Official Game Thread: Hawks "at" Magic -- the CDMX Game (9:30 PM EST Tip!)

[lethalweapon3]

You wear it… well!

 

Just when he thought he was out, Gustavo Ayon was back in!

Before we had The Moose, here in Atlanta, we had The Goose. At least that’s how we all hailed Ayon here in The States. But our neighbors to the south have a more endearing name for him: Titan. And he suited back up to play! Move over, Vince. Gustavo said he got one more in him!

Over in the Pacific Coast basketball league (CIBACOPA), which runs briefly from March to June, Ayon showed up to play last April for Venados (basically The Bucks, or The Stags, if you prefer) of Mazatlan. He had previously done his retirement tour in August 2022 while playing in Puerto Rico, but the urge to play again before fans from his home country was too compelling. I haven’t seen evidence that the 38-year-old won’t pop back in at the CIBACOPA for another run next spring, and I am sure he’d be warmly welcomed at any time.

Gustavo once thought he was warmly received by the Orlando Magic, a free agent pickup during the offseason following The Dwightmare in 2013. Right after the All-Star Break, he had just finished a back-to-back and was on the team flight preparing to take off from Dallas to Memphis. He must have been curious why, ten days earlier, he got a starter’s bump in playing time alongside Nikola Vucevic – 31 bench minutes, three more than the sharp-shooting Magic mainstay J.J. Redick – but then reverted to just a dribble or two over the next several games.

He got his answer with a tap on the shoulder. Put your chair back in the upright position, get your grip and de-plane. You and J.J. are being re-routed to Milwaukee’s Venados in a trade. Hop back on the bus, Gus. No need to discuss much.

“I felt an immense joy that I cannot explain to you with words,” Ayon told Spanish site Diario AS last April about first signing with the N’Awlins Hornets in 2011, looking back on his career during what was supposed to be his retirement. “The NBA is wonderful. Four teams in three years. But I didn’t want to tour the NBA from team to team.”

“Maybe you play with one team and you don’t play with another. It was an uncertainty. An emotional and sports instability. I didn’t want that.”

Ayon then insisted, “I could’ve been in the NBA for 15 years…” And, frankly, when peering at guys like Mike Muscala milling about, who am I to retort? “…but what I wanted was to play basketball. I had to be taken off the plane once because of a trade.”

Hitting free agency once more in 2013, Ayon signed with the Hawks, just as Atlanta was entering the brave new Budferry phase. Here, the newest MVP from the FIBA Americas tourney would get to watch another Latin American star, Al Horford, work his way back into All-Star form. Coach Bud preferring to play the stretchy Pero Antic and veteran Elton Brand was certainly understandable. At least, once his preseason shoulder injury healed, Ayon knew he’d collect more frontcourt minutes than the rookie second-rounder Muscala.

Then Horf tore teta número dos. And then Pero got hurt, too. Next thing you know, Ayon was starting, and Hawks fans quickly grew enamored with the Goose.

On the last game before the 2014 Break, during an otherwise forgettable Hawks loss in Toronto, Ayon was the standout, putting up 18 points on 11 shots, plus 10 boards and 3 assists. He was well on his way to exceeding the 24 starts he logged as a Pelicans rookie, when he tore that same shoulder mere minutes into the first game after the Break versus Indiana. The Hawks, once Antic returned, would make their late run to the playoffs and wage their near-upset of the Pacers without Ayon on the floor.

Would it have to be five NBA teams in four years? Ayon decided to take the NBA out of the equation entirely. And that decision proved immensely helpful for Euro-power Real Madrid. The Spanish side would win its first Euroleague title in a decade in 2015, and again with Ayon in 2018. His elevated profile on that continent propelled interest in hoops back home, in Mexico. Ayon helped Mexico earn its first FIBA World Cup appearance in 2014, and the Mexican National Team made the pool again this past summer.

Ayon found his basketball home away from home, with Real reaching the ACB Spanish League finals in five seasons from 2015 to 2019, winning four of them. Pairing up for a while with wunderkind Luka Doncic didn’t hurt matters at all. While Doncic’s ascension has NBA scouts scouring the Balkans for all kids named Luka or with surnames ending in -ic and a nice crossover, Ayon remains the next-to-last Mexico native (the country, T-Lue, not the town) to tipoff in an NBA game.

Jorge Gutierrez started playing point guard in the NBA the same season Ayon’s ended, and his NBA career wrapped up with the Hornets of Charlotte in 2016. The league has come a long way with international scouting since the pioneering late Hawks GM Marty Blake selected Manuel “The Flying Mexican” Raga in the 1970 Draft’s tenth round. But Mexico, sadly, has not had a pool of talented blue-chippers from which the world’s premier men’s basketball league, based in North America, could draw.

Ayon was preceded by Eduardo Najera (12 NBA years), and Najera by Horacio Llamas (2 NBA years), and that’s about it, after Gutierrez. The league has had players with Mexican roots (i.e., a parent or two from there who moved here before they were born) who wound up following more traditional routes into the league, exemplified in the current day by Miami’s Jaime Jaquez and Juan Toscano-Anderson, the Oakland-raised ex-Warrior who now headlines Capitanes de Ciudad de Mexico as they embark upon their third season in the NBA G-League.

The NBA commissioners tout the prospects of CDMX as a potential expansion candidate as part of their routine PR strategy, bolstering their effort to keep the NBA feeling more like an International Basketball Association and not simply because of Canada. After all, the latter country, three decades removed from welcoming the league into their living rooms in Vancouver and Toronto, is finally seeing the dividends on NBA, NCAA, and FIBA floors.

The possibility is near-unfathomable to navigate CDMX (700 miles as the crow flies from its nearest NBA city, San Antonio, and if Denver’s “5280” seems imposing at times, try “7349” on, for size) as a 30-something-th franchise in this league. Yet the truer intention by the NBA is to maintain a foothold in this country as a carrot, to peel some of the nation’s more athletic talents away from soccer, and to enhance its meager developmental programs, so the next Gustavo Ayons won’t need to consider crossing borders to find pro scouts eager to watch them play.

In the meantime, NBA teams like the Hawks and Magic stopping by once a year for a quick skirmish will do just fine (9:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBATV). Both squads check in at 4-3 on the season, but you’ll find 4-3 means different things to different people.

Despite having scored just 36 second-half points in dropping their last game, at home versus Dallas, you won’t have a hard time finding a prognosticator who wants everyone to know they were among the first to declare that Orlando (one winning season, and two first-round playoff appearances since the Dwightmare ended in 2012) has, at long last, turned the proverbial corner for good. Some have Orlando pegged as the fifth, or sixth seed in the East by next April, below the usual suspects.

Going 10-9 in the first games after last season’s All-Star Break (same record as the Hawks) was influential, as gunning for a third-straight season near the top of the lottery-odds table was of little incentive for head coach Jamahl Mosley and his staff. The most noticeable sea-change near the close of last season was a heightened commitment to the defensive end (2^nd in D-Reb%, 7^th in D-Rating during that stretch), leaning on guard Jalen Suggs and ATL-raised center Wendell Carter to lead that charge.

The continuity has extended into this season thus far (105.6 D-Rating, 4^th in NBA; 73.9 D-Reb%, 5^th in NBA; 11.0 opponent fastbreak points per-48, 2^nd-fewest in NBA). Getting stops allows the Magic to serve up high doses of its young stars, Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, at the other end. The team’s sole reliable perimeter shooters, sixth-man Cole Anthony and rookie Anthony Black (filling in at starter for the injured Markelle Fultz), are threatening to earn fulltime spots on the top line.

Holding teams like the Hawks back for long stretches will be a challenge, specifically as Carter undergoes hand surgery, Fultz (left knee swelling that long cross-continent flights do not help; tore ACL in same knee in 2021) is questionable to play, and Gary Harris (strained groin) remains on the shelf.

Offensive execution will certainly need to be better than the Hawks displayed in Monday’s 126-117 loss at OKC. A larger issue than the mindless Trae-overs was the lack of transitional resistance by the team, after missed shots, that seemed to have its mind on its travel itinerary, before a spirited fourth-quarter effort spearheaded by Young, Dejounte Murray and Onyeka Okongwu (9 rebounds by himself in the fourth) closed the gap to five points with two minutes left.

The Magic are not much of a run-and-gun club, but they will spread the floor in halfcourt for cuts and drives designed for Paolo and The Wagner Boys. Orlando (5^th in team O-Reb%) will then crash the boards, but a failed collection to catch the carom, unlike Atlanta (3^rd in O-Reb%; 1.15 opponent transition points-per-possession, 6^th-worst in NBA) in OKC, doesn’t lead to easy runouts toward the other basket. Murray and De’Andre Hunter will need to quarterback the get-back defense with greater fervor throughout the game, such that Trae and Bogi Bogdanovic aren’t repeatedly stuck out on Cozumel island.

With Miami already awaiting the Hawks’ arrival back in Atlanta for a game on Saturday, the Hawks can ill-afford slippage to carry over. Meanwhile, the playoff-starved Magic wants to get the head-to-heads with their playoff-inured division rivals off to a great start.

I can only assume The Goose will take a gander at these former clubs, live, down at Arena CDMX. The victor in this Mexico City Game is likely to be the one most inspired, by his presence, to “Titan Up.”

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[shakes]

9:30 est start time vs another east coast team blows.

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

Hawks GameNotes has Trae's next 20-10+ point-assist combo tying the franchise's 1950 first-rounder, Bob Cousy, for 15th all-time.

Since the H2H series got knotted up at 60 apiece, Atlanta has won 9 of the past 11 meetings.

Getting last year's season-series done early, these teams haven't played since last December in Atlanta, the Hawks persevered after a late rally (Fultz layup with 4 seconds left took the lead after being down 11 with three minutes left; Dejounte fouled by Paolo on Trae's inbounds, made both FTs) to win 126-125 and end the Magic's six-game winning streak.

https://www.nba.com/gamenotes/hawks.pdf

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

near-upset of the Pacers

What a series! Sap attack on Hibby  

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

(the country, T-Lue, not the town)

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Ayon was preceded by Eduardo Najera

NA-JAAAA-RAAAAAHHH- Marv Albert 

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Jamahl Mosley and his staff.

Good coach Luka loves this dude.

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

ATL-raised center Wendell Carter

Still remember the draft attire! That was pretty funny. One of Jamallivers favs  

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Franz Wagner

May be the reason they are gonna “turn the corner?”

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Anthony and rookie Anthony

2X ’s

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Onyeka Okongwu (9 rebounds by himself in the fourth)

Yes siiirrr

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

De’Andre Hunter will need to quarterback

 Oh boyyyy

 

3 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

“Titan Up.”

Nice work @lethalweapon3 on Gustavo! We’ve been lucky to have cool backup bigs over the years. Quality human! Thanks for getting us started tonight! Game is on national tv ! We are in the spotlight!  

 

Vegas line: Hawks -3.5 o/u 232.5 

I like us tonight! I think we get back on track! 2K thought so as well! Hawks by 14!!!!

 

GO HAWKS!!!!!

 

JJ had a nice all around game 11/7/11/3/2 and a power jam

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Dejounte fouled by Paolo

Just bounce it off his head again  

[Spud2nique]

@Sothron 15-38 for 39% on threes! Finally I learned how to shoot them Good call on the starter level all star ️ just cheats at the end they got Mo Bamba type guys hitting 40 footers! Nice recommend Sothie! Much more enjoyable and fair at this level.

[Spud2nique]

Hoping squawk is just napping everyone is quiet … 1:45 pre tip…

[SalvorMallow]

54 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

@Sothron 15-38 for 39% on threes! Finally I learned how to shoot them Good call on the starter level all star ️ just cheats at the end they got Mo Bamba type guys hitting 40 footers! Nice recommend Sothie! Much more enjoyable and fair at this level.

Wow you finally start shooting 3s now that nate is gone. Another Quinn miracle!!

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Matchups to watch:

Hunter and Johnson vs Wagner and Banchero!

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[mountainjim]

Crap - nba network has the Orlando feed

[LucastheThird]

Showtime Hawks

[hawkman]

Great start!

[LucastheThird]

Flagrant foul on Paolo! That was around his neck

[benhillboy]

1 minute ago, LucastheThird said:

Flagrant foul on Paolo! That was around his neck

What are they reviewing?  That’s a clear flagrant back in the 90s.

[JayBirdHawk]

OMG Stop turning the ball over...that's 6

[benhillboy]

OO with the finesse finish I see you