TheNorthCydeRises

Hawks radio sounds worried, despite Hawks being up 7 at halftime.

Do NOT waste possessions trying to get Kyle going. If he can't get his shots within the natural flow of the offense, get the ball to the people who can score.

I saw a MOOSE!!

Why does it makes you feel better? It simply proves that those home teams were vulnerable, or overlooked their opponent. If the Hawks, Rockets, and Cavs lose Game 2, they're toast in their respective series. Some Hawks fans act like because we beat them in the regular season, that the rest of the series should be a cakewalk. Like the Wiz are just going to roll over and die for us. The pressure in Game 2 isn't on them .... it's on US.

Hawks shot chart: Close range: 20 - 37 ... 54.1% ... ( yellow ) Short midrange: 1 - 6 ... 16.7% .... ( Red ) Long midrange: 3 - 17 ... 17.7% ... ( Red ) 3 point: 13 - 38 ... 34.2% ... ( Red )

It's only been about 16 or so teams in NBA playoff history that have won a series from down 0-2. The vast majority of the teams lost 2 road games and came back, not 2 home games. Lose 2 home games, and you're virtually done.

JTB ... if people are really going to be real about things, the Hawks have been doing this since Dominique statue night. This is not a new occurrence that's happening here. They've been schizophrenic defensively since Thabo first got hurt. And the bench has been struggling for a while now. Like Brooklyn, Washington was a team that we dominated in the regular season. I just don't see how people aren't concerned, when you lose home court advantage in Game 1. Should we still beat Washington? Yes. Do we really want to be in a 7 game war vs the Wizards, knowing that the Cavs or Bulls lie ahead? No. Now, Game 2 becomes a must win.

Fouling extends the game. Scenario - Hawks foul with 33 seconds left .. Wiz make 2 .. Hawks down 6. - Hawks make a 3 with 24 seconds left .. Hawks down 3 - Hawks foul with 22 seconds left .. Wiz make 1 of 2 FTs .. Hawks down 4. - Hawks get a quick 2 with 16 seconds left .. Hawks down 2. At this point, you'd even have the option to play pressure defense for up to 6 seconds, to see if you can get a turnover and tie the game or take the lead. Bud not fouling wasn't the reason why we lost the game. But not fouling significantly reduced our chance to possibly steal the game away.

Bazemore is the new Pero, when it comes to jumpshot. He should be banned from taking jumpers the rest of the series. When this team is struggling like that, I want to see more high and low post plays for Horford and Millsap.

Just a bad loss. No way around it.

Horford got a superstar call right there. Pierce definitely drew that charge. But with 5 fouls for Horford, the refs swallowed their whistle. Down 2 ... need stops the rest of the way.

Wiz up 7 ... this game may be over. Hawks can't buy a shot, and have stopped attacking the paint altogether.

Hawks literally shooting themselves into a decifit. Stop shooting 3s and get something easy!!

23 2nd chance points for Washington off 13 offensive rebounds. Make it 26 points ... and now they have the lead ... smh

Game of runs ... Wiz cut it to 1. Hubie: They're out scrapping Atlanta in the last 6 minutes. I agree Hubie.

Ha ... and they immediately go on a 7 - 0 run in about 90 seconds, to push the lead back up to 11. Keep it rolling guys. And keep them off the offensive boards.

Oh well ... so much for the blowout. Also, the Wiz are running Korver around like crazy, with Beal running him through multiple screens. Keep that in mind if Korver struggles shooting in the 4th. Honestly, Bud may want to go with Bazemore a little earlier than normal.

Great 1st half, except one thing .... defensive rebounding. Despite the Hawks shooting over 50% FG and from 3, and holding the Wizards to 40% FG ... it's the 9 offensive rebounds the Hawks have given up, that is keeping this game from being a blowout. If we shore up the defensive boards, we'll slowly extend this lead to close to 20. If not, they'll be in the game come the 4th quarter, and we'll have to battle to win. Off topic: Sage Steele looks REALLY GOOD today. Better than she normally does.

Dennis posted an individual defensive rating of 107 in that series, the worst among all of the rotation series. He also posted an individual offensive rating of 85. Only Kent Bazemore was worse. The most telling stat about Dennis in that series, is that he had a Usage % of 30.2 .... normally only superstar scorers have usage percentages in the 30 percentile range. This speaks volumes to what his mindset on offense is. I'm a Dennis supporter. But he didn't come close to running the offense in that series, and the Hawks suffered for it. He needs to calm down, get other people involved, and pick the right time to look for his own offense.

One day, the fan base will accept what the Joe Johnson era teams were. And that is simply that they were a young team who grew together, that simply wasn't good enough to be an elite team. In essence, that team was only favored to in ONE of the 5 1st round series they played in ... and none of the 2nd round matchups. - 2008: heavy underdogs vs #1 seed Boston - 2009: slight underdogs vs #5 seed Dwyane Wade and Miami - 2010: heavily favored vs #6 seed Milwaukee - 2011: underdogs vs #3 seed Orlando - 2012: slight underdogs vs #5 seed Boston They won 3 of those 5 playoff series. Yes, they weren't good enough to get a game vs 66 win and #1 seed Cleveland in 2009. And we all know what happened in 2010 vs #2 seed Orlando. They did finally become competitive in the 2nd round, pushing #1 seed Chicago to 6 games in 2011. They simply weren't good enough, along with the coaching.

Hmmmmm .... let's see 17.5 ppg .... 1st on team 7.2 rebs 2 8 asst 54% FG ....... 1st on team 47% 3FG ..... 1st on team 83% FG 21.0 PER ..... 1st on team 67% Total Shot % ... 1st on team .238 win score/48 ... 1st on team +10.3 plus/minus for the series Averaged 21.5 ppg in the final 4 games of the series. And most important ... kept Joe Johnson in check most of the series. Without DeMarre Carroll elevating his game to a level none of us thought he could, we were DEAD in that Nets series. Easily the MVP of the series.

I pointed that out during the Game thread. Craziest stat line ever.

That 3rd quarter reminded me of the 3rd quarter in Milwaukee back in the 2010 playoffs. Hawks went on something like a 27 - 2 run, with that group playing the best defensive quarter of their entire career. This group went on a 23 - 3 run tio blow the game open

Nate McMillan has NBA record for assists without scoring, with 16. Teague currently has 13. And . . . . OMG Bazemore hits a 3

Teague with the craziest stat line ever at the 5 minute mark of the 3rd quarter. 0/4 FG 0 points 11 assists +27 ( plus/minus on the floor )