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ESPN.com NBA Preview


While 2008 has brought winning and success for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the new year has been a letdown for the Atlanta Hawks.


James and the Cavaliers look to win their season-high fifth straight game and extend the Hawks' season-high losing streak to five as they meet Wednesday at Philips Arena.

Cleveland (18-17) ended 2007 with an 86-76 loss to New Orleans, and lost 11 of its final 16 games of the last calendar year. The Cavaliers opened 2008 with a 98-94 victory over Atlanta last Wednesday, and are one of only two Eastern Conference teams with perfect records in the new year -- Boston is 3-0.

With Tuesday's 95-79 victory over Seattle, defending East champion Cleveland moved over .500 for the first time since it was 9-8 on Nov. 30.

James opened 2008 with 36 points, 32 in the second half, in Cleveland's win over Atlanta.

The Cavs have won 13 of their last 15 over the Hawks, including six straight in Atlanta.

The Hawks fell to New Jersey 113-107 on Saturday, and have lost a season-worst four straight games after winning a season-high five in a row.

They led after each of the first three quarters on Saturday, but fell apart in the fourth as the Nets opened the final period on a 15-0 run.

"We have to get off this slide," Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said, adding he would consider lineup changes.

Joe Johnson, who is averaging a team-high 21.3 points, was held to nine on just 4-of-16 shooting on Saturday. Johnson, who scored fewer than 10 points just once in his first 29 games, was held to eight point on 3-of-11 shooting in Friday's 113-91 loss at Indiana. This is the first time he's been held to single digits in consecutive games since scoring in single figures in three straight games for Phoenix in December, 2004.


Statistics

Atlanta
Cleveland


The Atlanta Hawks would like to welcome everyone to Phillips Arena for Joe Johnson T-Shirt Night





*open the following YouTube Link Now in a New Window for audio and minimize before continuing*


Visiting Phillips tonight are those Pesky Cleveland Cavs


Ahhh...... to be young an passionate!



Here I lay all alone
Tossin turning
Longing for some of your
Tender Love




I'm waiting for the right
moment to come
So I can thank you for
All the tender love you've given to me





Tender love (Tender love)
Love so tender (love)
Pulling me close to you
baby I surrender

Candles they light the dark
Now I see how lovely the feelings are
All the tender love you've given to me




I want you more and more
Can't resist you
Oh then I feel your touch
Tender love




And you're loving me straight from the heart
Hold me nearer
Please let me be a part
of the tender love you're giving to me




Tender love (tender love)
Love so tender
Holding me close to you
Baby I surrender





Lebron..... Anderson.... That was beautiful. I think I'm going to cry.....


Look... I'm not bullshittin' you. I can't make this kind of stuff up!





Was that a French team named My Homos?


I often wonder what professional athletes would do if there were no Sports. Take Verejao for instance


Maybe a Pro Wrestler?





Perhaps a singer?





Hey maybe he could even be a cartoon character!





Whatever the Hawks do tonight they need to keep the Cavs off the glass.


Whatever happened to Big Al anyhow?


The Hawks thought they drafted





But lately they've been getting





All I ask Al to do is play Big... like his ears





And back this Week... Woody's Doghouse

Because you KNOW there is ALWAYS somebody in Woody's Doghouse!





This week's occupant - Salim Stoudamire





Salim has went from DTD to QUES to OUT INDEFINATELY with an ankle injury. Smells fishy to me.


One last thing to be wary of while traveling downtown with these Ohio folks visiting


The girls can be mighty cute





But the kids are some Rude Little F***kers!





Let's get after them tonight Boys!










Viva la Hawks!







.

I borrowed the animated pics from Mavsofty on the Dallas board.

I just looked at the standings. All of the teams people expect to be in the playoffs are right back in it except the Bulls. Luckily it is the East and the Hawks are 8th but only one game back of the 4th spot.

I have no idea on what will get this team turn around. They are an up and down team. One way that might get this team out of their funk. Hawks played their best in Dec when they were basically playing every other night. Since the rest the Hawks have time to think too much and let all of the hype around them get into their minds. I haven't looked at the schedule. I hope it involves some back to back games and plenty of games every other night.

"All I ask is for Horford to play big. Like his ears."

LMAO! Great thread.

tender love, gone to another level, nice.

Divisional Games:

Charlotte @ Boston

Miami @ Milwaukee

Orlando @ LA Clippers


Atlanta needs this win tonight. Sacramento beat Orlando last night, Minnesota beat Miami, Houston beat Washington, but Charlotte won against NJ.

By the way, great job gsuteke

Another good game thread. I don't have high hopes for tonight. I think this team has lost its poise and confidence.

Not sure if Dallas will get it in before game time.

So, Atlanta is favored to win by 2 points and the O/U is 188.

Great job with the game thread.

Thanks.


I'm about to hire a few new employees so I won't have quite as much free time coming up.


On the flip side I've got a bunch from HS I haven't posted over here yet ready to roll out the door.



Uhhh Hello! Can we win a flippin game Hawks?????

HMFFL wrote:Not sure if Dallas will get it in before game time.

So, Atlanta is favored to win by 2 points and the O/U is 188.

It's gone up to 2.5 which means either different sources for our lines or that money has been coming in on the Hawks.

I've given up picking the games, but I'll be back at Philips after being out of town for close to a month and I'm dying to see the Hawks win again!

Great job on the thread. My fav so far.

Nice thread. Good omen, evil, I'm expecting a win since you are back.

Need Josh to keep playing like he has been, good call on Al needing to be "big" again. Need Joe to either hit his shot or not take it, need Marv to do a better job getting by LBJ, need Shel or Za to step up, need AJ to take advantage of a favorable matchup or two, need Josh to keep dominating inside... that about covers it, if I'm missing something tell me.

Once again Lebron is going to get his points- I don't think the Hawks have anyone who can really hope to match up with him. The Hawks need Johnson to offset a lot of that scoring. Hopefully at this point in Z's career Horford can take advantage of him on offense more than Z can take advantage of him on defense since on paper its sort of a mismatch both ways. Neither team is great on on offense- second chance points tend to be pretty big.

KB...that's how we lost the last game. We doubled Lebron the entire 1st half and the Cavs offense struggled. As soon as we left him 1 on 1 he started abusing us(which he does to every team). I saw the same thing in Toronto the other day when they tried to play Anthony Parker vs. him 1 on 1.

I say we double team him all day as long as we don't leave Gibson open. Hughes and Pavlovich can shoot as many jumpshots as they want.

HG- I thiink the Hawks lost last time becuase they shot 40% from the field. THey got to the line a ton- if they can do that again of course it would help an immense amount. And I never said they shouldn't double Lebron- like I said the Hawks don't have anyone who can match up with him. I just don't think the Hawks will hold him under 20 no matter what they do so hopefully Joe can take advantage of hte fact that the cavs don't really have anyone who is a good match up for him either.

Horford makes sure he got the ball and Big Z fouls him. I really want to see a game where we make it a point to attack with Horford.

Cavs fan coming in peace to tell you that this is one great gamethread. Probably one of the best I've seen. Hilarious.

Good luck tonight fellas. Its refreshing to see the Hawks becoming respectable again like they should be.

The schedule gets a little ugly coming up if the Hawks drop this game.

What's up with all these dumb traveling calls...that's 3 in the 1st quarter and one of them were that obvious. Just let them play.