TheNorthCydeRises

That's what I think it is. They believe that they're better than what they really are. I think some of the young guys do like some of our fans do, and believe their press clippings a little too much. Or whenever we beat a real good team ( usually at home ), that we should just be able to go out and beat lesser teams without giving maximum effort. Doesn't work like that fellas. The Hawks are the HUNTED now. These lesser teams look at us as "elite" ( even if we're not ), and will jacked up to play us ( especially when we're on their home court ). And it's not a coaching phenomenon. This is all on the players, when it comes to intensity and taking teams serious. Utah and Denver play the same way. Utah had somewhat control of the Indiana game last night, and put it in cruise control. Then Granger and Murphy started making shots, and Utah couldn't flip the switch back on. Before it was all said and done, Indiana had gone on a 28 - 3 run, and had a double-digit lead. Jerry Sloan stays on Utah about their play on the road, but they're notorious for losing games like that. And he's a Hall of Fame coach. And Denver is worse. The Hawks are going to have to start playing against everybody like the opponent are the Celtics. This is the NBA. When we were terrible 4 years ago, we didn't lay down and die for teams coming into Philips Arena on most nights. So the Hawks of today can't expect that from these other teams.

LOL . . no he shouldn't keep passing. JJ is our #1 option. These other guys cannot be counted on a nightly basis to give us point production. All of those turnovers we committed ( 10 by Horford and Smoove alone ) is almost proof positive as to why Woody runs almost everything through JJ. He needs to pass when he feels people are in good position to make shots. But he should NEVER defer to ANYONE on this team. LOL . . . JJ plays exactly how the fans want him to play, without all the ISOs and "selfish" shots, and people still aren't satisfied. I bet Horford won't say anything else the rest of the year. It's not easy to be the main option, or to create your own offense down the stretch of games. Horford has a long way to go with his post game, in order to be counted on like that.

Woody had the perfect storm to keep his job. * No expectations in Year 1 * Year 2 was strictly a developmental year. * The injury situation in YEAR 3 helped buy him a little time in a year where we should've at least challenged for a playoff spot. * The ownership group in an epic battle with Belkin * Chris Paul and Brandon Roy's rapid development into star players . . while Marvin slowly developed and Shelden was on his way to being a bust . . placed more blame on BK for the Hawks stagnation, than Woody's coaching. * Woody being able to win 3 games from Boston in the 08 Playoffs * Woody coaching the team to it's first winning season in almost 10 years, and winning a playoff series * This year . . ???? And let's be honest. How many ATLiens 3 years ago actually cared about the Hawks? It wasn't a lot of pressure to put an instant winner on the floor back then. Only the hardcore fans cared about the state of the team. So it was easy for a guy like Woody to keep his job, as long as the team didn't regress. Ownership wasn't about to spend money on a big name coach anyway, with the constant court battle going on about who will gain control of the team. At any rate . . . good job Woody, for being mentally tough all these years.

I agree with this too. I expect a 1st round battle, with us needing 6, possibly even 7 games to win it. If we drop an early home game, the series will definitely turn into a war.

I agree. You're looking at us probably having to play the perfect series to beat Cleveland. At least with Orlando, they do show the tendency to shoot themselves out of games. With Cleveland, if they go cold from the outside, Lebron will shoot 16 FTs minimum. The refs will keep the game as close as they can, unless we're red hot offensively. The easiest way to neutralize us in the playoffs, would be to keep Smoove and Horford in foul trouble. That's something they do a good job of avoiding, but watch and see if that isn't the case come playoff time.

I was laughing at your response to him, because you are right. When I typed "He", I was referring to MVP . . not you.

Pretty much. About the only thing people may say, is that JJ doesn't make the FINAL shot in a game. But he's made shots in close games down the stretch to try to keep us in a game, or to keep a lead. Hmmm . . so JJ is at .511 efg% huh? I wonder where the other star players around the league rank. Boozer: .600 Amare: .585 Billups: .559 Lebron: .553 Johnson: .511 Nash: .507 Roy: .500 Nowitzki: .486 Kobe: .484 Ginoboli: 467 Rose: .467 Pierce: .453 T. Evans: .436 Curry: .431 Durant: .431 R. Gay: 424 Carter: .415 Iguodala: .413 Bosh: .410 Melo: .389 Ellis: .395 Deron: .368 Duncan: .359 Wade: .349 Granger: .310 Clutch shooting amongst the top 6 Hawks: Williams: .556 ( 9.2 pts/per48 . . . 60% assisted ) Horford: .548 ( 18.5 pts/per48 . . . 59% assisted ) Johnson: .511 ( 40 pts/per48 . . . 21% assisted ) Smoove: .421 ( 16 pts/per48 . . . 69% assisted ) Bibby: .393 ( 10.8 pts/per48 . . . 75% assisted ) Crawford: .272 ( 18.3 pts/per48 . . . 27% assisted )

LOL @ coachx. He tries to act sometimes that he is objective in his analysis. But to immediately go out of the way to blast JJ, after the play Smoove made to win the game. And then to find and bring up a thread that was started way back after the Detroit loss in November in which people were ripping JJ, shows just how much he doesn't like Joe Johnson. He does it because he thinks it's "cute" to do it. The ironic thing is . . we're going to need JJ to be in "Hero Mode" in order to advance in the playoffs. And this is one of the reasons why I give Woody some credit in the development of Joe Johnson over the years. Even if he doesn't have superstar talent, Woody purposely puts him in "superstar" situations, in order for JJ to get a feel for what to do in those situations. People obviously don't like that. But when you view playoff games, it's normally the decisions of your star players that is going to determine the outcome of games. In the previous 2 years in the playoffs, JJ deferred way too much to his teammates, expecting them to make plays that he should've been trying to make. This year, his mindset is totally different. He's doing what a star player needs to do, and try to make that play himself. I've been saying all year that JJ is taking some of the toughest shots in the NBA, next to Kobe. And while he's not Kobe, he's learning how to score while making difficult shots. When the defense really cranks up in the playoffs, you're going to need guys who can score under difficult situations. Kobe is the master of this. Lebron had to go through his learning process of this in the playoffs. Wade gets ultra aggressive, and tries to get to the free throw line as much as possible. So as the offensive focal point of the team, JJ is simply learning what he has to do to possibly put a team on his back in the 4th quarter. The playcalling could definitely be more creative, and he may not need to take every shot. But during critical junctures of a game, it's your star players who are going to have to come through for you to win playoff games. This is what Woody is preparing JJ for . . . and has been preparing him for since he's been a Hawk.

I was in Athens, GA listening to the infamous Game 3 call by Holmam. "The Heat are resorting to thuggery." Hilarious. And before that game, he was KILLING Marvin for not suiting up. Basically telling the dude that this is the PLAYOFFS. A hurt hand shouldn't be keeping you out of the playoffs. It wasn't malicious, just a sarcastic attack. It was funny though. Someone in the Hawks production team definitely needs to slice Holman's play-by-play with the visual action, and create some video clips of his calls.

It's because they're the only 2 that can consistently create their own shot at any given time. Horford and Smoove aren't efficient offensive players when they have to create their own shot. They need to be set up by our guards. That's not to say that JJ and Craw shouldn't defer to the other guys when both of them are cold. But when the shot clock is winding down, and you need to get a shot, JJ and Crawford are the 2 most likely guys to be able to create and make a shot at any given time. All 4 of Horford's made jumpers were set up by JJ or Jamal. When he tried to post up and create himself, he wasn't efficient at all. It's pretty much a fact of life in the NBA, that the guys who can create their own shot off the dribble, will be the ones most likely to get the most shot attempts. So while what you say may be correct, it isn't always that simple as it seems to get those other guys shots that they can make.

The fans have to factor in all of those games that we probably should've lost, but won . . . if they're going to play the "look how many games we've blown" game. The same team that has blown leads to lesser teams, is the same team that have overcame decifits vs good teams and beat them. And even with some of those blown lead games, we've had some controversial or crazy things happen - the away from the ball JJ foul the other night vs Milwaukee - Jason Kidd running into Woody in the Dallas game - the blown call in Toronto in which Marvin was ruled out of bounds, but wasn't - the shot clock debacle in Cleveland - Crawford's no foul call, then technical foul call on him at Golden St I mean . . . if you're going to look at one thing, it's only fair to look at everything.

I have to agree with this. The problem we face, is that we can't afford for Horford to get in early foul trouble by trying to hack and body-up Howard. He has to play smart on the defensive end ( with help from others ) but maybe try to attack him on the offensive end. But you're right. Horford can't guard Howard, and Zaza is the only dude that has frustrated Howard at times. If we fail miserably at stopping Orlando and Howard tonight, Woody may have no choice but to start Zaza against the Magic, if we meet them in the playoffs. Give Zaza his usual minutes, but play him against Howard to start both the 1st and 2nd half. Then use Horford off the bench, and see if he can be effective against the 2nd unit and a somewhat worn down Howard in the 4th quarter.

The key stat that people have to look at when crunching these numbers, is the % Assisted number. When you look at that number, you kind of see why Kobe's and JJ's stats are similar, and Crawford's are higher. Kobe and JJ almost exclusively create their own shot when the shot clock is running down. They usually have to take extremely difficult shots to score the basketball. Kobe's degree of difficulty on his ISOs are ridiculous, because he can shoot it from crazy angles and will have so many people coming at him. JJ simply sizes people up to shoot the jumper, or takes a difficult floater in traffic. But sometimes, he taking and making Kobe-esque shots. JackB . . . JJ may not hit a lot of game winners, but he does hit a lot of shots down the stretch of games to put a game out of reach. Remember this shot? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpTGcruhOfM

I voted for JJ . . . but the guy who said to toss a lob to the rim may be right. With that little time left, unless he was dribbling the clock down, you're not going to get a quality shot unless a hell of a screen is set to free the shooter. That's pretty much a catch and heave with that amount of time left. So the better play may be to use JJ and Crawford as decoys, and throw it at the rim for Smoove. Otherwise, you let the captain of the team take that shot. The guy who enabled us to be in this position in the first place. That shot is probably going to be a catch and fadeaway or moving . . . so give it to the dude who is big enough to shoot that difficulty of a shot with 2 or more people in his face.

Camp . . JJ was 3 - 7 FG in the 1st half . . and 3 - 7 FG in the 3rd quarter. He then goes 7 - 11 FG in the 4th quarter. Seriously . . what's the problem? JJ trying to score didn't lose us the game. It was the fact that the Bucks went on a 34 - 19 run in which they made 14 of 18 shots, that lost the game for us. It's like some of you have forgotten this: or more recently . . this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfSiSPZRm9o It's a reason teams are willing to play near max money for this guy. LOL . . and it ain't because of his passing.

So basically, you want Crawford to have the ball, despite JJ making 5 in a row, and 7 out of 9 shots at one point in the 4th. What you say makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. LOL @ you . . wanting our star player to NOT be the main offensive threat, when he's RED HOT. This wreaks of "JJ hate".

How did he hand them a blueprint to beating us, when they virtually couldn't stop him? We lost that game because they went 14 - 18 FG from the 3:21 mark in the 3rd to the 6:52 mark in the 4th. They got RED HOT and outscored us 34 - 19 in that stretch alone. ( JJ had 12 of those 19 points by the way, scoring 10 in a row in the 4th ) And regardless of how Crawford got his shots, the fact that he shot the ball at just as high of a rate that JJ did. He was efficient too. So your beef isn't that JJ wasn't an efficient 7 - 11 FG in the 4th . . .you have a problem with him making 7 FGs from zero assists? You're mad at Woody and JJ for having JJ do what all the other good ISO players in this league do, and go ISO and score at will on their man when they have major problems stopping him? REALLY???? Does it matter how we scored the basketball, as long as we scored, and was efficient in doing so? The problem tonight ( as with all of these lost leads ) was on the defensive end, not the offensive end. FYI . . . we ran ISO-JJ all throughout the 4th quarter and OT in the Spurs game. But the Spurs doubled JJ almost on every possession, to prevent what he did tonight. And with JJ having a bad shooting night vs the Spurs ( although he picked it up during the 4th and OT ), he passed to open teammates. But tonight, it was JJ who was on, and took advantage of the single coverage he was getting to score the basketball. He was effective scoring the basketball, so he kept trying to do it. Both methods of scoring were efficient in both games. The difference is that defense was played in the Spurs game, and it wasn't against the Bucks. By the way, here was the Hawks shooting in the 4th quarter. JJ: 7 - 11 Rest of the team: 3 - 9 And yet you have a problem with JJ's selfishness? Please.

Complete and utter BS. Around the 3 min mark in the 3rd, the Hawks were up 74 - 62. By the 10 min mark in the 4th, the Hawks were clinging to a 76 - 73 lead. During that span, JJ had taken ONE SHOT and was 6 - 14 FG. From the time he checked back in during the 4th quarter, till about the 2 min mark, JJ had made 7 OF 9 SHOTS ( and he made his first 5 in a row during a time in which the Bucks weren't missing ANYTHING. His shotmaking kept us from getting blown out in that stretch. JJ ended up scoring 21 points on 10 - 18 FG in that 2nd half . . and was 7 - 11 FG for 14 points in the 4th quarter alone. Deceiving stat line my butt. That dude straight up BALLED in the 2nd half. It's you crazy fans that want this Jamal vs JJ thing to be real. Jamal basically did the exact same thing JJ did in the 1st half . . . . when he goes 7 - 10 during a stretch in that game. But he's not called to task for being "selfish" . . . . only JJ is. As much of a problem we've had scoring in the 4th quarter of some of these games recently, it's AMAZING that people would describe a RED HOT JJ as being a "ballhog". Like no other star player in the league has tried to literaly take over a game.

I LOVE the position I'm in right now with my somewhat depleated bracket. The keys to winning bracket pools come down to 1) make sure you pick the right team to win the Championship 2) Get at least 3 of your teams in the Final 4 ( or pick both Championship game participants ) 3) don't lose more than 50% of your Sweet 16 teams Right now, I can say that I've done all 3 of those things, with the keys to my bracket being Syracuse winning it all, and Tennessee reaching the Final 4 Tennessee was grossly underseeded in my opinion. They should've been the 3 seed instead of Georgetown. So if they can get past Ohio St ( which I believe they can ), they'll beat Mich St or N. Iowa, and get to the Final 4. Picking the Midwest Final right . . Tennessee vs Michigan St . . along with Kentucky and Syracuse continuing to do their march to the Final 4, may win this for me. But I don't need UK reaching the championship game. honestly, I wouldn't be mad if they lost in the regionals, and either Cornell or Washington won the East Region

LOL . . . I was about to say the same thing.

He was actually better than that, if not for the 2 bad shooting games he's had vs Charlotte and last night vs San Antonio. He was right at 50% FG and 50% from 3

Crawford is simply a fearless offensive player. We're going to need him to really play well in the playoffs, to make some noise. It's funny though that this thread is made not when he went 32 - 51 FG in the games early last week . . but after he goes 12 - 36 FG in his last 2 games ( including being only 3 - 15 FG combined in the 2nd half of both games ) He's having a fabulous March though. His most productive month as a Hawk so far.

I guess that's why the NBA Finals will consist of Cleveland vs the LA Lakers . . . because they're the only teams in the league that you can honestly say that they don't lose vs "inferior" teams. Lakers only have one loss vs teams below ,500, while the Cavs only have 2 losses. Every other 40 win team in the league has between 5 to 8 losses vs below .500 teams. We're 23 - 7 vs those teams.

People just focus on the bad losses more than the good wins. It's like what we've accomplished throughout the entire span of the year doesn't even matter at times. Yes, we shouldn't have lost some of those games, but you're not going to win every game like that either. Our resume this year, other than us not being able to beat Orlando or Cleveland, is impressive.

Truth, you do realize that if we won those games, that we'd be on a 15 game winning streak, right? And it was Dallas, not Detroit.