Portland @ Atlanta

[High 5]

The timeout didn't mean anything. We still got 2 pts on that posession.

If we scored on the fast break we would have had more time for the final shot.

[SouthernBred]

We dont need a pg, we have one and his name is Acie Law. I know people will be like T lue hit for threes but whats the point when you give the points right back on the next possession and then some. Why did Lue play more mins than Law. Dunm coaching.

[High 5]

The Hawks need a center. Horford does an admirable job guarding centers, but he's not much of a threat offensively at this point. Moving him back to his natural position will really let his game explode. JMHO.

That would be a good idea if we had another center that belongs anywhere near an NBA court.

[HoopsGuru25]

That was a fun game to watch. Just wanted to wish you all luck the rest of the season. You guys are the real deal.

Can we trade TV announcers? Your TV guys are --awesome--. I love Steve Smith.

Yeah the Portland announcers weren't that good. The color commentator(Mike Rice)talks a little too much and they were a little uniformed on the Hawks. They kept talking about how we were a bad defensive team and a good rebounding team when it's actually the opposite. They also kept complained about lame non traveling calls that no one notices in the course of an NBA game.

[HoopsGuru25]

We dont need a pg, we have one and his name is Acie Law. I know people will be like T lue hit for threes but whats the point when you give the points right back on the next possession and then some. Why did Lue play more mins than Law. Dunm coaching.

Portland played alot of zone so that's probably why Lue played more. Law should just start all the time and we should decide who is the better option to back him up between AJ or T.Lue. Law as a starter has 23 assist and 3 turnovers and shooting 10/22 from the field including no turnovers in his last 3 starts. He has played like crap when he comes off the bench. He is too important to the future of his team to have his development hindered by mediocre vets. There is no reason not to start him especially if we are going to lose regardless.

[tontoz]

Law as a starter has 23 assist and 3 turnovers and shooting 10/22 from the field. He has played like crap when he comes off the bench.

You don't say. I never would have guessed.

Not to mention he can actually play defense.

He is too important to the future of his team to have his development hindered by mediocre vets.

Exactly

[JoshB914]

^^^ if we fall out of this playoff race (and that may very well happen during this road trip) IV will start to get the minutes.

[IDoIt4TheA]

Just goes to show what a good coach and good PG play can get you. Outlaw had the hot hand most of the game and McMillan showed confidence in him to take the big shot and redeem himself for making those 2 TOs down the stretch and it paid off for them.

Acie Law was having a good game, even made a 3 which probably did wonders for his confidence. And then we don't see him any more for the rest of the game and Woody brings in Chillz who did almost absolutely nothing all game and has suspect handles to take over PG duties.

I am getting so sick of Woodson, I can't stand it!!

[Jjforprez]

We need to make a trade. There's a missing piece to this team right now, and they're too close for the AS to just let them fade away.

We are not a good shooting team. We hung in there today with Joe seeing mostly one on one coverage. He's gonna score when you play him one on one, but teams aren't going to play him like that most nights.

TLue gave us good offense today, but so far this season, that's a rare exception. We struggle to score way to often. We rely too much on Joe Johnson, when most nights teams aren't going to let him beat them.

That Portland team we saw today has shooters. They can break you down and kick it out to the 3pt shooters, but they can also create and finish on their own.

We need another guy who can just go one on one and score the ball. I'm still hoping Marvin will be that kind of player, but right now he's mostly still getting his points off other guys setting him up. I think that's the next step in his progression... it doesn't look like it will be this year.

Josh Smith has learned how to give us good points in the post, which is something we desperately needed, but we need a guy out on the floor who can create for himself, and hit the open jumper.

[JoshB914]

^^^ I agree. But I don't think what we need is out there for us without sacrificing the future.

[IDoIt4TheA]

And another thing. Why do we do this switch crap every game? Why can't we either just go over or under the picks on D? This switch crap is creating way too many mismatches and is giving the other team easy points because they have one of our PGs always mismatched with one of their bigs.

[Adobozz]

That was a good game unfortunatly we lost. Portland is a good team and they deserved to win. I like that Sergio kid.

[JoshB914]

One of our main problems with the PNR is Lue and IV can't fight through screens.

[CAM]

We are still 7th in the east. I love the weak east.

[Rip2137]

One of our main problems with the PNR is Lue and IV can't fight through screens.

That is simply not true. It is obvious that the scheme is for them to switch every time, which is simply moronic. And like I said before, weakside rotation is pretty pathetic.

[evildallas]

I'm finally back from the game. My earlier posts are normally in dead ball situations from the arena.

It was an excellent game, high on drama. My opinion on what went down. Woodson got outcoached in OT. This isn't a fire Woodson rant, just a simple observation and I hope he looks back at the film and at least wonders how he can improve as a bench coach. The defensive stretch that marked the comeback to get it into overtime was dominated with one play over and over again by Portland. Brandon Roy taking the ball one on one and trying to penetrate. We got the better of it enough to come back and tie. We covered in many different ways including having Josh Smith on him which seemed to cause Roy problems due to Josh's length.

In OT, McMillan switched the ball to Travis Outlaw who happened to be defended by Josh Smith. This was important because it took our best help defender away from the basket and for that matter our top rebounder on the game. Josh couldn't pressure Outlaw because he has enough speed to get around him and there was no one to help on penetration. He tried to pressure on the 1st or 2nd play of OT and the result was an easy 2. So Josh played him in a such a way to make the drive difficult. Here's the problem, Outlaw is tall enough that even though Josh put a hand up in his face it really wasn't that much of a deterrent to his outside shot. Woodson never countered this and Portland got their baskets easier than Atlanta in OT. I would have liked to have seen a smaller, faster man on Outlaw (not Childress, he was owner by insert Blazer here during the game) and Josh either put on Roy where his length seemed to work or on someone else where he could help out if there was penetration. I'm not second guessing the final Portland play, they spread the floor well and the best we could do is make the shot difficult. Of course, by then I had come to the realization that Josh Smith was probably not going to be able to do that and Outlaw was the hottest shooter on the floor by then.

Props go to Portland, McMillan outcoached Woodson and you guys have enough playmakers that you have multiple options at crunch time. Best of luck on the rest of your season.

[HoopsGuru25]

-= original quote snipped =-



That is simply not true. It is obvious that the scheme is for them to switch every time, which is simply moronic. And like I said before, weakside rotation is pretty pathetic.

This is a huge reason as to why we lost the 1st Detroit game(where we had Lue on Jarvis Hayes) and the Toronto game. Calderon kept running the pick and roll with Bosh and we would switch Lue or AJ on Bosh and he would post up the pg and we were forced to double which killed our defensive rotation. Calderon also abused Horford(who switched on the pick) off the dribble when we did this in the 4th quarter. I've always said I've never been a fan of those switches unless we have Chilz-Joe back court. A good coach can easily exploit our defense down the stretch.

[JoshB914]

-= original quote snipped =-



That is simply not true. It is obvious that the scheme is for them to switch every time, which is simply moronic. And like I said before, weakside rotation is pretty pathetic.

I noticed that too, but a lot of the time we will have to switch because our PG's get stuck on the screen.

[fo_o_fo_404]

Two things:

It looked as though Zaza and Woody got into a verbal exchange early in the 4th quarter, similar to what happened between Smoove and Woody in Philly last year, and all of a sudden, I see Zaza walking to the locker room looking beyond pissed! I think Woody sent him to the showers early for popping off. Woody is having too many verbal exchanges with players. First it was Salim, then Smoove, now Zaza....see a trend?

Second, was it me, but when we got the steal with 11 seconds left in regulation, Woody called a timeout even though we had a fastbreak that was obviously about to occur down court? I was like Wow...what an idiot! that was a definite score!

That was a horrible error in judgement right there on Woody's part.

This road trip may get ugly really fast people.

It's just my interpretation of the situation.

[HoopsGuru25]

good info 404. It will be interesting to see what the ASG does with Woody if we really struggle in the next couple of weeks. I also wonder which players actually perter to play for Woody. I'm honestly really disappointed with Zaza this year. Two years ago I thought we had a solid 21 year old center who could potentially be a doube-double player(a poor mans big Z) at only 4 million a year. He looked like a huge steal compared to what Jerome James and Stephen Hunter got. He kinda regressed(which 22 year olds usually DON'T do) last year but he was still a decent stop gap option at center.

This year he blows and we may not even be able to get an expiring for him. He couldn't get this bad overnight. Maybe we should increase his playing time in hopes that we could raise his trade value and get something in return for him at the deadline or this summer.