Official Game Thread: Pacers at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“What are you and Ben Taylor doing? Trying to get me fired?”

 

Elimination Practice!

We’ve got three of these left, today with the Indiana Pacers (5 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Indiana), then in a couple weeks when the Wizards come back to town, one evening after the Atlanta Hawks return to State Farm Arena from Chicago.

I confess that usually, this is the time of the season when I get a little too excited, about Magic and Tragic Numbers. In an Inverse Pumpkin Spice kind of way.

I am souled out when it comes to supporting the Play-Ins. Keeping blah teams like the Hawks (36-37) from just circling the drain and racing each other toward the bottom of the standings after the All-Star Break is a good thing in my book.

But somewhere, in this hip-hop soul community, the Magic Number to put away Indy ought to be three right now. At worst. Not six!

We can fuss all we want about the chicanery The Men and Woman of Gray exhibited at the close of Tuesday’s night narrow loss in Minnesota. Where I find fault isn’t anywhere within that game. It’s within the losses to Houston, San Antonio, Orlando, Washington, Portland, Indiana (33-41), Chicago, OKC, Toronto. It’s within the three (3) losses to Charlotte.

Just cut that volume of Ls in half, Atlanta, and there’s your five-or-six-seed right here. Handle one’s business in those contests, especially early on in the season, and middling standouts like Tyrese Haliburton, DeMar DeRozan and Pascal Siakam don’t get to seize all the reserve All-Star slots from the NBA’s preeminent points creator, because “winning”, or something like that.

Do your due diligence, and losses on the road to the Wolves on a March SEGABABA that doubles as an emotional day for one of its returning stars could be simply chalked up to tough luck, deemed One to Grow On. Some terrible blarge call in the clutch late in the season, accompanied by some half-hearted “my bad” by the refs in the postgame reporter pool, doesn’t kill you if you play like a sentient collective (minus-1.2 clutch plus/minus, 27^th in NBA; minus-16.1 clutch Net Rating, next-to-last in NBA) early on in the season, and early on in individual games.

Instead, everything for the Hawks is riding on how prepared they are and how well they perform against an Indiana team that overachieved just long enough for midseason honors (10-23 over last 33 games) and simply needs to be put out of their pseudo-misery. Oh, and a team that snipped the rip cord and took a dive in the second half last night just to get out of Boston.

The wheels started coming off the Pacers’ wagon just before their 113-111 loss to the visiting Hawks on January 13. Haliburton had suffered a knee bone bruise and a strained elbow midway through Indy’s prior loss to the Knicks. Atlanta was without Clint Capela, but they were able to use activity around the paint from John Collins and Onyeka Okongwu to exploit the absence of not only Haliburton, but Myles Turner and Aaron Nesmith.

Haliburton returned just in time for All-Star Weekend activities, but he could not turn Indiana’s swooning fortunes back around. While Tyrese returned to action last night in Beantown, he subsequently missed the prior six games, which included road losses at the hands of Detroit (by 20… where are the wet-noodle lashes for coach Rick Carlisle?) and Charlotte.

There have been a couple good road wins in this stretch for the Pacers without Tyrese, notably in Milwaukee on Steve Austin Day and in Toronto, a dragging-down of the Raptors with a 118-114 victory on Wednesday. Both wins featured Carlisle pupil Andrew Nembhard (25 points in each, plus 10 assists @ TOR) as its lead scorer, and the plan for now is to proceed with Haliburton and Nembhard (top pick in the 2022 Draft’s second round) as the backcourt of their future, 2022 lotto pick Benn Mathurin notwithstanding.

In the second half against the Celts, Carlisle turned to sixth-men Buddy Hield, T.J. McConnell, and Isaiah Jackson to preserve Myles Turner (career-highs of 54.8 FG% and 7.5 RPG), Mathurin and Nesmith ahead of tonight’s game. Hield and McConnell were ineffective against Boston in that half, but are always threats to be pests versus Atlanta.

Dejounte Murray trades places on the Hawks’ injury/illness list with fellow starters Trae Young (questionable, contused calf) and De’Andre Hunter (contused knee). Former Pacer Aaron Holiday and Saddiq Bey will need to make positive net contributions mid-game – forcing turnovers, securing long caroms and loose balls, hitting open shots off the catch – if both Young and Hunter are no-goes.

In any case, Murray will be instrumental in guiding a team that ought to find size advantages versus the 6-foot-5-ish Pacer forwards, especially when Turner (no steals and three blocks in last five games) abdicates the post to be a help defender. The Hawk guards and wings must keep Buddy Hield and Mathurin cool (IND 4-for-26 team 3FGs @ BOS last night) from the perimeter, and they must disrupt the Haliburton/Nembhard/Turner lineups from settling cozily into its offensive set plays.

How well the Hawks play at both ends, with their inherent rest advantage, will go a long way toward determining whether the numerology on April 5, when the Wizards return to The Farm, is Magic, or Tragic.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Hearts out to our Mississippi and Mid-South Squawkfam, rough weather yesterday!

FWIW, the radio play-by-play for Atlanta's hottest pro team, Atlanta United on the road at Columbus, will be on 94.1 FM instead of 92.9.

As we await updates to Dre's and Trae's statuses, Jalen Johnson (mildly strained groin and hammy) remains Out for at least today. The Pacers are a continental breakfast away from submitting their report, but the only guys on it ahead of last night's game in Boston were Chris Duarte (sore ankle, DNP'd last 5 games after 2 starts) and two-way teenage wing Kendall Brown (out for season, tibia stress fracture). 

~lw3

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

...losses to Houston, San Antonio, Orlando, Washington, Portland, Indiana (33-41), Chicago, OKC, Toronto. It’s within the three (3) losses to Charlotte.

SO.FREAKIN'.PAINFUL.

[Gray Mule]

117.6 average points scored and points allowed, Atlanta Hawks.  Must win tonight to reach that magic .500 number again. That guard I wanted the Hawks to draft comes to visit tonight, Haliburton.

GO ATL HAWKS !!

[Spud2nique]

24 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Let’s Go Hawks!

First time I had nothing to quote.. 

Awesome @lethalweapon3 

9 games left and coincidentally Vegas has Hawks -9 today.

2K has Hawks by 23. 
 

If we win, it’ll be the 21st time we reach .500 this season. Oh myyyyy. 
 

GO HAWKS!!!!!

 

[Spud2nique]

15 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

continental breakfast

So no eggs ? Kinda had my heart set on puncturing a yolk with the side of my toast…..  No?… 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Spud2nique said:

First time I had nothing to quote.. 

Awesome @lethalweapon3 

9 games left and coincidentally Vegas has Hawks -9 today.

2K has Hawks by 23. 
 

If we win, it’ll be the 21st time we reach .500 this season. Oh myyyyy. 
 

GO HAWKS!!!!!

 

100 points in the paint for the Hawks on 17 offensive rebounds.  GET IT BABY!!

[Spud2nique]

8 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

That guard I wanted the Hawks to draft comes to visit tonight, Haliburton.

Gramps team thus far:

PG- Haliburton 

SG-

SF-

PF-

C- Mark Williams 

 

GM is a GM. 

1 minute ago, LongTimeFan said:

100 points in the paint for the Hawks on 17 offensive rebounds.  GET IT BABY!!

If I could only hit a 3 I don’t understand why they made it so hard 

[shakes]

terrible scheduling by the NBA.   They run scared of the NFL all year, but then they schedule a bunch of games right in the middle of the Elite 8.  so stupid.

Hawks game should've been at noon today.

 

Enjoy watching this bag of mediocre dog poop team tonight, I'll be glued to Kansas State vs FAU and UCONN vs Gonzaga.

[sturt]

1 hour ago, shakes said:

Enjoy watching this bag of mediocre dog poop team tonight, I'll be glued to Kansas State vs FAU and UCONN vs Gonzaga.

Enjoy that.

For most of my life, I gave a crap about college basketball.

The last 5-10 years, I pay attention to my alma mater (Marshall) and otherwise don't care until the NBA draft.

 

[warcore]

2 hours ago, shakes said:

Enjoy watching this bag of mediocre dog poop team tonight, I'll be glued to Kansas State vs FAU and UCONN vs Gonzaga.

[kg01]

Anotha one!

That's right, DJ Khaled, we got anotha off-hours game start time.  Hawks do so well in those .... not!

[Spud2nique]

7 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Anotha one!

That's right, DJ Khaled, we got anotha off-hours game start time.  Hawks do so well in those .... not!

So today we get pretty boy “Mr. Do right” aka Haliburton and tomorrow we get thug life? 

 

Dear rappers, gang bangers gucci and the rest, give Ja heck(les). Just don’t make him cry … although.. I heard gangsters cry too.  

 

[Spud2nique]

Ohhhhh shiiiiiieeeett, I forgot about Dillon Brooks.. wait, what day is it today? Why am I jumping to tomorrow? 
 

One game at a time.  

[givemesome1ce1]

One game at a time…Raptors are on our buts and catching up quickly…LETS GO HAWKS WE CAN DO THIS

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

"Mr. Do Right" (Tyrese Haliburton) and Benn Mathurin were added to the pregame Questionables (B2B injury management) by the Pacers, along with Myles Turner (sore back).

EDIT:

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Looks like it'll be 4-for-5 on starters for Atlanta today.

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

15 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Mr. Do Right"

 Awesome  

[deester11]

Bogi's defense is azz. Lmao