boxscore
I don't know why I was worried. Playing teams near rock bottom is something you don't brag about to your buddies, but it is a pretty relaxing experience. You just know all the bounces are going to go your way, turnovers will come in droves, that almost every opposing open shot will not go in. Outside of two nice assists by Al Horford, the first six minutes of the game were awful basketball by the Hawks. And I don't mean awful like compared to the rest of the game or lets find something negative now that we won, but actually, legit bad. I guess almost Bulls bad because Atlanta was still leading by two points. Playing teams at rock bottom is basically eating the whole pint of ice cream. Your are not proud, it can form bad habits, but, everyone once in a while, might as well find a couch, watch some infomercials, and enjoy your night.
Are there other things to say? Sure, Joe dribbled too much, and he made great shots. Offensive rebounds by the bigs allowed for more missed shots. Jamal Crawford, Josh Smith, Mo Evans scored a lot. Jeff Teague can block shots, and Marvin can have his blocked. And well, Josh Smith is still good at dunking. It was disjointed and not pretty, but the Bulls are systematically disjointed so everything was fine. Woodson coached through the hiccups and allowed the starters to rest and the bench to thrive. The Hawks won big and it was still ugly. So really if we learned anything, it must be what we learned about the Bulls and that is it is demoralizing getting crushed by guys elbow deep in ice cream.
Victory Bullets
- I know everyone knows this, but it is pretty amazing the Hawks run the same first play every game.
- If you DVR'd the game, at the 5:02 mark the first quarter Jamal Crawford tried to set a screen on no one. It was impressively powerful.
- Get well soon, Joe Smith.
- It is always nice to know in the exact moment when a game could not get any better (or worse). Last night, Mo Evans' consecutive blocks that segued into Josh Smith's alley-oop from Joe Johnson was basically a Bat sign to stop watching this game.
- But then you would have missed the Two Towers playing....so maybe I am wrong.
- Zaza Pachulia should aim for ugly stat lines. Those are his best nights.
- Teague just looks like he is having fun out there.
- How many jumpshots do the Bulls take?
- Line of the night from Jon Barry, during the Brad Miller drive on Zaza Pachulia, "SPEED AGAINST SPEED!"
- Speaking of actual speed, Jeff Teague stayed in front of Derrick Rose on defense, that might have been his most impressive play of the game.
- Luol Deng looks fat. Aaron Gray looks much fatter.
- There should be a whole blog solely about Aaron Gray and Jason Collins.Maybe two whole blogs.
- Very quietly, Al Horford had an incredible game in only 24 minutes.
- Jason Collins is like a big Mario West, if Mario West didn't try that hard. Seriously, lets dress Othello a couple of games.
- I kid, I kid, that first made basket of the season was a thing of beauty.
- Just so I can join the fans of the other four teams Jamal Crawford has played for, man, Jamal Crawford would be incredible if he drove the ball more.
- If you were wondering, this game got boring enough to talk about LeBron signing somewhere in 2010 right before the end of the half.
- Is Joe Johnson's confidence based solely on who is guarding him?
- Teague! Teague! Teague!
- Hats off to the Hawks starters for coming out in the third for putting the game away. No matter what happened in the first half, they did what they needed to do and rewarded with almost a half of a night off. Plus, it allowed me to eat my second pint of ice cream.
Go Hawks!