official Atlanta/Washington game thread

[Gray Mule]

Arenas killilg us, but has 3 foulls

[gsuteke]

Get That SHHHHHHH OT outta here!

[gsuteke]

Hawks down by 11. they suck on the defensive side tonight.

somebody pick up the slack. i'm out in 15 minutes.

[HawksFan87]

Smoove not having a great night shooting the ball but he is having a great game overall

6 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast, 2 blocks and 2 steals.

The entire team needs to learn that if we drive to the basket instead of taking three's all the time we could get some calls.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Pretty much an expected performance by the Hawks defensively. The Wiz are a perimeter team. And when Arenas is going like this, they're hard to stop.

Good thing that Arenas usually runs hot and cold. If he goes through a "cold" stretch ( something like 1 - 5 . . 2 - 7 FG ), let's see if the Hawks can climb back into this game.

Game notes:

- Looks like Bozeman is going to make this team, possibly sending Ivey back into Hawk purgatory . . and maybe Salim too.

- Freije has a nice shot for a big man. But I remember him at Vandy. He's like the forward version of Salim. Either he's red hot and unstoppable . . or he's ice cold and can't buy a shot.

- JJ seems to be shooting the ball real well this preseason. We may need him to put up 20 shots a game this year.

- ZaZa's presence on the court should make a difference in the 2nd half.

Down 11, but we'll probably make a run. If Arenas is still hot, we'll still lose.

[HawksFan87]

Joe with the huge 3.

[HawksFan87]

Smoove is limping....

[SmooveTheFuture]

Here come the baby hawks with Marvin, Chill and Smoove leading us on this big comeback. LETS GO HAWKS. Hawks take the lead!

[HawksFan87]

I know and dont forget about Shelden with the key rebounds we were down what 18 points and now we are up 2 and we did this without Joe talk about exciting.

[HawksFan87]

Man this is an exciting game .

[SmooveTheFuture]

Shelden Williams with 2 huge Free Throw misses would have cut lead to one. Cmon Shelden you gotta hit those.

[HawksFan87]

Washington was very lucky to get this win tonight. I wanted a win but I am proud of the fight we showed tonight Shelden missed 2 huge FT's and Joe missed 1 out f 2 which may have made a difference but we did'nt give up we gave it our all but did'nt get this one but

Joe, Marvin and Smoove all had monster games.

Joe: 28 points, and 7 rebounds

Smoove: 14 points, 11 rebounds , 7 assists

Marvin: 17 points

[DrReality]

Quote:

---

Pretty much an expected performance by the Hawks defensively. The Wiz are a perimeter team. And when Arenas is going like this, they're hard to stop.

Good thing that Arenas usually runs hot and cold. If he goes through a "cold" stretch ( something like 1 - 5 . . 2 - 7 FG ), let's see if the Hawks can climb back into this game.

Game notes:

- Looks like Bozeman is going to make this team, possibly sending Ivey back into Hawk purgatory . . and maybe Salim too.

- Freije has a nice shot for a big man. But I remember him at Vandy. He's like the forward version of Salim. Either he's red hot and unstoppable . . or he's ice cold and can't buy a shot.

- JJ seems to be shooting the ball real well this preseason. We may need him to put up 20 shots a game this year.

- ZaZa's presence on the court should make a difference in the 2nd half.

Down 11, but we'll probably make a run. If Arenas is still hot, we'll still lose.

---

this from Sekou's blog:

AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog

Weekend in Buckeye-ville

By Sekou Smith | Monday, October 23, 2006, 03:50 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Since I’ve got an overload of observations and points to make from a long weekend, I won’t subject you to my usual lead-in blabber here. Without further ado, here is Monday’s saucy version of the five things we know right now:

1. Kaniel Dickens and Lionel Chalmers we hardly knew ye!

After almost four full weeks, you knew someone was going to be sent packing from training camp. I’ve done my best over the years not to get attached to these guys, these journeyman pros who logic tells us won’t be around come opening night of the regular season. But so often they’re the biggest cynics, and therefore the guys most likely to understand that while most of the guys in camp with guaranteed contracts treat every day like a job, to others it’s literally about putting food on the table.

Dickens is a seasoned pro, a guy who knows that in a perfect world he’d be judged simply on whether or not he knew how to play the game and not whether or not he was a first-round draft pick or a summer leaguer who happened to catch someone’s eye long enough to snag a ticket to veteran’s camp. Chalmers never had a chance, not after that high ankle sprain snatched his early (and quite positive) momentum.

Who knows, much like Anthony Grundy a year ago, we’ll hear from these guys later on this season. The four training camp survivors — Andreas Glyniadakis, Cedric Bozeman, Matt Freije and Andre Brown — will continue to do battle for one of those open roster spots.

Anything is possible, people. Anything.

[thesheedera]

From the espn play by play it looks like marv missed a pair of 4th Q FTs as well. And between those 3 fellas they had 14 TOs.

Hopefully a great opportunity for Woody to use the game for several lessons. They played well enough to come back, but made major mistakes that prevented them from pulling it out.

Where was Zaza all night?

[DrReality]

He goes on to say:

4. Back to that Hawks-Cavs game.

So long as the teams involved are willing to go after each other the way these guys did Saturday night, charging fans full price for exhibition games isn’t a total rip-off.

When you’re best players log regular season minutes, it’s no exhibition game. And when both teams are acting like they’re playing for a playoff bid and not just to entertain the folks in a non-NBA city, it’s clear that there is more at stake than just pride.

I think the Hawks and Cavs were both trying to send a message. The Hawks want to show everyone they’re not going to be the doormat of the East, as some have predicted. And the Cavs were trying to show that they’re a legitimate East contender and not just a paper contender.

Cavs showman Damon Jones had a great line during one sequence in the second quarter when he ran by the Hawks bench and said, “I know [expletive] well we’re not losing like this to the Hawks.”

They were. And they can thank Joe Johnson and his crew for the loss. In trying to explain why Joe Johnson is such a special player, I offer his performance Saturday night as proof. Even on a night when his shot wasn’t falling early, he finds a way to impact the game (he finished with 10 assists and would have had several more had his teammates converted a couple more). Someone asked recently what I expect from Johnson this year? How about an All-Star caliber season.

5. Finally, it’s cutting time around the league.

I think the Hawks (and any team) would be wise to keep one eye on the waiver wire to see who might be floating around out there. The Nets have already let Jay Williams go and the rumblings in Boston are that Luke Jackson, formerly of Cleveland, could be a casualty because of the Celtics’ overload at his position.

My point is there are going to be several intriguing players who are simply caught in the numbers game elsewhere that cause me to take a hard look, were I the one making roster decisions.

[unknownjdb]

Lue had a great game too. 16 pts. 9 ast. 0 TOs

Also, you didn't make reference to Smoove's 2 stl. and 3 blk. Stellar game (minus the 4 TOs).

Our comeback would have impressed me more if Arenas, Stevenson and Butler were in the game. Of course, Joe wasn't in for us but honestly there was just no stopping Arenas tonight.

6 TOs on Joe...come on Joe. Those d*mn palming calls. Refs were getting everyone on that. Still, similar numbers between Arenas and Joe.

Wish Glyndakis could have gotten in the game more.

[Final_quest]

WTH is going on with Ivey, Salim, and Batista? Is there a reason why these guys are not playing and Bozeman, Frieje and Greek are?

[unknownjdb]

Quote:

---

WTH is going on with Ivey, Salim, and Batista? Is there a reason why these guys are not playing and Bozeman, Frieje and Greek are?

---

I believe Ivey, Salim and Batista are safe. Bozeman, Frieje and Glyniadakis are playing for the remaining roster spots. Hence my wishing Glyniadakis would have gotten more minutes.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

That makes sense.

If it comes down to Boze, Frieje, and Glyn on who makes the active 12 . . the nod will probably go to Bozeman, solely because he could be an extra defensive option against PGs and 2 guards.

Starters:

ZaZa

Smoove

Marvin

JJ

Speedy

Reserves:

Chill

Shelden

Lorenzen

Salim

Lue

Ivey

If the max roster is 15, that means there are 4 spots left . . ( I thought the max was 14 though ):

- Bozeman, who is decent and may be better than Ivey ( may make the 12 man rotation )

- Solomon Jones ( whom we've not seen, but will probably get the benefit of the doubt . . . probable D-Leaguer)

- Glyn, who may make the team simply because of his size ( Probable D-Leaguer )

- Freije, a nice shooter to bring off the bench. For you old school NBA fans, he's like a Matt Bullard. Remember him? ( Definite D-Leaguer )

- Batista, the banger of the bunch who always comes to play his "C-Game" . . lol. ( may make the 12 man rotation )

Freije may be the odd man out, in this group.

[Duff_Man]

Another 2 blocks for Shelden tonight. Gotta be liking his blocks so far.