Not so fast my friends!

[Diesel]

I didn't come to piss on the fire but...

It was NJ.

Those guys didn't have any sort of gameplan. NO offensive gameplan. No defensive answer. They really miss Lopez. They were coming off of a back to back. We totally outclassed them. Somebody should tweet D-12 and ask him if he's sure he would rather play for NJ than Atlanta?

STILL...

There were some things that we can hold up as possibly good news.

1. The bench. These guys were ready to play. A lot of people pissed and moaned about us cutting Sy, Bensen, and etc... The truth is that those guys are not developed. Our bench showed that from 6-13 we got players that can get on the court and make a good accounting of themselves. I'm really hoping that T-Mac can be 6th man of the year this year. The play of Green and Ivan were not bad. These are both high energy guys. But the surprise was Zaza and Radman. I thought I was watching Kukoc and Arvydas for a minute. Specially on the Zaza dunk....

2. The defense. After 7 damn years, we've learned to defend the pick and roll. What? We totally shut down D-Will and that's saying a lot.

3. The Lack of respect for their homecourt. Ok, we beat NJ by almost 40... But we beat them by almost 40 in NJ?!! Do you guys realize that a few years ago, we were one of the worst away teams to make the playoffs in History? Seriously, I think we were probably top 10 in being the worst in history. The whole reason we were underrated in our first Boston playoff series is because we had no away skills. If we play every team with no respect of whoose floor we're on... WOW.

4. The Buy In. Everybody seems to have bought in to what LD is teaching. That's a credit to two things, success and vet leadership. We the fans might not see the vet leadership, but for us to follow a guy who used to be the assistant in this fashion require him having respect of the vets.

STILL

There are some things to work on...

1. Rebounding. The few points NJ did score were a result of 2nd chance points. Our starters have to perfect rebounding. The good news is that we kept a ball hound like Humphries off the boards, but we will face much bigger teams and we have to learn to BOX OUT.

2. Shot Selection. For my taste, we took too many threes. It don't mean much in this game, but in a tight game, we have to have some more high percentage shots. They were there, but we LMU'd them (reference to Paul Westhead's LMU teams).

3. Getting Hinrich Healthy. Pargo came on late, but there were some questionable things he did while he was in there. It was a time when they started pressing, Pargo panicked and just threw NJ the ball.. I said.. "WTH"? Sloan was Ok. I really was happy that Green and Radman was on the floor with that 2nd unit. Aside from the energy and scoring that they brought, those guys helped move the ball up the floor. However, when he gets back, Hinirich will step into a good situation off the bench.

I think we will be tested some tonight against Washington. The main thing they bring is strong guard play and bigs. However, I hope we outclass them too (for the home crowd). I'm also glad that Monday's game is going to be televised.

[DJlaysitup]

Our bench was totally great tonight...Hurrah!!

I will believe we have a quality bench when I see the same guys doing the same thing on back-to-backs....and even three games in four nights. Let's see if our bench has their legs under them tomorrow night. I just hope the shots aren't hitting the front of the rim because their legs aren't used to real games....back to back.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

LOL. No mention of Marvin I see.

[Eddielives]

I agree with Diesel's points. The Hawks deserve credit for showing some chemistry and composure. But the Nets just flat out looked like a terrible team with no clue. It's easy to look great when you're playing a team that is just not ready or just plain bad which NJ was last night.

[thecampster]

Deron Williams

Career averages 17.2/9.2/3.3

Last year (Utah) 21.3/9.7/3.9

Last year (NJ) 15.0/12.8/4.6

Last night v ATL 10/3/1 with 6 turnovers.

I would say that's a pretty good indicator right there.

[frosgrim]

I wonder if Deron is just disinterested in playing in NJ? He seemed to be completely out of sorts. Part of that was the defense which just swarmed him, but he can beat that on good nights.

Marvin was really good last night. He needs to get those tip to drop in, but still a solid night from our resident goat.

[DrReality]

Agreed that one game doesn't make a season but it shows what they can do. We will see tonight

[frosgrim]

I wouldn't put too much into how the team plays tonight. We are just coming off a prolonged lockout and probably a very intense training camp. Most of the teams playing their back-end games are getting beat so far.

The exception here is that the Hawks starters just played an extended skrimage last night so hopefully they will have their legs tonight.

[Wretch]

I'm not going to read too much into this win...

• I hope that's just off-season/pre-season rust on JJ...really not wanting to watch him struggle for another year.
  
• Encouraged by Smoove attacking the basket and DAMN did he look quick as hell.
  
• Not encouraged by those long jumpers, but what can you do...y'know? He's gonna shoot 'em.
  
• Teague and that 3pt shot... Good night man....lol Don't think we need to be too concerned about his jumper
  
• I kinda figured Marvin would step up A LITTLE in the absence of Crawford. Good to see him attacking the basket and knocking down the shot.
  

Other thoughts:

We need to stop worrying so much about Teague running the offense and turn him loose. He's a natural scorer. He'll get some dimes running the offense for sure, but he'll get his assist #'s up for sure by creating his own shots. Need to see more of that 2-man exchange between him and JJ. That could be leading to something awesome.

Damn...was it weird or what....looking at our bench!? I'm sitting there like...who the hell are all these guys!?

Edited December 28, 2011 by Wretch

[Guest]

It's only one game but here is:

What I liked:

1. Marvin - active all over the place (9 rebounds)

2. Teague - his shot looked good, made some nice assists(had 2 turnovers though) - turn him loose LD

3. Zaza - active as always

4. Bench - good ball movement, didn't know who would take the shot which is a good thing, no more watching one person dribble while everyone else just watch, played aggressive defense - Vlad has deceptively quick hands.

What I didn't like:

1. Al - only had 4 rebounds in 24 minutes, Ivan had 4 in in 6 minutes

2. Josh and JJ - shooting percentage, did other things well though

3. Zaza - please stop trying to dribble, it is too comical and is a sure fire turnover.

[Wretch]

3. Zaza - please stop trying to dribble, it is too comical and is a sure fire turnover.

Nothing easy.

[AtLaS]

Agree Diesel, last night didn't tell me much. The Nets are just bad. There is no way our defense is anywhere NEAR that good.

Radmanovic isn't going to play nearly that well on most nights, nor will Zaza as we know. I do think Tmac will be able to score some points and he was a nice surprise.

Now I do expect JJ, Al and Josh to play better so we have some hope there.

And, we need Teague to be more aggressive as that 3pt shot isn't going to fall like it did last night.