As promised, Sekou Smith delivers more about the surprise re-appearance of Acie Law and Solomon Jones Saturday night:

Just the sight of the five of them on the floor together caused heads to turn.

Five Hawks reserves playing together usually means they’re at practice. Five Hawks reserves on the floor together in a game, as they were in the second half of Saturday’s last-second win over Houston, is noteworthy.

And something, according to Hawks coach Mike Woodson, that likely will have to be repeated on a regular basis with the rigors of the NBA season.

“I’ve got to get back to that somehow,” Woodson said. “And I know I keep saying that, but eventually we will. We’ll have guys in and out. I want to try to, at least, get to nine or 10 deep that we’re playing on a regular basis.

“But it sure would be nice to get some big leads and keep them so we could work all our guys.”

This is why I so frequently correct, fact-check, or just make fun of Mike Woodson quotes. I do not believe he tends toward understatement, subterfuge, or deliberate obfuscation. In complimentary terms, he appears to be too honest for any of those modes of speech. In more critical terms, he appears to lack the verbal communication skills to engage in such multi-purposed modes of speech.

Woodson genuinely does not believe that Acie Law is capable of playing 10 or 12 minutes a night backing up Mike Bibby. Or, he does not believe that Acie Law is capable of playing 10 or 12 minutes a night backing up Mike Bibby any better than can non-point guard of long standing, Flip Murray. I think it's time to stop wondering* why. 

Same goes for Solomon Jones but in his case, I'm completely with Woodson because

1. Smith/Horford/Pachulia plus some spot power forward time for Marvin Williams is a good frontcourt rotation.
2. Solomon Jones was never a good college basketball player.

*Though we can start wondering why Woodson seems to envision himself so passively with regard to who on his team gets playing time.

Acie Law fans can, I believe, take long-term encouragement for his NBA career in the following quotes from his teammates.

Josh Smith*:

"That has to be the toughest part for those guys. You come to work every day, and everybody wants to play minutes. There’s no doubt about that. But it’s nearly impossible to keep 12 guys happy that way, because everybody wants to play as much as possible. That’s why we have to be grateful for the times that they come in and do what they did [against the Rockets], because it’s a huge boost for our team."

Zaza Pachulia:

"I’ve been talking to Acie, especially just because I’ve been in that situation before. I think he’s done a great job. And he has to respect it, because it’s very hard to stay ready when you’re not playing. But this is professional basketball, and he’s a good young player and he’s showing good character by accepting his role the way he has.”

*How can a guy who can't but say something perceptive damn near every time he opens his mouth not be a moe self-aware basketball player?

Joe Johnson sounds like a guy who would welcome a lessening of his burden. Unless he's still thinking about Mike Bibby dragging in the fourth quarter in New Jersey:

"The bench definitely has to be effective in order for us to be a good team. There’s just no way the starters can play 40-plus minutes a game every night. So those guys have got to be ready whenever their number is called.”

Last word goes to the man in charge:

"When you’re learning to win everybody has to understand that and accept their role, knowing that whatever minutes I get I have to make them most significant minutes I can to help our team win basketball games. Because you never know when you’ll be called upon. And Acie was great for us, Solomon was great for us. You just never know what can happen, so you have to ready mentally and physically to do your job.”

Boxscore

Gameflow

Reduced to following the game online under the heavy influence of cold medicine rather than spending an early Saturday night downtown, I regret missing out on a game I assume I would have found alternately delightful (Josh Smith attacking the basket almost exclusively and the return of Acie Law IV) and maddening (the inability to guard a Houston team missing Tracy McGrady, Ron Artest, Shane Battier, and, for much of the fourth quarter, Yao Ming and Woodson's overreaction to the slight possibility of future foul trouble).

So this Sunday morning, rather than speculate as to why Zaza Pachulia would get the Horford treatment in the first half so that Solomon Jones could come in and get a sole, lonely rebound while committing four fouls in four minutes or why Horford would sit for eight minutes of the third quarter after picking up his fourth foul if he's not going to play the final 4:41 even if he doesn't foul out (deep breath) I'll just move straight along to the eyewitness accounts and the words of those directly involved in the proceedings.

Josh Smith, still not in need of instruction in how to think positively about oneself:

"I wanted to try to crash the boards. I only had two rebounds, but they were the two biggest rebounds in the game."

I shouldn't tease on a night when, otherwise, he plays so well but how can Josh Smith play almost 36 straight minutes without even accidentally grabbing a rebound?

Mike Bibby:

"...a win’s a win, no matter how it comes. The idea is to win the game."

Al Horford:

"It’s only fair that we were on the other end this time. I think it showed a lot from our team, after losing such a tough game [Friday night] and being able to bounce back here and get a home win.”

Marvin Williams, on the subject of his shoulder:

"I hurt it in practice, the last full practice we had [before the New Year]. I wore a sleeve on it in the first half in [New] Jersey [Friday night] and then when I got up this morning I could barely lift my arm up, so I don’t know what the deal is.”

• Sekou Smith teases us with the promise of "more on" the reappearance of Acie Law (And, I presume, Solomon Jones, too, though the belief that he's ever going to become a useful player baffles me. Carl Landry's more my idea of a how to make good use of a pick early in the second round.) to be revealed during the upcoming off days.
  
• Houston had a foul to give on Atlanta's final possession, a fact Rick Adelman says he failed to communicate clearly enough.
  
• At The Human Highlight Blog, Jason asks if McGrady and Artest would have put up better numbers than (the aforementioned) Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks.
  

Boxscore

Gameflow

It may be useful to look at the table above to make sense of a game where neither team lead by more than four points during a low-scoring, not especially well but evenly played first half* before the second half featured a lengthy period of Dallas dominance followed by a brief, spirited, three-point heavy but narrowly futile Atlanta response**.

*A representative sample: from 3:38 to 1:18 of the second quarter, not a single point was scored while the teams combined to miss seven shots and turn the ball over three times.

**Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson combined to score 26 points in the first 39:27 of the game before combining to score 27 points in the final 8:33.

In a deceptively* high-paced game, Atlanta shot slightly better from the field and got to the free throw line more frequently but neither shot well enough from the field nor often enough from the line to overcome Dallas's greater number of field goal attempts which they accrued by (shock, horror) dominating their offensive glass and not turning the ball over as often as did the Hawks.

*Deceptively, in that, many of the possessions were short because of a turnover rather than something either offense wanted to accomplish quickly.

As I expected, the Hawks had no one who could keep Jose Juan Barea out of the lane though that did not prove dangerous until the third quarter commenced. Jason Terry caused fewer problems than I expected but Dirk Nowitzki came out a clear victor over Josh Smith in the battle of offensive star versus defensive star.

Despite that, had Brandon Bass (14 points on 9 shots, 6 rebounds, 3 of them offensive) not outplayed Marvin Williams the Hawks could have won. Then again, had Brandon Bass not played so well, the Hawks might not have fallen far enough behind to throw caution to the wind and begin to score points easily against a team that likely (and reasonably) assumed they had the game in hand.

Kudos to Zaza Pachulia, who, in Al Horford's absence, played the Erick Dampier/DaSagana Diop tandem to a draw. The less said about the rest of the Hawks' bench, the better, though Solomon Jones did contribute a nice six-and-a-half minute stretch in the second quarter.

Josh Smith on turning the ball over after first stealing it with the Hawks down 2 in the final minute:

"That summed up exactly what kind of night it was for us. It was so uncharacteristic of us to turn the ball over like that. I was trying to get a handle on the ball and just lost it.”

Joe Johnson:

"That [late turnover by Smith] isn’t what cost us the game. We turned the ball over all night, and we allowed them to get us on our heels in the third quarter and push that lead out …And yeah, we showed a lot of pride coming back the way we did in the last four minutes. But there are no moral victories for us this year. Those days are over.”

Some statistical analysis from Mike Woodson:

"The turnovers were huge. We had 19 turnovers, and that was 19 opportunities you didn’t give yourself to score. We made plays down the stretch to get back in it, but we had that dry, 16-point third quarter that just put us behind. And you can’t spot this team. They’re too good for that.”

A more disputable comment from Coach Woodson regarding Acie Law IV:

"He's caught in between a couple of veterans, and it's tough. I've got to help him out a little. He's going to be fine for us."

Here's an idea to help Law out: use him as the backup point guard. If he's caught in between a couple of veterans, one of whom is Flip Murray, I suspect that a) you're being disingenuous about needing to help him out (hence the "little" that ends that sentence) and b) you don't actually believe that he's going to be fine. If he's anything, Acie Law is a point guard. Flip Murray can do whatever it is he does playing off the ball.

Boxscore

Gameflow

It was nice to have Josh Smith back. His value to the team's defense was immediately apparent. Had Memphis not spent the game's first six minutes making several jump shots the Hawks must have been quite content with them taking, the Grizzlies would have struggled to score 30 points.

The second half was a different story, though one written in part by the Hawks nine second-half turnovers rather than being penned solely by a defensive meltdown.

Smith tired visibly towards the end of each of his on-court stints. His 12-game lay-off may have limited him physically in the second half. Memphis did not simply benefit from Atlanta turnovers. The Grizzlies got to the free throw line far more often in the second half (17 FTA) than they did in the first half (7 FTA) and did a much better job of rebounding their own misses.

Memphis's defense kept the Hawks (or at least this Hawks fan) from ever feeling like the game was truly in danger of being lost. Not that watching the Hawks allow a 26-point lead (74-48 with 5:44 left in the third) to become a 6-point lead (88-82 with 6:36 left in the game) filled one with confidence about the team's long-term prospects. You'd like to see the Hawks be able to waltz to victory over a 4-13 opponent at home on a night when Atlanta shoots better than 60% from the floor.

The culprit was the second unit. Maurice Evans had a terrible night (0-7 FGA, 0-5 3PTA), Flip Murray was Flip Murray, and both Acie Law IV and Solomon Jones were thoroughly ineffective.

Some bullet points...

Memphis has a lot of talent, but too much of it is redundant (Conley and Lowry and Crittenton, Warrick and Arthur, even OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay are not especially dissimilar offensive players).

• I don't expect Marc Iavaroni to be long for this job. Memphis's defense was atrocious both in terms of effort and attention to assignments at various points. For a start, the Grizzly players could start to put as much effort into guarding the opposition as they do to assigning each other blame following an opponent's made shot.
• Apparently Pau is the handsome Gasol brother.
• Also, Marc Gasol does not draw as large and boisterous Spanish crowd in Atlanta as does Joes Calderon.
• Mike Bibby played a perfect second half: 6-6 FGA, 4-4 3PTA, 5 assists, 0 turnovers.
• Joe Johnson wasn't perfect in the second half, but he was much improved over his recent performances: 5-6 FGA, 2-3 3PTA, 2-2 FTA, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover.
• I didn't notice it while watching the game, but Marvin Williams was +30 in 32 minutes of playing time. Not coincidentally, Rudy Gay needed 18 shots and 4 free throw attempts to score 16 points.

Josh Smith on his return to action:

"I knew I had to do something early just to get myself established in the game. I definitely wanted to start on the defensive end, and being able to come up with that steal off the tip was key.''

Joe Johnson on Josh Smith's return:

"He spreads the floor and then when he gets the rebound he brings it up, and we were able to penetrate and make plays. I think it makes us a tougher team to defend.''

Sekou Smith on the unnecessary second half excitement:

If, and more likely when, the Hawks are jockeying for playoff position months from now, the particulars of their 105-95 victory over the hapless Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night at Philips Arena won’t matter nearly as much.

That they got complacent with a 26-point lead and allowed the Grizzlies to make it a competitive game late — they closed to within six points in the final two minutes — won’t matter.

The reason: The Hawks got what they needed, winning their sixth home game in seven tries this season to improve to 11-6 on the season. And just as they’ve fretted over games squandered early in seasons past, they’ll stack Wednesday’s game in the win column in March or April, a time when all that matters is wins and losses, not early-season style points.

Al Horford:

"I guess we kind of figured they were going to give up. But no team gives up. And every team in this league is capable of coming back. So we kind of had to gather ourselves. We kind of got lucky a few times and made enough stops to pull the game out.”

Zaza Pachulia on this blog's favorite subject for the past six days:

"I’m ready to play every night."

Mike Woodson on the same subject:

"It doesn’t matter who plays on this team. And that’s kind of how we’re trying to build. To worry about that, then we have problems. My job is to make sure that when guys do play, they’re ready to play and they do a job. If not, I have to go to the next guy and try to figure it out. Right now, everybody is on the same page, so the minutes you do get, you have to make it the best supporting minutes that you play.”"

I disagree with the first sentence. The third sentence isn't especially true. The fourth sentence I find disingenuous. As to the fifth sentence, I ask, What are 17 rebounds, 8 offensive in 24 minutes if not "the best supporting minutes you can play?"

Marc Gasol on the Memphis D:

"We're not trusting our system on defense. We don't trust that the next guy will help. We're just not doing the right things and we lose confidence as the game goes on. We should be sorry about how we're looking. We should apologize to our fans and then show them that we're not going to look like the team from a year ago."

Ouch.

Over at Hawks Str8talk, Larry gives Joe Johnson the Str8 Butter Award.

Anybody can ask questions. Heavy Koncak provides answers.

3 Shades of Blue denounces the improbably non-televised nature of the game. With that I concur wholeheartedly.

Boxscore

Gameflow

I got to see the final 17 minutes of last night's game which, from that limited vantage, appeared to be a higher scoring version of the wins over Washington and Charlotte last week: The Hawks didn't play particularly well but closed out a valuable win against an injury-weakened opponent.

I won't attempt to draw too many conclusions from a game I didn't really watch (I'm sorry I missed what the boxscore leads me to believe was a good performance from Solomon Jones in relief of Zaza Pachulia.) but it was great to see Al Horford looking like himself again and Flip Murray was extremely valuable on a night Maurice Evans was uncharacteristically subdued.

I'm somewhat concerned that a Bogut-less Bucks could so dominate the glass and I'm resigned to the fact that any opposing point guard with a pulse will put up a night like Ramon Sessions' 21 points (9-15 FGA), 8 assists, and 2 turnovers against the Hawks at once exposing the team's inability to keep quick guards out of the paint and Billy Knight's abject failure to acquire a competent point guard.

The Hawks were appropriately glad to win without being impressed with how they did so.

Mike Woodson:

"I’ll take a win anytime you can get it."

Joe Johnson:

"We always find a way at the end to pull it out. And a win is a win. I’ll take it any way we can get it."

• One more thing for which to be thankful today: Josh Smith is traveling with the team this weekend.
• Brew Hoop has a typically excellent recap from the Milwaukee perspective.
• I always feel better when Tom Ziller agrees with me.

You can as much or as little as you wish from this comparison between team stats from 100% of last season's and team stats from 15.85% of this season's games.

all stats from Knickerblogger.net

PACE

2007-08 TEAM OFFENSE

2008-09 TEAM OFFENSE

Last year the Hawks were good at getting to the free throw line and rebounding their (frequent) own missed shots. This year, the aren't getting to the line/making free throws* nearly as often or grabbing offensive rebounds as often (though they're still in the top third of the league in that regard) but their much improved offensively because they're attempting more three-point shots and making a higher percentage of their shots from beyond the arc.

*07-08 FT%: 77.2

08-09 FT%: 73.3

FIELD GOAL SHOOTING

The Hawks are actually shooting much worse on two-point attempts (This may be a concern as their three-point percentage inevitably declines.) this season but that's more than made for by attempting more than 21 three-point shots a game and making almost 43% of those threes.

3PT FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS

2007-08 TEAM DEFENSE

2008-09 TEAM DEFENSE

The opponents' eFG% and FT Rate should go down some once Josh Smith returns and their TO% should go up. Josh Smith makes it difficult to make shots, he creates turnovers, and he doesn't foul as often a the guys who have taken his minutes, be it Zaza Pachulia, Solomon Jones, Randolph Morris, or whoever's taking a turn as an undersized power forward. He probably won't make much of a difference on the defensive glass. The Hawks just aren't a very good defensive rebounding team.

Boxscore

Gameflow

I think it's fair to expect that if the following things occur the Hawks should win the game.

• Joe Johnson scores 32 points on 16 shots.
• Joe Johnson scores 21 points and does not miss a shot in the fourth quarter.
• The Hawks make 15-27 three-pointers.
• Marvin Williams scores 21 points.
• Flip Murray scores 21 points on 13 shots.
• Acie Law IV (welcome back) scores 9 points and has three assists in ten minutes.
• Mike Bibby makes 4 three-pointers and doesn't turn the ball over once.

How did the Hawks go about wasting their broad offensive success last night?

• By letting the Nets shoot better than 50% from the floor.
• By also letting the Nets rebound more than 35% of their own missed shots.
• By sending the Nets to free throw line almsot twice as often as the Hawks visited the stripe.
• By forcing just 8 turnovers on roughly 90 Net possessions.

It was a terrible defensive performance crowned by a 42-point New Jersey fourth quarter wherein a small Hawks lineup couldn't guard the Nets' perimeter players at all. 16 fourth quarter points for Devin Harris. 12 for Vince Carter. 7 for Keyon Dooling (3-3 FGA). 5 for Ryan Anderson (2-3 FGA).

To be fair, Al Horford, Solomon Jones, and Zaza Pachulia shouldn't be left off the hook. For the first three quarters the greatest question concerning the Hawks' defense was Why is Brook Lopez scoring so much more easily than he did against collegiate competition? I don't have an answer to that. Or why Ryan Anderson scored just as easily as he did when he played for cal.

Also lacking answers, Mike Woodson:

"Give them credit because coach Frank had them ready and we just didn't get it done tonight. They made the plays and hit big shots down the stretch. We had no answer for it.

I thought we were lethargic to start the game. We let Lopez establish himself down low. He got going and we couldn't control him or the kid Anderson. Those were two guys we weren't counting on to come out and play big.''

Dave D'Alessandro co-signs Woodson's surprise at the rookies' good play:

Whoever scripted this has a vivid imagination...It had an unimaginable, accelerated growth spurt from two rookies -- Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson -- who stepped in for injured vets Josh Boone and Eduardo Najera, and not only helped bring the team home, but carried it through crucial stretches.

Joe Johnson keeps it simple:

"We just didn’t keep our man in front of us."

That's the recap, that sentence there. Back at it tonight.

Boxscore

Gameflow

6-0.

All that needs to be said, but I'll soldier on about how the Hawks overcame their worst defensive performance of the season with their best offensive performance of the season.

Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia thoroughly overwhelmed Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas, and Aaron Gray in the first half. Horford, robbed of his sidekick for the entirety of the fourth quarter, continued to produce, albeit less efficiently, in the second half finishing with 27 points, 17 rebounds (6 offensive), 6 blocks, and 3 assists*. Mike Bibby made 3 fourth quarter three-pointers to cap a 22 point night. Marvin Williams (5-9 FGA, 3-4 FTA, 1 OR, 3 DR) and Maurice Evans (7-9 FGA, 3-4 3PTA, 2 OR, 3 DR) both had excellent nights complementing the Hawks. Joe Johnson shot the ball even worse than he did in Oklahoma City (He especially forced some unnecessarily difficult shots in the first half.) but mitigated his poor field goal shooting by making 9-11 free throws and dishing 8 assists.

*Horford had at least four assists. At 5:49 of the third quarter he made an excellent bounce pass to find Joe Johnson for a layup. The official scorer credited Mike Bibby with an assist on that bucket. How do you confuse those two? Boo, official scorer, Boo-oo.

Not much to worry about from last night beyond the expected difficulties with dribble penetration now that Josh Smith isn't around to bail out the guards. Al Horford did his part but three of his six blocks came in reaction  to Tyrus Thomas's awkward offensive game. Had Chicago chosen to have Derrick Rose take Mike Bibby off the dribble every single possession last night things could have gotten ugly*. Then again, had Mike Woodson chosen to play Zaza Pachulia at all in the fourth quarter the Hawks likely wouldn't have been outrebounded 17-6 and the game experience would have remained more placid for Hawks fans.

*I've since learned that Rose was suffering from a pulled back muscle most of the night. Perhaps not worth it to play him 42-and-a-half minutes in a November game then, but I'm not an NBA head coach.

Outside of Maurice Evans, the bench struggled to the degree I feared prior to the season. Solomon Jones was thoroughly ineffective in his 6 minutes. Othello Hunter and Mario West got mere cameos and the Acie Law IV and Flip Murray was on the court for 8:23 during which time the Hawks were outscored by 17 points.

The first unit was able to pick up the slack against a Bulls team missing Gooden, Hinrich, and, to a lesser extent, Larry Hughes from their rotation but that sort of supporting performance will spell disastrous against better, healthier competition. Fortunately for the Hawks, after they head to Boston tonight they get to play the Nets twice this weekend which should provide some margin for error.

I'll let Joakim Noah have first crack at lionizing Al Horford's performance:

"He plays a lot of defense. He ran the floor well and got a lot of baskets in transition. He wasn't doing anything he doesn't do. He was playing within his game and things went his way. ... His numbers were incredible tonight. He really controlled the game.''

Mike Woodson:

"He had a monster game."

Don't forget it, coach. Keep getting him the ball.

Marvin Williams:

"I thought he was going to get 40, 40 and 10 blocks. “I looked up early and he already had 16 points, six rebounds and four blocks and thought I was seeing double. That was crazy.”

Mike Bibby:

"Al can pass, he can score, he plays defense and he can…he’s a hard man to stop.”

Not good times in Chicago...

Luol Deng:

"Our defense was terrible. We didn't do anything in transition. Guys didn't get back. We didn't help each other."

Andres Nocioni:

"We're doing the same things as last year. That's not good. We need to grow up."

Coach Vinny Del Negro:

"It's not a mix-up because we work on transition defense all the time. We just weren't getting back. We have to find ways to help them understand the importance of it."

Links of interest...

• The Zaza's Playground liveblog.
  
• I recommend the game recap at Blog a Bull which features the words "fiasco" and "suckfest."
• Sam Smith's take on the game.

Back this afternoon/evening with the Celtics game thread.

Boxscore

Gameflow

Know how I know it's basketball season? Personal commitments keep me from watching the game live, I come home, fire up the DVR, and Comcast greets with me the following:

for 2 hours and 38 minutes. Yes, I did fast-forward through the entirety of the blankness hoping I would, at some point, see some basketball. Four years of recapping games, four years of intermittent cable-service betrayal. Bitter? A little.

Going on nothing more than the box score and NBATV's highlight package, I see another good defensive performance (Only deemed "good" rather than "excellent" due to the opposition. If you're going to be without you're best interior defender, the Thunder are going to make you pay for that as little as any team in the league.), another excellent rebounding night from Solomon Jones, another perfect three-point shooting night from Marvin Williams (and a key three it was), and the scenario that concerned me before the season: 27 minutes for Flip Murray (14 points on 14 FGA and 4 FTA) and 6 minutes for Acie Law IV.

On to those who got to see (or participate in) the game...

Al Horford:

"We're growing as a team, and with the additions of the vets that we have, it gives us that much more confidence. We didn't panic when we were down seven in the fourth quarter. We just kept it together and kept defending.''

Mike Woodson:

"To their credit, these guys didn’t panic. In the timeout I explained to them that we had plenty of time but we had to get some stops and start making some buckets. And we did that. We made some key stops and made some big buckets coming down the stretch. Flip just caught fire for us at the right time and gave us that push we needed to go and secure the win."

Hmm.

Sekou Smith also credits Flip Murray to a larger degree than I'm comfortable:

Someone flipped the script somewhere along the way (and boy has Flip Murray been everything the Hawks needed and more so far).

Murray's played well through five games, but, unless he's been waiting 300+ games and over 7000 minutes to demonstrate his true talent level, his production cannot be expected to continue at this pace. I understand that he was instrumental in bringing the Hawks from 68-75 to 77-77 but maybe the Hawks aren't down 7 to the Thunder if Flip Murray's not 2-8 with a turnover through his first 20 minutes of playing time.

Joe at Thunderguru's with me:

I thought it hilarious that the announcers for Atlanta were singing the praises of Flip Murray, the former Sonic. I get that they needed offense in the fourth quarter, but believe me pal, by March, you’d be happy to get a bag of Fritos for him in trade. He is the ultimate heartbreak kid. First of all, he can’t play the point. We’ve already tried that. And yes, he can shoot, and he is a streaky scorer, but he costs you as much as he gains. He scored 14 points tonight, but he used 14 shots to get them; add in 4 fouls and a turnover and you get a 1.78 win score*. That’s -4.42 below the average combo guard in the NBA. Get used to it Atlanta.

*Win Score

This (by-line free at the time of linking) column from The Oklahoman makes an argument for playing Russell Westbrook more by way of using the Atlanta Hawks as a positive example:

Not so long ago, Atlanta was a down-and-out franchise. The Hawks decided to rebuild with young guns, and for a couple years, they lived and died with their youth. Most of the time, they died by it.

The Hawks stunk for a while.

But you know what happened? The youngsters grew up, got better and started winning.

Last season, the Hawks went to the playoffs.

This season, they are undefeated.

It’s not crazy to think the Thunder could be in the same position in a few years, but to get there, they’re going to have to take some lumps now.

That means you have the point guard of the future in the game at crunch time.

We are through the looking glass, here.

Busy week for the Hawks: @Chicago Tuesday night, @Boston Wednesday night, @New Jersey Friday, and hosting the Nets on Saturday. I'm clearing my schedule and will make up for dropping the ball last night with some strong game thread participation this week.

Boxscore

Gameflow

I like...

• that this team that plays defense and takes advantage of the three-point shot. 
• Solomon Jones* making an extended emergency appearance in the first half and shoring up the defensive rebounding.
• having to figure out why Flip Murray can shoot well enough all of a sudden. 
• Marvin Williams playing aggressively and (mostly) under control.
• Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby both making over 70% of their shots.
• neither of them having to take more than 12 shots.
• them combining for 18 assists**.
• that Al Horford was +27 in 16:35.
• Maurice Evans making open shots and hitting the defensive glass.
• Acie Law IV with the ball in his hands.
• Randolph Morris displaying a soft touch in his Hawks debut.
• Sam Mitchell's suit.
  

*I also like Solomon Jones celebrating a strong finish more than Jermaine O'Neal thought necessary leading to a bit of jawing between the two of them before Jones tripped over the half-court line while getting back on defense at which point O'Neal transitioned from anger to amusement. Solomon Jones: You can't stay mad at him.

**Did I miss one of the finest displays of passing in the history of basketball or was the scorekeeper a little assist-happy last night? The two teams combined for 79 made field goals and were credited with 64 assists.

I don't like...

• Josh Smith injuring his left ankle and not returning.
• the news that he'll miss two-to-four weeks.
• Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia getting in foul trouble concurrently.
• even having Acie Law IV on the floor if Flip Murray's going to run the offense.

I very much like that the first list is longer than the second.

Joe Johnson keeps it simple:

"It was one of those nights where pretty much everything was clicking."

Mike Woodson, like the rest of us, can't complain:

"I’m very impressed. Guys are mentally into it. Physically they’re giving me the effort. And that’s what it’s going to take. If we’re going to accomplish some of our goals this year and try to get back to the playoffs, this is how we’ve got to play night in and night out.”

Mark Bradley continues his early-season hyperbole:

When you play the way the Hawks have, basketball can look easy. Past seasons have been squandered because simplicity yielded to ostentation, but this one won’t be. The Hawks are going to lose some games — even the greatest team in NBA history lost 10 times — but they aren’t going to fall on their face. They’re too well-rounded, too tough-minded.

Or, maybe he's just explaining NBA basketball to SEC football fans. The column also contains references to JR Rider, Billy Knight, Michael Vick, the Thrashers, and takes an unnecessary and inexplicable shot at Jason Terry. It's all over the place.

Sam Mitchell:

"There was just nothing we could do to stop them. We just couldn't guard them tonight. Almost everybody was off. It happens.''

And:

"We scored enough points, we just didn't get any stops."

92 points? On 94 possessions? With 15 of Toronto's points coming in garbage time? Don't kid a kidder, coach. Though it's true that your guys didn't get any stops.

Mitchell offers one reason why:

"Their starting lineup is all first-round picks. Have y’all ever thought about that? There is a reason they’ve got talent. It’s a unique formula. You look around the league now and the teams that get better, guys have to develop. And if you look at the starting lineup, you just see talent. The key to that is giving it a chance to mature, giving those guys a chance to learn how to play in the NBA and giving them a chance to learn how to play together. Once that happens, they’ve got a chance to be pretty good."

I'm guessing that didn't encourage follow -up questions from the assembled press corps.

Arsenalist has the litany of Toronto's failings at Raptors Republic. As much fun as I has at the game last night, his intro makes me wish (a little bit) that I'd been watching the game wherever he was at:

You know it’s garbage time when the entire pub starts sarcastically chanting MVP, MVP as Joey Graham gets soundly rejected off the glass in a 24 point game.

Joey Graham is awful. But he brings people together.