Sat: Atlanta 19-6 (7-4 V) @ Chicago 9-15 (7-5 H)

[HMFFL]

Favored to win:

Atlanta by 5

Over/Under: 197

Recent Meetings:

12/09/09 ATL 118 - CHI 83
01/20/09 CHI 102 - ATL 105
12/27/08 ATL 129 - CHI 117
11/11/08 CHI 108 - ATL 113
03/28/08 ATL 106 - CHI 103
03/25/08 CHI 103 - ATL 94
01/13/08 ATL 105 - CHI 84
11/27/07 CHI 90 - ATL 78
04/01/07 ATL 97 - CHI 105
02/20/07 CHI 106 - ATL 81

Refs:

Bennie Adams
Ron Garretson
Eli Roe

[ATL DirtyBird]

I would think wed smack this team but im very tentative. Hawks on the road against a crappy team always scares me! Hopefully times have changed

[JoshB914]

Could be a let down tonight. But I feel like we say that every game and then go out and win.

[tontoz]

The starters didn't have to exert much energy last night, or in any recent game for that matter. They should be ready to go.

The Bulls are lame but any team can have a hot shooting night, like the Knicks did against us. No such thing as a sure win but it would be nice to have yet another blowout. The hawks have had 5 blowout wins in a row and I can't remember the last time that happened.

[CViggity]

Normally the kind of game I'm worried about, back to back and on the road. We seem to lose to bad teams in these spots.

Thankfully, CHI is probably the worst coached teams in the league and Rose has been one of the worst PG/decision makers in the NBA this year.

Should take a lot to go wrong to lose this one

[Hawkeyes]

The Bulls are pretty weak inside. I see it being close for a while, but the Hawks pulling away late in the 4th. Atlanta 103
Chicago 90

Al Horford has a big game with 23 points, 13 rebounds.

[HoopsGuru25]

Meh. The Hawks don't deserve to win this one. Too many possessions where Horford was on Hinrich and Smith was on Rose in the 4th quarter. The over-switching hurt us during this game. We also completely abandoned the pick and roll and went into milk the clock mode with Joe in the last 5 minutes which I'll never understand.

[tontoz]

WTF is up with Smith tonight? He can't make anything. Neither can Marvin.

[HoopsGuru25]

lol-fitting that they would miss a layup down 1. The Hawks missed about 5 easy layups in this game. They led for basically the entire regulation but they just didn't play that well on either end. Hopefully they don't suffer a letdown in Minny.

[HoopsGuru25]

I'm surprised that this was Rose 1st 30 point game in the regular season. It seems like he should be getting to the free throw like alot more than his numbers show.

[Hawkeyes]

As usual, Joe failed to come up in the clutch. Had a great night, but missed an easy layup. I get tired of him always taking the big shots for us when his percentange is probably under 20 with a minute or less left.

[ATL DirtyBird]

This wass the kind of gamesthat everyone questioned we could win. Sad but we were bound for a bad game at one point. ^^Hopefully we spank the T Wolves. Bulls suck I still dont understnad how we lost to them! We shot 41% they shot 48% and only had 15 assists. I hope this isnt a precursor but I was getting so used to the consistent play. I tend to overreact to loses. Bad saturday!

[HoopsGuru25]

Joe was pounding the ball as usual....but HTF can you blame him for this loss? Smith and Marvin 3-19 from the floor with a total of 2 combined assists. If either one of them was a tick above useless than the Hawks would have won.

[JoshB914]

Great game. I really can't complain. We got EVERYTHING we wanted down the stretch and played great D as well. But Rose made some incredible plays offensively and we were just ice cold. Even Bibby missed a wide open three in OT.

[Hawkeyes]

Joe was pounding the ball as usual....but HTF can you blame him for this loss? Smith and Marvin 3-19 from the floor with 2 assists a piece. If either one of them was a tick above useless than the Hawks would have won.

Oh, I'm not. It's just something I've always hated. Our play with under a minute left to go is always to rely on Joe to hit a shot. I just want more players to be involved than just 1 person every single time. Josh Smith probably had his worst game all season, and there is no excuse not to put away a game when you're up 7 with 3 minutes to go.

[HoopsGuru25]

Meh. I'm going to forget the specifics and just try to move on from this game. I'd prefer they lose this way than games where they just mail it in ala Charlotte,NO, and Detroit. Just beat Minny and split with Denver/Indy and everything's OK.

[JoshB914]

I didn't mind Joe at all. He was attacking and no one else was hitting shots. He was unlucky a few times and also just flat out missed a couple.

[Master8492]

Really tough one to cough up. 8 points lead with 4 minutes to go... they need to take those. Hopefully Josh Smith back to his all star performance next game.

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

I have a problem with it, Joe shooting the ball on almost every single crucial possession was 3 years ago Hawks. We need to throw that mindset in the garbage. That's called selfish Basketball and even if we would have won somehow i would have said the exact same thing. I told someone when they kept giving it to Joe on an island that we would lose this game and it happened. Where was Jamal in regulation and the 1st part of OT?? Woodson needs to take that Joe all the time and twice on Sundays offensive mindset and burn it. That will be the downfall to a really good team.

[JoshB914]

^^^ Who would you have preferred to have the ball? Josh and Marvin were both having terrible nights, Horford wasn't even involved, and even Bibby missed a few open looks. Joe was getting anything he wanted all game and was hitting everything until very late in the game. Giving him the ball and letting him create was the best option at that point.

However, I definitely do agree that Crawford should have been in the game and should have been an option. But you can't blame Joe for trying to take the team on his back, it was the best option with that lineup on the floor.