We scrapped to the very end against Houston and I knew Friday night that we’d be in trouble on Saturday. After scrapping with the Rockets for two hours, they boarded a flight for New Orleans. I’m sure Woody didn’t cancel practice. He needs to start thinking about these things when his players on just off of a grueling back-to-back. He needs flexibility in his planning. The Hornets shouldn’t be too damn happy because even with all those 3s, and the Hawks shooting dreadful from the field, they still didn’t blow us out. That’s encouraging. However, I’m not going to be this forgiving come Thursay. We’re up against another three point shooting team. Hopefully they’ll be off and hopefully VC will miss the plane. For some reason, I just don’t like him. The way he looks after he makes a shot makes me ill. Anyway, Go Hawks!!!! You get a pass…..this time.

they never gave up. They gave all they had, which wasn’t much, until the final horn. I like that Marvin is still being aggressive. JC kept us afloat. We need to back to controlling the paint. That’ll be a tall order come Thursday. One thing I have noticed about Orlando is that they leave the rebounding duties to Dwight. If we can somehow neutralize him, we stand a chance. If they go with the plan that blew us out last time, he’ll surely be the help defense on Joe. That means Joe needs to recognize that and pass out of the double team QUICKLY. Somebody has to be left open. It doesn’t seem like rocket science. To be honest, I would have much rather our streak ended with NO than Orlando. The media won’t make that big a deal of it, especially if we beat Orlando. We have got to find a way to beat this team. A win against them would be a major confidence booster. We’ve done it before. Why can’t we do it again? This would be a great night for a 50 point effort from Jamal. Is a 50 point effort off the bench unheard of?

God,
If you’re listening, please let Bibby be back and ready to go on Thursday. I know how we talk about him being old and slow. We’re sorry for saying such mean things about him. I know somebody on here once said that the other PG’s run past him like he’s standing still. I’m sure they meant that in the most positive way. We just want another week atop the Power Rankings. We’ve been so heartbroken over this team for the last few years and we just want a little shine for a change. We ask all of this with a humbled heart. Amen

is it just a mild sprain or is it serious enough to keep him outta the game on Thursday

For 13 games he’s been among the NBA’s most valuable. He said his goals were to be an All-Star and all-NBA defense, and that means working every night. Sure, he might have been tired, but he’d only played 24 minutes the night before, not like Marvin, who had just played 40 minutes and still working his ass off.

Too many times we saw Josh strolling up and down the court. He still had a solid overall stat line, because even a Josh who’s barely trying is still just so damn talented, but he was out of position all night on defense (a fact that I’m certain got him benched during the second quarter), and he barely attacked the post on offense. Occasionally, we’d see one possession worth of actual fire, and I’d think “Okay, here’s the spark, he’s awake now,” but two possessions later, you’d see him walk (not even JOG!) up/down the floor, for all the world as if he was forced to be there.

The sad thing was, Joe Smith showed exactly why Josh Smith is a huge part of this team. Without playing particularly poorly, he was unable to stop anyone defensively, contributed nothing offensively in 11 minutes, coming down with 3 boards-Hawks were -17 with him on the floor, which, hey, is double the margin of victory.

Josh could won this game nearly by himself if he’d been anywhere near his energy level from the previous 13 games. Think about this-Hawks shot 37.2% from the floor, and still only lost by 8. Josh was 4-8 from the inside, 0-4 on his jumpshots, and got to the line 4 more times. David West can’t guard him, and when he’s out of the game, it’s even more grim for New Orleans, with either Darius Songaila or Hilton Armstrong matched up against Josh. This was a game ripe for him to drop 35 points and 15 boards.

/end diatribe.

I dare you to name a power forward in the league that can guard him one on one. If he would realize that, he’d be dangerous. I know they didn’t get any calls their way last night, but to be fair NO had tons of turnovers that we failed to capitalize on. Hands down we could have won that game. Josh needs to make the refs non-calls his motivation. Get mad and take it out on the rim. What’s so frustrating is we all know he can play at a high level. We’ve see it for 13 games. Come on dude!!! I’ve met his girlfriend a couple of times. I’m tempted to tell her what we’re saying on these blogs. So damn frustrating!

Time for Teague to step up. Time for Teague to show he’s ready for solid minutes. Time for Coach Mike to show he is commited to using his new bench depth.

Teague played five minutes.

Way to use your bench Woody.

We won the battle of turn overs, we won the rebound battle.

Josh and Al were 9-22
Okafor and West 8-24

I would say we won the battle of the post.

We did lose the assist race, Josh had 7 of our 15 assists
Marvin and Stojakovic were pretty much a wash.

A couple of rookie guards. Thorton/Collison went for 17-29
Our star guards went JJ/Jamal went 14-39

A rookie Collison had 11 on his own with the rest of the NO team chipping in for another 11.

JJ and Jamal should ask Collison for advice on passing

Moral to the story? ISO, one on one, halfcourt, guard oriented jumpshooting, no ball movement no passing fatigued team will get you a loss.

Why we don’t give the rock to our post players at least 30-35 times a game, every game, is beyond me. Clearly the post is the strength of our team – why not pass it to them.

As posted before, where would these post shots come from? 3 pt shooting. Yep a whopping 4-22.

But breakout year or not woody needs to trust his bench amd bench jj until he gets hot. Play him a few minutes a quarter if he cant get hot. He needs to take control. I understand that a winner wants the ball when the game is on the line but it was on the line since the first quarter. JJ as capt. should have gave it up to the hot man(which was…… )

Al and Marvin. Josh was not any colder than JJ and Jamal and he had 7 of our 15 assists with 10 rebounds. Josh played much better than JJ and Jamal. On the road it is tougher to make shots. Give the rock to the bigs, they shoot shots closer to the rim.

Al was 5-10. with 2 assists. Jamal was 8-21 with 1 assist. Jamal needs to be driving and feeding Al instead of jacking up jumpers. 2-9

Who else was hot besids Al? Marvin was 8-16.

Lets recap Marvin and Al were 13-26. JJ and Jamal 14-39

Bibby has chemistry with everyunit and so does jj but when mike continues to run the starters ragid, ex. josh walking up the court, things get out of hand and cant be fixed in that particular game. Especially josh, when he gets mad he screws himself and sometimes the team up, when smooth gets mad he attacks the rim big difference. Basically we need woody to do what he did in houston, bench JOSH when he gets that attitude and bring him back when he comes to his senses. but that aside, woody hasnt been bad.

Just trying to understand him…….its getting sorta clear