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The walking wounded...

The anchorman broke his toe ...

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2745558-paul-millsaps-right-toe-injury-reportedly-feared-to-be-broken

Sorry to hear about Milsap. What's up with Poythress. He's been out a long time. Lin and Spellman are day to day, they should be alright. Prince is weeks away.

Heal up soon, Uncle Paul! Unfortunately, one of Paul Millsap’s little piggies cried wee-wee-wee last night. The Denver Nuggets are left to start a new winning streak, tonight against the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast in ATL, 94.1 FM since ATLUTD’s title game is on 92.9), without their anchorman. In The Human Lunchpail’s honor, I’ll use this space to unearth a gripe I’ve been holding for way too long.

Is The Number 24 cursed in Ruston, for some reason?

The Thomas Assembly Center, home to collegiate hoops at Louisiana Tech University since 1982, has three retired men’s basketball jerseys hanging from the rafters. Leon Barmore’s #12, Karl Malone’s #32, Jackie Moreland’s #44. That’s it. That’s the whole list.
Is the gymnasium too tiny to accommodate a fourth? Why no #24? Is somebody there still bitter about the NBA shot clock’s invention?

I’m unaware how many multiple-time USA-born NBA All-Stars, above the age of 30, do not have retired collegiate jersey numbers. While I suspect there are a few, it’s likely because their desperate colleges got slapped with NCAA violations for sketchy recruiting, or for pay-for-playing the kids while they were on scholarship. I doubt shady booster practices will pop up in Millsap’s case, over 15 years later. After all, if that kind of thing was problematic, Moreland’s jersey sure wouldn’t be up there.

Here Paul was, dismissively labeled a tweener after leading ALL of college hoops in rebounding for THREE consecutive years, still the only D-1 collegian ever to do so, relegated by scouts to the back end of the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft, destined for professional obscurity.

If he simply made it to Derrick Favors’ peak level, as a second-tier starter for the Utah Jazz, and stopped, that would’ve been ample reason to get his jersey retired by the Dunkin’ Dawgs. We’re not talking LSU basketball here. Keep it a buck, these days, we’re barely talking Ragin’ Cajuns.

2003’s Louisiana Mr. Basketball out of Grambling High not only chose to go to LaTech, but he stayed in Ruston for three years, with nary a hint about transferring to a bigger program and, as far as anybody cared to know, he kept his nose clean throughout. Then, he worked his way up the pro ranks with minimal fanfare. With each passing year, he re-entrenched this college within the consciousness of hoop fans: “At forward, from Lou-weeeeezy-ana Tech!”

The Bob Pettit Award was handed out, by the state’s basketball coaches’ association every year, to the top professional hoopster that went to any Louisiana college. Millsap, while still a Hawk, won this thing in 2017, for the seventh-straight season, the ninth time in the prior ten years. Were it not for the delayed NBA arrival of LSU’s Ben Simmons, Pawl would’ve passed Shaq O’Neal and The Mailman for the most times hauling this hardware, all-time. Is that not enough positive publicity for y’all, LaTech?

I get it, Techsters: we want winners, sure. Millsap’s Bulldogs only got a single trip to the NIT, in his final season there, never winning a conference title, their standout never getting Conference player of the year honors. But listen, nobody told you to bail out of the geographically-sensible Sun Belt to waste years in the remote Western Athletic Conference, turning virtually every LaTech road game into a dadgum holiday invitational in Fresno, Reno, San Diego and Hawai’i. Sap being unable to outshine Nick Fazekas and Kirk Snyder, because you systematically chose to quit competing regionally for recruits, wasn’t his fault.

Barmore gained fame more for coaching the Lady Techsters into a basketball powerhouse than for anything he did as a dribbler in the 1960s. Yet they still retired his jersey, back in 2000, and the school hasn’t hung up a single one since. They didn’t wait for Malone to retire from the NBA, so why Millsap?

They sat on their hands too long after Moreland’s pro retirement, so his jersey honor wound up being a posthumous one. What’s the wait about? Ask a math major if you must, Louisiana Tech, you’re not gonna run out of numbers any time in the next millennium. After Millsap, and P.J. Brown, you’re done. Magnum Rolle isn’t waiting his turn.

Bigger picture: who is doing a better job of carrying the LaTech banner, and making it look good, virtually everywhere he works, around 80 times per calendar year, right now? Jeff Driskel? Trace Adkins? Saxby Chambliss? Joey Greco? Does anybody alive even remember when Terry Bradshaw played there?

This kind of honor reached long-overdue status after Sap earned his first NBA All-Star nod as a member of the Hawks. I always assumed LTU had a ready-made excuse, given Atlanta was in the Eastern Conference and New Orleans got the WAC treatment from the league eons ago.

But now, Millsap’s with Denver (17-8), coincidentally a team making surprising headlines by looking down at the rest of the Western Conference in the early going. The Nuggets visit the Pelicans, Mavericks, Rockets, and Grizzlies at least twice a year now, and the NBA schedule gets published in August these days. So, we’re talking about an off-day pair of Uber-rides to finagle a ceremony in Ark-La-Tex, right quick. Surely, a grad student or two over there can figure this thing out?

Nobody’s asking for a statue here. Paul’s among the most unassuming pros in the game, leaving it to schleps like this one to advocate for his honors when he deserves them. As Hawks fans, we’ve had plenty of practice, trying to get the NBA to shoe-horn him into the annual midseason classics and All-Defensive Teams, ahead of players with louder bandwagons. If the head honchos at LaTech’s athletic department are waiting for him to retire (P.J. Brown as narrator: “They are NOT.”), they’ll be waiting for their successors to get ‘er done.

Denver is a team that looked suspect because they don’t look the part of a defensively talented team, or ones with passing-minded lead guards. But the supernova known as Nikola Jokic fills the passing gap quite admirably (7.7 APG). The soon-to-be-34-year-old Millsap, up until last night’s foot injury, led the team in steals, blocks, and the unquantifiable measure of defensive leadership on a team that comes into State Farm Arena ranked 5th in defensive efficiency and 4th in D-Reb%.

Coincidentally, Millsap (49.6 FG%, best since 2010-11) was converting shots better than he did at any time as a Hawk, sinking over 40 percent of his threes. His fullcourt reliability, in constrained floor time, has made life easier for Nuggets coach Michael Malone, who was once a hot-seat target prior to the season tip-off but is now the clubhouse leader for the Coach of the Year award.

After all, guard Will Barton went out for an indefinite period after straining his hip just a couple starts into the season. His backcourt mate, Gary Harris followed suit with a re-aggravated hip injury of his own sidelining him earlier in the week. Free agent pickup Isaiah Thomas (you guessed it… hip) still sits. And then there’s the crater in the depth chart, where a healthy small forward is supposed to reside.

Lotto-rookie Michael Porter, Jr. (back) is only beginning to workout with the team, still without a timetable to play. Second-year pro Tyler Lydon just returned but is still not ready for primetime. Neither is 2018 second-rounder Jarred Vanderbilt, who has at least a couple more weeks before he can be activated.

Former SC Upstate star Torrey Craig, Harris, Malik Beasley and Millsap have been used to spackle the position behind Juan Hernangomez (25 points and 9 rebounds vs. ATL on Nov. 15). Despite the Nuggets’ high perch atop the Wild NBA West, discussions of title contention will remain on hold, until Millsap can return, and unless Porter arrives and displays enough of his skillset to join Atlanta’s Trae Young among the league’s most impactful rookie class in quite some time.

The returns of Millsap, Harris, Barton, Porter, and Thomas, on paper, ought to make Denver a more formidable postseason contender, should everyone else enter the playoffs healthy, too. But for tonight, with Denver finishing off a back-to-back after arriving from Charlotte, the Hawks will want to rely on superior 1-through-10 depth (Jeremy Lin’s, Omari Spellman’s and Taurean Prince’s sustained absences notwithstanding) and energy.

For coach Lloyd Pierce’s troopers, any start will be an improvement over the 13-0 hole they put themselves in during the 138-93 avalanche in Denver, the worst deficit of the young Hawks’ season. There was also the 28-10 run by the Wizards in the second quarter, on top of the 33-25 lead Washington built on Wednesday, that made Atlanta’s rare 45-point third-quarter outburst not much more than a novelty.

The Hornets only played ten last night, but were able to utilize 59 bench points to overwhelm the Nuggets and end Denver’s seven-game winning streak. We won’t be able to get a brotherly battle along the boards, as the Hawks’ Miles Plumlee (knee; Hawks 0-16 when he makes an appearance, 5-4 when he doesn’t) sits, too. But Atlanta will need productive outings from DeAndre’ Bembry, Tyler Dorsey, Justin Anderson, and Vince Carter (UNC can be excused from retiring jerseys; 3-for-6 3FGs vs. WAS).

Dewayne Dedmon and Alex Len will try to give different defensive looks to Jokic, who may be at his least dangerous when he calls his own number (6-for-18 FGs, incl. 0-for-6 3FGs and 4 TOs @ CHA; career-low 46.7 FG% and 29.2 3FG%). Sap’s absence should make the going easier for the Hawks’ John Collins (career-high 26 points plus 14 boards vs. WAS) to again fill up the boxscore.

The Hawks (17.4 opponent TOs per game, 2nd in NBA) will have a chance to stay with the shorthanded Nuggets if their bigs can stay out of early foul trouble against The Joker, Trey Lyles (2-for-11 FGs @ CHA), and Hernangomez, and if the wings are active seeking out deflections and steals.

Without Lin (team-high 16 points @ DEN on Nov. 15; Harvard’s too stuck up to retire anybody) available, Bembry’s activity will be crucial in a backup point guard role, since Young’s hands will be full defensively versus Murray (team-high 18.0 PPG and 5.0 APG; 30.9 3FG%) and second-year pro Monte Morris (9.2 PPG, 42.3 3FG%).

Someday, Millsap’s #4 jersey will hang proudly in the rafters of State Farm Arena. Hopefully, the folks at dear old Louisiana Tech will get the hint about #24 before that comes to pass. Then again, maybe somebody in Ruston holds a grudge against Jack Bauer?


Let’s Go United! Chag Sameach! And Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

Tough.
Break.

Jamaaliver wrote:Tough.
Break.

Read on Twitter

Lol GTFO here jaamal u lame.

Go Hawks!

Nuggets are gonna come in angry. Not sure if our youngsters can take their vet team tonight even with the anchorman. Was hoping to catch him play against us.

Nuggets by double digits.

Trae keeps learning. As do the rest.

Soth’s Boy Joke might mess around and triple double.

I'm hungry for a win vs. a good team while losing to all the bad ones for strategic purposes...

They will come in with low energy against a bottom dweller which should lead to a very close game late in the 4th.

Can we? Yes! But, will we? Just have to wait and see. It sure would be nice to win tonight.
Bunches of players on both sides out with injuries. Let's hit some 3's and and our free throws!

GO ATL HAWKS !!

Looking inspired for the third quarter.

Thank God for John Collins. I was counting on him coming back and making the Hawks look decent again and he's definitely delivered. I don't mind having a losing record, but I hate seeing us struggle.

Collins is the team's best player (at least of the young core). Good win. Congrats to John on getting 30 pts.

John Collins is the best player on this team and it's not even close. The Hawks were still 3 point shot happy, but at least they played defense and got the ball to Collins.

Wow. Ok so predict a loss to a pretty darn good team not to mention a top team in the West and we come out and defend like we are capable with young legs and some old ones in Carter and win! Not bad ATL!

Shout out to Vince with a couple of momentum threes that lifted us. Huerter’s unselfishness continues to shine. Trae’s slump continued a bit but still not worried he can ball and he knows it.

I swear I almost went into reminisce dream mode about Jokic being a throwback and play with a Hawks team in the 80’s and 90’s with Nique...then he mentions the same thing himself about playing with Jokic is quarter 3. Nique would have had an additional 1000 dunks lol.

Great win guys!

GO HAWKS!!!!

Next game: Luka hosts Trae... round 2!

Ps Huge shoutout to Collins career high..Malik Beasley is a punk.

A good day for Atlanta sports fans