Official Game Thread: Hawks - Bulls

[AHF]

Best win in a long time for the Hawks.  This one was big!  Horford looks like he continues to improve every game right now.  He won't put up these numbers all the time but if he keeps getting stronger and improves his D, his rebounding and his FT rate then we are back to our All-Star.  A lot of good performances last night but the D continues to be the biggest standout.  Our ball control was also critical:  26 assists against 9 turnovers for us and 18 assists and 14 turnovers for them is huge.

[benhillboy]

Best thing about winning is the awful posters and trolls keep away for the most part.

[TheFuzz]

It's been said, but it felt like Millsap was getting hacked a lot down low. Needs to start getting calls and hitting free throws.

 

Can't believe anyone ever doubted my man Horford. Course, he's my favorite player so I guess that's where the blind faith comes from.

 

Teague and Shredder played decently, but it feels like they're slowing down a bit, as is Scott.

 

Brand is a straight up animal. Bazemore will get the offense figured out soon enough.

 

Every time Carroll gets it on the fastbreak it's a turnover.

 

I don't know why, but I have this feeling that Thabo will be a stud for us by the end of the season.

[macdaddy]

Best thing about winning is the awful posters and trolls keep away for the most part.

 

What?  It's not winning.   What we are doing is called "failure to tank" or FTT.   In fact, so far this year we are one of the worst FTT teams in the league.   If we keep FTTing at this rate we might have a chance at being the eastern conference's worst FTT team.  We'll see who's happy at that point.   

[Guest]

Did you guys see how fast Sap tossed the ball to Teague when he got the ball from the Kyle/Jimmy jump ball?

He dropped it like a hot potato. 

[benhillboy]

Did you guys see how fast Sap tossed the ball to Teague when he got the ball from the Kyle/Jimmy jump ball?

He dropped it like a hot potato.

I wish Al would take the approach of finding the PG immediately. Still got some Josh in him on those slow, clumsy breaks. Love him running the floor, just without the ball. Edited December 16, 2014 by benhillboy

[Guest]

I wish Al would take the approach of finding the PG immediately. Still got some Josh in him on those slow, clumsy breaks. Love him running the floor, just without the ball.

Very true but Sap passed the ball because he had no interest in potentially getting fouled and having to go to the freethrow line.

[Jody23]

I wish Al would take the approach of finding the PG immediately. Still got some Josh in him on those slow, clumsy breaks. Love him running the floor, just without the ball.

Yeah Al had that one play in the fourth when he tried to go against three Bulls defenders on the break and proceeded to turn it over and Jeff gave him the "c'mon man" look.

[cam1218]

Very good win last night for our Hawks. If we had to pick between winning @ORL or beating the Bulls at home, I'd pick the Bulls without a doubt. Nothing makes me more angry than having our arena filled up with bandwagoners and all of the northerners that moved down south, so it's great to send them home with a loss.

It was great seeing Horf look like his old self. Even though Noah wasn't on the court, you know Horford still had the mindset to play great against his former teammate. He won't put those scoring numbers up every night in our offense but hopefully his energy and rebounding keep improving.

It was also nice seeing Bazemore get more meaningful minutes. He has set up Al for a couple easy shots the last couple of games. He has a lot of energy and is actually making his free throws now that his shot is falling. I like Mack and won't forget how big he was for us last year, but if Bazemore can take most of his minutes we will be a better team.

Bring on the Cavs!

[ATLien_]

I like this Al at the top of the key thing - it gives us many options: he can shoot it, if the defense closes he can drive by them or if our players make the right cuts to the basket he'll find them.

This is the offense we ran last year before AL got hurt. I've been saying the offense was different this year and they weren't asking Al to do the same things; they've also been posting him on the wrong block for his dominate hand.

Imo we are at are best when the offense is run through AL in the high post. Everyone's efficiency was much higher when he was playing that role last year. I'm guessing they didn't want to put to much on him early.

[DrReality]

Great win.  Love the confidence we are showing.  got some swagger. 

[AUhawksfan]

Meant to post some takeaways the night of but I've been so busy moving.  Here are some things I noticed:

 

-Those two Bazemore swats reminded me of Josh Smith, haven't seen athleticism on the defensive end like that in awhile.  He may not be as talented as Josh, but he has the same athleticism.  If Bazemore just plays within himself and the offense he can be a nice contributor for us.

-Taj Gibson bit at a ton of shot fakes.  The guy is good but couldn't seem to keep his feet planted.

-Without Butler hitting some really tough shots this could have been much worse for the Bulls.

-For a Monday crowd I was impressed.  There seemed to be a fair amount of Bulls fans but the Hawks supporters seemed to be out in full force.  Great to see during the week!

-Thabo looks so uncomfortable out there on offense and has no confidence in his shot.  I wish I could say I'm hopeful but we're quite a bit into the season now and have yet to see improvement from him.  He can be useful but I honestly think his minutes should be cut some.

 

And good to hear from you about a win Hotlanta!

 

Your prediction seems pretty realistic but I hope it's wrong

Edited December 17, 2014 by AUhawksfan