Hawks/Griz

[parson]

Got in just in time to see a terrible ending. Kinda frustrated, so I'll be kind and say Lou Williams is not a PG.

[Yungsta404]

lou at PG lost us the game. The moment lou first checked in our 14 point 1st quarter lead evaporated. No excuse to play him so many mins and completely cut mack's mins.

[parson]

Are we trading Mack and Schröder? Is that why they didn't play one minute tonight?

By the way, we shot 8-15 from the FT line. On a night when it appears the refs tried to give us the game, we outshot MEM 15 to 1 (that's ONE) in FTs and still lost.

[Rip2137]

It almost looked like a "let's audition Lou" time. I can't think of any other reason.

As for the refs, for the most part they were consistent. We were fouled more while shooting than they did, but that no call for Mike Miller at the end then calling a foul for Millsap at the other was a ridiculously bad call. I honestly can't remember the last time I could say "Wow, those refs really screwed the other team instead of ours" but yeah.

Lou was pretty bad defensively, he isn't a point guard, and his stats just don't clearly show how much he hurt the team tonight.

I honestly think we win this game with Dennis or Mack getting some of those minutes instead of Lou.

[parson]

I'm watching (online, this time) so I can see what happened. We started out 18-7. DeMarre Carroll has 9 pts with 6:45 left in the 1st. Apparently, it'll only go downhill from here. Teague's already had a dumb turnover, so last games's malaise continues.

[parson]

Okay, here we go: with 5:16 left, Lou Williams comes in for Teague. We're leading 22-12. Looking at the boxscore, I know this qtr will end up 29-27 for us. Williams tries to throw it away but Brand bails him out and gathers the loose ball for a layup. Lou misses a FT, then misses the open shot from the FT line (the rebound came straight to him). We're up 26-12.

It appears that we're trying to make Lou a PG.

[parson]

Okay, I see it now. We're beat. We're not rotating on defense; we're not moving without the ball. We're only moving when we absolutely have to.

Except for Millsap, Carroll and Korver. Everyone else is playing like he's hurting. Funny thing is, I KNOW Millsap's playing hurt.

Fatigue and the Lou Williams experiment. Box score says we'll stink the rest of the game. Good night.

[Rip2137]

Before the season, I pointed as Carroll as a guy to upgrade as a starter (still loved him off the bench).

Now? Irreplaceable. You can't teach that effort.

[parson]

Really STUPID hook shot-type pass by Korver inside to a crowded post. He hides his face in his hands. Cannot emphasize how crazy that pass appeared. Guys really do get stupid when they get tired, I guess.

[parson]

Dominique complaining that the only Hawk moving is Millsap. We're at the end of the 1st half.

[parson]

10 turnovers in the 3rd qtr (we had 21 total for the game). Korver's throwing the ball around; Millsap's lost 3 this qtr; Teague and Williams are just losing it. I can't fault Millsap - his TOs are a product of overtrying.

[parson]

The offense is nothing but toss the ball around the perimeter ... and slowly, at that.

[parson]

On a fastbreak, Scott tries to lay up the ball against Randolph, who, of course, blocks it. Shoulda dunked it.

[parson]

We played the last 5 minutes with Lou Williams at PG. Curious.

[parson]

On another fastbreak, Lou decides to pass it to a running Elton Brand 20 ft away from the basket. He immediately gets it poked away as he dribbles. Really? BRAND is going to catch the ball on the run and drive to the basket ... from 20 feet out?

[parson]

Same ugly ending as before. Actually, as Lenny Bruce said, this has surpassed mere ugly and has entered the realm of yuugly.