TheNorthCydeRises

Pero Antic

How is a 49 win team "really good"? They remind me of the Hawks last year. So if they're really good, we're not as bad as our record says we are.

Thing is, with the amount of guys we already have who can't shoot ( but still get playing time ) he should've been playing anyway.

Wall has the most efficient game of his life, and they still got waxed. Great job by Dennis. Outside of the shaky 3rd quarter, he played like an All-Star. Millsap was incredible. And can't say enough about Taurean. Good job Hawks. Like I said, no need to panic.

I can't wait until next weekend. Some of you are going to be heartbroken that we'll be 1 game away from advancing to the 2nd round.

I'll call it right now. Hawks 102 Wizards 88

A lot of the things that the Hawks are doing, are very correctable. That's why it wouldn't surprise me if they won by double digits tomorrow.

Yeah. I guess people routinely forget that 8th seed Brooklyn ( with JJ, Brook Lopez, and Deron Williams . . . and "Hawk Killer" Jarrett Jack ), had this series tied 2 - 2 going back to Atlanta in Round 1. And Jack damn near beat us by himself in Game 5. That team also caught a huge break when Wall broke his hand in Game 1 in the Semis and enabled us to catch our breath in that series. Heck, we were actually DOWN in that series 2 - 1, and on the brink of all hell breaking loose, had the Hawks not won Game 4 in Washington. Then came the "Horford Miracle" in Game 5. And the Paul Pierce "after the buzzer 3" in Game 6, to send us to the EC Finals. But let's not act like that team was some vastly superior squad in the playoffs, that just rolled through everybody. That team was soft, but mentally tough and a great regular season squad. They were definitely fun to watch, but weren't a playoff juggernaut by no means.

I said that Dwight had the best defensive rating, not that he was great defensively. A 104 rating is average defensive impact. He and Millsap were around 100 DRtg for most of the season

LOL . . how has Moose been "fine", when he can't score and can't defend . . and can't even rebound? And he's tied with the most fouls on the team ( 8 ), because he's being worked over on the inside. It's just like last year. Moose stunk it up in the playoffs, and Bud had to turn to Humphries. He gave us the right amount of toughness around the rim off the bench, in order to stabilize things. If he plays today over Moose, the same will happen.

Basketball-reference.com Scroll down to the playoff section of the team page, then click on DRtg to sort the numbers from lowest to highest, http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ATL/2017.html

The numbers don't lie sir. You force Wall to beat you by shooting "FTs off the dribble" . . . which he hasn't really done in this series. Give him the FT and let's see if he can make it. Have Dwight ( or Humphries ) sag off Wall, and let's see how many shots he can make. He'll shoot them right out of the game.

So let's take a look http://stats.nba.com/players/ball-handler/#!?sort=PPG&dir=1 In 2 games, John Wall is 4th in points as the Pick and Roll ball handler, at 10.5 ppg. Conversely, Dennis Schröder is right there with him at 10.5 ppg. But let's focus on Wall and the Washington PnR. Wall is posting a very mediocre PPP ( points per possession ) number of 0.78 as the Pick and Roll Ball Handler, and shooting 31.6% FG. If the Wiz keep wanting to put us in the Pick and Roll, in an attempt to supposedly expose Dwight, the numbers say that they're really not successful at doing this. But the key is to MAKE Wall the shooter, and not the passer. The flip side of the Washington Pick and Roll is on the Man side, in which Marcin Gortat has excelled. http://stats.nba.com/players/roll-man/#!?sort=PPG&dir=1 He's scoring a ridiculous 8 ppg as the Roll Man, which is by far #1 in the playoffs. This is 3 more points than the #2 guy Deandre Jordan, who lives off the PnR to get his points. When the Hawks have the big man come out to contest Wall's drive or jumper, that opens things up for Gortat around the rim. Game 2 is a great illustration as to how Gortat got his points off the PnR The other thing to notice about this clip, is the obvious. Moose has NO CHANCE of handling Gortat on the inside. NONE. And in this clip, he only scored 4 points while Dwight was in the game, but 10 points while Moose was in. The Hawks must stop the drive of Wall, while not letting him feed Gortat whenever he wants. Turn Wall into a midrange shooter. Let's see if he can make more than 4 shots in the midrange off the pick and roll. If I was Bud, I'd take my chances more on giving Wall open 15 footers, than letting him pass to Gortat 3 feet away from the rim.

And yet, Dwight still post the best Defensive rating amongst all of the Hawks in the 2 playoff games ( 104 ). All of our other main rotation players are 110 and above. There is no doubt that Gortat is outplaying Dwight in this series. That still doesn't mean that Dwight can be off of the floor. The Wiz play slower in the halfcourt, when Dwight is in the game, which is to our advantage. Our backup bigs simply aren't good enough to hold the fort defensively, and can't be counted on offensively. So you go with your best option, which all year has been Dwight.

Last night should give everyone hope. Memphis, after being manhandled in 2 games vs the Spurs, come back home and look like a totally different team. Of course, Coach Fiz made a nice adjustment by starting Zack Randolph, and it paid off big time. All of a sudden, that doesn't feel like it'll be a quick series anymore. Game 4 will be loud as hell. Milwaukee had already proven that they could beat the Raptors. Last night was on a different level though. In front of a rowdy home crowd, they flat out destroyed the Raps. Most important, they got major contributions from their bench, who blew that game wide open in the 1st half. Despite the Hawks basically letting 2 winnable games slip through their fingertips, I don't have a sense of worry about this team ... yet. Role players usually play much better at home, and this is especially true during the playoffs. Look for Hardaway Jr to really play well in these next 2 home games. He has to. Because if he doesn't, he's going to lose millions this summer. The other guy to look at is Taurean Prince. He's had a very nice series so far ( 13 ppg - 5 rpg . . on 58% FG ). Hopefully Bud will have a little more trust in him, and not the shaky Bazemore. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a true breakout game in one of these 2 home games. I still say that the bench adjustment that needs to be made, is to play Humphries instead of Muscala. Moose's offensive impact is minimal, no matter how much better of an offensive player he is over Humphries. It's a toughness factor that makes Humphries a more valuable play in a series like this, over Moose. Also, Ilyasova has been very quiet in this series so far. This is disappointing, considering how good of an addition he's been to the team this year. I expect him to pick up his level of play at home. And of course, Dwight Howard needs to get his 30 minutes a game. While his offense has been putrid, his defensive impact in a game is still undeniable. His rebounding is still needed, especially his ability to get us extra possessions via offensive rebounds. If he's not hurt, expect a much more inspired game from him. Millsap finally got it going a bit in Game 2. And Dennis has been great all series. No worries about those two. They look engaged to lead this team the proper way. Let's see what this Wiz team is made of. If they're ready for prime time, they'll battle us to the death ( even if they don't win Game 3 ), But don't be surprised one bit if the Wizards get ran out of the gym tomorrow.

Moose was -12 in the 2nd half alone.

Which means if Dwight comes back in, they may go back to running PnR. And that plays to our advantage, because that turns Wall into a midrange shooter, and keeps the ball out of Beal's hands. When Dwight went out, you saw a plethora of plays going iso, and plays going to the rim. And they got a few 2nd chance points as well. That's normally what happens when you try to play small, and your small lineup isn't stout enough defensively to hold up.

Ironically, it reminds me of the type of play your avatar would make. At least with Smoove, he'd race down on the other end and block the layup attempt, and get the ball back.

LOL . . of course not. When the ( - ) is in Dwight's column, that's all people focus on, including yourself. But when it's in the ( + ) column, it's "fake stats". Through 3 quarters, Beal was 6 - 18 FG . . . Wall was 6- 16 FG In the 4th quarter, Beal was 6 - 9 FG . . Wall was 3 - 4 FG. Guess who wasn't in the game when they scored a combined 24 points in the 4th and shot 9 - 13 FG?

LMAO @ can't hate on Bud. Anytime you're sitting your starting center, in favor of guys who aren't doing anything on the floor, the hate HAS to come his way. Dwight definitely has to play better, but he shouldn't be benched in favor of those scrubs. Don't be surprised if Dwight says something "controversial" tomorrow regarding his playing time, or how he's being used. And I know people don't like Humphries, but Humphries is a much more effective player against a real center like Gortat, than Moose will ever be. He should be the 2nd big off the bench, after Ersan . . . not Moose. Bud relies too much on his so-called offensive players bailing him out, when defense is what will win games for the Hawks. Having said that, I'm still not worried about this series yet. Washington did what they were supposed to do, and that's hold homecourt. Hawks have played like garbage for 2 games, and still came close to winning both of them. The only thing of concern, is that this team have flat out laid eggs at home during the regular season. But they played better in their last few home games. It's definitely not panic time yet. Let's see what they do in Game 3, and if Bud can make the proper adjustments.

Of course not. I mean, because he was 3 - 4 FT in Game 1, and has shot 67% FT in his past 7 games, he just can't possibly be out on the court. Funny that he was +5 this game, and couldn't even get back on the floor. Hawks went on a 13 - 0 run in that 3rd quarter. And as SOON as he went out the game, we started giving the small lead we had right back to the Wiz. With Dwight out in the 2nd half, we ended up being outscored by 15 points, with Moose and Ersan giving us little to nothing.

Howard was on the floor when the Hawks made the big run in the 3rd quarter. So why couldn't he get back into the game?

That was a coaching decision. It's not his fault that coach trusted Muscala over him, toward the end of the 4th.

They're supposed to celebrate. Haven't won a playoff series in damn near 40 years? So them being up 2 - 0 may as well be like winning the title. Hawks simply have to bring everything they got on Saturday night.

In the grand scheme of things, that group, along with Thabo ( who was the defensive equivalent that Hardaway Jr is now ), caught about 2 months worth of lightning in a bottle. Otherwise, the Hawks have been a little above mediocre. Forget the 17 game winning streak, that group at one point went 35 - 3 over a 2.5 month stretch ( I believe that's 3rd best of all time in a 38 game stretch . . tied with the 71 - 72 LA Lakers, and behind last year's Warriors team that started 36 - 2). And it wasn't just the starters. It was Dennis off the bench, playing like a top 5 bench PG. Thabo giving us great minutes at SF on defense. Mike MF Scott playing like Hardaway Jr is now at times on offense. And ( smh ) Pero . . the King of the Screen. But when Thabo went down at the end of January of that season, the chemistry started to change. That season, Thabo played extremely well with everybody . . . except the person he currently still doesn't play well with . . . Bazemore. And while the Hawks were still winning, they weren't dominant anymore. They missed Thabo dearly in that playoffs, and it reared it's ugly head vs Cleveland.' So 2 months of historic basketball + 3.5 years of average ball = 2nd round playoff team.