Boxscore

Gameflow

I may look back on this as being a premature judgment made in the heat of passion* but I think the Southeast Division title race is over.

*Passion--there's something the Hawks haven't displayed in seven of the last eight quarters they've played. Unless you consider knocking JJ Redick over then drawing a technical foul for whining to be passionate. In that case, Josh Smith and Joe Johnson were full of passion in the second quarter last night.

Not much to say about this game. The Hawks were dreadful. The Magic were good. I can't take any encouragement from the performances of Acie Law IV or Solomon Jones as much of their contributions* came against the fourth quarter Orlando lineup of Anthony Johnson, Keith Bogans, Jeremy Richardson, Brian Cook, and Marcin Gortat. That was a summer league game.

*Especially Jones who got 10 minutes in the first half and did nothing (2 rebounds and 1 free throw) useful and looked completely lost. Could be lack of ability. Could be lack of development. I don't get the interest in the latter, though. Especially in light of his third quarter flagrant foul. The Hawks can at least develop petulance in their young players.

Mike Bibby:

"They just beat the [expletive] out of us. They were making shots, and that took so much steam out of us early on because we weren’t —- and we never recovered.”

The shit, they beat the shit out of the Hawks.

Mike Woodson:

"That was a totally unacceptable performance."

Joe Johnson:

"They hit us first and we never hit back. They wanted it more than us.''

Mike Woodson:

"We just didn't compete tonight and it started with the five guys that started the game."

I don't know, it might start even higher up the chain of command.

No word as of this writing regarding either Al Horford's knee or Marvin Williams' shoulder. I'll update as warranted.

• Last night's game inspired Larry to reduce his prediction for the Hawks from 51 to 45 wins. 6 wins! A 13% drop!
  

I exclaim not because I disagree but simply for effect. Also, Larry asking of Mike Woodson "What is your job?" likely constitutes the sole pleasure I'll receive in return for watching last night's abomination.

• Jason's take at The Human Highlight Blog:
  

In short, they lost their poise, their heads, and their will to compete----and the end result was the message that the Magic had every intention of delivering.

• Ben Q. Rock at Third Quarter Collapse has this morning both my envy for his getting to write about a competent basketball team and his typically solid game recap.