Jump to content

  • Current Donation Goals

    • Monthly Donations
      Raised $440 of $700 target

Hawks - Warriors

lethalweapon3

By lethalweapon3
in Homecourt

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Moderators
lethalweapon3 Grand Master

lethalweapon3

Posted
  • Moderators
Posted

It’ll be the third game in a week where the Atlanta Hawks draw an opponent going into the second night of a back-to-back. Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors step into the Highlight Factory, as the Hawks seek their 12th win in 14 contests since falling short to the Warriors in Oakland on Nov. 14. One week ago, the Hawks knocked off Memphis one night after the Grizz played in New Orleans. Atlanta’s last game was against a Bobcats team that came in sluggish one night after the Clippers held them off in Charlotte.

The Warriors took a step backwards on the path to national recognition as a playoff contender.

Perhaps a little lethargic after soaking in some of the South Beach nightlife in the afterglow of their upset of the HEAT on Wednesday, the W’s took an L last night from a team the Hawks kept at arm’s length two nights before, the Orlando Magic. Fortunately for them, the I-Drive nightlife isn’t quite as distracting. Their slippage after a five-game winning streak could also be a bout of homesickness. It’s the final game on a whopping 7-game East Coast road trip.

Klay Thompson went just 3-for-13 in Orlando, but in the prior five-game winning streak he scored 20 PPG and shot 56.1%, including 47.6% from 3-point range, seemingly breaking out of a season-long slump (40.6 FG%). Draymond Green, the late-game hero against Miami, went just 0-for-4 for a bagel against Orlando.

With David Lee and Curry each putting in over 40 minutes last night, look for Coach Mark Jackson to lean on rookie starter Harrison Barnes, Carl Landry, Green, and Richard Jefferson to provide a spark while Thompson tries to get his shooting mojo back quickly, enticing the Hawks’ wing players to take defensive help off of Lee and Curry. Barnes had a team-leading 19 points and 13 rebounds in the Warriors’ Nov. 14 win.

After producing just 14 points in the first quarter against Orlando and falling behind 51-36 by the end of the first half, G-State turned to former Yellow Jacket Jarrett Jack (6 assists, 1 turnover) to handle playmaking duties while trying to get Curry, Thompson and Lee going offensively. They continue to start rookie Festus “for the Restus” Ezeli, keeping him to short spells on the floor, but his impact on the game has waned with just 12 rebounds and four blocks (19 fouls) in his last seven games combined. He and Lee could do little to fend off the Magic’s Nikola Vucevic (12 points, 17 rebounds), who was fairly dormant the prior game versus Atlanta, or Andrew Nicholson (15 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks).

They’re compelled to keep Ezeli front-and-center, in part because Andris Biedrins has proven worthless, but more importantly because they’re still missing Aussie center Andrew Bogut as he continues his recovery from ankle surgery. While that shows up in their dearth of blocked shots (3.4 per game, next to last in NBA), it sure is hard to tell by the way they’re rebounding the ball. Led by Lee (six straight double-doubles, 24.2 PPG and 13.7 RPG in those games) and reserve Carl Landry, the Warriors are third overall in defensive rebounds and total rebounds per game, and leads the league with an over 75% defensive rebounding rate. They’re playing that Hands Down, Man Down mantra to a T, closing out on opposing ball handlers, getting a hand up and boxing out. Opposing shooters may be countering that by drawing lots of physical contact and getting to the foul line. The Warriors’ 22.1 personal fouls per game rank 3rd highest in the league.

It appears that if you sit back and engage in an outside shooting contest with the Warriors, they’ll put whatever rebounders they can find in the game and happily engage you. GSW opponents take a high number of threes (24 attempts per game, 27% of all shots taken, both top-five in the league) but aren’t really connecting on them (34 percent, bottom-five). They’re 14-4 when their opponents are goaded into more than 20 3-point shots in a game (1-4 otherwise). Hawk guards should not be content with jacking perimeter shots, but should drive, draw contact, go for And-1s and get to the free throw line.

The Hawks are top-five in the league for percentage of And-1 shots (about 3 percent of field goals attempted), but bottom-five in free throw rate (24 FTAs per 100 FGAs) and 28th in free throw shooting percentage (69.8 FT%).

Go Hawks!

~lw3

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
pimp Enthusiast

pimp

Posted
Posted

I think the Hawks should go with the big lineup,and play Al at PF, because David Lee has always had Josh's number.David Lee and Drew Gooden are two guys have always given Josh fits. Just let Horford guard Lee , too keep Josh out of foul trouble.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brotha2ThaNite Newbie

Brotha2ThaNite

Posted
Posted

Reminder: no local TV tonight! Just CSN Bay Area. BUT there's free NBA League Pass Trial tonight, so check your cable provider for the NBALP channels.

~lw3

WooHoo! I found the channel. Now, lets just hope they show the game. I couldn't go because I'm putting together my 5yr daughters bed I bought from Ikea.

Dang, it's a lot to put together but I'm about finished just in time for the game. lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Premium Member
cam1218 Experienced

cam1218

Posted
  • Premium Member
Posted

Well, when the game started..I thought bad news; still no fan support on the weekends. I was hoping to see a decent crowd show up tonight.As the game ends..I'm thinking good news, no fan support tonight. What a horrible game, luckily nobody was there to see this peformance. The rookies finally got their minutes but it was the wrong type of blowout.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gray Mule Grand Master

Gray Mule

Posted
Posted

Some games you can't win.

Some games you can't lose.

Tonight was one of those games. Unfortunately, Atlanta was on the losing side.

Josh couldn't buy a goal and his opposite couldn't miss. Josh kept on shooting

and missing. His opponent kept on shooting and hitting everything.

I wanted to see JJ and Scott play, but not like this. They did fine, considering.

After the first quarter, our threes weren't there and theirs were. Again, Atlanta

shot very poorly from the free throw line. Not that it made much difference

but this should not be.

Horford and Ivan - - - That's about all.

You gotta lose sometimes and this was one of those times. Defense was terrible.

Offense was terrible. Starters were terrible. Bench was terrible. Free throws

were terrible. Even the officials were terrible, not that it really mattered. Finally,

the Hawk fans were terrible - - They weren't present.

We live and learn and come back better for it, at least we hope.

GO FALCONS!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...