Predicted bane of the Hawks existence: The trade with Dallas. No joke the only thing that used to stop Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee against the Hawks was the Washington starters.

It was as I expected, and you can't be too mad at the expected. And I would not be if it was all mildly surprising jump shots and tip of the hat runners, but these guys were not the bane because they out skilled or out lucked Atlanta. They outworked the Hawks. They beat them down the floor and on boards. They were aggressive on mismatches. Hell, McGee out pouted Josh Smith. That is serious effort.

The Hawks won tonight doing everything we do not like, and since I actually pretend the team might learn from these blog post, I feel like a rejected teacher. Every Josh Smith jump shot was hours of tutoring down the drain. Every bad defensive possession with the same old lineup felt like parents not caring about their kids grades. So yea, the team came back running down the hall with a C- yelling "I passed, I passed" You sure did, but that is not really worth my investment.

But as Hawves said in the game thread, "W-I-N spells Win." So at least they aced the spelling test.

Go Hawks!