Orlando Magic 88, Atlanta Hawks 82 Series Now Tied 1-1

1. Why is Powell coming off the bench as the first big before Zaza, Why, please someone explain?
2. While the refs are doing their thing, and we know what all that is, at some point I want my coach to protect the players. Not once this season have I seen the coach explode. Last night, the brave birds fought with all they had. You want example, look at the foul Smoove made on muscleman when he was going for the dunk. You want example, look at Zaza and Collins. You want example, look at Kirk crashing into moving screens by muscleman. At what point would the coach try to protect the players. Don’t players finally lose respect for this chicken little attitude? Smoove finally had enough, a justified tech he got, a tech that the coach should have taken.
3. Why take Jamal out in the last 2 minutes? I can’t agree to we need defense when we are trying to make a come back.

Otherwise, the treatment of Lion, the best player Hawks have, is a joke. He gets his fouls setting screens. He doesn’t defend physically, like a Collins/Zaza, or even go for blocks like Smoove. So chances are he won’t accumulate fouls.

And what LD has not learnt in 82 games about Etan, and 30 or so games with Armstrong, that he is trying to figure out now. I am with you, unless Etan is injured, Howard was toying with Armstrong like he was a rag doll.

It is not all gloom and doom, Hawks showed fighting spirit and seeds of doubt are planted in Orlando’s head. I am proud of them, and they have a chance to win the series. They need our support, but they also need much better guidance or our efforts become futile.

On switching Etan Thomas and Hilton Armstrong, made no sense barring injury. I don’t like to harp on the ref’s, but the 3 that “sealed the Hawk’s fate” was set up by DH giving a screen where he only moved about eight feet across the court. He should have fouled out and it should have been Hawk’s ball.

Current count:

Hawks: 46
Dwight: 43

There were 2 plays that the refs missed that had me screaming at the TV (along with a few that had me grumbling to myself).

1) A 3 on 2 fast break where Kirk dishes to Smoove and Smoove finishes while being blatantly pushed with two hands by Turkoglu…No call

2) Kirk gets leveled on a screen and the ref blew the whistle. “Finally,” I thought…until I realized they called the foul on Kirk. If I remember correctly, it was right in front of our bench. LD should have been livid and letting the refs hear it.

That being said, although the game could have been won even with us playing badly, I will take the the game 1 victory and be happy. Go Hawks!

We upchucked this one, but I’m still encouraged.

The offensive rebounding and the disparity of foul calls. NO WAY in HELL DH doesn’t foul out after playing the entire game. Anyway…How long can he keep that up? He should be tired AS this morning.

And it got worse when our last quality back-up big “fouled out” of the first half as Zaza picked up his second foul. And none of the three guys-Zaza, Collins, and Horford-that we really needed in the second quarter finished with more than four fouls.

But here’s the worst part-we actually outrebounded Orlando by a significant margin in the second half. If I’ve got the numbers right, they grabbed 37 in the first half to our 17. So when we had Horford on the floor with a competent man at center, we out rebounded Orlando by a margin of 22-15. Which is why it irritates me that Drew was talking about how they got killed on the boards in the postgame presser.

All I can hope is that there is a lesson learned here.

"Atlanta’s a team that if things aren’t really going their way, they’re going to struggle a little bit," said Ryan Anderson(notes), who led the Magic’s reserves with eight points. "We’re different in a sense where if we’re down we kind of know how to fight our way back into it."

They had 2 each in the first half. How many minutes do you expect each to play? What are you saving them for. I’d argue that they aren’t in trouble until they have 3 in the first half or 5 in the second half. Heck in game one Jason played several minutes with 5 fouls (Dwight had 5 at the same time as well). I’m okay with Josh Powell or Etan Thomas getting a few minutes at C to hack and frustrate Howard and buy Jason and Zaza a little rest, but extended minutes for Hilton Armstrong accomplishes nothing good.

If the coaching staff honestly reviews the game I think they’ll see how badly they let the team down. It’s the playoffs, coach as if every game is life and death. Don’t leave bullets in your gun. Better to run out of ammo going for the jugular than play it safe and never have a real chance.

I would be banned for punching the ref. So many HORRIBLE calls

The benching of Al, while puzzling and detremental to the game, was still nearly over come at the end of the game.
After Kirk was brought back into the game. The play which led to the Horford slam, which, has been noted, brought the game to within a possesion, was set up by a good defensive effort.

It is obvious to even the most casual observer of this postseason that the strategey of single covering Howard works, as long as you play lock down on the rest of the team. What should also be obvious is, that Jameer Nelson, is the biggest detriment to this strategy.

Crawford, being forced to defend the point caused the game to slip away, during the fourth quarter. I saw several possesions, where Nelson drove into the lane and kicked out to the open man. Drives where Crawford was not even in the frame. If LD continues to use JC at the point, and Teague never gets off the bench, I can see this being the primary cause for a series loss.