This kind of game happens. J.R. Smith probably won’t score 5 points in his next game. Yeah at first they were leaving him wide open on the perimeter. After about five 3 pointers, JC played some pretty good defense on him. What I didn’t appreciate was George Karl putting him back in to pad his stats when the game was clearly out of reach. He can shoot a 25 footer, but not his free throws? Wow! We should have just fouled the hell out of him and made him earn his points at the free throw line. Even though we loss by 20 points, I can live with 1 player being absurdly hot. I really believe we could have won this game if not for the some questionable calls and JR Smith. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a foul called on Kenyon Martin for his mauling of Teague. Teague felt totally dejected behind that move. Josh was elbowed in the head by Nene and he actually drew blood….no call. Bibby was knocked down by Melo….no call. That’s just how the cookie crumbles. You win some. You lose some.

The loss to Denver is tough, but easy to understand and move on from. Denver had to win having not played well recently. They also remember the game from earlier this year when they got ambushed(this was payback). And they are home, playing at a high altitude where most teams don’t adjust easy. And they are a very good team.

With that said, it is also clear they were sending a message to the Hawks. Denver was missing key players last time they played the Hawks (of-course they were missing Billups this time), and by beating up on Teague(welcome to NBA), Bibby, and Josh, they were muscling us. Only our Lion Horford is not intimidated. All to say, Hawks still miss a big muscle man that can help in these circumstances. Joe Smith is not that. Zaza is the closest we have to that. Marvin, where have you gone?

What is hard are the losses to Chicago and NY, but again let’s move on. We have another opportunity to show we can handle the mediocre teams of the East away from the Bird Cage when we play the lost organization named Pacers(be interesting to see the rookie from North Carolina in Pacers uniform play).

One note: the old team in the East is crumbling as we expected. Pierce will be out 2 weeks with a knee infection of some type. Garnett is not feeling great.

All in all, a great first 1/3 of the season. Well done Hawks, and let’s continue it. Merry Christmas to everyone

After a while smith was just throwing them up and hitting them. the hawks defense has to get more aggressive if they want to be taken seriously.

Gotta say it was good to see payback for the beatdown you administered on us in the Dirty.

You gotta know though, this is the fifth time the Nuggets have caught a team on the second night of a back to back in Denver. Lakers, Thunder, Suns, Houston and Atlanta. Most teams don’t win those kind of games.

JR will have nights like this…and as one of your posters mentioned, he might not break 5 in the next. He’s one of the most on/off players you’ll ever see.

Good luck in the east, I hope you guys murder the Celtics.

Games like this will happen. everyteam is human and the hawks know what they did wrong. I just hope were ready for Indiana tomorrow because they don’t go down easily. jj needs to actually show up in the first two quarters and woody doesn’t need to sub Marvin for Crawford when he is obviously hot. But on to the next game. Let’s Go Hawks

i am very sad no one picked up on my “short circuit 2” reference.