Hawks (33-24) at Lakers (29-30)

[parson]

One more note: put Dwight Howard (15 rebs on a bad scoring night) on this Hawks team and we blow the Lakers out. Kobe won it on drives to the basket when we shut down his jumper with big men (mostly Smith and a little Horford). He couldn't that if we had a shot blocker in the middle.

I'll go to bed dreaming of a Dwight Christmas this offseason.

[Jamaaliver]

One more note: put Dwight Howard (15 rebs on a bad scoring night) on this Hawks team and we blow the Lakers out. Kobe won it on drives to the basket when we shut down his jumper with big men (mostly Smith and a little Horford). He couldn't that if we had a shot blocker in the middle.

I'll go to bed dreaming of a Dwight Christmas this offseason.

Indeed.

Also, a defensive SF like Iguadala would give Kobe more resistance on the perimeter and help keep KB24 out of the lane.

Josh is a good defender, but it's not fair to expect our PF to guard the best SG in the world on the perimeter.

[parson]

^ But it's not too unfair to ask our SF/PF to do it . . .

[BAMABIRD]

To many missed free throws tonight. I think Josh was like 0-5 or something like that.

[azuresou1]

I didn't mind the reffing; some calls missed, but it was not gamebreaking and some swung in our favor too (like Kobe not getting an And-1 on his poster on Josh).

We missed a bunch of easy gimme-layups, which was painful to watch. Overall though I liked the effort.

[Rip2137]

The free throws were big. Teague just couldn't get a shot to fall last night. A middling performance from Teague and we win. Not blaming Teague, some nights are like that. It was just one of those nights.

[parson]

The real problem came with our mental breakdowns. Forget Bryant's ABILITY - he was smarter.

I love what Harris did for us but he gave LA 3 possessions at the end of the 1st 3 qtrs by taking quick (and really deep) shots when he should have milked the clock. Those 3 extra possessions resulted in 7 points for LA: 2 baskets plus Bryant's 3 at the buzzer.
Next, FTs are mental discipline and Smith missed all 6 of his attempts.
Teague panicked too many times and forgot to run the offense.
Smith led us (again) in dumb passes and dumber 3s at crucial times. He seems to forget the situation.
Forget Petro's +12, he was lost out there, losing his man over and over. There was one alley-oop where Petro had no idea of where Howard was until Howard dunked. You can SEE Petro thinking . . . . . . and taking a long time doing it.

We played well when you consider that Howard kept us from 2nd-chance points (only 3 offensive rebounds), that Nash kept the LA offense on track and that Bryant kicked into hero mode.

[parson]

The free throws were big. Teague just couldn't get a shot to fall last night. A middling performance from Teague and we win. Not blaming Teague, some nights are like that. It was just one of those nights.

Yes. LA roughed him up and he lost his focus. Maybe he can learn from Harris not to shy away from aggressive defenders but to push the ball and get the fouls from them.

[Rip2137]

Icant say he got roughed up. He missed about three midrange jumpers he usually hits and didn't finish at least 5 shots at the basket when his floater just didn't fall. The floater is a tough shot and he was just off with it last night.

That said...i am drawing a blank trying to remember them running the simple p&r last night which LA has been horrible at defending. Alot of entering the post and face ups from Josh and Al but not many pick and rolls.

[ATL Boy]

That was the definition of heartbreaking

[parson]

Icant say he got roughed up. He missed about three midrange jumpers he usually hits and didn't finish at least 5 shots at the basket when his floater just didn't fall. The floater is a tough shot and he was just off with it last night.

That said...i am drawing a blank trying to remember them running the simple p&r last night which LA has been horrible at defending. Alot of entering the post and face ups from Josh and Al but not many pick and rolls.

I don't mean LA did anything illegal but that they were really in his face, frustrating him. Looked to me that he backed away from running the offense.

As for the p&r, I remember a couple of what I like to call pick-and-pops with Horford. To be fair to Drew, the man running backcuts was open all night so maybe Drew wanted to emphasize them.

[MaceCase]

There weren't many PnRs because LA mostly sagged the paint, Dwight especially. I don't know if it was gameplan, IQ, laziness or conditioning but I don't think Dwight actually guarded a particular player all night unless they bumped into him.

[GrimeyKidd]

And kobe traveled