TheNorthCydeRises

First one to 88 probably wins this. Time for JJ to either crank it up as a scorer, or as a playmaker. It'll be nice to see the bench do a lil something to start this quarter though.

Since when did Ivey change his name to Ice Cube? He's gonna mess around and drop a triple-double on us. For Ivey, I guess it is a "good day".

I wonder if people would trade Josh Howard for Marvin?

Woody on JJ: "He left a good situation in Phoenix and had to be the man here." . . "It was great for him to make the All-Star team, to show him that he could play at that level" . . "Now we're just trying to get him to be more of a vocal leader" Woody on Marvin: "We had high hopes for Marvin when we first drafted him." . . . "If you look at him now, his numbers are very consitent across the board every game." Woody on Smoove: "When we first got this young man, we had to teach him everyting" . . . "Now he's developing into a very good player" Woody on Chill: "Chill is a player that i think can start for most teams in the NBA" . . "I don't have to run plays for him, and he can still put up numbers" Woody on Al: "The reason why i love this kid is because he's battle tested" ( he then refers to Al's championship years in college )

i saw this on Saturday. It's a replay of NBA Access with Ahmad Rashad. Both the Hawks and the Blazers are being featured. If you turn to ESPN2 RIGHT NOW, you may catch the 2nd half that features Smoove, Horford and Chill. Marvin and JJ were featured in the 1st part of the show.

Marvin is essentially the backup at the 4 when Smoove gets in foul trouble. Take him away, but add M. Miller, and you're now depending on Shelden or Solo to play and produce night in and night out. LOL . . and you're trading 2 of our bigs, just to get a shooter, especially seeing that Marvin is essentially a shooter as well? It's just no logic in that.

Looks like the Hawks are playing like the real Hawks now. Not that bizzaro Hawk team we saw in the 1st half. Lead is stll comfortable right now. Hope the guys can deliver a knockout blow real quick, so that we can start resting people for tomorrow night

Quote: I am calling BS on this one. A female lawyer says she was sucker punched by Pacman at a strip club, I find that hard to believe. As an attorney myself, I know that any lawyer worth their bar number would have immediately filed a police report and got the names of potential witnesses. She also would have immediately gone to the doctor, to get a medical evidence. That 10 dollar hand written warrant she filed is sh*t that disgruntled girlfriends, and baby mommas file, not licensed attorneys. Interesting you say that. While Pac definitely has a Napoleon complex, and has a problem concerning women, there's a reason why a charge filed against him has never stuck. The "sucker punch" may have been no more than a push to get her out of his face, and she took offense to that. That's not to defend his action of putting his hand on her, but the females that have brought charges against him in the past, has almost always exaggerated what actually went on. I was at a nightclub in Murfreesboro, TN, in which he allegedly spit in the face of a woman. I saw the commotion, but didn't see who was involved until security got things somewhat calmed down. From what people have told me that saw the argument, if Pac did spit on her, it was no more than the spit that flies out of your mouth whn you're in an intense argument. It wasn't something he intentionally did, by their accounts. But because he had been involved in a previous spitting incident, the girl he was arguing with, played that same "card". Pac makes the mistake of being high profile in the clubs. He loves the attention. Pac becomes irate when the police starts questioning him. They then urge him to leave the club and go to his car. But he still kept talking while he was slowly moving. The police then get in his face and tell him to go home. He still keeps talking. He then gets arrested not for spitting on the woman, but for disorderly conduct, with the "assault" charge ( spitting ), added onto that. I'm listening to Jim Rome right now, and he makes a good point. Why is he in ANOTHER strip club? Or another club of any type, for that matter? It's the place in which he's found himself in the most trouble in the past 3 years. I don't think Pac is some hardcore criminal, but he is UNBELIEVABLY STUPID! He's going to get banned from the league, based off of his stupidty alone. Don't be surprised if Pac once again gets charged with nothing. But it might be enough for Goddell to keep him out the NFL for another year.

Quote: After seeing the Wizards get better without him...I will pass. I'm glad somebody said that before I did. That Wiz team is much more of a balanced team without Arenas, than with him. Arenas, when on, is a top 5 talent in the league. But when he's off, he can flat out shoot you out of a game. The back to back wins vs the Celtics is impressive as hell, because they won both of those games by hunkering down on defense. With Arenas, he would've tried to shoot them back into the game by hoisting up a lot of bad threes. As I said before the season, both Butler and Jamison are good enough to be 1st options on a team. And if Arenas would defer to them more, they'd be an elite team. He'd also be a better shooter because he wouldn't be forcing shots all the time. But Arenas is more interested in scoring 30 a game to prove people wrong, than scoring 20 a game and dishing out 10 assists, in order to make the team better. A JJ - Arenas backcourt would be deadly . . . until Arenas starts gunning. He'd not only fail to get the ball to JJ when open, a guy like Smoove would see his touches severely limited, especially in the 1/2 court. He and a young Stephon Marbury play a lot alike, if you ask me, with Steph being a better playmaker and Arenas being the more explosive scorer. Someone on here said during that Arenas debate before the season, that Butler's numbers had increased while with Arenas in Washigton. That is true. It's now funny to see how much BETTER he is as a player WITHOUT Arenas. When you're supposedly a top 3 PG in the league, yet, Kirk Hinrich gets the nod over you on the Olympic team, something is either seriously wrong with your game, or your mentality toward it. Put JJ on the Wiz in place of Arenas, and they become an elite team in the East because JJ would gladly share the ball with Jamison and Butler. And that's one of the reasons why even JJ beat out Arenas to get a spot on the Olympic team. no . . No . . and HELL NO to Arenas here.

Nice thread as usual. With the absence of Melo in the thread, I'm assuming he'll be the feature of the game thread the next time we play Denver. As far as the game goes, I'm glad Charlotte really pushed them lst night and knocked them off. The thing with the Nuggets, is that you have to make AI a scorer, and not a playmaker. And you have to do the opposite with Melo if possible. We can't let him go off. He and Melo have great chemistry together and AI will try to get him going first. Then when teams start to rotate over to Melo, AI will look to attack. This is the type of game we need a guy like AJ to make some shots from the outside to keep AI from roming the court on defense. He'll get some open looks tonight, so he needs to hit his first few jumpers to keep them honest. Intrresting battle between Camby and Horford. The game might ultimately be decided by who can get the most rebounds between the two.

It would be 34 games for us, if it wasn't for the commish. But the games are pretty much gonna start coming fast and furious starting tonight. Except for the 6 day all-star break, we're pretty much are going to play every other night, or back-to-back nights. It really gets ridculous after the all-star break though March. From that time until April 1st, we play 24 - 25 games in a 40 night span. 14 of those games come on back-to-back nights, which is a killer. We need the bench to start stepping up, other than Childress, or all of the main guys may run out of gas toward the end of the season.

He just hurt his knee in the game vs Memphis. The way his knee buckled, I'd be shocked if he isn't out for at least a few weeks, if not the year. That's too bad too, because he was really coming into his own as a good young center.

If not for our foul trouble today on the frontline, I don't think Solo plays morte than 5 minutes today. And the fact that the Bulls have post people our size, it was probably a better option to put Solo in over Lorenzen. Shelden should be more concerned than anybody. Solo might play against Denver, only to offset Camby's and Melo's athleticism. Even with that though, h probably doesn't play a lot, unless guys are in foul trouble.

Quote: we won by 20 and JJ still played 42 minutes - WTF is wrong with our head coach. i didn't see the game but I don't care how hot a guy is, play him that much and he'll break... flava That's why you should've watched the game. - JJ played the entire 1st quarter, scored 19 points - Horford and Smoove were in foul trouble all game - Marvin was pretty much a non factor offensively today The only time JJ really had a chance to get significant rest, was in the 2nd quarter. Woody opted to put JJ in a little earlier than he should've, so that we'd still have a double digit lead at halftime. ( sigh ) I'll say this again, and keep saying it, until some of you finally get it. While JJ isn't as talented as a LeBron, Kobe, and Wade, he is just as important to the Hawks, as those guys are to their respective teams. And all of those guys routinely play 40+ minutes a night. Kobe, because his entire team is stepping up these days, has been playing less. If Marvin or Smoove could be counted on to provide offense EVERY game when JJ isn't on the floor ( not just every once in a while ), then JJ could see his minutes reduced to around 35 minutes a game. If you want the Hawks to win, he has to play heavy minutes. That's just a fact of life for us.

Quote: I love the win and all, but why did he have to play 42 minutes? Let Mario get some burn JJ's opportunity to sit, was in the 2nd quarter. Hawks played well at first with him out of the game, but then they began to struggle in the 1/2 court. Resting JJ is easier said than done. He pretty much has to play 40+ minutes for us to win. When you're normally the best scorer and playmaker on your team, it's pretty much a given that you'll log heavy minutes every night.

How many turnovers did we have in that 3rd quarter alone, based off of playing too fast.? One of the major differences in that 3rd quarter, was that the vast majority of our running opportunities in the 1st half came off of steals and blocks. When Horford and Smoove picked up those quick fouls, that reduced those running opportunities. And we were actually pretty good in the half court offense in the 1st half.

Good win today, although it was a little shaky. The great start by JJ, along with the 1st half defense, was the difference today. Now we're going to see what this team is made of in the next 2 - 3 weeks. It'll be nice to go at least .500 over that stretch, and not lose any ground in the East.

Lue is going to play with the Globetrotters one day, with all the dribbling. Chargers win!

hmmm . . Chargers hold and have the ball. It's JJ or nothing for us today. 5 fouls on both Smoove and Horford.

There are just no easy wins for this team. Hopefully Smoove's return will put this game away. Hmmmmm . . 4th and goal for the Colts, and they're down by 4 with 2 to go

Quote: OK - we are up 14 going into the 4th quarter - we can't possibly phuck this up You do remember last year right? Marvin needs to give us something. Nice out of control drive by Marvin. Wow . . he can't Fts now?

Hawks have missed their last 10 shots . . . JJ 6 of his last 8. Chill with 3 turnovers in the quarter. And Marvin is cold.

Quote: marvin is just garbage today. I agree. Hawks are damn lucky that the Bulls are somewhat cold. Lead down to 14 now.

LOL . . and people love t blame Woody for everything. We're committing stupid fouls and dumb turnovers. If the Bulls knock down a few shots in a row, they're right back in this game. Let's hope the defense holds up while the offense struggles.

2 quick fouls on Smoove and Horford. Everybody on the frontline has 3 fouls. Just make them play you at the rim. See . . another crazy foul on Smoove.