TheNorthCydeRises

Nice tip at the end by Mario. And notice we tried to go 2 for 1 at the end. Indy just scored by the way. 17 - 14 Colts . . 2:53 to go in the 3rd.

Quote: Maybe it's just me but it seems like we didn't have a single alley oop all season (except on our tipoff play) until 2 games ago and now we try them all the time. Speaking if oops, WTF was that from Smoove to JJ? LOL. Smoove is like a wild deer sometimes. Nice feed from AJ to Chill.

I like how they keep calling Josh Smith, Joe Smith.

Acie should have 4 assist right now. Marvin messes up 2 of them. Is Acie putting a funky spin on the ball or something? Everything seems to rim out for him.

Now here's the test for this team. JJ should be able to sit out a full 6 - 7 minutes with this lead. Can they sustain it? Wooooooo . . now that's the Smoove I like. Nice to see them extend this lead to 21, as I type this. Keep it going guys.

Quote: The Hawks have 10 fast break points in the first quarter. They are definitely looking to push it up. OMG . . a Solo sighting !! And he gets a putback 2 off a offensive rebound.

The Closer is playing !! Marvin is currently the center, unless Woody subs for somebody after this timeout. Law Lue Chill JJ Marvin Because the Bulls don't have legit big people, we can get away with that.

Smoove at center right now. Nice outlet to Chill for the and-1. Chill guarding Deng, and Deng shoots an air ball. Chill > Deng

Gotta like how active we are right now. JJ off to a great start and the hands are deflecting balls and blocking on the defensive end. Good start

No Noah today because he gets into a verbal altercation with an assistant coach? Then the players say that one game isn't enough? Interesting. LOL . . maybe we can give them Shelden for Noah.

He went for 19 points and 15 rebounds tonight. Man, I hope we really didn't have a chance to get Nazr. He'd be a good guy to spell Horford and Smith. I know this organization doesn't want to give up on Shelden, but Woody doesn't trust neither he nor Zaza right now.

I noticed that the Hawksquawk homepage says "no TV" for tomorrow's game, but my TV listings say that WGN out of Chicago will carry it @ 2pm ( 1pm central ). Yes, that does mean that you have to listen to the worst, most homeristic TV announcers in the NBA, unless you hit the mute button. WGN usually shows the weekend Bulls game nationally, so if FSN South or SportSouth isn't carrying the game, it'll probably be there. Hope the game isn't blacked out in ATL.

The other wild card that people forget in the Smoove vs Gasol discussion, is how much more effective will Horford be at the 4, if Gasol came here to play the 5? Would Horford be a much more efficient scorer with Gasol at the 5? Individually, Smoove may develop into the better player, but Gasol may balance the team out better because Gasol can actually play like a center on the blocks. He can play both the high and low post, take people off the dribble, and pass effectively out of double teams. And that's the one element that Smoove has yet to face as a player . . being constantly doubled. Gasol constantly beat double teams last night. Smoove is playing GREAT right now, even though this team can't seem to pull out these close games lately. The next level for him as an offensive player, is to be able to shoulder the scoring burden, without JJ in the game, to give JJ an extended rest. But all Hawks fans should like what they see out of Smoove these days. He's a totaly different player than he was in November.

Quote: Yes, the missed free throws were all on the players and contributed to our loss last night, but there were some HUGE coaching blunders that also contributed just as much. I feel that with a better coach last night, we would have won the game. I haven't even read your post yet. I hit the quote button as soon as I saw your subject. LOL, this should be interesting. Quote: Here are the incidents: -Smoove not realizing the time left on the clock after that timeout. Woodson should have reminded everyone when they broke their huddle how much time was left. How do you know that Woody didn't do such a thing? And even if he didn't, I'm sure the players were well aware of the time on the clock. These are professionals, not middle and high school kids. Quote: -Woodson not calling a time out when we had the ball with 20 something seconds left and were running around like panicked chickens looking for their heads. We had gotten the stop. There was absolutely no need to call timeout at that time with the ball and a chance to take the last shot. Why they tried to get a quick score in that situation is anyone's guess. Quote: -Calling the same inbounds plays over and over. Everyone knows to look for JJ off a screen...Why not send someone slashing to the hole once in a while? And who would you suggest get the ball other than our best player? Most teams have one or two inbounds plays, depending on where they are on the court. If the main option isn't open, other options break free to get open. Quote: -Leaving Marvin in there in the 4th when he was obviously struggling. I would have rather seen Chills in there till the end last night. Your first valid argument. Marvin struggled both from the field and from the line. Marvin has been money the vast majority of the year though, so i see why Woody stuck with him. Quote: -The team seems to have no "direction" coming out of those late game timeouts. Most of the time, we got exactly what we wanted out of a timeout. We looked to take the ball hard to the hole. We got to the line and missed 3 FTs late. Marvin got to the hole, got fouled, but no call. And JJ went inside and got blocked. I wouldn't call that a team with "no direction". Quote: -We don't get the calls from the refs because we don't have a coach that they fear or respect. Woodson will just fold his arms and look like he was asked a trigonometry question. LOL . . haven't you figured ish out? We just had a win taken away from us by that leprechaun of a commissioner we got. We haven't gotten the calls al year, and it has nothing to do with Woody. It has everything to do with us being the Hawks. The league doesn't give a damn about us. We barely touch somebody and we get a foul. We go hard to the hole, and we MIGHT get a foul call 60% of the time. If Woody would've cussed a ref out, and drew a tech, you'd be blaming him for that. Quote: When we lose, the coaching inadequacies are so apparent. When we win, it's usually in spite of them. When is management going to realize this young team needs a coach that can teach and handle a bunch of 20 year olds. This isn't a veteran team that knows what to do. They need hands on coaching! That's complete BS. This team plays so many close games, that they know EXACTLY what to do in those situations. Ish, we've been in that exact situation I know 15 - 20 times already this season. Almost every game this team plays, goes down to the wire, whether we win or lose. They know what to do. These aren't a bunch of 12 year olds on the court that you have to tell everything to. If you're going to do this, you either need to give all the balme and credit to the players, or all the blame and credit to the coaches. You don't get to praise the players during wins, but not place any blame on then during losses. Some on this board will let you do that, but I'm not going to let you get away with it. The bottom line is that even with all od the BS we had to overcome, if our guys hit their FTs, we win that game . . .PERIOD. We shot 54% as a team from the line. 54%. And of the 11 FTs we missed, we had to have missed 6 - 7 FTs in the 4th quarter and OT. Meanwhile, Washington shoots 92% FT and hit damn near every FT during that same time period. More than any other nit-picking factor that you want to point to, that was the reason why we lost.

The mistake some of you make in this Smoove vs Gasol discussion, is that some of you don't give Gasol credit for just how good offensively this guy can be at times. Trading him for Smoove? I don't know at this point. We'd be weaker defensively, but better offensively. Gasol is not some scrub though. Both he and Smoove had tremendous nights tonight. Gasol finished with 43 points and 11 rebounds on 17/25 FG.

Smoove for Biendrins was the ridiculous deal. Biendrins can't even begin to contain Gasol. Pau has 41 points now.

I'm watching the Memphis / Golden St game. Monta is straight ballin'. 25 points so far. Damn, he just missed his first shot of the game. He was 11 for 11. Memphis has the lead down to 11, because the Warriors will always let you back in a game with all those jumpers. As for Acie, he just hs to act like this is his team.

Smoove was the man tonight. It's a shame that he couldn't knock down some of those FTs tonight. Can't knock his effort though. and by the way . . through 3 quarters at Golden St, Pau Gasol has 34 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. Damn, he hit another shot . . 36 points. LOL . . but Memphis is down by 20 ( 79 - 99 ).

Quote: Bottom line is (IMO) you don't get starters or even instant big contributors with every 1st round draft pick. We did pretty darn good last year - we got Al Horford who is a monster (19 rebounds and many other quality plays tonight) we hit the jackpot! As far as Acie goes, it looks like it is going to take more time with him. That doesn't make him a bust. Hell's bells, Billups was a slow starter at PG and took years to develop his game into what it is now. We should be happy with Al and get another PG. I hate to bring this up, but Mike Conley in Memphis has already taken control of that offense. That Memphis team is night and day with Conley at the controls, than Damon Stoudamire. If Conley sees a mismatch, he's either getting the ball to that man, or trying to score himself, if he has the mismatch. When you play PG on any level, you have to act like that is YOUR team, even if it isn't. Even when you're a backup, you have to have that mentality. That's why they call the PG the "floor leader". If you notice, AJ acts like this is his team when he's out on the floor. That's how a PG is supposed to act. Acie has to first develop the mentality that he's better than AJ. Then he has to take COMPLETE CONTROL when he's on the floor. That means he needs to take the open jumpshot . . or drive and kick . . or run to get the ball when one if our forwards get a rebound, so that HE can lead the break . . or constantly talk to people on offense and defense, to get everyone in the right spot. Those are the things he did at A & M. This is the same guy that said that he's not afraid to fail in interviews before the draft. But to me, that's exactly how he's been playing lately . . . like he's afraid to fail ( or get pulled out of a game for a bad play ). He'd rather make no play at all, than to make a bad play. And he just can't play like that.

Quote: I understand he is a 'rookie', but one of the reason we got him was his ability to make plays. He isn't a Baron Davis. He isn't a Tony Parker. He isn't a Deron Williams. He isn't a Chris Paul. However, I expect a little bit more from Acie Law. Brandon Roy is not a natural PG, but he is leader with a great basketball IQ and can make shots when his team needs it. Acie apparently has overcome his early injuries and has been playing semi-regularly the last few weeks. NOW its time to SHOW YOUR TALENT and SHOW YOUR LEADERSHIP. Horford is an emerging player, but its time for Acie to take his game to a different level. It seems like he is playing scared, but at some point he has to take control of this offense and if he is open, he needs to take that shot instead of giving it up or driving the ball to the basket into a turnover.. it's time for Acie to SHOW UP... The Hawks need you to do so..especially AT HOME! I think the only way we're going to see the real Acie, is of Woody puts him back in the starting lineup. See if playing him early can get him going. He may be the opposite of Lue. He may be the type that has to start games and get in the flow right away, instead of coming off the bench. He controlled everything at A & M. He might need Woody's blessing to control things here. He is playing scared. Playing not to make a mistake. I know that feeling as a ballplayer. It messes with your mind and your game. That's possibly what's wrong with a guy like Zaza. And change your sig, and add this game to the list of blown games.

Quote: This is nuts. What if some guys are injured and can't play. They should have to let back into the arena all the Hawks fans who went to the original game, so that they can see the finish. Then after 53 seconds they can let in the fans for the other game. Fans should sue that if they didn't see the full game, they should get a ticket to another game. Or a refund!!!!!!! Ridiculous.... That's exactly what I'm worried about. Or worse, what if someone gets hurt DURING the replay of this ish. This pretty much proves that the league doesn't give a damn about us. Either Woody,Billy, or onr of the owners should PUBLICALLY say it just like that. The fact that Stern has pretty much let the ownership dispute go on without any word one way or the other, is another indication that they don't care. The Hawks should now IMMEADIATELY PROTEST the Josh Boone dunk that shouldn't have counted in the Jersey game. And the owners should be proactive about every non-foul call that JJ doesn't get. The AJC, the sports talk guys, somebody in that town better show some extreme outrage over this ish. This is like the NFL telling the Patriots to replay the Jets game, after they caught the cameraman on the Pats sideline. I've never liked David Stern to begin with. Now I HATE his bytch azz!!

So far so good with the 11 - 7 home record. That puts us right on pace to win 25 at home. With the Hawks already playing some of the top West teams at home, it looks as if we can reach that 25 win home mark. Every home game, especially vs the East teams, becomes huge right now. I'll sacrifice some home losses against the West, if we can take care of business against the East at home.

I definitely overrated them. Speedy being unable to play this year, didn't help matters. The guy that disappoints me most, is Shelden. I expected him to be much, much better and more consistent coming off the bench. I've always thought that he'd surge ahead of Zaza on the depth chart and really be solid off the bench. Woody is doing what he has to do, when shortening the rotation. Right now, we really only have a core 7 in the rotation: starters + Chill and Law. The 8th guy depends on who gets in foul trouble and the 9th guy depends on what type if team we're playing. On any given night, Lue, Lo &, Shelden will be that 8th man, with those other guys + possibly Mario and Zaza being 9th. With Speedy, I thought we'd easily go 10 deep, possibly even 11. But right now, I'm very content going 8 deep. I just hope we don't wear the guys down too much. Chill is more important than ever now.

Quote: Mike Miller for Marvin/Lo. Then we play: Acie/JJ/Miller/Smoove/Horf. With JJ/Miller on the team together. That would be scary! You always miss a key element in your quests to trade Marvin. Right now Woody is starting to play Marvin more and more at the 4. If you take Marvin & Lo away, it suddenly thrusts Shelden Wlliams and Zaza into a "you MUST produce for us every night role." If they don't, and either Horford or Smoove gets in foul trouble, we're dead in the water. Not only would we not have the luxury of playing Marvin at the 4, we'd lose our "best" position post defender off the bench in Lo. We'd be better offensively, but there would be a severe defensive dropoff. Miller would make us look prettier in offense. Memphis aa a whole runs a better offense than we do. But that offense doesn't traslate into wins, because they can't defend. Miller is a far worse defender than Gasol is.

Quote: Maybe i have you confused with KB. Were you heavily criticizing Gasols defense a couple of months ago or was that someone else? Needless to say i have no interest in trading Gasol for Smith. Yeah that was KB. He makes Gasol seem like Zaza on defense. He's not that bad. But he is soft on the defensive end, but better than Zaza. Offensively, he's a top 10 post player.