Official Game Thread: Wizards at Hawks, the Season-Opener!

[JTB]

17 minutes ago, capstone21 said:

Paul was looking awesome out there 

we finally have rebounding ... Dwight needs to do a better job of moving on offense though ... he just stands there

Dennis was atrocious running the offense tonight ... a lot of ISO and looking for his own shot ... the offense was coming to a halt and he was doing his best Ty Lue impression ... this has got to improve

 The offense flowed much better in  second half when he was on the bench

Hardaway was unconscious tonight ... impressive first game of the season ... he and Thabo were excellent off the bench

I agree with all of this but I'm not going to pin it all on Dwight as far as "standing around" there was quite a bit of that going on by many hawk players I saw from time to time. They all need to move better but I honestly believe it's mainly because of chemistry...all in all good start I saw pretty good offense, good defense, outstanding rebounding performance...all in one game.

Things will get better as they play in more games. I'm not going to get too much into detail but....

-I want to see more ball movement and player movement

-I would like the defense to pick it up earlier in the game 

-they need to learn how to actually give Howard the ball when he's in position (saw a lot of terrible passes when trying to get Howard involved)

-cut dine the turnovers

[BigDog90]

3 minutes ago, JTB said:

I agree with all of this but I'm not going to pin it all on Dwight as far as "standing around" there was quite a bit of that going on by many hawk players I saw from time to time. They all need to move better but I honestly believe it's mainly because of chemistry...all in all good start I saw pretty good offense, good defense, outstanding rebounding performance...all in one game.

Things will get better as they play in more games. I'm not going to get too much into detail but....

-I want to see more ball movement and player movement

-I would like the defense to pick it up earlier in the game 

-they need to learn how to actually give Howard the ball when he's in position (saw a lot of terrible passes when trying to get Howard involved)

-cut dine the turnovers

Millsap's defense against Morris has been horrible. He was lit up. Seen it in the playoffs the past 2 years against Pierce, Love, Jerebko.

Maybe Bud need to try Thabo at PF to guard the stretch bigs. Millsap looks a step slow trying to keep up with them.

[Thomas]

If the turnovers are corralled I think we can score more points than most of us thought on a game to game basis. We know we can play defense but a lot to work on as a team effort. Thoroughly enjoyed it tonight. Good win for the good guys and D8 is a serious difference on the glass. Wow!!!

[Atlantaholic]

With all of the new faces and changes to players' roles, the fact they looked this good playing together in their first game is huge. This team is extremely athletic and active on both ends. Scoring, defending and rebounding won't be a problem this year. The wiz are not that good of a measuring stick, but this was about as good of a debut as one could have hoped. If it wouldn't have been for a bunch of bogus calls this game wouldn't have been close by the second quarter.

[capstone21]

Dennis can't just stand there and pound the ball ... he has to get the movement started ... Wall was moving it around and Wizards were keeping pace ... Dennis went to the bench and suddenly the offense had flow again

[ChipShot]

I liked how we actually got offensive rebounds! Howard looked super nervous so let's see when he gets comfy.

[High5]

We have a lot of work to do, but that 4th quarter run was awesome. A confident THJ is a beautiful thing. He can get so many good looks from all over the court. He just needs to hit the shots and he did that tonight. I won't be too critical of the bad stuff (of which there was plenty) since it was opening night. Hopefully the offense runs a lot smoother on Saturday. 

[Guest]

I made it to my seat with 1:04 seconds before Anthem...whew.

Things I liked:

THjr - man on fire, his defense was impressive as well.

Delaney - he was better defensively than I thought. Ran the offense better than Dennis did.

Thabo - was great all around, scored, rebound and that defense on Wall. At 31 he can still guard PGs.

Millsap - Do-it-All-Paul

Dwight - 19 glorious rebounds, ONE missed freethrow.

Defense will lead us until the offense gets sorted.

That 4th quarter was Epic - the defense stepped it up.

Moose played better in 2nd half. And i still wanna cut off his mini man bun.

Our rookies played...yeah. lol.

 

Thing I found interesting:

Bud played without a PG for a stretch in the 2nd or 3rd quarter  THjr and Thabo were in the backcourt.(I think)

Bud is doing a lot more coaching on the sideline. Telling players where to be. 

 

Things I did not like:

Turnovers, Turnovers, Turnovers. 16 of our 21 turnovers were from our starters. That needs cleaning up.

Baze was out of control.

Dennis did not do a good job running the offense. His defense was great though.

Not enough player and ball movement. Too much standing around. We had only 8 assists at the half. Got better in the 2nd half we ended up with 28.

It's the first game of many, so I expect improvement and chemistry to develop as the season goes on.

Good win to start the 2016-17 season.

[Guest]

Oh man the work on the boards made me feel like I was 20 again when Mutombo cleaned the glass for us. Great 2nd half, great win on opening night. Shout out to Timmy as well on the best game he's had as a Hawk for sure! Wow!

[Gray Mule]

@JayBirdHawk   Thanks for the report.  I saw much of the same things you mentioned.

Bud finally gets his opening game victory.  Didn't remember that until someone mentioned

it tonight.

[Marvin24Williams]

Dennis has got to run the team better, I hate those stretches where the offense turns stagnant and Schröder just makes bad decision after bad decision. THJr and Thabo were exceptional today. Sefolosha showed the whole package and Hardaway looked impressive on BOTH ends. That's what I want to see. As long as THJR competes on the defensive end, I don't mind him missing shots that much.

[Guest]

Bob mentioned that the 19 boards from Dwight was the most on an opening night for a Hawks player debut since 85-86 season. Does anyone know who that might have been?

[benhillboy]

1 hour ago, Bonkers said:

Who misses Whoreford????

 

Not me lol

Patented mediocre stat line from him in tonight's loss, too.

 

24 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Bud played without a PG for a stretch in the 2nd or 3rd quarter  THjr and Thabo were in the backcourt.(I think)

I knew Bud was going to do a lot of bringing the ball up by committee (which conversely leaves no-dribbling Kyle the odd man out). But it was very surprising he went that long without a PG on the floor.  Both handle decent enough and we have good screeners in the backcourt.  It was also a type of slap in the face to the Wizards backcourt depth.  It isn't very good.

Edited October 28, 2016 by benhillboy

[Atlantaholic]

30 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

Patented mediocre stat line from him in tonight's loss, too.

 

I knew Bud was going to do a lot of bringing the ball up by committee (which conversely leaves no-dribbling Kyle the odd man out). But it was very surprising he went that long without a PG on the floor.  Both handle decent enough and we have good screeners in the backcourt.  It was also a type of slap in the face to the Wizards backcourt depth.  It isn't very good.

Wizards are gonna miss the playoffs again. John Wall and Beal are the most overrated backcourt in the NBA ((are they even highly rated still?). Scott Brooks hire was a head scratcher too. Not sure what that front office is thinking.

[Guest]

Punch face Marcus Thornton - really wanted to punch him.

[hazer]

3 hours ago, benhillboy said:

I cant believe I doubted Thabo coming into this year, not knowing how good he looked in preseason.  He's what a championship role player looks like.

As one of the bigger Dwight detractors I gotta say "wow."  He was a rebounding fool out there tonight. 

Dennis was good defensively but I don't want the offense to flow better under Delaney too many more times.

And what can you say about Tim.  Great performance deserved through his hard work.

Started off slow with the Wizards' only dependable player (Morris) getting hot.  But Paul and the bench righted the ship while Dwight anchored.  The Wiz are awful, though.  Shouldn't have been that close.

Great start to the season, Lets Go Baby. 

Shouldn't have been that close? Should've beaten the media mighty Wiz, who are picked above us, by more than the 15 we did? Dafuq you smokin? 

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Punch face Marcus Thornton - really wanted to punch him.

Or grab his chubby a$$ cheeks and tell him to lose some baby fat.

 

 

[Sothron]

2 hours ago, Spud2Nique said:

Bob mentioned that the 19 boards from Dwight was the most on an opening night for a Hawks player debut since 85-86 season. Does anyone know who that might have been?

I wish he had said who it was. I'm going to guess Moses Malone.

[Sothron]

DNP-CD looked like a man trying to earn  his name. Keep at it dude. If you keep this up by ten games in I'll grant you a name.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Sothron said:

I wish he had said who it was. I'm going to guess Moses Malone.

I think Malone was with the Bullets in 85-86...thought we got Moses in 88. I could be wrong. I think it might have been a mistake by Bob. We didn't have a dominating rebounder making a debut in 86.  I think we had like Tree, Willis, Koncak, Levingston and Carr I'm guessing. Maybe Levingston? I could look it up too lazy lol