Atlanta Hawks 101 Indiana Pacers 87 or where we remember the times.

by hawksdawgs on Mar 14, 2009 11:27 AM EDT

	ACTUAL		PROJECTED				ODDS (%)
Team	W	L	W	L	Best	Worst	Playoffs	Division	No. 1	Finals	Champs	Lottery*
Cleveland	52	13	65	17	69-13	58-24	100.0	100.0	84.1	40.9	27.2	0.0
Boston	50	16	62	20	66-16	52-30	100.0	100.0	13.6	35.1	21.9	0.0
Orlando	48	17	59	23	65-17	51-31	100.0	100.0	2.4	15.9	8.5	0.0
Atlanta	38	28	46	36	53-29	39-43	100.0	0.0	0.0	3.2	1.0	0.0

Box Score

Recap

Hey, hey...remember that time the Hawks started out 6-0 and everyone was like this is incredible and hey, hey remember how now the Hawks are on a 4-0 streak and everyone is like "your darn right they are."

And hey you, ya, hey remember when Joe Johnson scored all those points on a bad Hawks team and people said it was only did it because he was on that bad team. Yea, and hey, remember how now he goes for 30 on a playoff team.

Ahh the memories. How I do love memories. Especially the ones that are being made right now. I am tired of saying if Josh Smith does "x" or Joe Johnson is on then the Hawks will be scary in the playoffs. Because maybe the Hawks are just going to be scary in the playoffs period.

But alas do not worry, a Pacers team playing without Danny Granger has not sent me off to the kool aide factory. Problems were prevalent from last nights game.

It is more comical than sad that Woodson would put Mario West in as the 6th man. I really only have a few problems with this. Mainly, everything. The Hawks were not lacking energy. What they needed was scoring. It is just great that Woodson makes a good move against the Jazz and is so surprised by its success he can only think to repeat it immediately. Ahhh you are delight coach, a true delight.
Why did Al not have 25 shots last night? The game plan should have been feed the post, open jumper by joe, feed the post, feed the post.
The old new Josh Smith was back last night. Not the Inspector's best night but to Woody's credit, he only played Josh 26 minutes. It only took four and half years. Sweet.

But in the end, the night produced solid effort and a win the Hawks should expect and done in a way they should want. Joe "freakin" Johnson is a machine right now. I would like to think every time he plays James Posey he just goes on a shooting tear for six or seven games. Call it "the power of Posey" or "you suck James Posey." Either one. Because it was another "oh yea Joe went for 30 and 6 again. that was neat" night.

Finally, is it ironic that the Hawks most combustible piece is nicknamed Smooth and its best player is one of the smoothest players in the league?

Game thread comment of the game: Hot Cup Joe with "if this guy is your first sub...you might have a terrible bench."

Go Hawks!

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Comments

I just defended the decidision to use Mario West on Bret's blog

at length.

But to sum up, the Hawks had a four point lead, and then immediately following the West substitution, Hawks not named West missed 10 shots and committed 3 turnovers in less than 3 minutes. JJ and Bibby both missed open threes, Zaza must have missed like 4 opportunities right at the basket, and Mario grabbed 3 offensive rebounds to set up some of those misses.

I can’t say the move worked out, but I’m at a loss to find what player on the Hawks bench (short of Marvin in street clothes) would have cured the shooting woes.

by Bronn on Mar 14, 2009 12:33 PM EDT reply actions

And yes, I stand by my spelling of "decidision." I'm going to petition Webster's to officially change it.

by Bronn on Mar 14, 2009 12:34 PM EDT up reply actions

we can save postage together

because i am writing a letter to get Josh Smith’s picture next to the definition of enigma.

by hawksdawgs on Mar 14, 2009 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions

read your hoopinion post

i think we are mostly on the same page. I am knocking woody and decision to play Mario at that time more than I am knocking Mario. I agree Mario did exactly what was asked of him, it was just not what the Hawks needed. I am not saying the hawks could have brought steve kerr off the bench but they could have brought someone in that resembles steve kerr when put next to mario west’s offensive game.

i love the mario. he is just such a niche player. a dynamic one but still, bat shit crazy is a very focused skill set. can mario really help the team? i think so. can woodson sub him in properly to help? i have my doubts.

by hawksdawgs on Mar 14, 2009 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions

J-Smoove

is actually the nickname. Not Smooth. I assume by “its best player is one of the smoothest players in the league” you are referring to Acie?

by acie4mvp on Mar 14, 2009 9:11 PM EDT reply actions

agreed

but the team calls him smooth.

its like how people refer to Kobe as Mamba instead of Black Mamba. it actually exactly like that if you pretend J-smoove is a cool nickname.

by hawksdawgs on Mar 14, 2009 10:36 PM EDT up reply actions

haha

but only if you change mamba to some word that doesn’t really exist, but is kind of close to mamba so it could easily be confused for mamba.

by acie4mvp on Mar 15, 2009 12:47 AM EDT up reply actions

doesn't this beat 13-69?

Long-time Hawks fan, first time poster. And when I say long-time fan, I mean long-time fan — as in remembering when Skip called the Hawks on TBS before Dominique began slamming and Cliff Levingston decided it was a good idea to take the worst shot in NBA history in Game 6 against the Celtics back in 1988. But it’s nice to see this team winning for the first time in a decade. Yes, there are holes (Marvin’s absence would be telling in a playoff series, I’m afraid) and I wish they had tried to get a center at the trading deadline (can you say Marcus Camby? I knew you could … ). But I think they are definitely on the way to being an Eastern power for a while. If they could win a series this year and make a respectable second round showing, that would be a nice step up. Thoughts? Check in with everyone tomorrow after the Portland game …

by tennesseehawk on Mar 14, 2009 11:21 PM EDT reply actions