12/9 Hawks at Mavericks

[DirtybirdGA]

9:30 ESPN

Mavs lineup

Williams
Felton
Matthews
Dirk
Z-Pac

[Jamaaliver]

Tonight is the annual matchup that leaves HMFFL's loyalty split in two.

Hopefully the 'Hawks-Mavs-Fan-For-Life' comes out of the contest impressed by all Dallas has achieved, but cheering a Hawks victory in the "D".


10 Things I Think I Think

• Always nice to see Zaza Pachulia. He should, IMHO, still be our backup Center. I know he can't shoot threes and has hands like bricks, but he was a fan favorite for his fearlessness, blue-collar play and is still the best backup Center the Hawks have had in the last couple of decades. (Still waiting for Tiago to make a name for himself in the Hawks annals.)
  
• Tiago Splitter will be active tonight and should expect to play an important role in guarding Dirk and keeping Zaza off the boards
  
• Rick Carlisle is a top-5 coach in the league and has the Mavs playing surprisingly well considering their roster shortcomings. Should be an intriguing chess match between two of the best HCs in the NBA.
  
• After their disappointing showing in the Eurocup this summer...any chance Dirk elbows Dennis in the groin for being a diva and ruining Nowitzki's farewell tour in international play?
  
• I think Dennis has been watching video, working that jumper and after every Hawks site dropped articles yesterday regarding his decline...is due for a big game.
  
• Deron Williams seems much happier, healthier and focused in Dallas than he ever seemed in Brooklyn. DW has been on a nice run lately, averaging 20.5 points, 7.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds in the last four games
  
• A national audience has been the Hawks' kryptonite for years now. Here's hoping the extra time off left us prepared to put on a good showing.
  
• Dallas has won five of its last six at home, while Atlanta has dropped five of six on the road. A 9:30 start time in TX might take a bit of an adjustment by the starters.
  
• Turnovers will be key: Mavs are 7-0 when having 12 or fewer turnovers this season.
  
• SG Wes Mathews is still recovering from a torn Achilles suffered earlier this spring. But he has been solid as he works the rust off and appears to be a good fit.

[ATL Boy]

Finally a game!!! tbh waiting a full seven days for Falcons games and football Sunday has been easier than having to wait these five days for the Hawks. With Football you're just conditioned to wait, not the case with basketball.

Anyway, after a five day rest, I expect us to come out looking like gangbusters tonight on national television. Would be great to win this one with OKC and San Antonio coming up.

[Texas Chuck]

Good luck boys. Haven't managed to catch much Hawks basketball as my schedule leaves me more time for the late night West Coast games. So looking forward to seeing how they look after the off-season moves.

Always liked Zaza as a Hawk. We absolutely are gaga over Zaza as a Mav. He and Dirk are a terrible pairing on paper that has worked brilliantly on the court and they already have amazing chemistry. Hope we can get him to sign a new deal.

Splitter used to give Dirk fits as a Spur so here's hoping the rotations work out where Dirk avoids him. Tho Dirk trying to defend Millsap worries me and I think there is a chance that Matthews takes Paul and Dirk takes Bazemore and Felton gets the job of chasing Korver everywhere.

Also Devin is playing when we thought he would be out. Which is good because I expect Teague and Schroder to eat us up. Deron has been pretty good defensively, but he struggles against quick guards.

Should be a good test for Dallas to see if we can beat another quality opponent. Hopefully it will be more "rust" than "rest" tonight.

[Jamaaliver]

90 seconds in, I'm already seeing too many jump shots and too many three point shots.

I want Al attacking the slow-footed Zaza off the dribble...not bailing him out by shooting from 15+ feet.


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[ATL Boy]

Good call on Dennis so far, Jamaal: his jumper is working tonight, and he looks to be on his way to a big game.


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[Jamaaliver]

We are getting KILLED on the offensive boards.

Zaza leads all players with 16 rebounds with 15 minutes to play.

Muscala looks very smooth offensively, but still struggles to defend or block out.

That Powell kid on the Mavs looks pretty solid. Moves well without the ball.

Schroeder looks waaaay more under control tonight.


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[Jamaaliver]

Good call on Dennis so far, Jamaal: his jumper is working tonight, and he looks to be on his way to a big game.


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Mavs are daring Dennis to shoot as he comes off screens. They've cut off his driving lanes. But he's making them pay with that jump shot.

Kudos to the coaching staff for the work they put him through on the break.

I love this Dwight Powell kid. I want him in a Hawks uni.

I love Bazemore's energy. But he plays out of control on every drive to the basket. If he needs to dribble more than twice...he's going to mess up. He's VERY limited on offense. His improved three-point shot is his saving grace.

Wes Mathews looks solid. By April (start of the playoffs) he should be 85% of the way back...wish we'd picked him up.


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[Rip2137]

Great game. Dennis came back out like I needed him to. There were at least 5 instances where he would have taken 3's or a ill advised drive in every other game.

The offensive boards Dallas had didn't bother me tonight. Moat of them were on really tough rebounds(ball hits the bottom of the rim) and just deflected all over the place.

We weren't great tonight but solid enough. Just what I needed to see against a very good team

[atlantabbq99]

Very annoying game to watch.

[atlantabbq99]

Great to see Zaza again. I was hoping both him and Korver would stay with the Hawks, but his price was too high, and tonight you can see why he deserves the contract that he got.

[ATL Boy]

This was a big win, with OKC and SAS coming up. Millsap's steal and dish to Korver for the and 1 is what changed the game, they were one bucket away from starting to run away with it when that happened.


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[Jamaaliver]

Mavs came into this game last in the league in Off Rebounds at 8.4 per game...they feasted on us to the tune of 20 offensive boards and a dozen second chance points. There's no excuse.

Bud HAS to make an adjustment to limit that. It's still a fatal flaw that good teams will exploit.

We cut out half those offensive boards and we easily win by double digits.

I'm glad we got the 'W', but it's clear at this point:

We're not as good as that 60 win team from last year.

And I can't fully explain why...


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[atlantabbq99]

After watching this game, i'm kind of got disappointed with Splitter with the season thus far. I thought that Splitter could be a better version of Zaza with good rebounding, great defense, and limited but mistake-less offense, with a high IQ on both ends.

Hopefully i'm just wrong and its just a chemistry issue and Splitter and the Hawks can get synchronize in the next few months.

[Rip2137]

Splitter wasn't great on the boards last night but did everything else you just said...played solid D, moved the ball well on offense, finished well around the Rim. Besides the injury concern, he has been a very solid pickup for us.

Im.not sure what you guys are upset about besides some bouncy offensive rebounds. Their guards started crashing the offensive glass so our guards started going to the defensive glass when those defensive rebounds were slapped out of squirted out they weren't there to secure those.

The point to take away was that we didn't get into an offensive lull that lead to long stretches of no points. We didn't have the greatest defensive night, we weren't great from 3 and beat a good team, on the road, in a end to end grindfest.

We held them to 36% shooting and are 1 game out of first place in the conference...its pretty doom and gloom in here for that.

[Jamaaliver]

We held them to 36% shooting and are 1 game out of first place in the conference...its pretty doom and gloom in here for that.

I think with us rested, healthy and overly prepped for this game...we just expected a more impressive performance. Millsap looked great and Dennis was much improved. But I can't say this team looked like a leading contender to dethrone GSW or the LeBrons. This was not a 'bad' showing...but it wasn't a great one, either.

Also, we got bailed out by the refs on that phantom call at the end. Wes Mathews didn't touch JT0, but those two free throws gift wrapped the game for us.

Im not sure what you guys are upset about besides some bouncy offensive rebounds. Their guards started crashing the offensive glass...

I'm not sure I can so easily dismiss 20 offensive rebounds to the worst offensive rebounding team in the NBA. And it's not like this is some isolated incident either. Their guards crashed the offensive glass because is one of our weaknesses. And has been for years. It was a brilliant tactic that teams will emulate moving forward. Mavs had 17 second chance points as a result.

There were some fluke boards in that 3rd quarter...no doubt. But when Zaza Pachulia has more Offensive Boards than THE ENTIRE HAWKS TEAM, it's difficult to ignore such a glaring deficiency.

[Jamaaliver]

NOTES from myAJC:

• Dallas entered averaging 8.4 offensive rebounds per game, last in the NBA, but grabbed a season-high 20 -- seven by Pachulia. That helped the Mavericks to a 17-9 edge in second-chance points.
  
• The Hawks bench finished with 35 points and was a plus-22.
  
• Kyle Korver noted that Kent Bazemore played the entire first half with his shorts on backward.
  
• The Hawks had five double-digit scorers in Millsap (20), Al Horford (14), Jeff Teague (14), Bazemore (12) and Dennis Schroder (11). Schroder had the Hawks’ first five points of the fourth quarter.

Report card

Offense: B-plus

The Hawks trailed by four points twice in the final 4:38 and rallied from both deficits. Millsap had a brilliant steal to start a fast break for a Korver and-one layup. The final came with 3:07 left and the Mavericks up 93-89. Millsap had an offensive rebound put-back and Bazemore followed with this 3-pointer. The Hawks had 27-point second and third quarters. The key to the grade was how the Hawks responded late offensively.

Defense: A-minus

The Hawks held the Mavericks to 23 or fewer points in three of the four quarters. They got huge stops down the stretch when they needed it. It speaks volumes about the defense to win while allowing 20 offensive rebounds. The group of Millsap, Horford, Thabo Sefolosha and Mike Muscala combined to nearly silence Nowitzki.

[Jamaaliver]

Mavs Fansite indicates Cuban complained (justifiably?) that Horford and other Hawks Big Men committed 3 second violations throughout the game that went uncalled by the refs.Here




They show a ton of examples...some more convincing than others.

[atlantabbq99]

I was surpised that John Jenkins did not make an appearance. I was reading the Mavs board and apparently Jenkins' poor shooting and poor defense hasn't sat well with Carlisle and Carlisle only plays Jenkins if their are several inactive or injuried players.