Atl vs Orlando

[BAMABIRD]

The first half of this game has been very embarassing.

[evildallas]

Perhaps it will temper any overconfidence.

[HoopsGuru25]

I haven't watched the game but I came to the conclusion after that late season game in Philly that the Hawks just play scared on the road. I can't explain why....but the Hawks come out shell shocked from the jump and the other teams builds a 15-20 point lead before you know what hit you.

[parson]

The stats don't really show it, but Bibby and JJ shot and dribbled us right out it from the beginning. Our offense is truly offensive. Isolations resulting in desperate, last-second kick-outs for perimeter shots, bah.

6 years to learn the "system", a 1st rounder at every position (and 2 on the bench) and THIS is our offense?

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

Didn't expect that one, geez! No one you can point out in particular in that debacle, the Hawks looked like someone drugged their Gatorade before the game.

[MaceCase]

South Beach must have been awesome the night before.

[HMFFL]

This was the first game I have been able to watch and it forced me to have a drink.

[CAM]

This was the first game I have been able to watch and it forced me to have a drink.

Funny. But seriously, glad I didn't get to watch this one, or I'd be unable to type so cohesively right now.

[Jamaaliver]

South Beach must have been awesome the night before.

Thursday night's game against the Heat was actually played in Jacksonville, FL.

Picking things up where we left them at the end of last season. It's always nice to see the Hawks shrivel up in a Primetime Nationally broadcast game. There are no repercussions from losing an exhibition game by 30 in front of the entire country are there?

Random Thoughts:

Stan Van Gundy is the best coach in the Conference.

The last twelve Hawks games I've watched, have been the 12 worst basketball games I've ever seen. (Heat series, Cavs series, tonite)

Ryan Anderson alone makes up for the Magic's loss of Hedo Turkoglu.

Triple teaming the post is a bad idea against a three point shooting team.

Jamal Crawford plays awful defense.

We need a real center.

Mike Woodson will never lead us to a championship.

[JoshB914]

We lose a preseason game and everyone is jumping on Woodson. Priceless.

Surprised no one has mentioned Teague's 0-15 evening, that's pretty impressive. I was working late tonight, but I'm going to go ahead and delete this from the DVR without watching a second.

[LL Cool Scott]

Couple things I noticed about the game (before getting fed up and turning it off in the 2nd half):

Teague reminds me a little bit of Rondo. Same atrocious jumper, same athleticism. We'll see if he develops into the defensive player and point guard Rondo has. Bad night for him, but he shows flashes of exceptional athletic ability and talent. Good god that jump shot is hideous...

We still have NOBODY who can score or defend in the post. I expect a blockbuster trade within the next 2 years to address this. You just can't win big without a post presence.

[sutrick]

Random Thoughts:

Stan Van Gundy is the best coach in the Conference.

The last twelve Hawks games I've watched, have been the 12 worst basketball games I've ever seen. (Heat series, Cavs series, tonite)

Ryan Anderson alone makes up for the Magic's loss of Hedo Turkoglu.

Triple teaming the post is a bad idea against a three point shooting team.

Jamal Crawford plays awful defense.

We need a real center.

Mike Woodson will never lead us to a championship.[/quote]

Great observations. Don't agree with Anderson alone but the Magic really improved themselves with Carter, Anderson and Bass effectively replacing lee and Hedo. In two years I would agree that Anderson will be better than Hedo. Jamal never has and never will play defense but he can be instant offense ( at times). A real center would make a major difference in this team.

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

We lose a preseason game and everyone is jumping on Woodson. Priceless.

Surprised no one has mentioned Teague's 0-15 evening, that's pretty impressive. I was working late tonight, but I'm going to go ahead and delete this from the DVR without watching a second.

Good choice, I stopped it late 3rd, it was becoming a horror flick.

[tontoz]

This was the first time i have seen Teague play. It is hard to be very optimistic about a guy who shoots like a girl from the perimeter.

[evildallas]

Let's not give up on Teague after 1 bad preseason game. Sure he stunk last night. No way to sugar coat it, but hopefully it's just one of those nights when nothing works right rather than the start of a trend.

The thing that troubled me most was that Orlando immediately knew how to destroy us on both ends of the floor. After that it boiled down to hitting open shots, which they did and we didn't. Watching the early possession as they focused on whomever Bibby was guarding and then rotating it to the wide open man if we helped or abusing him directly if we were slow to help made me feel, well, helpless. On the other end they had two philosophies one was to double team Joe every time he touched it and the other was to leave certain shots available to dare Atlanta to shoot them (we missed most of them). On the Joe double teams it was pretty sad how poorly we handled that. Joe gets doubled a lot, you would think that he would be used to it and not panic into a bad pass. The other thing I would anticipate is that his teammates should be used to him getting doubled and move to a position where they could receive a pass and be a threat to make a shot from there or continue to attack with a drive or pass. The only time I can remember Atlanta scoring on the first half dozen Joe double-teams was a long 2 hit by Josh. The others resulted in missed jumpers or turnovers.

[raleigh]

Teague having this kind of game in the preseason will likely be SO much better than once the season starts.

Remember Vaughn's streak from a few years back?

[Master8492]

I was also exited to see Teague played after all the talk. Even if it is back to back games on the road and against the team stacked at every possible position, I expect a better showing on "real" National TV. This team need to have the ability to win on the road (at least .500) in order to compete for the 4th spot and possibly win more than they did last year (which I think is highly unlikely).

[evildallas]

One of the reasons I didn't see the team slipping from 4th this year is that we were 2-10 against the big 3 in the East last year. Meaning we can't lose much ground there. A poor road showing against one of them in preseason doesn't change a thing for me. We have 2 winnable home games before a trip out West to start the season. How we play on that road trip against Los Angeles, Portland, and most importantly Sacramento will give me food for thought. We also have a visit to Charlotte on the way home from that trip. If we can be at least 4-2 when we return to host Denver on Nov 7th then I think the positive expectations on the season should pan out. If we are under .500 going into that Denver game then I start to worry.