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Balanced scoring. No idea where to see it. Here's a box score though.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2008100619

I always like listening to these games online every year. It's only pre-season but the bench really gave us a big spark to get back in the game in the 2nd quarter and to take the lead in the 3rd quarter.

Acie Law lighting it up...20 pts so far, he hit a half court shot. Too bad this isn't on TV.

Mo Evans 4 for 4 from the 3, pretty nice to see him contributing right away. Go Hawks!

acie did work

Only preseason, but you got to love blowing out the Magic in the 3rd quarter. Quite the change from the 3rd quarter disappearing acts from last season.

Hey, Magic fan that was at the game, figured I'd give you guys a shoutout.

Acie Law looked real impressive shooting-wise. The man couldn't miss a shot. I think everyone in the building knew his half-court heave was going in.

Horford's going to be a beast.

Zaza played big.

Even Solomon Jones looked good. He actually was a little impressive.

Congrats on the win. Good luck this year.

im a bandwagon hawks fan (when playing nba 2k8) hopefully that will translate to nba2k9

well played guys. you have a solid young team with lots of talent and a deep bench along with superstars in joe johnson and josh smith...bunch of talented pg's,sf,pf, If you guys got a center like camby, you would be locks for the finals every year.

So many positives from this game and Marvin Williams even managed to knock down a 3.

Preseason or not, it's always nice to win against Orlando.

I have an idea of what to expect from everyone on this roster except for Law. He is going to be key in order for the Hawks to make the playoffs again. I hope he does have a great PS and carry it over the regular season. Seeing tonight performance is a big positive.

Only passively listened to the game on radio late last night. From what little I heard... and the box score:

Dwight had quite a block party last night (8). The Hawks will likely suffer from "Clarence Weatherspoon Syndrome" this season. With a frontcourt that's undersized in many matchups yet aggressive at the hoop, a lot of Spaldings will be marked returned-to-sender. Did Yahoo!Sports add the "blocks against" stat (Smoove led with 4), or am I just now paying late attention?

On the good side of that, the Hawks' frontcourt will be able to draw a ton of fouls this season, which can help limit PT for players like Dwight (5 fouls). Hitting their freebies in crunchtime will go a long way to enhancing this team's opportunities to win (Zaza nailed all 5 of his chances).

Turnovers were kept to a reasonable minimum (6 by the starters, none by Bibby in 21 minutes). Horford & company also did a real nice job keeping the Magic off the offensive glass (one second-chance board for Orlando's starters, four for the team).

Outside of rebounding, not much production from the starting forwards (6-for-21 FG, 2 blocks in a combined 59 minutes). If Bibby can find his shooting touch from deep with better regularity than last season, it can spread the floor more and give Smoove and Marvin better opportunities on the offensive end.

Hard to complain about Acie's performance offensively, but I'd exchange a few field goal attempts for more effective playmaking (4 assists to 3 turnovers in 25 minutes) and a couple of thefts.

Words we won't hear from Woodson this season: "Josh Childress isn't coming through that door!" Not as long as Flip and Mo stay healthy, shoot well from the perimeter (Mo was 4-for-4 beyond the arc), and have a defensive presence against guards that like to drive the ball inside. Collectively, these guards seem to contribute better balance to the offense than Chills did.

One of the reasons I'm not totally sold on the Magic repeating is their bench. I'd be more worried about the Hawks if they relied upon a bench that featured Redick, C-Lee (who'll be good soon, just not yet), Gortat, and Bogans. A healthier Battie and AJ will help their corps a little. Also, as a point guard, I'll take Acie's ceiling over Jameer's right now.

Other questions:
* Were there many opportunities for fast break scores? Especially in that wild 3rd quarter? Nice to see the Hawks play well offensively after halftime.
* Who were Solo's matchups? He was +21 in plus/minus in just over 12 minutes.
* Was it just me or was there a JJ Redick sighting on the defensive end early in this game?

~lw3

lethalweapon3 wrote:One of the reasons I'm not totally sold on the Magic repeating is their bench. I'd be more worried about the Hawks if they relied upon a bench that featured Redick, C-Lee (who'll be good soon, just not yet), Gortat, and Bogans. A healthier Battie and AJ will help their corps a little. Also, as a point guard, I'll take Acie's ceiling over Jameer's right now.

The Magic don't rely nearly as heavily on their bench as the Hawks though. I've said for a while that the biggest difference between Billy Knight and Otis Smith(two terrible GM's)is Bob Sura. They have a player that you can build a title contender around(we don't)and they always have 3 or 4 shooters to spread the floor when he's on the court at all times. I believe they led the league in 3 point shooting last year. Their offense is very simple but effective thanks to having a guy in the low post who draws a double team. A guy like Bogans whose only real value is spot up shooting is going to be alot more successful in their system than he would be with the Hawks.

The Magic don't rely nearly as heavily on their bench as the Hawks though.

Did you get this backwards? Because otherwise that's the equivalent of saying something doesn't have as much meat as a vegetarian quiche...

LL has said it before, and LL will say it again "This franchise will only go as far as Al Horford takes it." Joe and Josh are big time players, and probably all-stars, but everything hinges on Big Al. From what Sekou claims, Al held his own against the most physically dominant center in the league and is developing a post-up game (something he sorely lacked last year). If both those are true, watch out Eastern Conference!

killbuckner must be furious about Acie's game last night.

LL Cool Scott wrote:LL has said it before, and LL will say it again "This franchise will only go as far as Al Horford takes it." Joe and Josh are big time players, and probably all-stars, but everything hinges on Big Al. From what Sekou claims, Al held his own against the most physically dominant center in the league and is developing a post-up game (something he sorely lacked last year). If both those are true, watch out Eastern Conference!

I totally agree with you. Horford is the key guy for this franchise. He's got the intangibles, he's got the drive, he's got the work ethic, and he's a winner. As long as he improves his game and becomes one of the best PF/C in this league, we're going to be a winning franchise for years.

Good for Acie having a strong preseason game. Why would I be furious about that? I hope he does prove me wrong. Are you going to be furious when he has a bad game?

^yes

smabie wrote:

The Magic don't rely nearly as heavily on their bench as the Hawks though.

Did you get this backwards? Because otherwise that's the equivalent of saying something doesn't have as much meat as a vegetarian quiche...

You misunderstood me. I was responding to the statement that the Magic should be worried because their bench is just as bad as the Hawks. My point was the Hawks don't have enough top end talent to get by with a weak bench while teams like the Hornets and Magic(whose benches could be even worse than ours)still won over 50 games last year because their main core of players(mainly Paul and Dwight)were so good. It would really help if we had more quality options off the bench like the Bulls of two years ago and the Warriors last year.

Magic fan here. I want to congratulate you on signing Mo in the offseason. I really liked him, and I think he and Flip Murray were good additions to your bench. He will have nights when he doesn't play as well -- and he is more familiar with Orlando's sight lines and rims than he will be in a lot of arenas. But he always will give you everything he has got, is a tremendous team player and he increases the basketball IQ of your bench.

I love Al Horford, too - loved him when he played for the Gators and thought he was the most NBA ready of Florida's championships team players. Wish the Magic had someone like him to play next to Dwight at the 4.

Got to say....I always get nervous when the Magic play your team.

Why do you think the Hawks play so well against the Magic? Because this is not a new trend. Orlando really struggles against Atlanta but has less trouble with some teams that finished higher in the standings.