ayton (21 points, 10-of-11 shooting, 16 rebounds) joined Bill Russell as the only players in postseason history to shoot at least 90% from the floor in a 20-point, 15-rebound game. Ayton also anchored a Phoenix defense that held the Lakers to 90 points.

Arnovitz: Trae Young. Khris Middleton hit the most consequential shot, while Luka Doncic and Devin Booker had the gaudiest lines. But Young, in his playoff debut, went into the most intimidating venue in the NBA and etched his imprint on this series. Madison Square Garden has always honored the game's most charismatic players, and in Game 1, its spectators watched a pick-and-roll virtuoso who dictated the terms of every offensive possession late in a back-and-forth nail-biter.

Lopez: Rayford Trae Young. The Hawks point guard had a spectacular playoff debut in Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening with 32 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds and, most importantly, the game-winning floater with 0.9 to play to give the Hawks the Game 1 win. Young scored or assisted on 21 points in the fourth quarter, and he joined Derrick Rose, Chris Paul and LeBron James as the only players to have 30 points and 10 assists in their first playoff game. Young also was the first player with 30 points and 10 assists in a playoff game at MSG since Michael Jordan did it in Game 5 of the 1989 Eastern Conference finals.

 

[BrazilianHawk]

21 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Nah . . we need OO to get those timely minutes at the 5, because Gallo cannot be trusted defensively.  And we all know that Collins doesn't want to battle at the 5 spot either.

I have no problem with how Nate is playing him 5 - 10 minutes a night, depending on how the game is going. 

Up to 10 minutes would be ok for me. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

First Take leads off with Hawks vs Knicks . . . mainly because Stephen A Smith was in the building.

Looks like SAS is discovering Trae for the first time, despite being in the league 3 years.   It's just proof that they really don't watch actual games of this team, only highlights.

Max's teasing was excellent . . . saying that Knicks fans "poked the bear".  Stephen A even indicated that Knicks fans were chanting things outside of the team hotel.  If that's the case, no wonder Trae came out like he did last night.  He was in attack mode earlier than usual.

[Diesel]

I heard What Trae said to Randall after hitting the game winner:

 

Just now, Diesel said:

I heard What Trae said to Randall after hitting the game winner:

 

Then he said:

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, kg01 said:

Back-hand compliment alert, the guy Scalabrine ... "Trae is elite at drawing contact ... I don't even know where he'd fit in the league if he wasn't so elite at drawing fouls."

Really, clown-a**?

 

And he knows better.  He's on the Celtics TV broadcast.  He knows what Trae is all about.   Listen to him as the game progresses.

 

 

[sturt]

Missed this until just now. (siap)

Not a lot of Hawks I can remember whose emotions were this stoked, and at the same time, had the talent and stage presence to channel those emotions into a positive final result. (Can you?)

 

 

[macdaddy]

I'm sure someone already said it since i'm late to the party but of all the talk of the genius of Thibs, pulling a ice cold guy off the bench to guard trae on the final possession was stupid.   (and yes i called it before the play).    Just put payton on him or something.  Frank had no chance and Trae knew it.

[Plainview1981]

Trae deserves full credit for the win no matter who likes him or who doesn't. I'll never be the biggest fan in comparison to some othrrs, but he deserves full credit.

I don't really listen to the complaining about foul calls because people do that anytime someone they don't like has a big game like this. It's annoying and it's just an easy way to try and deny credit.

[BrazilianHawk]

 

2 hours ago, MarylandHawk said:

Definitely on Clint, but the Trae young thing was still ridiculous. Jaylen Brown? Even Tatum was a stretch. It seemed like they wanted to spread the love instead of seeing Trae for who he really is..a top ten player in the league. He sacrificed his scoring to help his team win and they punished him for it. Time to carry hat big chip on his shoulder to the national scene.

LP was the one responsible for the snubs, the Hawks were a bad team during his tenure. At that time, Trae was mixing good games with terrible ones. I understand why he was snubbed, and it wasn't that unfair. Philly was at the top, Boston was "good" and the Hawks were bad. It's all LP's fault, really.

 

Clint, OTOH... 

[AUhawksfan]

11 hours ago, Atlantaholic said:

Did anyone catch Bogi at the post game presser. His eyes were still locked in, said there is no time to celebrate time to move on to the next game. Dude is a killer. 

I'm glad he chose the NBA instead of the mafia.  Either way, he's a scary dude to have to face.

[Atlantaholic]

14 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I'm sure someone already said it since i'm late to the party but of all the talk of the genius of Thibs, pulling a ice cold guy off the bench to guard trae on the final possession was stupid.   (and yes i called it before the play).    Just put payton on him or something.  Frank had no chance and Trae knew it.

Yes. a pretty desperate move, but didn't someone post that Trae had astronomical numbers against Payton this year? D-Rose also got cooked like a slab of pulled pork. I think the bigger coaching blunder was the defensive gameplan coming out of the gate. 

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, Atlantaholic said:

Desperation move 100%. People criticizing the decision but fail to acknowledge that it highlights the bigger problem which is no one on that team can stay in front of Trae Young. Personally I think the bigger coaching failure was the gameplan from the outset. Basically the defensive philosophy with Trae was to play him tight straight one on one and force him to make plays in the paint... which is fn stupid honestly. Trae has been COOKING from that area of the floor both with his floater and his passing, so choosing to take away his perimeter shot which has actually been the weakest part of his game, and force him into his strength makes 0 sense. The way you play Trae is you take the ball away from his hands by blitzing him aggresively, either as he crosses half court or when he runs the PnR, you double him consistently and set up ambushes in certain spots on the floor, force the secondary ball handlers in Bogi and Huerter to make the plays and run those PnRs. 

Is NYK built this way defensively under Thibs though? I'm asking.

They play a very rugged halfcourt defense and understands what Thibs want, they want to beat you up in the half court.   If they have not been a trapping team all year, they'll be in for it.  How well do they defend outside the halfcourt?  Trae has improved so much in beating these traps and double teams.

Having Bogi to run the offense when teams force Trae to give up the ball is a Godsend.  Nate was deploying Bogi as the ball handler in the second half of our games, so he has prepared them for the eventuality.

 

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Nah . . we need OO to get those timely minutes at the 5, because Gallo cannot be trusted defensively.  And we all know that Collins doesn't want to battle at the 5 spot either.

I have no problem with how Nate is playing him 5 - 10 minutes a night, depending on how the game is going. 

We need some minutes from OO but he has to be impactful in some way - a block  and rebound etc.  If he does well in the 1st half I expect minutes in the 2nd half.  The Knicks 2 rookies gave them a lift.

[BrazilianHawk]

1 hour ago, Lurker said:

It's pretty funny that you're still getting complaints about how Trae is a foul merchant. Like dude, he may have shot some free throws last night but that was far from a big story about his game.

They can keep crying all they want. Knicks had 15 FTs (8 by Burks) and the Hawks had 12 FTs (9 by Trae).