but we did this year oh yeah

Paul Johnson deciding not to go for it on 4th and 1 against Jacksonville St.

i dont know why celtics didnt have rondo go 1 on 1 with bibby but thats fine with me.
hawks frontline was on a mission – i like woodson mixing in joe smith and zaza. i am a marvin fan but whatsup with him?

either way huge win! we need to destroy the next few teams at home.

Yayfullness!!!! 0_0

Hopefully, Teague will be more seasoned the next time we face the C’s. They will defenetly try to expose Bibby in the next game and we will need Teague to give Rondo the business.

…Yayfullness x 2!!!!!! 8-2 BABY!!! BOOK IT!!!!

Then forget it. They can’t have an emotional let down in the upcoming games.

trading nique for danny manning!

A perfectly straight fastball down the middle to Brian McCann with a 3-0 count and a runner on 3rd and he takes it trying to walk to let Garret Anderson drive in the runs.

Except for a bit of over-dribbling, I was really impressed by the maturity of the Hawks in the 4th. I don’t think they win this game a year ago. Also, Josh Smith being 0-for-0 from Three Point Land makes me very happy. I think it was Dominique that said he could be an all-star if he laid off the triples.

Yes, I’m talking about the Hawks. What was most impressive was that the Hawks won a relatively low-scoring game, the type of game that championship teams are known for winning. They held the Celtics to just 86 points on the road.

Two stats most responsible for the Atlanta win:

1. The astounding 47-26 rebounding edge in the Hawks’ favor. This allowed them to get second-chance points and simply hold on to the ball more, sort of like a football team running the ball to control the clock.
2. The miserable 1-15 three-point shooting of the Celtics. Boston is vulnerable (though to a lesser extent than Orlando) when it shoots treys poorly.

Last night’s win showed that Atlanta can get the third seed in the East and maybe even higher if Boston/Cleveland stumble. Miami indicated that it was not ready to take it to the next level when it lost at home to Cleveland on Thursday while it remains to be seen how Orlando will gel with Rashard Lewis back and playing with Vince Carter instead of Hedo Turkoglu.

With the Celtics and Cavaliers not being as dominant as they were last year, the Heat not being ready, and the Magic not at top form, I don’t see why Atlanta can’t take advantage of this opportunity to finally get into the top echelon of teams. It’s about time.

I like what Al Horford said to ESPN right after the game. He said that the Hawks have grown up. Right on. Now go out and beat Cleveland and Orlando. And then defeat the Lakers when they come back for the rematch in Atlanta.

While I (like most of us) hate giving Woody credit, they looked great last night, and in fact, they’ve looked very well coached all season.

I’m not sure if it’s a confidence thing or a maturity thing or a coaching thing (or some combination), but this is not the Hawks of old. Most impressive for me was the end (last 9 minutes) of the game. I can’t remember the last time the Hawks salted away a non-blowout win like they did last night or have this season generally. While years of seeing the Hawks blow good performances is tough to forget, this team is doing a great job of giving me amnesia!

Go Hawks!