Official Game Thread: Knicks at Hawks -- GAME 3

[lethalweapon3]

“Hey, look, he found a seat in the rafters! That’s CRAZY! What up, Spike? We see you!”

 

The Georgia Dome might still be with us. It could have been a beloved local landmark.

I doubt we’d have enjoyed the luck Tampa Bay did, watching the hometown NFL team win a Super Bowl in there. But for a fleeting 48 hours in May, in the lockout-shortened year of 1999, the prospect of a packed house for an NBA Finals in Atlanta was lining itself up nicely.

The #1 seed in the East, the heat, was already gone. So was the #3 seed, the Magic. As for the #2 seed, the Pacers lost the season-series to the Hawks, 3-1, and the one win was in a nip-and-tuck overtime period, one forced by a Steve Smith buzzer-beating three. But for that late-season defeat, Atlanta would have been the #2 seed. And the rickety Market Square Arena, where the Hawks already won twice that season, was no Georgia Dome.

Entering the conference semifinals, and boasting the league’s best perimeter and scoring defense, the #4-seeded Hawks were as sound as any team remaining in the East. While a new arena was being constructed around the corner, Atlanta could pack over 22,000 fans, or more if necessary, under the lights in the white-domed palace that was the pride of the Dirty Birds.

To get within one step of the NBA Finals, all Atlanta had to do was hold homecourt, beginning with a pair of games against a #8 seed that was happy just to have made it that far. The problem for the Hawks, and their fans at the Georgia Dome, was the name on the front of the jerseys, and on the front of T-shirts worn by much of the capacity crowd. Knicks fans from Long Island and Brooklyn, Knicks fans from LaGrange and Brookhaven. From the looks and sounds of the games, it appeared as if “NEW YORK” had taken over Georgia.

Just weeks before, New York had narrowly avoided losing the final playoff spot to Charlotte. By the time the visiting Knicks arrived in Atlanta, though, Latrell Sprewell, in a stunning PR turn, had become a folk hero, Allan Houston an actual one.

The youngest Knick on the roster, the springy Marcus Camby, joined Spree off the bench to outshine Atlanta’s Smith and Dikembe Mutombo by leaps and bounds. As for the Hawks, Mookie Blaylock and Grant Long were disturbingly sloppy and out-of-sync. As Sprewell and the Knicks surged, the only choking going on involved coach Lenny Wilkens’ club, under pressure in their own rented place, with few of their own fans to turn toward for motivation.

The uplifting energy to get hobbled Knick legend Pat Ewing one more shot at a ring became an overwhelming force, making Hawks Fever, or the lack of it, easy to stifle. With Atlanta near last-place in attendance despite the spacious settings, the Knicks were able to roll out The World’s Largest Welcome Mat for their own fans to open the semifinal series. Even with only two days’ notice, fans of New York sports, and sports fans from New York, had Georgia’s Dome packed, and rocking.

The Hawks’ starters let a promising 13-2 start to Game 2 dissipate quickly. Much like the end of Game 1 featuring Anthony Johnson, by the time the fourth quarter began and Atlanta’s only offensive hope was Ed Gray, the defeatist mindset crept in. With the Knicks up 2-0 on the Hawks, the teams left for Madison Square Garden, and there was never to be a Game 5 back “home” at the Dome.

Top-seeded Miami getting upset by their hated northern rivals in a decisive fifth game was one thing. But 8-seeds aren’t supposed to be the ones doing the sweeping. Atlanta ceded their seeding, and their will, away over the course of two home games that could have been pivotal to making “Believe Atlanta” something worth chewing on.

22 years later, the opportunity to “Believe Atlanta” has come around once more. The 5-seed Hawks almost had the Knicks thinking of Gone Fishin’, but Game 2 became The One That Got Away. Still, sneaking out of MSG with the eye-opening Game 1 win has the Hawks in the pilot’s seat in this best-of-seven first-round matchup. Win your home games and you’re in the second round, regardless. The worry going forward, beginning tonight with Game 3 (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM, ESPN), is that sense of New York becoming “NEW YORK” when things are going well for the visitors at State Farm Arena.

It must be emphasized, however, that 1999 is not 2021. While this season’s collective is only now getting their feet wet, the Hawks of yesteryear already had soggy, smelly toes. There were, by 1999, seven consecutive postseasons, most of them under Coach Lenny, without breaking through to the Eastern Conference Finals. Frankly, without Dominique Wilkins in tow, the appetite to see that particular group break through was appallingly low. No one dreamed of erecting a statue of a trophy-hoisting Chris Crawford in the plaza between the Dome and the old Omni.

Especially with the heat out of the picture, 1999 was the last chance for those Hawks to prove, to fans, to scant and skeptical local media, to the shaky management and tenuous ownership, that this was a barren bandwagon worth jumping on. Smitty and Mookie falling flat at that, spectacularly so under the bright lights, ushered in the Isaiah Rider and Bimbo Coles era. The completion of the Thrashers’ and Hawks’ new arena was coupled with the eventual demolition of the roster, and the dispatching of their cigar-swilling, but beleaguered, head coach.

Comparatively, 2021 is the current Hawks’ first chance to demonstrate itself as a team on the come up. Local media is halfway-decent and reasonable. Ownership isn’t tentative, management is far from shaky. And today’s fans are more likely to paint the town red, not blue-and-orange, because Atlanta’s star guard is far from shook.

Since the Hawks blew Game 2 in NYC with a weak second-half showing, there won’t be any brooms parading about The Farm this weekend. Still, this is a team that can help sweep away notions of Atlanta Sports Past, where local teams find themselves cowed into submission, while playing at home, by the lore of name-brand opponents.

Beyond Hawks-Knicks ’99, see Hawks-Lakers ’70, Flames-Red Wings ’78, Flames-Maple Leafs ’79, Falcons-Cowboys ’80, Bravos-Phillies ’93, Bravos-Yankees ’96, Bravos-Yanks ’99, Bravos-Giants ’02, Bravos-Cubs ’03, Thrashers-Rangers ’07, Bravos-Giants ’10, Falcons-Packers ’11, Bravos-Cards in Chipper’s farewell (Infield Fly, anyone?) ’12, Falcons-Niners ’13, Silverbacks-Cosmos ’13, Hawks-LeBron ’15. UGA-Bama ’18.

Over the course of five decades, these were playoff games, playoff series, and title games, as either on-paper favorites, or underdogs earning a chance at an upset, where Atlanta simply needed to hold serve in their home venue to bend the course of this town’s sordid sports-history trajectory. For fans to Believe Atlanta, our players needed to believe in their own collective capacity to shatter national narratives and regional doubts.

The daring Hawks that were 8-seeds in Boston, in 2008, had little chance of success in slaying that emerging giant in Boston’s garden. But on the three occasions the Celtics brought their bean-eating fans into The Highlight Factory, the host Hawks stood firm, inspiring local fans who drowned out anything and anybody repping Team Green. Even today, one could envision somebody molding a Zaza Pachulia forehead statue somewhere.

The 2008 team, in their playoff debut, didn’t put everything on Joe Johnson’s shoulders. Neither should it be the case this weekend for Trae Young, joining Phoenix’s Devin Booker this year as only the 6^th NBA player to score over 30 points in his first two postseason appearances. With a little help from his friends, Trae can help the Hawks do much more than just get by.

Starting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, and bench mates Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams and Tony Snell came up small in Game 2’s 101-92 defeat (combined 4-for-24 3FGs), while starting bigs John Collins and Clint Capela came up infinitesimal on the offensive end (2-for-7 FGs, each of Clint’s makes coming in the fourth quarter comeback attempt). Scoreless for the first time in his pro career, Collins’ utility was neutered by foul trouble, but Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau did a fine job of taking lob plays from Young and the Hawks’ ballhandlers, to Capela and/or Collins, off the table.

With so much focus on pressuring Trae, and keeping paint touches for Atlanta bigs slim, it was a great opportunity for Bogi, Gallo and others to sink enough shots, or make enough productive passes, to ensure a triple-digit final score and put New York away early. But in this playoff-intense environment, the Knicks roughed up Lou Will, De’Andre Hunter and others, over the course of the game, enough that the Hawks could not seem to place its focus on the basket (2-for-12 fourth-quarter 3FGs) at closing time.

It’s certainly not the primary rotation question that dogs Hawks coach Nate McMillan after Game 2, but Nate Mac was hesitant to overplay Onyeka Okongwu (a doug-e-fresh six minutes in Game 2, less than three in Game 1). That decision left Danilo Gallinari on the floor with guards Kevin Huerter (minus-29 in Game 2) and Williams for longer stretches in the second half than was ideal. To be sure, Gwu Tang’s an inexperienced rookie, but so is the forward drafted two spots after him.

Thibs was able to spell a still-struggling Julius Randle with Obi Toppin in minutes impactful enough that the MSG crowd was chanting the rookie’s name early in the fourth quarter. While attacking the rim on offense, Toppin helped secure defensive boards and protect the rim at the other end, aiding Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson in controlling the Game 2 glass (13-6 offensive and 41-35 defensive rebounding advantages vs. ATL).

Joining Toppin and Boston’s Aaron Nesmith as the sole Lotto-rookies getting playing time in the postseason, Okongwu isn’t expected to come through in the clutch like Al Horford did in 2008’s tone-setting Game 3 home debut. But he can offer that defensive presence inside that Gallinari, watching Taj Gibson burrow and Toppin fly around him, cannot. That can allow Hunter to sink his teeth defensively on Knick shooters like Reggie Bullock (matching Trae’s 4-for-7 3FG output in Game 2) and the ageless wonder, the free-wheeling Derrick Rose (26 points, 2-for-3 3FGs, 4 assists, 1 TO as the de facto lead point guard). If not Yek, McMillan can at least take a Stab at deploying Solomon Hill for a few short spells.

Trae was magnetic with his pull-up jumpers, and with his “Dr. T” flair on one first-half scoop to the hoop around Randle, who he has personally given fits in this series. But the added defensive attention directed to Young means his floor mates must do more than spot-up and shoot when gifts from their gifted guard come their way.

“It was a lot of settling on the perimeter as opposed to attacking,” Coach Nate shared with the AJC’s Sarah Spencer and reporters of the Hawks’ second-half shot selection after Game 2. “I don’t know if that was because our guys were a little tired ((with that extra day off, they shouldn’t be)), or what, but we weren’t getting to the basket, playing in our third and fourth option.” Driving inside gets Gibson and Noel to vacate their assignments, allowing Collins and Capela to finish plays, not just the lobs, before the Knicks’ bigs can recover.

This series is an opportunity to showcase not only the revamping of the Hawks’ roster. Extensive remodeling of then-Philips Arena began in 2017, with the focus on maximizing the views and amenities for basketball fans. Years of staged improvement culminating in a State Farm Arena that, by 2020, was touted as the #1 Overall Game Experience among NBA season-ticket holders. The question remains: for which team’s fans, precisely?

The Hawks’ spitfire point guard, his steely composure shining and not spitting-mad about the fans in NYC, is salivating at the possibility for a different Overall Game Experience in Games 3 and 4. “I hope Atlanta’s ready to bring that energy,” Trae told the AJC on Wednesday. “I hope it’s loud. I hope everybody’s excited to have the playoffs back in The A.”

While the mouth-watering Young is clearly pumped up, he is going to need nine fellow Hawks to give it their letter-best for up to 40 -- okay, Nate, fine – 35 minutes of wild-and-wooly action. He’ll need at least 12,000 fans in attendance who are willing to Believe Atlanta, or at least outcheer the attendees who don’t. A more balanced offensive effort and continued adhesion to defensive principles in the face of the Knicks’ Gorgeous George tactics, will have the Farm rocking and the site of the Hawks’ 12^th consecutive home win.

By the time State Farm Arena is up for renewal, around 2035 or so, let’s hope this core of Hawks becomes part of the reason it stays standing, beginning with the way they bring down the house with their performance tonight. “We can’t tear down a legendary landmark!”, we’ll squeal. “After all, it’s not just The Highlight Factory, it’s ATLANTA’s Championship Factory!”

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

He'll be in the game just for kicks.

~lw3

[JeffS17]

24 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

“Hey, look, he found a seat in the rafters! That’s CRAZY! What up, Spike? We see you!”

 

The Georgia Dome might still be with us. It could have been a beloved local landmark.

I doubt we’d have enjoyed the luck Tampa Bay did, watching the hometown NFL team win a Super Bowl in there. But for a fleeting 48 hours in May, in the lockout-shortened year of 1999, the prospect of a packed house for an NBA Finals in Atlanta was lining itself up nicely.

The #1 seed in the East, the heat, was already gone. So was the #3 seed, the Magic. As for the #2 seed, the Pacers lost the season-series to the Hawks, 3-1, and the one win was in a nip-and-tuck overtime period, one forced by a Steve Smith buzzer-beating three. But for that late-season defeat, Atlanta would have been the #2 seed. And the rickety Market Square Arena, where the Hawks already won twice that season, was no Georgia Dome.

Entering the conference semifinals, and boasting the league’s best perimeter and scoring defense, the #4-seeded Hawks were as sound as any team remaining in the East. While a new arena was being constructed around the corner, Atlanta could pack over 22,000 fans, or more if necessary, under the lights in the white-domed palace that was the pride of the Dirty Birds.

To get within one step of the NBA Finals, all Atlanta had to do was hold homecourt, beginning with a pair of games against a #8 seed that was happy just to have made it that far. The problem for the Hawks, and their fans at the Georgia Dome, was the name on the front of the jerseys, and on the front of T-shirts worn by much of the capacity crowd. Knicks fans from Long Island and Brooklyn, Knicks fans from LaGrange and Brookhaven. From the looks and sounds of the games, it appeared as if “NEW YORK” had taken over Georgia.

Just weeks before, New York had narrowly avoided losing the final playoff spot to Charlotte. By the time the visiting Knicks arrived in Atlanta, though, Latrell Sprewell, in a stunning PR turn, had become a folk hero, Allan Houston an actual one.

The youngest Knick on the roster, the springy Marcus Camby, joined Spree off the bench to outshine Atlanta’s Smith and Dikembe Mutombo by leaps and bounds. As for the Hawks, Mookie Blaylock and Grant Long were disturbingly sloppy and out-of-sync. As Sprewell and the Knicks surged, the only choking going on involved coach Lenny Wilkens’ club, under pressure in their own rented place, with few of their own fans to turn toward for motivation.

The uplifting energy to get hobbled Knick legend Pat Ewing one more shot at a ring became an overwhelming force, making Hawks Fever, or the lack of it, easy to stifle. With Atlanta near last-place in attendance despite the spacious settings, the Knicks were able to roll out The World’s Largest Welcome Mat for their own fans to open the semifinal series. Even with only two days’ notice, fans of New York sports, and sports fans from New York, had Georgia’s Dome packed, and rocking.

The Hawks’ starters let a promising 13-2 start to Game 2 dissipate quickly. Much like the end of Game 1 featuring Anthony Johnson, by the time the fourth quarter began and Atlanta’s only offensive hope was Ed Gray, the defeatist mindset crept in. With the Knicks up 2-0 on the Hawks, the teams left for Madison Square Garden, and there was never to be a Game 5 back “home” at the Dome.

Top-seeded Miami getting upset by their hated northern rivals in a decisive fifth game was one thing. But 8-seeds aren’t supposed to be the ones doing the sweeping. Atlanta ceded their seeding, and their will, away over the course of two home games that could have been pivotal to making “Believe Atlanta” something worth chewing on.

22 years later, the opportunity to “Believe Atlanta” has come around once more. The 5-seed Hawks almost had the Knicks thinking of Gone Fishin’, but Game 2 became The One That Got Away. Still, sneaking out of MSG with the eye-opening Game 1 win has the Hawks in the pilot’s seat in this best-of-seven first-round matchup. Win your home games and you’re in the second round, regardless. The worry going forward, beginning tonight with Game 3 (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM, ESPN), is that sense of New York becoming “NEW YORK” when things are going well for the visitors at State Farm Arena.

It must be emphasized, however, that 1999 is not 2021. While this season’s collective is only now getting their feet wet, the Hawks of yesteryear already had soggy, smelly toes. There were, by 1999, seven consecutive postseasons, most of them under Coach Lenny, without breaking through to the Eastern Conference Finals. Frankly, without Dominique Wilkins in tow, the appetite to see that particular group break through was appallingly low. No one dreamed of erecting a statue of a trophy-hoisting Chris Crawford in the plaza between the Dome and the old Omni.

Especially with the heat out of the picture, 1999 was the last chance for those Hawks to prove, to fans, to scant and skeptical local media, to the shaky management and tenuous ownership, that this was a barren bandwagon worth jumping on. Smitty and Mookie falling flat at that, spectacularly so under the bright lights, ushered in the Isaiah Rider and Bimbo Coles era. The completion of the Thrashers’ and Hawks’ new arena was coupled with the eventual demolition of the roster, and the dispatching of their cigar-swilling, but beleaguered, head coach.

Comparatively, 2021 is the current Hawks’ first chance to demonstrate itself as a team on the come up. Local media is halfway-decent and reasonable. Ownership isn’t tentative, management is far from shaky. And today’s fans are more likely to paint the town red, not blue-and-orange, because Atlanta’s star guard is far from shook.

Since the Hawks blew Game 2 in NYC with a weak second-half showing, there won’t be any brooms parading about The Farm this weekend. Still, this is a team that can help sweep away notions of Atlanta Sports Past, where local teams find themselves cowed into submission, while playing at home, by the lore of name-brand opponents.

Beyond Hawks-Knicks ’99, see Hawks-Lakers ’70, Flames-Red Wings ’78, Flames-Maple Leafs ’79, Falcons-Cowboys ’80, Bravos-Phillies ’93, Bravos-Yankees ’96, Bravos-Yanks ’99, Bravos-Giants ’02, Bravos-Cubs ’03, Thrashers-Rangers ’07, Bravos-Giants ’10, Falcons-Packers ’11, Bravos-Cards in Chipper’s farewell (Infield Fly, anyone?) ’12, Falcons-Niners ’13, Silverbacks-Cosmos ’13, Hawks-LeBron ’15. UGA-Bama ’18.

Over the course of five decades, these were playoff games, playoff series, and title games, as either on-paper favorites, or underdogs earning a chance at an upset, where Atlanta simply needed to hold serve in their home venue to bend the course of this town’s sordid sports-history trajectory. For fans to Believe Atlanta, our players needed to believe in their own collective capacity to shatter national narratives and regional doubts.

The daring Hawks that were 8-seeds in Boston, in 2008, had little chance of success in slaying that emerging giant in Boston’s garden. But on the three occasions the Celtics brought their bean-eating fans into The Highlight Factory, the host Hawks stood firm, inspiring local fans who drowned out anything and anybody repping Team Green. Even today, one could envision somebody molding a Zaza Pachulia forehead statue somewhere.

The 2008 team, in their playoff debut, didn’t put everything on Joe Johnson’s shoulders. Neither should it be the case this weekend for Trae Young, joining Phoenix’s Devin Booker this year as only the 6^th NBA player to score over 30 points in his first two postseason appearances. With a little help from his friends, Trae can help the Hawks do much more than just get by.

Starting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, and bench mates Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams and Tony Snell came up small in Game 2’s 101-92 defeat (combined 4-for-24 3FGs), while starting bigs John Collins and Clint Capela came up infinitesimal on the offensive end (2-for-7 FGs, each of Clint’s makes coming in the fourth quarter comeback attempt). Scoreless for the first time in his pro career, Collins’ utility was neutered by foul trouble, but Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau did a fine job of taking lob plays from Young and the Hawks’ ballhandlers, to Capela and/or Collins, off the table.

With so much focus on pressuring Trae, and keeping paint touches for Atlanta bigs slim, it was a great opportunity for Bogi, Gallo and others to sink enough shots, or make enough productive passes, to ensure a triple-digit final score and put New York away early. But in this playoff-intense environment, the Knicks roughed up Lou Will, De’Andre Hunter and others, over the course of the game, enough that the Hawks could not seem to place its focus on the basket (2-for-12 fourth-quarter 3FGs) at closing time.

It’s certainly not the primary rotation question that dogs Hawks coach Nate McMillan after Game 2, but Nate Mac was hesitant to overplay Onyeka Okongwu (a doug-e-fresh six minutes in Game 2, less than three in Game 1). That decision left Danilo Gallinari on the floor with guards Kevin Huerter (minus-29 in Game 2) and Williams for longer stretches in the second half than was ideal. To be sure, Gwu Tang’s an inexperienced rookie, but so is the forward drafted two spots after him.

Thibs was able to spell a still-struggling Julius Randle with Obi Toppin in minutes impactful enough that the MSG crowd was chanting the rookie’s name early in the fourth quarter. While attacking the rim on offense, Toppin helped secure defensive boards and protect the rim at the other end, aiding Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson in controlling the Game 2 glass (13-6 offensive and 41-35 defensive rebounding advantages vs. ATL).

Joining Toppin and Boston’s Aaron Nesmith as the sole Lotto-rookies getting playing time in the postseason, Okongwu isn’t expected to come through in the clutch like Al Horford did in 2008’s tone-setting Game 3 home debut. But he can offer that defensive presence inside that Gallinari, watching Taj Gibson burrow and Toppin fly around him, cannot. That can allow Hunter to sink his teeth defensively on Knick shooters like Reggie Bullock (matching Trae’s 4-for-7 3FG output in Game 2) and the ageless wonder, the free-wheeling Derrick Rose (26 points, 2-for-3 3FGs, 4 assists, 1 TO as the de facto lead point guard). If not Yek, McMillan can at least take a Stab at deploying Solomon Hill for a few short spells.

Trae was magnetic with his pull-up jumpers, and with his “Dr. T” flair on one first-half scoop to the hoop around Randle, who he has personally given fits in this series. But the added defensive attention directed to Young means his floor mates must do more than spot-up and shoot when gifts from their gifted guard come their way.

“It was a lot of settling on the perimeter as opposed to attacking,” Coach Nate shared with the AJC’s Sarah Spencer and reporters of the Hawks’ second-half shot selection after Game 2. “I don’t know if that was because our guys were a little tired ((with that extra day off, they shouldn’t be)), or what, but we weren’t getting to the basket, playing in our third and fourth option.” Driving inside gets Gibson and Noel to vacate their assignments, allowing Collins and Capela to finish plays, not just the lobs, before the Knicks’ bigs can recover.

This series is an opportunity to showcase not only the revamping of the Hawks’ roster. Extensive remodeling of then-Philips Arena began in 2017, with the focus on maximizing the views and amenities for basketball fans. Years of staged improvement culminating in a State Farm Arena that, by 2020, was touted as the #1 Overall Game Experience among NBA season-ticket holders. The question remains: for which team’s fans, precisely?

The Hawks’ spitfire point guard, his steely composure shining and not spitting-mad about the fans in NYC, is salivating at the possibility for a different Overall Game Experience in Games 3 and 4. “I hope Atlanta’s ready to bring that energy,” Trae told the AJC on Wednesday. “I hope it’s loud. I hope everybody’s excited to have the playoffs back in The A.”

While the mouth-watering Young is clearly pumped up, he is going to need nine fellow Hawks to give it their letter-best for up to 40 -- okay, Nate, fine – 35 minutes of wild-and-wooly action. He’ll need at least 12,000 fans in attendance who are willing to Believe Atlanta, or at least outcheer the attendees who don’t. A more balanced offensive effort and continued adhesion to defensive principles in the face of the Knicks’ Gorgeous George tactics, will have the Farm rocking and the site of the Hawks’ 12^th consecutive home win.

By the time State Farm Arena is up for renewal, around 2035 or so, let’s hope this core of Hawks becomes part of the reason it stays standing, beginning with the way they bring down the house with their performance tonight. “We can’t tear down a legendary landmark!”, we’ll squeal. “After all, it’s not just The Highlight Factory, it’s ATLANTA’s Championship Factory!”

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

Love the write-up!!  I truly hope this team can eventually rewrite some of the national narratives around Atlanta sports.

[macdaddy]

21 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

He'll be in the game just for kicks.

~lw3

We need to get former Brave Randall Simon some courtside seats incase Noel runs by.   (anyone?)

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Ha!

 

 

Agreed...drive the paint and get those bigs involved early and often.

 

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by JayBirdHawk

[BrazilianHawk]

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!

No silly mistakes this time!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I'm glad the media is putting heat on Nate for sitting Trae as long as he did, as the game was getting away from the Hawks.

I will say that if we were playing a team like say, Washington, this may have gotten swept under the rug, because our media in ATL handles coaches softly.  But because we're playing New York, even the national media has been all over Nate for his horrible decisions in the 4th.

[BrazilianHawk]

33 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

That's totally fine, but I want to see some Solo action tonight. And here's hoping Gallo got rid of that stupid mohawk.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

11 minutes ago, BrazilianHawk said:

That's totally fine, but I want to see some Solo action tonight. And here's hoping Gallo got rid of that stupid mohawk.

 

The KNIFE !!!

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Then again . . Solo only gets 3 minutes to make a contribution.  If you mess up, back to the bench you go.

[Gray Mule]

Whoever wins the next two can clinch in NY.  

NY fans say, "Hawks, facing our defense, are too tired to play by games end."  They believe that's what happened in game two.  Also, Trae tripped himself, trying to draw the foul.  Can you believe?

GO ATL HAWKS !!

[cam1218]

Anybody around the arena to talk about the fan situation?

[Gray Mule]

7 minutes ago, cam1218 said:

Anybody around the arena to talk about the fan situation?

NY fans say they have it covered.  No room for any Atlanta fans!  Trae's new name - - "Baldy."

[bleachkit]

Bigs gotta be better. 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[GameTime]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

And will all play 40+ minutes under Thibs. Time for JC and Gallo to show up.

[Spud2nique]

Beautiful write up to get us going as usual lw3, you took me back 22 years where that Knicks team stifled us with Spree and Camby. 
 

Let’s go Trae, you’re bald but proud head and let’s get a W tonight. Almost time for the tip. Enjoy everyone!

GO HAWKS!!!!

[Spud2nique]

5 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Saw this a couple minutes ago. We need to run them off the floor. THEY OLD AS DIRT! 

[Bonkers]

7 minutes ago, GameTime said:

 Time for JC and Gallo to show up.

These two BETTER show up

 

No excuses