Official Game Thread: heat at Hawks -- GAME 3

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[kg01]

8 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

"Collins says it feels like OO has been here forever.  He must hate him." - C. Kirschner 

[AHF]

22 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Maybe signs that Nate is embracing a little flexibility with his rotation (of course out of necessity)?

[AHF]

23 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

They not just selling out 100% on Trae, they selling out 100% on any of our perimeter players. 

Fortunately for them, we are effectively missing both of our roll men.  (JC can’t score inside like normal right now and obviously no CC).  Since Huerter, Bogi and Hunter rarely take the ball hard to the rack and OO is so raw on offense, there isn’t much of a threat inside other than shutting down Trae’s floater.

Would make my day to see Huerter take off to the rim and draw a couple free throws after the Trae gets doubled and the ball moves to him.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

6 hours ago, kg01 said:

'So fata** tries to take out Trae by diving at his ankles.  Then same fata** pulls a hammy and ends up out himself?  Coincidence?  Nope.' - D Spo.

Like Ivan Drago once said ...

 

if he dies ... he dies.

( not literally ... just is not available for the rest of this series )

[TheNorthCydeRises]

5 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

What a win! When our superstar struggled the “others” kept it going. Hats off to Delon, man that kid, then OO with the aggressive play and Bogi was laser focused late.

@TheNorthCydeRises thanks for sacrificing with the package and being our Jim Brown in the dirty dozen! (But you made it baby!) 

Enjoy it Hawks fans, we went through a lot during the game, if I’m a cat I have 1 life left after last night.  

HAWKS!!!!!!!

 

I was just pulling into downtown Atlanta at 7 pm.  So when I turned to 92.9 FM to possibly listen to the game, and heard that it was delayed because of a "suspicious package", I was actually happy.  That package was like someone calling in a threat at school, to get out of a test.  Then the police and fire department has to search for an hour at school for what they know is a bogus threat.  

 

But I get it.  It's Atlanta.  And God forbid that you have 1996 all over again, with something blowing up at a public event.  It all ended up for the best.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 hours ago, Plainview1981 said:

Hunter is like a better 3ot shooting but worse rebounding Josh Childress.

 

If Hunter had Chill's rebounding ability, no one would be complaining about the dude, and he would be our 2nd leading scorer.  Childress put forth the effort to go get those rebounds though. Dre doesn't.

Dre's strength as a player right now is his midrange offense.  Second is his man defense, which is decent, but not great.  But he doesn't have a "motor".  He coasts throughout the game.  I see now why he doesn't get those hustle plays. He's content with letting others get it.  When it's all said and done, Dre is going to be more known for his offense, than his defense.

[Diesel]

2 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

When we were down 16, I thought we were done, I haven’t had that feeling in a long time. I lost my hawkbeat, right then my gf said, it’s early, lots of game left (hey that’s what I say ) but I was very skeptical.

It was a special moment and I reflected and acknowledged it after the game.

  

You got a good woman there!!!

[Diesel]

1 hour ago, hylndr11 said:

Ok but uh it was a 21 to zip run , I mean how wild are those takes really , who expected that shit, it was wild.  

[Spud2nique]

10 minutes ago, Diesel said:

You got a good woman there!!!

She’s great. Earlier though when Jimmy went down on the floor I called him a wuss and she put me if I could take it.  
 

I’ve taken some shots in the chest and I just thought about it and didn’t really respond lol. Hurts if you get hit right I couldn’t breathe for week lol.

I just meant Jimi is a drama queen lol

[Atlantaholic]

1 hour ago, AHF said:

Why would you be making judgments on Trae’s career etc based on a couple of games regardless?  I get someone thinking the game is lost as a snap judgment but not “we can’t win with Trae who is all of 23 and won games the conference finals for the first time in Atlanta history just last season.”

But he had two bad games back to back though. I say trade him and rebuild. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 hours ago, Plainview1981 said:

We know that Trae is going to get some ft attempts most nights regardless of how good or bad his shooting is.

Performances like game 1 where he basically got nothing is completely rare.

And he did reduce his turnovers, but it still wasn't that great of a performance until the end.

Some might argue that when you're a 28/9 player you set the bar at a certain level. If you're going to be a show off player, you better back it up.

Yes, we all understand that this isn't all about Trae. We've all went back and forth over the team's flaws. How another star level player is needed... How we need a wing that can draw attention and attack the basket, but before last few minutes Trae was having a terrible series. He has to play better going toward.

 

If a QB has his leading receiver out of the game, as well as one of his blocking RBs that helps protect him on 3rd down, that QB may struggle a little bit before he finally figures out how to be effective.

Game 1:

No defending this at all.  This is trash, and everybody knows it.  8 points - 4 assists.  1 - 12 FG.   6 turnovers.  That's not going to cut it, even if he were a role player.

 

Game 2:

The early 3 point jacks in the 1st quarter when his shot was obviously off, was unacceptable.  From about the 3 minute mark in the 1st, until halftime, he was very good with limited turnovers.  The 3rd quarter, he was too passive offensively and way too careless with his passing, which led to 5 turnovers in that quarter.  In the 4th quarter, he goes 1 - 5 FG, has 3 pts - 3 assists and was +5 for the quarter.  His shots that quarter:

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGA&EndPeriod=4&EndRange=28800&GameID=0042100102&PlayerID=1629027&RangeType=1&Season=2021-22&SeasonType=Playoffs&StartPeriod=4&StartRange=21600&TeamID=1610612737&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

The only questionable shot in this sequence was the 5th shot, in which he shot a long quick 3. But at that point, we were already down 10 and it was 50 seconds on the clock.  Overall in Game 2, I say he showed flashes of what he could be doing, but the 10 turnovers killed anything positive coming from this game.

 

Game 3:

What I saw last night was Trae not trying to force the issue at all.  His 3 turnovers last night were all trying to get the big man involved.  2 were weak entry passes that shouldn't have even been tried.  The other one was a careless between the legs pass.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=TOV&EndPeriod=0&EndRange=28800&GameID=0042100103&PlayerID=1629027&RangeType=0&Season=2021-22&SeasonType=Playoffs&StartPeriod=0&StartRange=0&TeamID=1610612737&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

But for the most part, Trae's floor game was right where it should've been. Even when he goes 2 - 7 FG in the 1st half, he supplemented that by going 5 - 6 FT.  He used his effort and smarts to get to the line and score his points, when his shot wasn't falling early.  10 pts - 5 asst - 4 rebs in a half is not horrible. Especially when we're up by 7.

In the 3rd quarter, he should've been a little more assertive to see if he could slow down the run the Heat were going on. Blame him in the 3rd for not looking for his shot enough.  And of course, he was brilliant in the 4th, despite only having 1 assist to couple with his 10 points.

He absolutely played the right way last night.

 

Here's my thing with all the criticism that Trae receives.  On one hand, you guys want him to play like a true PG that gets others involved ( like he doesn't do that already ).  On the other hand, you guys want him to live up to his All-NBA status that he's established for himself.  Too often than not, people find anything possible to criticize the kid for, even when he's balling offensively.

The long 3s are a necessary part of his game, due to his size, the way he shoots the basketball mechanically, and because he's proven that he can actually make that shot at an almost average NBA 3 point clip.  People want more and more out of Trae, even when he's shown you that he can play at a Hall of Fame level.  And to play at that level, you're going to take bad shots and take chances on passes every once in a while.  There is much more good about Trae's game than there is bad.  He's not going to play perfect basketball all the time.  This is when we need his teammates to pick up the slack.  They did a great job of doing that last night.

Trae doesn't have his 1st and 2nd leading lob threat in the middle, who are also guys that protect the rim and grab 70% of the rebounds. Capela is out. Collins looks to be less than 50%, but at least he's out there doing what he can.  And Okongwu, until last night, looked lost.  This team is trying to figure it all out offensively AND defensively.  I appreciate the journey that they're going on, despite being short handed.

 

[Final_quest]

8 hours ago, marco102 said:

Serbian?

Before there was Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia they were all unified as one nation, Yugoslavia.  They love basketball there.  

[Diesel]

North, 

As you said.. it's a journey.  I believe that this pressure is the best learning environment for Trae.  He's learning to play faster.   He's becoming less dependent on PNR.  He's curbing his need to Hero ball to death. 

I watched last night and I was happy with what I saw in Trae.   While being tripled teamed, with no lobbers, he's facilitating and scoring as it comes.  And you have Playstationers wondering why he doesn't do more?

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

11 hours ago, NBASupes said:

You always say bullshit when you got bias against a player. Wright ain't in his career been tasked to lock up on big wings. Mainly PGs and smaller guards which makes sense looking at his measurements. 

 

You are a great poster but when you love a player you fib a lot. Like Trae defense is ass. You always try to make it seem like it's not that bad when it's awful most of the time. It's been awful most of this series outside of game 1.

Your latest love is Wright. Now you got this dude locking up like he can guard Jimmy or KD, stop the cap. You do this bullshit too much. I love you bro, for real, I do but I hate the cap. That's why I call you the President of Trae defense force. You will go out of your way to make it look like Trae got no flaws. Sothron do this at times on RealGM but f*** RealGM, I do it there too because its f*** everyone but the Hawks. But on here with your brothers and sisters just don't sit right with me.

 

Let me go bilingual you:

Que?

Hablas en serio?

 

The same guy who spent the better half of 2.5 years on this forum, trying to convince all of us that Cam Reddish had Randy Moss-like talent, is accusing me?  Moi?  Of fibbing?

 

 

 

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 hours ago, AHF said:

Maybe signs that Nate is embracing a little flexibility with his rotation (of course out of necessity)?

The people who are most effective, should be the people who are playing.

This is all we have been asking from Nate all season.  Forget those set rotations.  Play the guys who are balling.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 hours ago, Diesel said:

I hope that yall are watching it closely.

Trae is met by Tucker/Herro  or Tucker/Butler...  But also Bam is behind the front line in case Trae somehow gets free..  People that's a triple team. 

Earlier in the game, Trae was passing because Hunter/Kev were getting open behind the frontline. 

However, later in the game, Hunter was continuously wide open at the three point line. 

I believe Spo is saying... You can't beat us with Hunter.   And as soon as Hunter gets the ball, they scramble to him.   In the third quarter it got bad because he either missed the shot or he gave up a turnover trying to dribble. 

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FGM&EndPeriod=0&EndRange=28800&GameID=0042100103&PlayerID=1629631&RangeType=0&Season=2021-22&SeasonType=Playoffs&StartPeriod=0&StartRange=0&TeamID=1610612737&flag=3&sct=plot&section=game

Check out the second play Cutting layup...  This should be Hunter's focus.

 

He's the one guy that has the advantage in this series on offense, if the Heat does not decide to guard him with Jimmy Butler.  I think the coaching staff knows this, and is encouraging Dre to keep attacking.  If he gets to the point in which he's scoring at will, ( or Huerter for that matter ), that could change the trajectory of this series.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

3 hours ago, benhillboy said:

Crazy but I think Skylar can play in this series.  Sit Kevin and Gallo, give him a 7 minute stretch and go from there.  If he stinks it up, fine, mission abort.  If he’s +8, ride him out.

 

[AHF]

20 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

The people who are most effective, should be the people who are playing.

This is all we have been asking from Nate all season.  Forget those set rotations.  Play the guys who are balling.

Riding the hot hand should not be rocket science.  Should be middle school church league level coaching.

[marco102]

1 hour ago, Final_quest said:

Before there was Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia they were all unified as one nation, Yugoslavia.  They love basketball there.  

I mean I understand the history, but in today's time it's considered Serbia.  Wasn't there like a terrible war between the Yugo's that lead to the split. I know Serbians and Croatians were part of that. 

Edited April 23, 2022 by marco102