TheNorthCydeRises

The saddest thing about the booing, is that he's going to be more appreciated in Phoenix and Brooklyn, than he'll be in Atlanta, when he retires.

I'm a huge JJ fan still, and I agree with your assessment. In the playoffs, he is the enemy. So if they want to boo him, no matter how bad it looks, I don't have too much of an issue with it. My REAL concern about the booing, is that it just might give him motivation to really play well in one of these games in Atlanta. The booing, to me, is like poking a dog that really doesn't bark at anybody, with a stick. Eventually, that dog is going to get pissed off, and try to bite you.

Haven't the fans booed JJ on every return to Atlanta though, since he's become a Net? It was just much more pronounced last night. Much louder than usual.

I agree that he and Bud selected the right players to play in Bud's system

That's a good strategy too. Make him drive to make him use more energy. If he starts to get going from 3, that could be a problem for us. The plan looks like to shut off the Pick and Roll involving the PG and Lopez, and to keep JJ from completely going off. That means that it may be up to Deron Williams to save them.

No he didn't. He came here because he wanted to be a head coach of a team that wasn't in a total rebuilding situation. Out of all of the jobs available that summer, the Hawks job was one of the best ones, because we already had at least a lower level playoff team. Ya'll talk like Bud and the "exiled one" have been buddies for decades. They worked together for a total of 2 years, before Ferry took the Hawks GM job. People forget that it was actually Quin Snyder ( who is doing well in Utah ), that was Ferry's initial 1st choice.

Jack's shooting was offset by all those turnovers. He and Dennis basically cancelled each other out, by scoring well, but turning the ball over a ton.

@Dejay Excellent post. Saved me a lot of typing and addressed the points I was going to make. Lopez rebounding like that is most irritating, because he isn't a great rebounding big man like that. With Millsap nowhere near 100%, I'd like to see Horford look for his shot more, while Millsap plays "garbage man" and try to score via offensive rebound putbacks.

??? Isn't "rose colored glasses" and "beer goggles" basically the same thing? With "rose colored glasses" you're only choosing to see the good, while ignoring the bad. I think that's what he was saying about you. With "beer goggles", something that is bad ( when sober ) is actually looking good to you ( because you're drunk ). I don't think that's what you were saying about him.

JJ had a bad shooting game, thank goodness. But he actually controlled the game very well. Passed out of double teams and found his teammates. He's not shooting 0 - 6 from 3 in this series again. On the flip side, how Lopez only got 7 FGA is unbelievable. Even if they want to run offense through JJ, they have to get Lopez more shot attempts.

It'll be Lopez. Horford ( like many in the league ) really can't stop Lopez from scoring. What we can do is run him to death. I'll say this though, if Brooklyn does win a game or two, it'll be due to either JJ or Deron. But overall, I'll go with the consistency of Lopez.

An absolutely outstanding piece on Dominique. If you are a fan of him or this team, this is a must see. Never knew he went through so much when he was young.

LOL ... this is Hawksquawk. Over the top fan stuff ( positive or negative ) will be challenged here and fact checked. Hawks should definitely win in no more than 5 games because Brooklyn still hasn't committed to playing defense. But JJ can and probably will have one huge game in this series. And the fact that we'll be without Sefolosha doesn't help at all in this series either. Hawks are playing good, but not at the elite level they were playing at in December and January. If JJ has his monster game, and they get one big game from Deron, the series will probably go 6 games. Lopez will be steady and get his points.

Unfortunately, this is wrong. He had his best playoff showing of his career just last season when they played Miami. Averaged 21.2 ppg on 53% FG and 42% 3FG shooting. Do I think he can average that against us? No. But JJ has always been good for at least one star like performance per playoff series ( sans the 2010 Orlando series ). And a lot of those big time games have come on the road. Last year @ Miami. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLcFo9m5JcQ Last year @ Toronto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4OTYuopCFo 2013 Brooklyn @ Chicago ( the Nate Robinson game ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02LTR7Bwa8Y

PERFECT!! Hopefully the Hawks game will be the end of a great weekend for me.

Raptors are licking their chops to face us. They won the season series 3- 1

Deception of +/- stat . . . Vince Carter Currently 0 - 6 fg . . . 0 - 4 3fg @ 7 minute mark in 4th qtr. 1 reb 1 stl 1 asst 0 points +19 for the game . . . leads Grizzlies

oops . . . wrong spot

Can't count on this sucka for nothing. Gasol flat out dominating him.

I agree. Please let it be the night game. Surely the early game would have to be Milwaukee vs Toronto.

A real world equivalent to this, would be something along the lines of this: A person works for a company in Atlanta that also has an office in New York City. He has a 3 PM presentation he has to do at the NYC office the next day. He gets off from work in Atlanta at 4:30 PM and has a 7 PM flight to catch to head to New York City. Bad weather in Atlanta forces a 2 1/2 hour delay to his flight, and he doesn't depart ATL until 9:30. He didn't book a direct flight, so his plane flies to Detroit first, before arriving in NYC at 1 am. The man, who isn't tired and wants to unwind a little, hits a club at 2 am. He figures he can party a little, get to bed no later than 5 am, and still be plenty rested up for his late afternoon presentation. Unfortunately, as the man is kicking it to a fine female in VIP, her ex boyfriend pop up out of nowhere and starts a confrontation with him. He "ain't no punk", so he doesn't back down to her ex-boyfriend, and they get into a fight. It's 1 pm the next day, and the man only got 3 hours of a very uncomfortable sleep, due to being treated at the hospital for a broken finger, 7 stitches to his forehead, and a bruised cheekbone. He also is now sporting a nasty black looking black eye. He calls his boss in Atlanta and tells him that he's not going to be able to do the presentation because of his physical condition. He tells his boss that the fight wasn't his fault and he was only defending himself ( albeit unsuccessfully ). So should his boss be like ... "OK man. That situation was out of your control. Come on back home ..... Or "Why were you at a club at 2 am in the morning, when you knew that you had an important presentation to do that afternoon?" Or maybe he tells the man both statements.

I'm one of the few Hawks fans that agrees with you. There's a reason why they have security ( sometimes police security ) outside of a nightclub. And it's normally due to the same situation that happened to Chris Copeland. I'm not against Thabo or anybody else going out at that time of night. But as athletes, you can make prior arrangements to increase your safety going to, being inside, and leaving the club. Take a limo straight to the club. Call ahead to get VIP express access and a table in VIP. And when you get ready to leave, have security escort you to your limo. Those guys also have to take into account that when you're in a different city, there's a possibility that you may be treated differently from everybody. In your home city, people know who you are, and you're more than likely to get the benefit of the doubt on things. The NYPD are a notoriously aggressive police force and definitely shouldn't be let off the hook for hurting Thabo. But if it is common for players on teams to have played a game . . get on a plane to fly hours to another city . . and get off of a plane in the middle of the night and head straight to a club to party .. then you see why teams routinely drop games on the 2nd night of a back to back. The excuse always given, is that they're tired from playing the game the night before. But maybe they're tired from playing the night before AND the partying they did after the game. One last thing. It's funny how most of our fans defend Thabo and Pero's "right" to be out that time of night .. but absolutely DESTROYED Mike Bibby, Josh Smith, and others on the 2010 Hawks when they went to party in Chicago after landing in Milwaukee for the 2010 playoffs. Hawks were up 2 - 0 in that series after 2 easy wins. They get to Milwaukee ( a city with virtually no plush nightlife ) and Bibby and the boys decide to roll down to Chicago for their entertainment. The Hawks would lose the next 2 games in Milwaukee. When our fans found out, most of us had an absolute fit about the guys partying. Some will say ... "well its the playoffs, that's different." I say that what you did in the season is normally what you're going to do in the playoffs.

Paul Pierce isn't a loser?

Pretty good predictions in this thread.

Because he's the most interesting blogger in the world. GM be like .... "I don't always post on Hawksquawk. But when I do. I drink Dos Equis. Stay positive my friends."