Atlanta Hawks 97, Portland Trail Blazers 91 or where Jamal Crawford shows enough awesome to anger at least four cities
by hawksdawgs on Nov 4, 2009 7:42 AM EST
11 comments
Horrid offense, Joe Johnson pressing, Josh Smith with actual, legitimate reason to pout, on the road, against a good team, with jump shots already being settled for. That is the Hawks lose by 20 soup recipe. It has been passed down for years, a regular family tradition. And last night, the team threw all the ingredients in. They were ready to pass out the bowls of suck, and then, Zaza Pachulia and Jamal Crawford said screw it, we're having steak.
Defense
This was a great win. The Hawks played team defense. They out rebounded a far better rebounding team by ten. Al Horford played well enough on defense and well enough against guys that much bigger is pretty darn good. Josh Smith carried his lunch pale. LaMarcus Aldridge probably helped by settling for a lot for a lot of fadaways jumpers, but Josh can only guard what is there and he guarded it well. And the Hawks as a team (the only way you can the guy) only allowed Brandon Roy seven points in the final three quarters. Effort and skill on the defensive side of the ball is so pleasant.
Jamal Crawford, a man of ease
Seven assists and zero turnovers. Seven assists?!? Zero turnovers!? Here are your crazy pills everybody. Swallow them down.
Yes, you just watched a game where did everything. Jamal scored. He got others involved. Shoot, dude boxed out enough to get an over the back on a Blazer. And the seven assists were not guys making jumpers. Six of them were created shots by Crawford. And that is without mentioning that he was one of the two catalysts in the second quarter comeback. History says all the JC games won't be like this, but he sure makes it look like they could be.
The return of Zaza!
Welcome back my cuddly Eastern European bruiser of unathleticism awesomeness. At one point in the first half, Zaza was the offense. Seriously. And his defense keyed the whole thing. Zaza can't be your offensive leader if your not getting defensive stops too. Zaza blocked two shots. He played good man to man defense. Protected the rim. Basically, Zaza did what he does best, make me happy.
And if you did not see Zaza celebrating with a minute to go after Jamal Crawford's behind the back pass to Horford, I challenge you to watch it and not smile.
Joe Johnson does not give a damn about your credit
Joe Johnson was awful in the first half. I mean anger inducing, ready to trade awful. But I must give the guy credit, he was 8-11 in the second half. Who goes 8-11 in the second half of a game and you barely notice? Joe gets called out when he fails. He should. He is the leader, the highest paid guy, but he succeeds and no one says a thing. We almost forget. 8-11 in the second half is an MVP second half. Joe might not be good enough to avoid a good number of bad halves, but dude, rarely fails for a whole game.
Victory Bullets
- I don't want to brag and I also enjoy lying. So rewind the third quarter. Watch it. The Hawks push the pace in two sections with a slowed down jumper fest in the middle. Which worked better? Just saying. Just saying.
- Note to Al Horford don't try and block Steve Blake's shot. If you do, someone will be dunking on your head in rapid succession
- To his credit, Josh Smith will sacrifice his body for his for a charge. To his deference, he never gets it. So to my great surprise and awe, Josh picked one up against Brandon Roy. Pretty impressive.
- By far, the best rotational defense the Hawks have had all season.
- Dear Joe, please learn a double team is not code for let me make a highlight jumper. Hawks rarely make the highlights anyway. Thanks. Hawksdawgs
- One should not congratulate someone for doing what they are suppose to do, but Josh Smith could have pouted and he didn't. So good work being a normal professional Josh. You are so much more fun to watch when you are.
- Marvin is teetering on losings his confidence. I am getting very nervous he is going to abort his afro growing as a response. Almost beyond nervous.
- I complain and moan about Horford not getting his shots. Well, he has this season, and I think the Hawks are better for it, but those shots have only dropped one game. It seems like they should drop more. I hope they do. Because the Hawks will be scary good if it happens.
Everyone go celebrate like Zaza. Good win.
Go Hawks!
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Great road win
But my expectations for Marvin continue to decline with each passing game. Can he have, say, 4 games this season with 10+ FTA? Is that too much?
Not worried.
Marvin is trying to find his identity on this team. In the meantime, he has been getting some nice rebounds and hitting shots. When he does go to the line, he makes them. Once he figures out how to fit in with the new rotations, he’ll be OK.
i am mildly worried
but i think that is a great point. for marvin, even one guy changing the rotation is big. it always is for the glue types. he has had some clutch boards.
and his shot is not falling which i expect it to. I would like for him to drive a bit more instead of settling for jumpers.
Love Marvin
The guy has shown great maturity..Even when his shot was not falling and he was struggling, he was still playing great D and passing the ball.!!
I think the best thing to say about Marvin (and Josh and Mo) is that they are who we thought they are. Some nights Marvin forgets to play. That’s just who he is. Hopefully these nights will be more than offset by other future nights where he makes key jumpers.
I see in the box score Teague didn’t play. Any particular reason for that or did Woody just forget he was on the roster / decide to give him the Stoudamire/Law treatment?
See, all Marvin is right now is a spot up shooter who spaces the floor, is a decent defender and an above-average rebounder at his position. On this team, that’s fine, nothing wrong with that. However, it seems damn near every time he puts the ball on the floor and drives to the basket he gets fouled or gets a decent look. I remember Hollinger pointing out that Marvin led the league in FTA/TO last year, and we all remember what he did when Joe was out last year. Marvin gets the line 14 times and 18 times in the games Joe is out? That’s not coincidence. Sure, those weren’t against the greatest of defenses, but there’s something there and I would like to see more of it. If we’re going to run a ton of swingman iso plays, I think Marvin can score more efficiently than Joe.
It’s ironic in that he has the exact opposite mental problem that Josh does. One does too much, the other not enough. Maybe he’ll start to figure it out like out small sample size of Josh has begun to do.
Where's marvin
He has got to be more aggressive. Take more shots. Anyway it was a good win. They didn’t fold the Blazers punched and the Hawks punched back. They did not do that against LA. Crawford was huge ( Jamal, and Joe on the floor at the same time is exciting)…..But it was Josh Smith’s blocks and rebounding that made the difference late in the game
Maybe it's something else
Could it be possible that Marvin noticed his shots weren’t falling and decided to do what he could to get others who were having a better game more involved than himself? Personally, I’d rather him not be aggressive if his shot isn’t falling. We didn’t need him to be a stud last night, so what’s the beef?
"This is America, if we can’t self-righteously look down on others and blame them for our faults, the commies win."-----Cormican on Bleeding Green Nation w/r/t fans overreacting to the Eagles signing of Michael Vick
Well...
Woody made up for pulling Joe early when he was hot the other nigh by playing him 45 f’n minutes last night.
hey woodys
coaching some how works so i just bitch about it when we lose but when we win WOODY IS GOD
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