Official Game Thread: Hawks at Raptors (2 of 2)

[lethalweapon3]

“I’m the Global Ambassador, and the team told me to quit jinxing them by wearing their gear, so I had to go with this fit...”

“Drizzy, were you also asked to run off with the game ball tonight if Trae drops a 60-piece?”

 

Hotty Toddy? Psh, who has time for that, when we’ve got Tiddy Bitty? Tidbits ahead of our Atlanta Hawks’ rematch with the Toronto Raptors (7:30 pm Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, SportsNet Up Therr) in Canada, ahead of their confab in Cleveland tomorrow.

TOMORROW? IT’S ONLY THREE DAYS AWAY – My constant bleating about the schedule screwjobs at seemingly every turn comes across as a handy excuse for the Hawks’ lackluster (to be nice) defensive results (70+ point halves for opponents are now de rigueur). I find it to be more of an exacerbation, as it must be tough to iron out our many defensive wrinkles, and insert some creative offensive ones, literally on the fly. As the Hawks (9-14) scramble to sort through their holiday shopping while heading south for a Saturday game in picturesque Northeast Ohio, the Raptors (10-14) stay put. After tonight, they won’t tip off again until it’s simultaneous, on Monday, with Detroit likely trying to end their record-shattering misery versus Saddiq Bey in Atlanta.

MORE CHEESE, TO PAIR WITH THAT WHINE – Toronto, continuing their homestand at Scotiabank Arena with the Hornets and Nuggets next week, won’t have to navigate a SEGABABA until December 23, returning home once more from a nearby division rival to host (maybe?) John Collins and the Jazz. Wouldn’t ya know it, though, Atlanta gets to enjoy another SEGABABA on that day, too! The Hawks will saunter back from Miami just in time to meet up with (probably!) Ja Morant and the Grizzlies. Both clubs, mercifully for their fanbases, will be home for Christmas. But only in Atlanta’s dreams will they get to enjoy the entire day there, as they’re off to play in Chicago the next night. Toronto, naturally, gets three days off from that Jazz game before they visit Jordan Poole in the DMV, and they will have gone from November 11 through New Year’s Day without having to play basketball beyond the Eastern Time Zone.

I HAVE ONE THING TO SAY. YOU BETTA WIN… -- We’re not in Must Win territory just yet, but these upcoming weekend contests fit neatly within the You Betta Win classification. The Hawks don’t want to be looking down the barrel of an eight-game skid, their first since Christmastime in 2019 with Lloyd Pierce (‘twas good seeing you on TV, LP!) and his shiny-headed accomplice, Raptors legend Vince Carter, on Monday in front of tens of ornery State Farm Arena seatholders. And ain’t no fun when Monty Williams’ Pistons got the gun ((insert unnecessary Ja joke here)). Patron saint of hopeless causes? Thank you, St. Jude, for letting us escape sad-sack San Antonio with that Dub a half-month ago.

YEAH, YOU BETTA WIN, TOO – Even after dusting off the Hawks on Wednesday in that 135-128 victory, the Raps know they can’t afford to trick off many more games at Scotiabank. When this homestand ends, Toronto faces a stretch of 10 road contests in 12 games, finally heading out west-West after visiting Memphis on January 3. They’re 3-8 on the road after dropping their last four. When that road trip ends they return home to host Boston, one of the intra-division Atlantic opponents (0-7) they have yet to beat.

AWW, SHOOT – It’s taken a minute to crawl fully out from his early-season shooting rut, but literally anything from a sentient Trae Young (last 5 not-all-complete games: 32.2 PPG, 47.5 FG%, 35.6 3FG%) will be enough to scooch his field goal accuracy (41.8 FG%) ahead of the career-low (41.7 FG%) from his rookie season. Most encouraging of late has been his ability to find buckets from inside the arc (career-low 46.1 2FG%, below last year’s 47.6%; 54.7 2FG% in last 5 games), rather than feeling obligated to just shoot it from Sherbrooke. My one nit-picky thing is needing Young (87.2 FT%, lowest since his sophomore campaign) to place the importance of getting over the 90 FT% hump, as he did in his last All-Star season of 2021-22, above the value of earning whistles just for whistles’ sake.

DO YOU FEEL LUCKY? – Clint Capela’s shot-blocking is getting back to his peak (Hawks-tenure) form from 2020-21. And who is going to complain about his free throw marksmanship lately (78.6 FT% last 5 games)? It’s the other aspects of his on-court impact that seem to be petering out. His low-scale 4-for-6 FGs effort back on December 6 in Brooklyn was the only time in the last 5 games that Capela (56.7 FG%, lowest since his 12-game rookie year) exceeded 60 percent shooting from the floor. His near flip-a-coin shooting is one key reason over Atlanta’s current 1-7 stretch (again: thanks, Wemby!) that he has registered a plus/minus of +1 or worse in all but two games (minus-17 @ TOR on Wednesday; minus-24 in his last visit to Cleveland in November).

LIFE’S A BOWL OF PICKED CHERRIES – While still compiling double-doubles with ease, Capela’s now more likely to be snaring offensive caroms than defensive ones (last-12-game averages: 6.1 O-Rebs, 4.8 D-Rebs), and what was once his steady 2:1 defense-to-offense rebounding ratio is virtually 1:1 this season. Bball-ref cites him as the league leader with a 22.0 Total Reb% (NBA.com recipe has him tied with Nikola Jokic at 19.1%, highest among NBA starters), FWIW. But that bball-ref value includes a 24.4 D-Reb%, lowest since his first full season in 2015-16. To be fair, Clint’s teammates aren’t exactly leaving a lot of D-Reb opportunities, short, long or otherwise, up to chance (2^nd-lowest D-Reb chances in NBA, roughly 1.0 per game ahead of POR). But it could also be that our near-historic defensive woes are centered upon our center’s fixation with cleaning up his and his teammate’s misses, catching him unable to recover when the action, as we like to say, is going the other way (ATL NBA-worst 16.6 opponent fastbreak points per-48).

MATTHEWS-ELAH – I empathize with Quin Snyder’s interest in keeping some veteran defensive aptitude on the court, every which way but loose (enough with the Clint references, I got it). Aside from the occasional steal, though, I think even Paris Hilton would concur that the early returns for Wesley Matthews’ elevated playing time (3-for-21 FGs in last 7 games; negative Plus/Minus in past 5 games, minus-11 or worse in 3 of them) are Not Hot. If one must one-T, two-T, red-T, blue-T at this stage, lacking depth at the 3-spot, I’d rather prioritize the younger one-T Mathews, two-R Garrison, as our charge-sponging, dam-plugging starter.

TURNING HEAL – The Raptors have just about cleaned out their injury/illness list, with both Chris Boucher (Active, bruised quad) and Otto Porter (Active, bruised foot) wiped clean from the way-too-early report as of this morning. No changes on the Hawks’ end with De’Andre Hunter (sore knee) Questionable and both Jalen Johnson (fractured wrist) and AJ Griffin (mind ya business) Out. Like JJ, Kobe Bufkin (broke thumb) has a way to go before we get an injury update, but we ought to be hearing something soon from our Emory Healthcare friends regarding Mo Gueye’s strained back. Speaking of Mo, here’s some ‘mo…

HOW DO YOU ‘DOU? – Did you know Mouhamed Gueye, and Mouhamadou Gueye, are two totally distinct, long, human beans, each with Senegalese roots, playing professional basketball for a living? “My family is kind of a basketball family,” Mo, the 21-year-old Prolific Prep prospect turned guaranteed-contract Hawks rookie, told Prospective Insight back in the summer of 2022, as the longtime soccer fan was playing organized hoops for the first time in his life. “I’ve got cousins who play for the national team. I’ve got cousins who play in Europe and stuff.” Through my cursory Wiki-research, though, I can’t find proof that any of those cuzzos include Mouhamadou, one of the few bright spots (including bench man Justise Winslow???) on a repugnant Raptors 905 G-League squad. To me, this is like hearing somebody page for Mr. Bobby Dobalina while Bob sits quietly in the corner sipping his tea, it’s mind-boggling! Just last night, Mou (as I’ll call him) led 905 with 20 points, nine boards and six blocks, all in a losing effort as they fell to 2-12 in the G-League Showcase standings (get it together, Gradey Asterisk, you’re embarrassing me).

HOLIDAY GREETINGS AND GUEYE HAPPY MEETINGS – Mou is four years older than Mo, an inch shorter, but the same listed weight. He was born in Staten Island to Senegalese parents, the father having moved there way back in the late 1980s. If these two Gueyes somehow haven’t crossed paths, we’ve got to get our healing Mo down to the Skyhawks for some G-League action once the pre-Christmas Showcase Cup ends. If they have met, and/or they already know they’re related, I could use some confirmation from Senegalese sources in the know. Where are you when I need you, Gorgui Dieng? This Enquiring mind wants to know!

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[Gray Mule]

Squawk posters are aware that 2 of our 3 draft picks are out, injured.  Our 3rd pick has been called up from our G League Skyhawk team.  He looked very good there.  What are our chances he plays soon?

[lethalweapon3]

THE Big O was a rookie (and, O, what a rookie he was) in 1961, when the Cincinnati Royals outlasted the Hawks (of St. Louis) in OT, 129-128. That was the outset of 80 consecutive games of triple-digit scoring for the Royals, carrying into the following November,

That set an NBA record that would stand for almost two decades, long after the Royals skipped town, until the Spurs went wild (The Iceman doc on NBATV was good, btw) in 1978-79, San Antonio pushing their short-lived record to 129 games.

What The Streak didn't usher in, though, were winning ways. Cincy was 7-8 before the streak started, and ended the season 33-46. They were just 9-8 when the same team that cooled their jets in 1961, the Syracuse Nationals, did it again by holding them to 99 points in 1962. By my calculation, that record run of offense netted them just a 35-46 mark over 81 games.

There wasn't enough Big D to accommodate THE Big O. Cincy finished 1960-61 8th out of 8 teams in D-Rating. By 1961-62's end? Progress! They finished 8th out of 9 teams.

What the coach did was make the top-ranked offense around Robertson even more efficient, and the '62 Royals went on a 30-25 close to surge into the NBA Playoffs. They scored at least 107 points in four games versus a 37-43 Pistons underdog that had lost leading scorer Gene Shue at season's end. Detroit still outscored Cincy, three games to one, to advance.

The defense didn't improve until 1963-64 when they changed coaches and, after many years trying to draft and sign Jerry Lucas out of high school, Cincy finally got the Buckeye to come on board.

Incidentally, the other big star on Ohio's NBA team of the time was Wayne Embry, who in retirement would become a small-t trailblazing GM for teams like the Bucks, the Cavs and, eventually, the Raptors. By scoring at least 100 today in Toronto and tomorrow in Cleveland, the Hawks (of Atlanta) can move up the board past the Royals and into a tie with the 2019-20 Bucks, at 82 games.

I could cut the anticipation with a butter knife right now. O yeah.

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

Thanks lw3! I got nothin today..  

End this 5,6 game skid lost count  

Go Hawks!

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[terrell]

21 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Dre and AJ trade incoming.. lol

[TheNorthCydeRises]

 

 

Take the Hawks ( straight up ) . . and the Over 241.5

 

127 - 117

 

BOOK IT!!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Win wire to wire Hawks.

Get it done tonight.

NO excuses.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

And the big lineup starts the game.

[thecampster]

That perimeter D is exactly why OO17 is not the long term answer at the 4.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

5 minutes ago, thecampster said:

That perimeter D is exactly why OO17 is not the long term answer at the 4.

 

He can learn to play it.

Hawks had a few defensive breakdowns, but only gave up 12 points in the first 5 minutes.  Better than the almost 20 they normally give up.

 

Keep playing the big lineup . . . even if it kills my parlay.

[terrell]

5 minutes ago, thecampster said:

That perimeter D is exactly why OO17 is not the long term answer at the 4.

Or the 5...

 

[terrell]

8 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

He can learn to play it.

Hawks had a few defensive breakdowns, but only gave up 12 points in the first 5 minutes.  Better than the almost 20 they normally give up.

 

Keep playing the big lineup . . . even if it kills my parlay.

In 43 minutes so far this year, the Capela-OO front court has a net rating of -13.8. Respectable 111.7 defensive rating, disgusting 97.9 offensive rating (worst of any 2 man lineup on the team).

Hopefully with more reps they can figure some things out offensively. But IDK man..

Edited December 16, 2023 by terrell

[terrell]

Trae lil ass miss layup.. smh

Edited December 16, 2023 by terrell

[JayBirdHawk]

Who is this Mat-Hues fella!

[terrell]

There you go Bey

[JayBirdHawk]

Same like last night...good 1st quarter. 

As always - can we keep it up?

[terrell]

Following the same game script as the last couple of games so far, with the slow start and then building the lead in the late 1st.

Hopefully this time they don’t give it away by halftime, and then get their asses kicked in the start of the 3rd like the last 2 games...

[benhillboy]

3 minutes ago, terrell said:

Trae lil ass miss laytup.. smh

That maybe the first time I’ve seen him cut baseline and actually receive a pass.  He tried last game but the pass was broken up.

[terrell]

I like Trae and Bogi together offensively, but their defense is a free pass to the rim..

And Trae turnover machine.. Jesus

Edited December 16, 2023 by terrell