Official Game Thread: Trail Blazers at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“Let’s Go Krejci! Let’s Get Nuts!”

 

It wasn’t looking to good for Vit Krejci, tasked with his first NBA start in front of the home crowd. The Oklahoma City Thunder were winding down what, for them by that time, was the preseason, as the real seasons would begin in the run-up to the drafts. Fort-holder Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was formally shut down for the final 15 or so games. Darius Bazley would soon be put in wraps, too. Naturally, since he’s The Future.

So it was time to see what OKC’s 2020 second-round trade acquisition from the Wizards, whose rookie season was deferred by a preseason ACL tear, who spent the balance of 2021-22 in the G-League while rehabbing an ankle injury, could bring to the table.

For the better part of the month before his first career start, in Portland, the Czech was already logging over 20 minutes per night off the bench for coach Mark Daigneault. Krejci sank his light diet of 3FGAs, at a 42 percent clip, without being pushed to do much more. Stepping in as a starter for Bazley on behalf of the Thunder, versus a similarly washed Trail Blazer contingent, Vit managed to go 4-for-6 on his triples, sinking all three attempts in the fourth quarter as OKC stormed back from 10 down to force OT and win. Encouraging! This guy, Thunder fans surely thought, could be a keeper.

Well, as he soon as he gets back to the Sooner State, he goes just 1-for-10 from the field. He made all six of his free throws, and thank goodness, because otherwise his negative-19 plus/minus would have gone deeper in the red. Trae Young had 41 points in the game, but a balanced effort among everybody from De’Andre Hunter, Kevin Huerter, and Bogi Bogdanovic to the less heralded Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Kevin Knox, helped Trae’s Hawks cruise to victory in his home state.

From that point, there was little reason to expect to much more of Krejci at this level of the pros. And yet, back at the end of March 2022, assistant GM Landry Fields’ Atlanta Hawks saw something.

Shedding the assistant label, Fields and his scouts saw enough to shed Mo Harkless’ contract in a preseason 2022 trade to bring Vit into the Hawks’ developmental fold. Beyond waving towels approvingly, his role was to spend time at the back end of this NBA roster, first to address coach Nate McMillan’s emergency roster crunch, then in spot duty as Quin Snyder was feeling things out, almost always when the margins for victory, in either direction, were seemingly beyond approach.

Even when cutting Krejci last August after yet another untimely ankle injury, this time in Hawks Summer League, allowed him time to toil with the Timberwolves in preseason, Fields kept an eye out for him. Making room to pick him up for a two-way slot back in December, Landry continued to see something in Vit. Now amidst this homestand, the Atlanta Hawks fans are beginning to catch a glimpse, too.

He’s likely to start in his tenth consecutive contest as a Hawk, having been called up from College Park and seemingly for keeps, ahead of this month’s West Coast road swing. But it wasn’t until The Man from Strakonice showed out in Stankonia during his last two home outings that the all-around promise of the 6-foot-8, soon-to-be-24-year-old guard was on full display.

Vit’s +28 plus/minus (3-for-4 3FGs) was integral to Atlanta finally and thoroughly fumigating the hapless Hornets this past Saturday. And Krejci was fully instrumental in turning A-Town frowns upside down on Monday Night. His 16 points (4-for-7 3FGs), accompanied by flustering perimeter defensive play from the late second quarter on, helped the Hawks eradicate a 30-point first-half deficit and eventually ensure the visiting Celtics would be choking on hookah smoke for days on end before returning back to State Farm Arena for a double dip tomorrow.

In the meantime, in between time, Krejci’s brief emergence ought to be inspiring for the youthful Trail Blazers that make it on the floor to wrangle with the Hawks today (7:30 PM EDT, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, ROOT Sports in PDX). That won’t include Knox, formerly The Future for the Knicks, now left behind with Shaedon Sharpe by Portland for runs with their G-League Rip City Remix. That also won’t include Anfernee Simons (out, knee tendinitis), and possibly not Deandre Ayton (questionable, elbow tendinitis), authors of 69 of the Blazers’ 106 points the last time they defeated an NBA team.

Krejci was on the floor that night, two weeks ago in Oregon, watching a banner 40-point outing by teammate Dejounte Murray go to waste, the Hawks allowing the host Blazers to pull away late for the 106-102 victory. Portland (19-53; 11-13 vs. NBA East) has gone 0-7 since then, and whether Murray plays tonight, or is otherwise saved up for the Boston rematch, Vit seems to be gaining knowledge that, for however long he is on the floor, the Hawks will need for him to do more than just chip in on occasion.

Chauncey Billups was left to field five rookie starters in his lineup versus the red-hot Rockets (2023 draft picks Scoot Henderson, Kris Murray, and Rayan Rupert, along with Duop Reath and Toumani Camara). The results were about what you imagined. Maybe a little better, given the 110-92 loss belied a 51-47 lead for Billups’ Blazers entering the halftime locker room.

There is a challenge for the Hawks tonight, beyond riding too high reading their momentary press clippings as they resume their rightful place as the NBA backdrop for the “What Has Gone Wrong With The Good Teams?” media inquiries. That is, making sure whatever Portland drums up doesn’t have us, and the lemon-pepper wing-chewing Celtics, all watching these teams participate in an extra session or two. (The Bucks, who arrive from N’Awlins tomorrow ahead of a game on Saturday, know a thing or two about blowing big leads, and Coach Doc wouldn’t mind visiting a Hawks team that’s on tired legs by then).

Including an overtime game in Houston back in January, when the Rockets still lacked a rudder, the Blazers have won four road games in this calendar year of 2024. Three of those necessitated an OT session. The other two dubs included one at Brooklyn (grazie!; Tragic Number down to 6) way back in the first week of January, the other a SEGABABA in Memphis after having beaten the residual Grizzlies one night earlier, to start this month of March. From New Year’s Day on, Portland is 1-15 in road games that end in regulation.

Extending Atlanta’s win streak will require not just Vit, but Hunter, Trent Forrest, and the Mat(t)hewses to play like a cohesive unit for 48 minutes, no less and, if executing appropriately, no more. That means continuing to clog driving lanes for Henderson (37.8 FG%; 10-for-31 FGs in past two road starts), and getting out on perimeter shooters without fouling, teammates actively boxing out like wild buffalo to keep Portland’s possessions, with or without Ayton’s services, one-and-done.

Keeping shot fouls low (8 FTs for BOS in the middle-quarters on Monday) helped the Hawks engineer their historic clawback, and it would aid the Hawks (32-39, now up to 18-17 at home) tonight in keeping the game clock rolling to their eventual advantage. No panicked reaching for balls not in play, and no hesitation (as Hunter capably demonstrated in the clutch on Monday) when a very good shot is there for the taking. Not overthinking it, tonight, means not overtiming it.

Not so much for Henderson, as he is The Future in Portland (sorry, Simons) until at least when the next lottery pick washes ashore. But the rest of the impressionable Blazers under short-leash contracts ought to find players like Krejci and another slim backcourt project, a New Englander named Dalano Blanton (first career double-double with 28 bench points and 11 boards @ HOU; 17.4 PPG over past 15 games) that the Celtics ditched to Portland at Deadline time, quite impressive. These guys are doing the little things around the clock, plus the big things when needed, to keep themselves from becoming easily disposable.

Blue-chip undrafted, second-round, and super-raw first-round prospects are great for brief tenures in the NBA, especially late in seasons when teams fall far from title contention. To get much more than that, the blue chips have to learn ways to do more than just chip in. Otherwise, as Knox is aware, they're at great risk of becoming chip ‘n dip.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

Thanks lw3!

Hawks by  

Go Hawks!!!

[lethalweapon3]

Among the on-the-fence participants on the Boo-Boo Report for Portland, Matisse Thybulle (impinged ankle) is Questionable, along with Ayton (air mattress elbow), while Jerami "Fasolatido" Grant is Doubtful (strained hammy).

Nothing new shaking on the Hawks' side of the ledger (DJM is still understandably Questionable after carrying the Hawks on his "sore" back; Seth Lundy might catch a MARTA train up from College Park to rejoin the big boys), although I'd sure love to see Trae upgraded to at least Questionable by around this time tomorrow, which is, as always, Another Day, Another Opportunity.

Blazers GameNotes cites second-rounder Belgian-American Toumani Camara as one of two NBA rooks to clear the split bar of 350 points, 300 rebounds, 60 steals, and 35 made 3FGs. You've already guessed the other newbie. Oui.

Chauncey's All-Rooks starting five, beginning in the loss to Denver back on Saturday, was the second such unit tracked by the NBA since 1970-71. Klay Thompson somehow had to hit the floor for Mark Jackson's Warriors alongside Charles Jenkins, Mickell Gladness, Jeremy Tyler and Chris Wright in April 2012 to close out the NBA season. Patty Mills torched them for 34 points in a Spurs win. Mama, there goes that Aussie. 

My pleas for Clint not to chase O-Rebs continues to fall on deaf ears, but at least his 299th O-board worked out mighty fine. WHEN he gets offensive carom #300 today, as per Hawks Game Notes, he'll be the first NBA player to do that in a season since Steven Adams (remember him? Lovin' those T-Mobile ads with the Scrubs guys) back in 2021-22, and the first Hawk since Deke in 1999-00.

Also at the risk of jinxing a Hawk vet, Bogi's Threak, much like my street fashion, moves into the Eighties with a make tonight. Team Acid Wash, baby!

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Realizing I could really use fans like these in the peanut galleries whenever I'm out here bricking FTs like my guy Moses Brown:

~lw0ah

[JayBirdHawk]

11 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Realizing I could really use fans like these in the peanut galleries whenever I'm out here bricking FTs like my guy Moses Brown:

~lw0ah

What the heck 

[Gray Mule]

59 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Realizing I could really use fans like these in the peanut galleries whenever I'm out here bricking FTs like my guy Moses Brown:

~lw0ah

So sad.  A player gets paid a lot of $$$ money to play this game and this is what his free throws look like.  He must be really, really good at some other part of the game.  If not, why is he a pro player?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Injury report

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

I need the Hawks to have another game like they did against Charlotte...a. epic beat down.

But alas, we might still be on a high from the 30pt comeback vs Cs and looking ahead to the matchup tomorrow- trap game.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

Appetizers, I mean, starters...

~lw3

[hawkman]

Kinda wanting to see Scoot have a good game even if they get blown out.

[JayBirdHawk]

C'mon Hawks, get your heads together.

[hawkman]

Windler is kind of impressive so far.

[JayBirdHawk]

ugly ball so far.

[JayBirdHawk]

Better defense to end the first half.

[JayBirdHawk]

Love Bruno's ability to be a playmaker from the high post.

 

 

Vit using his length.

 

 

[terrell]

Bruno and 1..

[NBASupes]

Nice play Bruno

[JayBirdHawk]

GMat-1

[JayBirdHawk]

That Bogi turnaround spinning fadeway is