Official Game Thread: Cavaliers at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“For questions regarding our team’s official PR statement, I’ll have to refer you the author, ChatGPT.”

 

We are back from the Break! Most of us, anyway.

Still amid their home-friendly schedule, our Atlanta Hawks return to hallowed State Farm Arena to take on fan apathy, organizational instability, superstar condescension, teammate disillusionment, and defensive dysfunction.

Oh, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, too (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Ohio)!

Granted two easy spares against former postseason-elimination victims to pick up before reaching the All-Star siesta, the Hawks (29-30) rolled gutterballs into the neighboring lane, closing their pre-Break stint at a hustlin’ backwards 5-10. The opportunity for a Gutterball Turkey looms with Cleveland in town after their loss last night back home against Denver. Fresh out of ways for me to sneak another needless bowling reference in, Brooklyn swings by here on Sunday.

Nate McMillan, designated for months on end as CNC-TD (Can Not Coach – Trae’s Decision), is now on the outs, and professional interim coach extraordinaire Joe Prunty takes over the whiteboard. For now, anyway. For all of McMillan’s faults, the one he could never shed was being a FOL (Friend of Lloyd), and Nate’s Lloyalty set a cap on just how much he could endear himself to The Trae Young.

Prunty has experience as a short-term fixer in Milwaukee. While Giannis Antetokounmpo was looking forward to the arrival of his third head coach, Joe closed out Jason Kidd’s 23-22 batch of Bucks in 2018 with a nifty 21-16 run, plus a soothing 4-3 first-round exit at the hands of the Celtics.

Prunty was also previously an assistant under McMillan in Portland, and he shared meeting rooms with player development guru Lloyd Pierce in Cleveland before the latter was promoted to an assistant gig at Golden State. He and Mike Longabardi are left to fix the broken defensive schemes and stilted offensive concepts that McMediocre leaves behind. However long he remains in charge, though, Prunty’s biggest challenge will be to ensure Young doesn’t dismiss him out of hand as a FON.

Emory great Adam Richman had a new episode of The Food That Built America on Sunday night. So when the opening of the All-Star extravaganza in Salt Lake turned into an I Score, You Score festival, I turned the channel and ripped the knob off (“Country Squares? Really?”).

I caught enough to see that Donovan Mitchell had a hero’s welcome in his return to Utah, after triumphantly joining forces in the backcourt with Darius Garland to make Cleveland (38-24) look like the legitimate conference finals contender that Dejounte Murray once imagined his Hawks would be upon his summertime arrival.

Say, the guy who took Mitchell, a ball-dominant, sketchy-shooting, undersized defensive gambler of a guard, paired him up with a mini-dimensional rim protector, and coached his way to consistent 50-ish-win seasons in Utah? Maybe our crack managerial staff can bring that guy in for a chat, if he’s available.

Of course, I’m presuming that Quin Snyder doesn’t take a peek behind the curtain at Hawks Inc. and pull a Kenny Atkinson on us. Speaking of Coach Kenny, if I’m the owner of the Hornets, and I wake up one morning to find Atkinson has sincerely accepted the job as the Hawks’ head coach, then I’m taking that news personally.

It is humorous that the Hawks find themselves in this predicament, eventually, because Mike Budenholzer couldn’t foresee a successful future going eye-to-eye with the marquee point guard assigned to him. Amid the front-office fracturing of the time, Coach Bud wisely jumped before he could be pushed, taking Taylor Jenkins, Darvin Ham, Charles Lee, and his merry band of assistants with him.

Now, whether it’s Lee, Snyder, Atkinson, or whoever becomes the big name when the puff of white smoke ascends from Marietta Street, the Hawks’ next full-time coach will be tasked with building a consistent contender around the featured star who could become akin to Messi in this star-crossed sports town, or at least Messier, and not just Messy.

Trae cited personal medical leave to artfully dodge the Zach Kleins eager to pin the tail of McMillan’s ouster on him, but he does claim to be available for tonight’s contest. We do know for sure that John Collins (out, concussion protocol) remains unavailable to play.

That should render Atlanta’s injury sheet a little less clean than that of Cleveland, who was only missing Ricky Rubio (back-to-back injury management) in last night’s 115-108 loss to Nikola and the Jokic-aires, a game plagued by a short-circuited 18-point final frame for the Cavs.

Mitchell and Garland got their share of buckets, but rather inefficiently (combined 3-for-13 on threes, 16-for-42 overall on the floor vs. DEN), their hero-ball offsetting what had been a stellar outing for forward Evan Mobley (31 points, 9 boards, but just two shots, both missed, while playing most of the fourth quarter).

Coach JB Bickerstaff’s crew is eager to avoid the first three-game skid in this calendar year. With the East’s Top-3 seemingly pulling away, the sweet spot for Cleveland is as a first-round host at the 4-spot. For a franchise whose last LeBron-less playoff series win was with Daytona 500 champ Brad Daugherty, Danny Ferry and coach Lenny Wilkens, in a five-game series against Drazen Petrovic and New Jersey, 30 years ago, the Cavs don’t wish to risk finding themselves scrambling for a 6-seed in the East.

The league’s most efficient defensive outfit (NBA-high 109.5 D-Rating, a shade ahead of Bud’s Bucks, and Jenkins’ and Ja’s Grizzlies) could not be more thrilled, on a SEGABABA, to draw Atlanta in their current state of affairs.

If they’re lucky, they don’t get the team that was a combined NBA-best 27-3 post-Break at home (per Elias Sports) under McMillan over the last two seasons. If they’re really fortunate, the Hawks will still be flopping around in flux by the time they swing through Atlanta near the end of next month.

If they aren’t so fortunate, it’s because Onyeka Okongwu and Clint Capela (one of 2 NBA duos in the NBA’s top-10 for FG%, and Plumlee just joined Zubac in LA) are running from pillar to post and exploiting their rest advantage versus Mobley and Jarrett Allen, freeing up more of the floor for Young and Murray to roam.

It’d be because AJ Griffin (3-for-6 3FGs, 17 points @ CLE on Nov. 21; zero 3FGs in his last four games; double-digit scoring thrice and 41.4 FG% in his last 8 games) chews deeper into Bogdan Bogdanovic’s floor time, under Joe P.’s watch, and doesn’t settle for contested two-point jumpers on dribble-drives from the perimeter. It’s because someone spent time during the past couple practice days building a more cohesive and functional young bench, centered around Griffin, Saddiq Bey, Aaron Holiday, Okongwu and Jalen Johnson.

And it’ll be because Young (double-digit point-assist tallies in past five games) opens his ears more than he rolls his eyes at the staff committed to making him and his team better, far better than they have shown for the balance of the past two seasons, and the opening halves of the past umpteen.

Atlanta can make a lot of opponents feel unlucky if they play with a fullcourt focus, a mindset of making beneficial plays for one another, rather than performing like a random collective of athletes standing around to watch a one-man-band novelty act do his thing.

That’s my hope, if I’m lucky, anyway.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

"They had us in the first half, not gonna lie!"

~tra3

[lethalweapon3]

These Colors Don't Run! Congrats to this Collipark Skyhawk for clinching Team USA's spot in the FIBA Men's World Cup!

https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2023/02/usa-uruguay-world-cup-qualifying-recap.aspx

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

We back! Thanks lw3, this one is longer! That’s what sheeee… 

Post Nate era starts tonight!

Go Hawks!

Vegas has Hawks -1.

2K Hawks by 21!

 

[lethalweapon3]

~lw3

[ABH]

LFG !!!

[lethalweapon3]

~lw333333333333333

[kg01]

3 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

~lw333333333333333

Somebody send that stat to iRobot. 

Oh yall thought we were done with that?  If you did, you forgot the term was originated when Punty sat in for Nathan.  The remnants of SkyNet remain.  Get out while you ca................. 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

We're back!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[GameTime]

27 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Fire Prunty 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[shakes]

45 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Great, first game coaching and he only puts 4 players on the court.  Not smart coach, not smart!

[LucastheThird]

I'm hopeful for some new wrinkles on offense. Let's hope we aren't disappointed tonight. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

14 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Fire Prunty 

 

Lightskin Nate

He failed Test #1.

[Spud2nique]

12 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Fire Prunty 

That’s my starting 5 and somebody laughed at me. I’m finding receipts! #bey>hunter

1 minute ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Lightskin Nate

He failed Test #1.

IT WAS U!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

This starting group better shoot lights out from deep.