Official Game Thread: Hawks at heat

[lethalweapon3]

“Winner, Winner, Mrs. Winner’s Dinner!”

 

Dejounte Murray marched triumphantly off the floor and into the tunnel, after his game-saving jumper propelled his team to victory on Wednesday night.

Amid the throng of fans and employees in the tunnel offering Murray high- and low-fives, Atlanta Hawks grand poobah Landry Fields must have been muttering under his breath, “Operators Are Standing By!”

You know the old saw, “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” In the National Basketball Association around this time of year, that saying gets tweaked. You may not get another chance, to make a last impression, upon the team that’s actively thinking about making an offer for you.

That motivation helped Murray size up Markelle Fultz in the waning seconds of the Hawks’ skirmish with the Orlando Magic in Atlanta, coming away with the 106-104 victory for the gleeful State Farm Arena fans. It is that attitude – “I know, I’ll never, ball this way again,” à la Dionne Warwick – that ought to fuel the fire for a Hawks team (17-23) that ought to be doing more every night than just keep holding on.

Before facing Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs in Atlanta tomorrow, Murray and the Hawks swing by Kasomething Arena today to deal with the Miami heat (8 PM Eastern, once again, since Atlanta clearly has nowhere else to be tomorrow; no 8 PM tipoffs in MIA until March 22; CLE’s already in town with two off-days; may I speak to a manager?; CBS Atlanta / Peachtree TV / Peachtree Sports Network in ATL; BS Sun in MIA), Micky Arison’s team that knows they can cruise like Carnival into the postseason.

Even as teams like New York, Toronto, and Indiana scramble to get their teams a leg-up in the race to avoid the Play-In and fully join the Eastern elite, Miami is fine, either way. Losing a home game to Atlanta in the Play-Ins last season wasn’t enough to keep them from reaching The Finals, and there’s no reason to believe anything will shake out different in 2024.

Maybe Riley’s heat will seek to add some depth over the next month and a half, or maybe they stand Pat. Cracking corn, Jimmy Butler doesn’t care.

Not needing an All-Star nod for bonus money, Butler (21.2 PPG, 47.4 FG%, 5.0 RPG, 4.5 APG, 1.1 SPG, all lows from past four seasons; up to $100.2 million in salary over the next two seasons) would be just fine with being anywhere south of Indianapolis in mid-February. He could get his wish, if the league’s media and coaching fawns take the NBA’s Player Participation Policy half-seriously.

Having cemented his reputation by leading the heat to three ECFs and a pair of underdog Finals trips over the past four postseasons, Jimmy may moonwalk right into an All-Star reserve slot, one (and only one) that should be reserved for teammate Bam Adebayo (career-bests of 21.5 PPG and 10.5 RPG, despite a career-low 50.5 FG%; 20 rebounds vs. BRK on Monday; 28 rebounds in 2 games vs. ATL). Second among NBA East backcourt players in fan votes to start in the ASG, Trae Young, comparatively, still has lots of work to do.

The Most A’ight Team in the NBA is doing… a’ight. When the heat (24-17, 1.0 game behind 4-seed CLE, 1.0 game ahead of 7-seed IND) last beat the Hawks here, 122-113 on December 22, that was part of a four-game win streak that raised their record to 19-12. Since then, they’re a meh-diocre 5-5.

They most recently got swamped in Toronto, 121-97 (an Ayton House-cold 6-for-28 on threes) on Wednesday, trailing by as much as 37 behind a Raptors team that had an awful lot going on that day. Two nights before, on a home SEGABABA, the heat put up a putrid 31 on the scoreboard at halftime, needing some Herro-ball in OT to escape the Nets, 96-95.

Players have been in and out of coach Erik Spoelstra’s lineups due to injuries and maladies. Butler missed the last Hawks game, but Duncan Robinson (21 4^th-quarter points) helped neutralize a late charge from Trae Young (16 of ATL’s 27 4^th-quarter points) to keep the Hawks at Biscayne Bay.

Jimmy Buckets is back, the Toronto game just his second one back since missing weeks of action with a sprained toe. But Butler replaces rookie sensation Jaime Jaquez, until now neck-and-neck with Robinson as the most durable of the heat regulars, who missed Miami’s past two contests and remains doubtful for today’s game due to a strained groin.

No matter who Coach Spo fields, he and his team recognize the Southeast intra-divisional games as food. The heat remain unbeaten versus their Dirty South Division foes (15-17 versus everyone else), shooting 49.0 FG% and 40.7 3FG%, and 84.8 FT% as a team through nine games, while forcing 15.3 player turnovers/game (11.9, by comparison, versus Central Division teams like Mitchell’s).

Padding their status as a dangerous playoff team by handling their business in-division, Miami has no sense of urgency. Not unless, and until, teams like the Hawks (5-5 vs. NBA Southeast; 11-19 in-conference, 11^th in NBA East) give them cause.

Gallons of chicken tortilla soup and 70-degrees-all-day SoFla weather could’ve helped Trae (Out for today) recover swiftly from his hopefully-non-COVID illness, at least in time to face off with his frienemy Mitchell tomorrow. Even with Trae as a no-go tonight, the spotlight turns to Bogdan Bogdanovic, Murray (26 points vs. ORL after a pair of lackluster 13-point outings), and every Hawk not named Jalen Johnson, subjects of all the phone calls Landry fields in the run-up to the NBA’s February 8 Trade Deadline.

As Young and the Hawks needed someone to answer for Robinson (11 straight 4^th-quarter points for MIA), Bogi went 0-for-7 on shots in the fourth against the heat back on December 22, committing take fouls on Robinson to help Miami pad their late lead. Murray nabbed an offensive board of Bogi’s last missed three-point shot, but then turned the ball away on a bad pass, and his own missed three made it all she wrote.

Staying true to their shot mechanics, moving and using screens to spring open-looks, and using the pervasive threat of Johnson’s drives to the hoop as a decoy, Bogdanovic and Murray can keep Atlanta’s offense potent, enough to keep tonight’s outcome from becoming yet another layup for the heat. Same for Atlanta’s defense, so long as Clint Capela (and not just team leader Johnson, 7.2 D-Rebs/game to Clint’s 5.6) vies with Adebayo to secure defensive boards, doesn’t sag on pick-and-rolls, and his fellow Hawk defenders guard the perimeter without committing cheap shooting fouls (MIA 82.6 FT%, 5^th in NBA).

Pulling together, Atlanta can pull out a crucial road victory, spark the potential for a win streak, spoil the hype around Udonis Haslem’s jersey retirement, coax Riley into making a midseason panic move, and maximize their individual values as potential contributors for Riley and the managers of 28 other teams. Victory remains feasible for Atlanta today, and every day over the coming weeks, if each player on the floor steps up and performs like there’s no tomorrow… in a Hawks jersey.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

Trae (illness) joins De'Andre Hunter, Wesley Matthews, and the slowly-improving Mo Gueye among the non-two-way Outs. For Miami, Kevin Love (contused knee) has been upgraded to Available in the latest Boo-Boo Report, while Duncan Robinson (sprained ankle) is Questionable and Jaime Jaquez (strained groin) is Doubtful.

2023's Play-In win last season broke up what remains a five-game regular season losing streak for the Hawks in Miami.  A victory today by the heat, as per their GameNotes, would move them into a tie with the 2010-13 Spurs for the 4th-most consecutive intra-division wins (23) in the NBA since six-division play was devised in 2004, while another win Sunday in Orlando would tie them for 3rd (24) with the 2018-21 Bucks. 

As per Hawks' GameNotes, Saddiq Bey's next successful dish will be the 500th assist of his career. One could quibble with the probability he could have gotten there a little faster (career-low 1.3 APG), but while his jumper is in the tank, we'll take whatever achievements we can get. Bogi hitting a three tonight extends his current Threak to 50, and another tomorrow, assuming he's still a Hawk by then, would tie Kyle Korver for the second-longest in franchise history.

No matter what, all he does in Quin, as Snyder's next win will be his 400th as an NBA head coach.

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

Thanks lw3! I’ll have to read this puppy from work!  We need to string a few wins together and ride the Dejounte Jordan game winner!  

Go Hawks!

[kg01]

We win tonite.  Trae sittin.  Don't want him to get hurt ahead of the trade for TJ McConnell.  

[macdaddy]

13 minutes ago, kg01 said:

We win tonite.  Trae sittin.  Don't want him to get hurt ahead of the trade for TJ McConnell.  

Quit being so flippant.   it's TJ and 2 firsts (protected).  and cash considerations. 

[kg01]

25 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Quit being so flippant.   it's TJ and 2 firsts (protected).  and cash considerations. 

Bite your tongue, sir.  This is McConnell we talking bout.  Big Mac, if you will.

It's obviously Trae + 4 1sts for TJ. 

[macdaddy]

11 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Big Mac, if you will.

I will not

[JayBirdHawk]

This should be JJ's games to be a lead guy. He's being touted as the 'next' alongside Trae. Let's see it!

[h4wkfan]

Will we actually see bufkin getting minutes today or is he still in the GL. 

[JayBirdHawk]

25 minutes ago, h4wkfan said:

Will we actually see bufkin getting minutes today or is he still in the GL. 

I don't see that he has been recalled, so t lots of Trent Forrest tonight.

[h4wkfan]

6 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I don't see that he has been recalled, so t lots of Trent Forrest tonight.

Yet he is good enough to be “untradeable”! Can’t crack a rotation, but he’s that good. 

[JayBirdHawk]

Game #41

[HawksNWaffles]

Oh crap I almost forgot......keep the streak!!

 

Edited January 20 by HawksNWaffles

[Chrimturn]

Make it 3!  Bring it on home.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[hawkman]

Hawks look good early.

[benhillboy]

I’m digging the early energy.  Clint and Bey should eat on the offensive glass Spo just refuses to go big.

[Chrimturn]

Pick ‘em up Patty Mills

[benhillboy]

You can set your clock to OO getting called for an illegal screen and Bey stepping out of bounds