Official Game Thread: heat at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“I’m told you thought Bonnie Tyler’s hit song came from Shrek 2. Is that true?”

 

I’m not asking for Pud Galvin or Warren Spahn to get strolled out here onto the State Farm Arena hardwood. I humbly beseech for a Complete Game out of our Atlanta Hawks.

The Miami heat are back in town (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Sun in MIA), meeting the Hawks for the third time in ten days. This go-round, I want the reigning Dirty South Division Champions to play a full 48 minutes like they know they deserve to share the floor.

The whole heat team isn’t here, of course. Tyler Herro is holding out for a negative test for You Know What, having missed Miami’s last game at home against the Trail Blazers. Also staying back in SoFla, Kyle Lowry is out on personal leave. Markieff Morris (out, reconditioning) still hasn’t returned. But does it matter?

“Seems like whenever I text one of my teammates, they would always say something like, ‘We don’t need you,’ ‘we’re winning without you’,” shared professional insult comic Jimmy Butler to the postgame press, after he and the heat toppled former in-state rival Toronto on Monday. “Especially Dewayne Dedmon… He’s an honest guy.”

Butler took Dedmon and his heatmates at their word, getting himself tossed after berating an official just 15 minutes and one bucket into Wednesday’s home clash with Portland. Yes, the Lillard-less, formerly McCollum-less squad that kicked off this calendar year by hanging 136 regulation points on Atlanta.

No matter! Because in steps Caleb “The Other One” Martin (team-high 26 points, plus 8 boards) to carry Jimmy’s load. The Blazers have CJ McCollum back, and the heat lose Jimmy’s Buckets, but the latter’s vice-grip defense (107.4 D-Rating, tie-6^th-best in NBA) held the visitors to 12 fourth-quarter points on the way to a 104-92 victory.

You all know how envious I get about The heat Way. Once, just once, would I like to be standing in applause as a tearful Ivan Johnson’s jersey ascends to the rafters. I think tears are possible, anyway. Malcolm Delaney, welcome to The Hawks Ring of Honor! Meanwhile, Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra and these cats just pull one Duncan Robinson after another Max Strus after another Omer Yurtseven after another out of their ying-yangs, and it gets perturbing after a while, y’know?

They pick up guys off the unsigned free agent heap, from Dewayne Dedmon (12 points and 8 rebounds vs. POR on Wednesday) to Martin (initially signed in September as a two-way player). Now Gaucho Gabe Vincent is starting in place of Kyle Lowry (personal leave). And it doesn’t matter. It never does.

The heat rarely have to blow their cap space gambling with flawed, but well-known commodities. It’s not an expectation that these supporting castmates have to morph into all-timers. They just have to be functional, serviceable, a majority of them in unison, for 82-plus games per season.

Shoot, they took a flyer on an undrafted Miami-area kid, one who got cut in the preseason by the Hawks, then had to be found hooping across the hills of eastern France. It’s almost 20 years later, and they still can’t get rid of the guy! That’s to say nothing of another Guy, one who only got picked up last month as a pandemic emergency yet immediately plays well enough to bump somebody else out of their two-way deal.

Since selecting Michael Beasley #2 in 2008, the heat haven’t had to draft a top-five prospect to carry them anywhere. They can hit on Herro at the end of one Lottery, Bam Adebayo (5 steals, 20 points and 11 rebounds vs. POR, his second game back since thumb surgery) at the close of another. They used 2021’s first-rounder as capital to hold Goran Dragic for a minute. They flipped 2020’s first-round pick, Precious Achiuwa, and Dragic for a supposed upgrade in Lowry.

A win today would have Miami (29-16, percentage points behind the 1^st-place, Lonzo-less Bulls in the NBA East; Chicago is in Milwaukee tonight) bearing the best winning mark since LeBron’s 2013-14 NBA finalists. They have yet to lose more than thrice in a row all season. That occurred back in early November, not long before their only divisional loss of the season thus far (8-1 vs. Southeast foes). Importantly, when the heat do fall behind, it’s not by much.

Since losing in Cleveland by 11 points back on December 13, the heat have been on a 13-4 sprint up the standings, with no more than one of those defeats by over ten points. Miami shot just 38.4 percent from the field versus Philly last Saturday, but they kept the game close until Joel Embiid and Georges Niang could pull their Sixers away by 11 points in the final six minutes.  There’s just not much slippage, no matter who Coach Spo goes with in his rotations. I’m just reporting, I’m not hating!

With Adebayo back up to speed, John Collins and Onyeka Okongwu will need to avoid foul trouble in order to be around later in this contest, what with Clint “The Present” Capela (sprained ankle), Gorgui Dieng (non-You Know What illness), and Danilo Gallinari (sore Achilles) all listed as game-time decisions. Okongwu needs just 12 points to supplant Cam Reddish as the eighth scorer on Atlanta’s balanced offensive roster averaging over 10 PPG. With the rooks on G-League assignment, look for Nate McMillan to ramp up spot duties for Kevin Knox mid-game.

It is all about defense for the Hawks (19-25; 113.9 D-Rating, 28^th in NBA), particularly not letting Robinson and whoever fills Herro’s shoes get comfortable with pull-ups and open looks beyond the three-point arc (36.2 opponent 3FG%, 4^th-highest in NBA), while not letting Adebayo, Dedmon and a rested Yurtseven create second-chance shots. No Hawk opponent has committed more than 16 player turnovers in a game this season, and the 15 conceded by the heat in Miami last Friday gave the Hawks a fighting chance before blowing the lead late in a 124-118 defeat.

A scrappier Hawks team around the perimeter, with more timely substitutions by Nate Mac, and who knows? With or without Greg Maddux around, a complete game, with balanced focus at both ends, early and late in each quarter, would keep Atlanta more than simply in the ballpark.

At The Farm, with heat fans eager to pack the building and gloat once more, I just want my division champs to play like a team that understands Hawks Fans Matter, that this division and this season still matter. Getting out of their own heads and adjusting to cut opponent runs short, this Hawks home game and the ones in the coming weeks need to be about Matter over Mind.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Some heat strategery, as Spo clamps his Miami vicegrips around Trae...

~lw3

[kg01]

Martin strangely always plays Trae well, on both ends.  It was like there was two of him out there last season.

I find the Tucker portion of that odd.

[shakes]

This is as must win as must wins get.    Told my wife before we played them the first time last week that there's a good chance we lose all 3 to Miami.   Cmon Hawks, don't make me a prophet!

[bleachkit]

If Gallo is out that's a big loss. 

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Kyle Lowry is out on personal leave.

Do they host hot dog eating contests there in January? 

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

carry Jimmy’s load.

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Greg Maddux around, a complete game, with balanced focus at both ends,

Chicks dig the focus at both ends. 
 

Awesome thread lw3! 
 

Thrice in 10 days calls for a fight I’m not gonna lie. 

Go Hawks!

[Spud2nique]

We goin black tonight baby  Love these unis I got the Trae one! I also needed it for 2K dressins. What’s the injury list? No Capela or Bogi. I gotta tighten the rotation.

ps the ads are squawk are pretty hot  

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Spud2nique

[terrell]

Nate McMillan says Clint Capela is feeling better today and will be a game-time decision for tonight vs. Miami.

I wonder if OO emergence sped up Clints healing process..... lol

[lethalweapon3]

Reinforcements!

 

 

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

29 minutes ago, terrell said:

Nate McMillan says Clint Capela is feeling better today and will be a game-time decision for tonight vs. Miami.

I wonder if OO emergence sped up Clints healing process..... lol

Duuuude, I’m halfway through the game and have started and played OO and it’s 48-34 Hawks. Capela gets some burn in the 2nd half. 

 

11 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Reinforcements!

 

 

~lw3

Dieng I played  

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[thecampster]

Kevin Chouinard: McMillan on Kevin Knox: “He’ll get an opportunity to play tonight.”

 

8 mins ago – via Twitter KLChouinard

 Nate McMillan, Kevin Knox, Atlanta Hawks

 

[swanlee]

Why are we always playing wack a mole with injuries and players being out? 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[Spud2nique]

Hawks by 6. You like 6? 
 

Knox used his 5 min on the court to bust a couple 3333333333’sssssss. 

Trae did Trae like ish! 36/6/2 with only 1 turnover.  Keep it clean!

Vegas has Hawks -1.5. I say we come through by 6 apparently  

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

23, 23, 24, 24 and 21 year olds.

[JayBirdHawk]

Sigh!

[hawkman]

Don't leave your feet OO!

[JayBirdHawk]

Can we get a good start tonight?