Magic 109 Hawks 103

by Hoopinion on Oct 21, 2008 9:27 AM EDT

Positives

Randolph Morris appears (17 minutes, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 5 fouls).
Al Horford's double-double.

Negatives

Flip Murray (career 27.9% shooter) attempted more three-pointers than Al Horford did field goals.
59% of the Hawks' field goal attempts came from Murray, Joe Johnson, and Mike Bibby while Horford and Josh Smith took just 15 shots, making 10.
5 offensive rebounds?
In eight days the Hawks will play the Magic, the game will count, and the Hawks still won't have anyone who can guard Dwight Howard.

"We don’t have the luxury of sitting key guys and all that, we’re still trying to get our rotations down and get our chemistry right. We don’t have but one game left before the regular season starts, so we have to buckle down. This is the team we play first. And I definitely thought it was as a good test for us. And a good indicator of what’s to come the rest of the way.

Our defense stunk tonight, especially us guards. We put ourselves in a tough situation by not being able to keep anybody in front of us. And we put our bigs in tough spots because they didn’t want to leave Dwight.”

Mike Bibby:

"We’re playing pretty good overall but we still have lapses here and there. It starts with me; I need to put more pressure on the ball and make things a little tougher on [their] point guard."

Mike Woodson:

"We’re not playing at the level that we finished against the Celtics in the playoffs. Guys that have gone through camp to this point know the intensity that we want to play with and I’m not getting that right now. So we’ve got some work to do before we head back to Orlando for our opening game.”

The Hawks finished the playoffs against the Celtics down 34 points for Game 7 and down 84 points for the series. Keep reaching for the stars, coach.

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re: Woodson

I love reading a mocked Woodson quote. Just how much rope was he given based off of a couple home wins in the playoffs?

management sez: recommend fanposts/fanshots/comments! Click 'reply' when replying to a comment! Flag jerkfaces! Be a 'Nazi' when it comes to thread duplication!

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Oct 21, 2008 10:54 AM EDT reply actions

I have no idea

so I’m gonna run a poll and see if we can get a consensus.

by Hoopinion on Oct 21, 2008 10:58 AM EDT reply actions

I figured Randolph Morris’s first action would be in a situation like this-that is, Dwight Howard giving everyone 5 fouls. I’m really glad it was not the game next week, where it actually counts.

He actually looked pretty useful. I’m wondering about his usage though-the play-by-play lists all of his shot attempts as jumpers. It might just be that he was afraid to challenge Dwight in the paint. And he also picked up 5 fouls in 17 minutes. But I think he might actually have something to contribute if he had the chance.

Despite the game result last night, I’m encouraged. For one, we were down two key players. Marvin is no superstar, but having him is better than playing Josh Smith out of position for extended periods (remember when everyone thought he was out of position at PF?). Also missing was Mo Evans, whose most significant contribution might to be limit Flip Murray’s minutes.

Alas, for Acie Law, just when I start seeing good things from him he has a completely useless night. I’d be interested to see the breakdown of 5 man units he played with last night. I have a feeling Flip Murray was on the floor with him and dominating the ball for many of Acie’s minutes.

by Bronn on Oct 21, 2008 2:36 PM EDT reply actions