12/22 - 7PM CST | G32: Atlanta Hawks at Oklahoma City Thunder

[Reign23]

meh you guys are putting too much into it. he doesn't resignate, he is just tired af

btw what a crap shot from westbrook, even if he made it..

[sleestak33]

This game is a microcosm of the entire season. They got up big early on a terrible team and lost the lead once again with a bunch of isolation ball and terrible defense in the 2nd half. Then with the game on the line the last 2 possessions go like this...Paul George dribbles around for 15 seconds going one on one (while everybody else just stands around the 3 pt. line and watches) and finally forces a contested shot up with a second on the shot clock and luckily gets fouled. Then with the game tied and seconds left Russ jacks up a 3 pointer when they would have been better of with a 2 or a shot going to the basket for possible free throws and somehow he makes it. That's just low IQ basketball and it will get you beat most of the time. This team just is what it is and it's not going to change. They're almost halfway through the season and the product is exactly the same as when they started but they're just managing to squeak out some close wins now. They'll make the playoffs and they're going to lose in the 1st round. I'll watch and cheer them on but it's a flawed roster with poor coaching playing flawed basketball.

[hardenASG13]

This game is a microcosm of the entire season. They got up big early on a terrible team and lost the lead once again with a bunch of isolation ball and terrible defense in the 2nd half. Then with the game on the line the last 2 possessions go like this...Paul George dribbles around for 15 seconds going one on one (while everybody else just stands around the 3 pt. line and watches) and finally forces a contested shot up with a second on the shot clock and luckily gets fouled. Then with the game tied and seconds left Russ jacks up a 3 pointer when they would have been better of with a 2 or a shot going to the basket for possible free throws and somehow he makes it. That's just low IQ basketball and it will get you beat most of the time. This team just is what it is and it's not going to change. They're almost halfway through the season and the product is exactly the same as when they started but they're just managing to squeak out some close wins now. They'll make the playoffs and they're going to lose in the 1st round. I'll watch and cheer them on but it's a flawed roster with poor coaching playing flawed basketball.

1 big difference though.....Russ looks great again! Also, sounds like George has a nagging arm issue, which will eventually heal. Melo is adapting to a catch and shoot 3 role, and they are running less offense through him in the mid post. There's only 2 teams out west playing better ball than OKC right now. 2 games out of 4th, 4.5 out of 3rd. 50 games left.

[ThunderBolt]

This game is a microcosm of the entire season. They got up big early on a terrible team and lost the lead once again with a bunch of isolation ball and terrible defense in the 2nd half. Then with the game on the line the last 2 possessions go like this...Paul George dribbles around for 15 seconds going one on one (while everybody else just stands around the 3 pt. line and watches) and finally forces a contested shot up with a second on the shot clock and luckily gets fouled. Then with the game tied and seconds left Russ jacks up a 3 pointer when they would have been better of with a 2 or a shot going to the basket for possible free throws and somehow he makes it. That's just low IQ basketball and it will get you beat most of the time. This team just is what it is and it's not going to change. They're almost halfway through the season and the product is exactly the same as when they started but they're just managing to squeak out some close wins now. They'll make the playoffs and they're going to lose in the 1st round. I'll watch and cheer them on but it's a flawed roster with poor coaching playing flawed basketball.

1 big difference though.....Russ looks great again! Also, sounds like George has a nagging arm issue, which will eventually heal. Melo is adapting to a catch and shoot 3 role, and they are running less offense through him in the mid post. There's only 2 teams out west playing better ball than OKC right now. 2 games out of 4th, 4.5 out of 3rd. 50 games left.

What makes you so sure his arm gets better?

[Pillendreher]

Seems to me I feel a lot better about this game than most of you guys. Our offense was on point for ~85 % of the game and we finally won a shootout (granted, we already had two more wins with the opposing team scoring more than 110 points per 100 poss: Against the Clippers and against the T'Wolves). The Hawks were looking like Curry and Thompson out there. You gave them one inch and they were draining every 3. Our offense was very turnover prone and we missed a bunch of fts.

This is the first 'ugly win' I've felt good about in quite some time. These were the kinds of games we used to win with Durant still here: Ugly and not as demonstrative as we should be, but still a win. It was obvious we were the much, much better team.

[Pillendreher]

Abrines has been a pretty frustrating player this season. He has to offer something besides spot up 3s.

[Pillendreher]

One key difference in our offense as of late: Decision making and multiple actions. Dylan Murphy talked about the latter in yesterday's Dunc'd On Podcast: So far we've settled too often for single actions. He said great offenses don't always beat you by complicated sets and rigorous execution, but by attacking you multiple times until you break. I saw us do that a couple times against the Hawks: We didn't settle for a trash shot after our initial attack failed, but pulled out and tried something else.
Decision making is also way after. We didn't take 15 seconds to actually make our move. Russ was on the attack with 19 seconds left on the clock and forced the defense to react. By doing that, he found guys multiple times.

Also shoutout to Robes. He's doing legit work offensively. I paid extra attention to him off the ball and he really does all the little things. A push here, a pick there, a tapped out rebound here. Gotta make those fts tho.

[hardenASG13]

This game is a microcosm of the entire season. They got up big early on a terrible team and lost the lead once again with a bunch of isolation ball and terrible defense in the 2nd half. Then with the game on the line the last 2 possessions go like this...Paul George dribbles around for 15 seconds going one on one (while everybody else just stands around the 3 pt. line and watches) and finally forces a contested shot up with a second on the shot clock and luckily gets fouled. Then with the game tied and seconds left Russ jacks up a 3 pointer when they would have been better of with a 2 or a shot going to the basket for possible free throws and somehow he makes it. That's just low IQ basketball and it will get you beat most of the time. This team just is what it is and it's not going to change. They're almost halfway through the season and the product is exactly the same as when they started but they're just managing to squeak out some close wins now. They'll make the playoffs and they're going to lose in the 1st round. I'll watch and cheer them on but it's a flawed roster with poor coaching playing flawed basketball.

1 big difference though.....Russ looks great again! Also, sounds like George has a nagging arm issue, which will eventually heal. Melo is adapting to a catch and shoot 3 role, and they are running less offense through him in the mid post. There's only 2 teams out west playing better ball than OKC right now. 2 games out of 4th, 4.5 out of 3rd. 50 games left.

What makes you so sure his arm gets better?

The human body tends to heal itself over time, and he has access to world class trainers/treatment.

[Bergmaniac]

Seems to me I feel a lot better about this game than most of you guys. Our offense was on point for ~85 % of the game and we finally won a shootout (granted, we already had two more wins with the opposing team scoring more than 110 points per 100 poss: Against the Clippers and against the T'Wolves). The Hawks were looking like Curry and Thompson out there. You gave them one inch and they were draining every 3. Our offense was very turnover prone and we missed a bunch of fts.

I agree, when the other team shoots like that on tough 3s any win is a good win. That third quarter was ugly, but apart from that the offense looked quite good to me. Even the late game offense was good in terms of ideas and plays apart from the last 2 plays.

[thekaoswithin]

The doom and gloom on this forum is getting insane. Are the Hawks a good team? No, but when any NBA team gets that hot (felt like ATL couldn't miss) it's very tough to win.

I felt that overall the team played well on both ends of the floor. Can't really do anything about some of the shots Ilyasova, Delaney, and Bellineli were putting in. If the Hawks shot even an average percentage this would have been a blowout.

[RalphSampsonJr]

The doom and gloom on this forum is getting insane. Are the Hawks a good team? No, but when any NBA team gets that hot (felt like ATL couldn't miss) it's very tough to win.

I felt that overall the team played well on both ends of the floor. Can't really do anything about some of the shots Ilyasova, Delaney, and Bellineli were putting in. If the Hawks shot even an average percentage this would have been a blowout.

Yea gotta give them credit. They wernt exactly getting space to shoot! Just seem to drop them! That Ilyasova one from the corner with Adams in his face was just silly.
I didnt like how easy they seemed to get to the rim late in the 3rd and early in the 4th though. Josh H seemed to deviate a few shots close to the rim which was awesome to see.
This PG arm thing is concerning. Its not like hes doing everything else well and just cant shoot.. dudes ball handling and decision making has been awful! His defense has been there though

[ThunderBolt]

1 big difference though.....Russ looks great again! Also, sounds like George has a nagging arm issue, which will eventually heal. Melo is adapting to a catch and shoot 3 role, and they are running less offense through him in the mid post. There's only 2 teams out west playing better ball than OKC right now. 2 games out of 4th, 4.5 out of 3rd. 50 games left.

What makes you so sure his arm gets better?

The human body tends to heal itself over time, and he has access to world class trainers/treatment.

Lets just hope it heals itself without offseason rest.