Game 47: Atlanta at Houston

[D21]

Thanks guys.
But the fault can't be only on back to back with second on the road

[Master8492]

And Woodson was still smarting from both losses before Saturday's game against Houston at Toyota Center.

"They were shorthanded last night, and it seems like when we run into teams that are shorthanded, we get caught," Woodson said. "I could have made some better moves. But you just couldn't have told me that their small team could have beaten our small team. So I've got to take some of the heat for that. I should have gone back big, I guess."

[Master8492]

Rockets were great, but your team was on a back to back and on the road. Hawks haven't learned to win on the road.

It would have been a different story for the Hawks, if it was in Atlanta and a day of rest. The Hawks almost beat LA, a few days earlier, who has a better lineup.

LA almost beat the Hawks is more like it.

[tontoz]

I didn't think it was an easy win coming in. You guys beat the Lakers and then played well against the Cavs but just came up a little bit short for that one.

Thanks but we know the truth. Kobe dislocated the pinkie on his shooting hand the night before our game and couldn't do crap against us. The Cavs were without Gibson, Varejao, Gooden and Pavlovic. We should have beaten them for sure sine they played you guys the night before.

[HMFFL]

We ran into one of the hottest teams right now. Now, we just need to prepare for Detroit and get a win a home before the road trip.

[High 5]

Looks like the Houston fans were right. Easy win.

It turned out to be an easy win, but it shouldn't have been an easy win. We have played a lot of teams better than Houston and none of them were that bad. I didn't expect us to beat them, but we should have made it a decent game.

[Texas Longhorns]

-= original quote snipped =-



Thanks but we know the truth. Kobe dislocated the pinkie on his shooting hand the night before our game and couldn't do crap against us. The Cavs were without Gibson, Varejao, Gooden and Pavlovic. We should have beaten them for sure sine they played you guys the night before.

I am still interested to see what the Hawks can do in the playoffs with a good lineup of Joe Johnson and Al Horford as the 1 2 Punch.

[evildallas]

"They were shorthanded last night, and it seems like when we run into teams that are shorthanded, we get caught," Woodson said.

The story was about the Cleveland game not the Houston game.

I ask: Is the team properly prepared? Properly motivated? Do we force our will on the opposing team? Do we make proper adjustments to exploit the game situation in a timely fashion?

The answer to all of those is "NO".

When it happened against the Clippers I surmised that Woodson had lost the ear of the team. After reading this I now believe it is more a case of Woodson not knowing what to say. If he hadn't said anything I was actually content to lay the blame on personnel. Watching the Cleveland game we stormed back into it but at crunch time went with the Joe iso plays on Eric Snow. The problem with that was that on penetration Joe would get the ball knocked out of his hands. It shouldn't be a surprise it happened earlier in the game when we fell way behind. The officials were letting players hack at the ball and our team didn't adjust to that. That was just the problem on the offense end. On the defensive end, we helped off the wrong players at the wrong time and didn't block out well. Part 1, help D, they had one creator on the court Lebron rather than help quickly to get the ball out of his hands he was allowed to set up the play where the help came from Damon Jones man allowing for a 1 pass three. That happened several times. The other part of it was that when they actually did play good D and Cleveland launched a difficult shot several times we failed to block out giving Cleveland an easy 2 on the put back.

See I don't think the problem was going small. Their only big was Z and if we had gone small and attacked him early with Josh Smith then maybe he spends most of the game in foul trouble. Then we could have gone back big and who would they have countered with, Dwayne Jones?

I've got to stop now. I'm getting frustrated with thinking about how we're hoping for the playoffs with a coach that has been learning on the job for 4 years and yet still coaches at a Shelden Williams level (to liken it to our players). Probably an unfair analogy, but as I said I'm frustrated.

[LL Cool Scott]

To take it a step farther...

Coach coaches at a Shelden Williams level. Owners own at a Matt Freije level. Front office manages at a Jon Koncak level. And Shelden Williams plays at a Shelden Williams level.

[HMFFL]

Divisional Games Today:

Charlotte @ Detroit

Los Angeles @ Miami

Washington @ Phoenix Washington has lost 6 straight games. I hope Phoenix makes it 7 because we are right behind The Wiz. I know some of you don't believe we can catch them, maybe not, but we need to make any sort of run and keep the division close so our Hawks play to the level their capable of playing at.

[evildallas]

6 straight losses. Sounds like they are catching us not the other way around.