Atlanta Hawks News and Notes From South Beach
by Kris Willis on Dec 5, 2010 11:21 AM EST
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In his game recap, MC talks about the impact Damien Wilkins had defensively on the Hawks:
Wilkins' defensive effort seemed to inspire his teammates.The Heat scored just 13 points in the third quarter while missing 13 of 19 shots. James was held scoreless, Bosh scored four points and Wade seven as the rest of the Heat players managed two points combined.
I think it was really early for some to dismiss this signing. Damien is 6'6" and is fairly athletic with long arms and looked at least in a one game setting like he could play a little bit of defense. It is easy to rattle off defensive numbers but lets see how he fits in with this team.
In his post game blog post MC quotes Mo Evans:
The Hawks were 6 of 18 from the field in the fourth quarter with two assists. Mo seemed to suggest the problem was too much Iso-Jamal. "We were stagnant throughout the fourth quarter and a lot of the game," he said. "They started to lock in on the one guy who was handling the ball a lot."
Bret LaGree of Hoopinion talks about the two foul rule that sent Horford to the bench in the first half:
Horford sat for 5:22 late in the first and early in the second quarter as part of the regular rotation. Fair enough. One minute and 32 seconds into his second quarter stint, he committed his second personal foul. Due to Larry Drew's placing a greater priority on Horford not fouling out than on winning the basketball games, Hoford sat for the final 6:28 of the first half. He would finish the game with four personal fouls.
Surya Fernandez of NBA FanHouse talks about the Hawks third quarter dominance:
The Hawks started the second half by hitting four straight jump shots to cut a 14-point deficit at halftime to eight points in less than three minutes which prompted a quick timeout from Spoelstra. The two teams then traded baskets but the Hawks slowly gained control as Horford dominated Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Joel Anthony inside while crowding the Heat's perimeter players and not allowing them any space to penetrate The Heat were forced to settle for long jumpers as the Hawks eventually closed to within just two points at the end of the quarter while Bosh and Wade sat.
David Dwork of SB Nation Blog Peninsula is Mightier talks about the Heat's four game win streak:
It wasn't that long ago when the Heat had lost 4 of their last 5 games and people were starting to panic. For now, those feelings are in the rearview mirror with the Heat winning four straight and showing that they can win games in different ways. Tonight it was almost all Wade, James and Bosh while others they have gotten major contributions from the bench, or drilled a bunch of trey's.
Michael Wallace of the Heat index quotes Erik Spoelstra on the decision to go to Chris Bosh down the stretch:
"We, on purpose, ran the offense through him down the stretch," Spoelstra said after the escape. "Chris gave us some relief opportunities."
Raul Takahashi of Hot Hot Hoops talks turnovers:
A battle of national security ensued with Miami coming in 1st in Fewest Turnovers per Game and Atlanta a close 2nd. The Heat remained cautious with the ball, finishing with 10 turnovers to the Hawks 13 and keeping the title of safest team in the NBA so far this season. Hawks have now dropped to 5th.
Time to learn from this game and move on as we knew it wasn't going to be easy even if Joe Johnson had played.
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So close..I would like to think JJ would have made a difference.
Can't eat sushi in Utah, brother.....Landlocked
Josh Smith could have made the difference in this game, but he was nonexistent again.
Mentally he is like the 18 year old we drafted out of high school. He whines and complains and then sulks if things don’t go his way. He has such a huge effect on the Hawks and his play has almost cost us the past 3 games. His jumper has gotten a lot better, but since he has gained a jump shot he has regressed in his mental approach to the game. Instead of taking the ball to the basket he shoots long jump shots and he is also shooting fade aways? on the low post now. He has become soft. He isn’t taking it to the rim or crashing the glass. Smooth had 4 rebounds last night….. FOUR? That is a joke. If Josh should not be getting single digit rebounds in any game. I went to the game on Friday and he was yelling at the coaches and refused to give his teammates high fives on the way to the bench. He then put the towel over his head and sulked. HOW much longer will Atlanta allow him to act so immature? He can be a GREAT player, but he holds himself back and it is detrimental to the teams success. Let’s HOPE he shows up against the MAGIC.
Thanks for the quotes and links.
I have to agree with Mo being frustrated with the Iso-Jamal approach. I’m sure we’ve all played with guys like Jamal. As a teammate, there’s only so much effort you can put into getting open in the halfcourt offense before you realize your teammate has decided to go one on one again and does not plan on passing anyone the ball. It’s frustrating, and the offense becomes stagnant. It’s hard to argue with that approach if Jamal is on fire, but when he’s not, he needs to learn to share the ball and contribute in different ways.
We should cry about Josh some more
When in reality our entire team gives poor effort and fails to rebound or defend and settles for too many jump shots
You think Josh Smith causes this team to fall behind by 18 points in the first half of EVERY game?
If so, then he is the biggest game changer in the history of NBA basketball
We aren't crying about Josh. We are complaining because he doesn't play up to his ability every night.
He takes nights off and it kills the team. He has been in the league now for 6 years and he still hasn’t grown up. He still acts like an immature teenager. He is actually a huge game changer if you haven’t noticed. When he plays the way he should we are a great team. And the “way he should” is: crashing the glass (single digit rebounds and 4 against the Heat? is unacceptable), taking the ball to the basket, posting up, and shooting the occasional jumper when it is in the flow of the offense (not a jumper early in the clock, no fade aways, and not when you are struggling to score). He still doesn’t get it and it is his 6th year. It is disappointing because we see the flashes of how great he can be.
by BravesFanScout on Dec 6, 2010 12:06 PM EST up reply actions
Yes
The same can be said for most of the guys on the team, or in the NBA for that matter. For the rest, we know they have no potential, so we aren’t upset when they don’t live up to it.
Every player on this team is accountable and none of them are living up to their potential right now, not even the almighty Al Horford.
Being down by double digits in the first half of nearly every game and having to fight our way back in is not due to one player. It is a collective effort of lazy, poor defensive players who don’t rebound and offensive players with no hands and those who are content to shoot long jumpers when no one is near the paint in the event of an offensive rebound
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