Game Thread: Bullets at Hawks 12/27

Post #1 » by **Jamaaliver** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:59 pm

Wizards look to carry momentum into Atlanta

Tonight, the Wizards will have a chance to carry the momentum from Monday's win and take care of a team at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. It will be the Wizards' first time back in Atlanta since they ended the Hawks season last April in Game 6 of the first round of the playoffs.

... the Hawks made a number of changes to their team, losing All-Stars Paul Millsap and Dwight Howard, and one of their leading scorers in Tim Hardaway Jr. With that said, the Hawks' backcourt of Dennis Schroder and Kent Bazemore were big pieces to last year's team and they should be starting again tonight. They'll have revenge in mind with the Wizards back in town tonight. The Wizards routed the Hawks in their first meeting of this season, 113-94, back on November 11th in DC, which including the playoffs was their seventh straight win over the Hawks in Washington.

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ducler · Post #2 » by **ducler** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 5:28 pm

Spud2nique · Post #3 » by **Spud2nique** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 5:55 pm

Fourteen months ago was the last time we beat the Washington Wizards at Philip arena (not including last year's 2 wins in the playoffs). Gone are the days of the low post wizardry (pun intended) of Paul Millsap, the anticipation of our beloved high school sweetheart Dwight Howard being the savior and any hopes of a twin tower domination in the ATL.

The ending of a promising era without a title is nothing new to the Washington Wizards, at least since the last time they held the Walter A. Brown trophy (Larry O'Brien) in 1978 behind as the Bullets behind a couple of franchise mainstays in Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and big man "do it all" extraordinaire Wes Unseld, both #2 picks of the Baltimore Bullets (Monroe in 1967 and Unseld in 68). Coincidentally, the first pick in the 1968 draft was Elvin Hayes, drafted first overall by the San Diego Rockets, who would later join the Bullets in winning their one and only title in 1978.

After winning four conference titles and six division titles in the 70's, the 80's seemed more of a rebuilding decade for the Bullets as they tried to jumpstart the franchise with a couple of Malone's in the 80's with Jeff and X Hawk Moses to no avail. That was followed by having the tallest and short players in NBA history on the same team in the same season in Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues. The 90's weren't much better for them as they had many top flight players in Michael Adams, Chris Webber, Rasheed Wallace, and Mitch Richmond (Cwebb and Mitch traded for each other), but no player or group of players were able to lead them back to the glory days. The 2000's were similar as again they were able to make little noise with guys like Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and company.

Washington is hoping the new era of Wizards basketball featuring the dynamic backcourt of John Wall and Beal can bring a trophy to DC at some point in their tenure. The last few years they have been building chemistry with Wall, Beal and Gortat, and even coming within one game of the conference finals last season in the playoffs losing to the Boston Celtics in 7 games. Through 34 games this season, the Wizards are currently occupying the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference, boasting a record of 19-15. Bradley Beal is having a career year with averages of 23.1 ppg/4.3rpg/3.5apg and most likely will be making his first trip to the all star game in Los Angeles this season. The Wizards are 9-9 this season on the road and are coming off a huge 111-103 road win in Boston on Xmas day getting 25 points from Beal and 21 points and 14 dimes from Wall. "If we back this up with a win on Wednesday (against Atlanta), I think it gives us momentum going into Friday against Houston and going into the new year," Wall said. "But if we don't back it up, I think it's just doing the same thing over and over again. Playing against the great teams, you play up to the competition. Then play against the lower teams, you fail to win those games."
Beal said, "We've got to realize it's time for us to take off. We've got to start making some noise and really showing our identity each and every game."

Our beloved Hawks have a chance to win back to back games for the first time this season after a hard earned home win against our tanking rival, the Dallas Mavericks 112-107 on Saturday night. Dennis Schroder poured in a career high tying 33 points, 13 made fg and 4 three pointers. The Hawks were also able to get contributions from a suddenly healthier Ersan Ilyasova with 21 points (7-9fg)and 7 boards. "He's just doing a lot of everything," Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "He's always great defensively, taking charges and getting rebounds. He's playing about as well as he has since we've had him." The Hawks also received steadily improving games from Collins and Prince. Plumlee was also a spark off the bench with a couple of resounding slam dunks to excite Philips arena crowd. The vision of Plumlee throwing it down had Hawks fans envisioning a similar play next year at this time by a player named Ayton, Bagley or Bamba. It's not illegal to dream in December but it's frowned upon. ;-)

Despite the win over the Mavs on Saturday, the Hawks stand currently at 8-25 with the worst record in the NBA ahead of the very same Mavs by a full game. But before anyone starts dreaming of the draft in June, we have that pesky rest of the season schedule to play out and it starts with the Wiz tonight who are favored by 6 points. Our motto has to be the same each and every night. Play hard, play for each other and have some fun out there. A cliche to end all cliches...

Let's take this baby one day at a time!

Ps Doin it for lw3!!!

graymule · Post #4 » by **graymule** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:21 pm

Even after our last game, a win, Hawks are still comfortably on the bottom of the NBA. In fact, both Chicago
and Dallas have on since that game.

Will our shots fall VS the Bullets? Hawks could make it interesting if they do.

jayu70 · Post #5 » by **jayu70** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:14 pm

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Post #6 » by **Jamaaliver** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:46 am

Tweet of the day:

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jayu70 · Post #7 » by **jayu70** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:57 am

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DirtybirdGA · Post #8 » by **DirtybirdGA** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:15 am

2 game win streak?

kg01 · Post #9 » by **kg01** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:48 am

Most enjoyable game of the year?

'Zards' board is pure comedy right now.

graymule · Post #10 » by **graymule** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 3:06 am

Wasn't that nice! Hawks, hanging on to the bottom, didn't have to lose to maintain their place tonight.
So, they went out and won. Already having that tight game with one of the elite, tied with 11.1 seconds
to go, giving up a 3 in a loss. Then, the victory before Christmas set us up for our very first back to back
wins of the season.

Tonight, with no pressure to hold on to last place, we watched the real Hawk team.

Enough of this good stuff. Back to what we were doing.

How long until the trade deadline? Hawks looking for more picks, aren't we?

Post #11 » by **ATL Boy** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 3:36 am

I endorse wins against Wzards, whether we're tanking or not.

Schroder outplayed Wall, Belli and Ily played well, and Mike Scott got a warm ovation. Great W, but let's not make this winning thing a habit.

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MaceCase · Post #12 » by **MaceCase** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:00 am

kg01 wrote:Most enjoyable game of the year?

'Zards' board is pure comedy right now.

Must be sobering coming off beating the Celts only to lose to the Hawks.

FAH1223 · Post #13 » by **FAH1223** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:06 am

kg01 wrote:Most enjoyable game of the year?

'Zards' board is pure comedy right now.

I should have come here to tell ya'll that the game was yours in the bag.

The Bullets are very predictable. This is who they are. Lose to sub .500 teams. Get up for the rest.

Most entitled team that hasn't won shid in the history of the NBA. :lol:

atlantabbq99 · Post #14 » by **atlantabbq99** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 6:29 am

Amazing how the Hawks won even with the poor shooting.

Gortat is a shell of himself. Hawks just dominated the post and boards all game long.

The Wiz are going to slip out of the playoffs if Gortat and the other bigs don't start playing better. I would be willing to trade Dedmon to the Wiz for a pick.

Post #15 » by **Jamaaliver** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:42 pm

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kg01 · Post #16 » by **kg01** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 3:09 pm

FAH1223 wrote:
kg01 wrote:Most enjoyable game of the year?

'Zards' board is pure comedy right now.

I should have come here to tell ya'll that the game was yours in the bag.

The Bullets are very predictable. This is who they are. Lose to sub .500 teams. Get up for the rest.

Most entitled team that hasn't won shid in the history of the NBA.

I'd kill for their overall talent level but the actual collection of players would absolutely kill to have to root for.

All talk team.

Lastly, the most hilarious comment I say was during the hack-a-Plum sequence. A guy mentioned Wall has been like 51% at the ft line the last 8 games or w/e. Guy said the Hawks should be doing hack-a-Wall

macd-gm · Post #17 » by **macd-gm** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 3:34 pm

The Wiz have had the worst frontcourt in the league for 3 years now and have done nothing about it. I swear Ersan / Dedmon would be a monumental upgrade for them. Markieff has the lowest impact points of any player ever and Gortat isn't a shell of his former self. He was always just average. He looks strong but he isn't. In the first 30 seconds of the game he has a foul and a turnover. And Mahimi. Geez.

I just can't understand why they don't make a move to fix this. Wall/Beal/Porter are really good. I don't like them very much but they are good. Morris sabotages games and Gortat just doesn't get it done. Front court bench is laughable. (Mike Scott is great but I consider him as much of a 3+ than a 4)

Anyway, had to get my wiz disbelief out of the way. Great win by the Hawks.

Post #18 » by **Jamaaliver** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:42 pm

^I think a swap of Beal/Porter and future picks for Anthony Davis would be beneficial for both teams.

NOP would never do it, but they could do worse than a top 5 SG + 3 & D standout both approaching their primes while under contract for the next few years.

Wall and Davis (and Kelly Oubre) would be enough to keep WAS a perennial playoff team in the East. And in a 7 game series, who's going to stop either of those players from scoring at will?

kg01 · Post #19 » by **kg01** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:43 pm

macd-gm wrote:The Wiz have had the worst frontcourt in the league for 3 years now and have done nothing about it. I swear Ersan / Dedmon would be a monumental upgrade for them. Markieff has the lowest impact points of any player ever and Gortat isn't a shell of his former self. He was always just average. He looks strong but he isn't. In the first 30 seconds of the game he has a foul and a turnover. And Mahimi. Geez.

I just can't understand why they don't make a move to fix this. Wall/Beal/Porter are really good. I don't like them very much but they are good. Morris sabotages games and Gortat just doesn't get it done. Front court bench is laughable. (Mike Scott is great but I consider him as much of a 3+ than a 4)

Anyway, had to get my wiz disbelief out of the way. Great win by the Hawks.

Had to overpay for them 3 dudes you mentioned. Scrimp and save on the frontcourt.

Also, Kelsey Wingert >>>> Olivia.

There, I said it.

macd-gm · Post #20 » by **macd-gm** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 5:13 pm

kg01 wrote:
macd-gm wrote:The Wiz have had the worst frontcourt in the league for 3 years now and have done nothing about it. I swear Ersan / Dedmon would be a monumental upgrade for them. Markieff has the lowest impact points of any player ever and Gortat isn't a shell of his former self. He was always just average. He looks strong but he isn't. In the first 30 seconds of the game he has a foul and a turnover. And Mahimi. Geez.

I just can't understand why they don't make a move to fix this. Wall/Beal/Porter are really good. I don't like them very much but they are good. Morris sabotages games and Gortat just doesn't get it done. Front court bench is laughable. (Mike Scott is great but I consider him as much of a 3+ than a 4)

Anyway, had to get my wiz disbelief out of the way. Great win by the Hawks.

Had to overpay for them 3 dudes you mentioned. Scrimp and save on the frontcourt.

Also, Kelsey Wingert >>>> Olivia.

There, I said it.

It's not a competition.

Anyway, I think the Wiz could keep Wall/Beal/Porter and still upgrade their frontcourt. They have too much tied up in untradeable centers i guess but i'd do everything i could to trade Morris. Addition by subtraction.