Game Thread: Blazers at Hawks, 03/29/19

[IheartTHEhurt]

I don't know whether it was a tank game or not but Trae has to play better in 2nd halves of games...our bench was brutal...can Baze play basketball anymore? Did Alex Len play?

I think Trae was trying to match Dame shot for shot, and let's face it here, he is not that good as a rookie to do that. I think that is what cause his semi-bad game here. Dame took it to him on the stat sheet and he couldn't stop it. He will be fine.

As far as Base goes hell no he can't play offense anymore at least. His defense is usually best on the floor when he is playing, but his shot is just awful right now and I cannot wait to see Blazemore get a change of location because honestly he needs it at this point.

Alex did not play. I was scratching my head about that. Someone said CLP said he was a little banged up. If Alex plays we win this game

[IheartTHEhurt]

Trae won the jump ball vs Mo Hark and he had 9 boards. Smallest dude on the court. His floater is looking like his signature shot but he’s got mid range and as we’ve all seen, the 3.

We were in in for 3.5 quarters tonight. Too many fouls in that 3rd to take ya out of our transition O.

Shout out to Justin Anderson who goes 110% every time. Nice block and that sweet behind the back flip to Collins.

Looking forward the Bucks tomorrow! Giannis in? I know he tweaked an ankle or something.

Go Hawks!

That Anderson block had squirting Diet Coke out my nose.. My wife was not pleased with me getting Soda all over our American Bully pup lmao

[ATL Boy]

I get that coach Pierce has his rotations, but I really don't like him sitting Trae for 6 mins to begin the second quarter after he dropped 18 without blinking in the first. Feel out the situation and ride the hot hand. That's one of the main gripes I always had with Bud as well.

Lillard was just as hot and he sat even longer in the 2nd. When guys play the entire 1st quarter they need some rest. Especially when they're carrying the load on offense.

Lillard's team was also up by 8 and had the luxury of getting that rest without danger of the game getting away from his team.

[jayu70]

I don't know whether it was a tank game or not but Trae has to play better in 2nd halves of games...our bench was brutal...can Baze play basketball anymore? Did Alex Len play?

I think Trae was trying to match Dame shot for shot, and let's face it here, he is not that good as a rookie to do that. I think that is what cause his semi-bad game here. Dame took it to him on the stat sheet and he couldn't stop it. He will be fine.

As far as Base goes hell no he can't play offense anymore at least. His defense is usually best on the floor when he is playing, but his shot is just awful right now and I cannot wait to see Blazemore get a change of location because honestly he needs it at this point.

Alex did not play. I was scratching my head about that. Someone said CLP said he was a little banged up. If Alex plays we win this game

Read on Twitter

[High 5]

I get that coach Pierce has his rotations, but I really don't like him sitting Trae for 6 mins to begin the second quarter after he dropped 18 without blinking in the first. Feel out the situation and ride the hot hand. That's one of the main gripes I always had with Bud as well.

Lillard was just as hot and he sat even longer in the 2nd. When guys play the entire 1st quarter they need some rest. Especially when they're carrying the load on offense.

Lillard's team was also up by 8 and had the luxury of getting that rest without danger of the game getting away from his team.

The lead went from 8 to 10 with Trae on the bench. Either way it was far from a do or die game for us where we needed to overwork anyone.

[King Ken]

Smartest move you could have done that dude is making the rest of the intelligent mavs fans look bad by association with him. Sorry mavs fans i see you have one of those type of posters on your side too i was gonna give you ken from our side but no need to anymore you already have one XD

I really thought, at least for one day, there won't be Luka vs Trae bickering. But nop, i had to be wrong

And i quoted you because i really agree with what you said ...... On the flip side, if ATL won, Trae's stats would have really stand out in a positive way. I didn't watch the game but it looks like Trae was not the reason why your team lost.

Four mysteries and one really unusual game by our young rebounding star is the reasons.

Mystery #1 Taurean Prince missing in action. Sore foot
Mystery #2 Justin Anderson getting his only start of the season in Prince's absence Even when Prince missed all those games early in the season; it was Bazemore or Vince who started. This was Anderson's first start in two years ( 2016/17 ).
Mystery# 3 Where was Alex Len?
Mystery #4 Pierce pulling Trae in the middle of the fourth was the clincher. His rotation is Trae gets taken out with about 5 minutes left in the 3rd, then put back in after around 3 minutes of the 4th have gone by; from there Trae is in the 4th for good.

Bad game by Collins and Dedmon on the glass. Trae outrebounded both of them combined.

With Collins and Dedmon having such weak games on the glass, I do not think we would have won. But the above mysteries pretty much guaranteed it would not even be close.

Buzz, coach needs to tank these games. No need to be Coach Bud. Just make sure the core is successful and a L is just fine. We did all of the winning we need to do. If we lost the next 5 games and Dallas wins just one. We can play to win in the last two. Other than that. Tank. Just a better business decision.

[Spud2nique]

Trae won the jump ball vs Mo Hark and he had 9 boards. Smallest dude on the court. His floater is looking like his signature shot but he’s got mid range and as we’ve all seen, the 3.

We were in in for 3.5 quarters tonight. Too many fouls in that 3rd to take ya out of our transition O.

Shout out to Justin Anderson who goes 110% every time. Nice block and that sweet behind the back flip to Collins.

Looking forward the Bucks tomorrow! Giannis in? I know he tweaked an ankle or something.

Go Hawks!

That Anderson block had squirting Diet Coke out my nose.. My wife was not pleased with me getting Soda all over our American Bully pup lmao

poor pup! At least he took it for the Hawks! Loyal pup!

[personanongrata]

Several of you have already made comments that I agree with, but my take:

I don't subscribe to the "this was a tank game" mentality. I thought they were trying to win and I thought it showed by Trae playing THE ENTIRE 1st quarter to match Dame. The problem was, of course, that he then needed to sit an extended time in the 2nd to rest and honestly, when he came back, all his shots were short. It looked like he had tired legs. Either that or he was just way off due to the rest. Either way, playing the entire 1st, while fun has heck at the time, probably wasn't the best for Trae's game.

As for his overall game, I really felt like after the first half of the 1st quarter I was watching a Trae game from November with the bad shot selections. He was really chucking and I thought not playing within the offense. I wonder if all the ROY talk is getting to him because he seemed to be forcing it, imo. Overall, just not a great game for him, which speaks to the high expectations he's set.

I know I said I didn't think this was a "tank game" per se, but I will agree that sitting Len and resting Prince was likely a premeditated tank move. I just don't think the in game play / rotations were called for the puspose of tanking.

It was a tank game. The directive has been sent down from Ressler: do not pass Dallas. Posted Thursday by TP on his IG account: “Everything you see is not everything you see #LIE”

Perhaps it was a tank game, But I hardly think TP's cryptic message is referencing tanking though.

[benhillboy]

I thought we had a chance on paper with their injuries but after that dunk by Jake Lyman (who?) I figured we were in for an L, let alone Deontay No Musculature Davis getting significant run. Lol at Trae trying to squeeze him a bounce pass in traffic. Dame dropped the most casual 36 you’ll see, and Trae was getting hung up on screens all game in addition to some ugly three attempts. And still I’m very pleased with the 9 boards and 5 FT attempts.

I always discount the Blazers because Hawks Coaching Great Terry freakin Stotts but they’re 3rd in the West with good reason. They lost two starters and Evan Turner is their 9th man, wouldn’t mind Aminu or Harkless on my squad at all. A pretty damn big team top to bottom. And Seth seems like a cool dude, he’s busted his butt to even be in the league, let alone a good rotational guy.

[peoriabird]

let alone Deontay No Musculature Davis getting significant run. Lol at Trae trying to squeeze him a bounce pass in traffic.

Can someone remind me why did we pass on Christian Wood for this guy?

[lethalweapon3]

We now know it probably wasn't furniture Taurean kicked, but probably Dewayne's ankle.

Read on Twitter

~lw3

[Hazer]

Several of you have already made comments that I agree with, but my take:

I don't subscribe to the "this was a tank game" mentality. I thought they were trying to win and I thought it showed by Trae playing THE ENTIRE 1st quarter to match Dame. The problem was, of course, that he then needed to sit an extended time in the 2nd to rest and honestly, when he came back, all his shots were short. It looked like he had tired legs. Either that or he was just way off due to the rest. Either way, playing the entire 1st, while fun has heck at the time, probably wasn't the best for Trae's game.

As for his overall game, I really felt like after the first half of the 1st quarter I was watching a Trae game from November with the bad shot selections. He was really chucking and I thought not playing within the offense. I wonder if all the ROY talk is getting to him because he seemed to be forcing it, imo. Overall, just not a great game for him, which speaks to the high expectations he's set.

I know I said I didn't think this was a "tank game" per se, but I will agree that sitting Len and resting Prince was likely a premeditated tank move. I just don't think the in game play / rotations were called for the puspose of tanking.

It was a tank game. The directive has been sent down from Ressler: do not pass Dallas. Posted Thursday by TP on his IG account: “Everything you see is not everything you see #LIE”

Perhaps it was a tank game, But I hardly think TP's cryptic message is referencing tanking though.

They were off Thursday, Printz was told he wouldn’t play Friday, it was PRECISELY a tanking post. He’s posted previously that he’s “been playing the most selfless ever, hope it doesn’t harm my future”, he wears his heart on his sleeve. Many think it’s cryptic, it’s not, it’s exposè.

[kg01]

I thought we had a chance on paper with their injuries but after that dunk by Jake Lyman (who?) I figured we were in for an L, let alone Deontay No Musculature Davis getting significant run. Lol at Trae trying to squeeze him a bounce pass in traffic.

Haha. I keep lookin at him like, "Do you even lift, bro?" And he's super low-energy too. Maybe he'll hit his stride soon?

No idea why he's here and not that Wood dude.

[ATL Boy]

Lillard was just as hot and he sat even longer in the 2nd. When guys play the entire 1st quarter they need some rest. Especially when they're carrying the load on offense.

Lillard's team was also up by 8 and had the luxury of getting that rest without danger of the game getting away from his team.

The lead went from 8 to 10 with Trae on the bench. Either way it was far from a do or die game for us where we needed to overwork anyone.

And then the Hawks couldn't get it closer than 5 the rest of the game with a cooled off Trae. With a few games left I don't care about wins and losses, I'm exclusively looking out for Trae's stats in the ROY race.

[benhillboy]

I thought we had a chance on paper with their injuries but after that dunk by Jake Lyman (who?) I figured we were in for an L, let alone Deontay No Musculature Davis getting significant run. Lol at Trae trying to squeeze him a bounce pass in traffic.

Haha. I keep lookin at him like, "Do you even lift, bro?" And he's super low-energy too. Maybe he'll hit his stride soon?

No idea why he's here and not that Wood dude.

I can’t think of a shooting guard for the All Flab Team but I got Fat Kyle Lowry, Paul Pierce, Jabari Parker, and DD.

[Spud2nique]

I thought we had a chance on paper with their injuries but after that dunk by Jake Lyman (who?) I figured we were in for an L, let alone Deontay No Musculature Davis getting significant run. Lol at Trae trying to squeeze him a bounce pass in traffic.

Haha. I keep lookin at him like, "Do you even lift, bro?" And he's super low-energy too. Maybe he'll hit his stride soon?

No idea why he's here and not that Wood dude.

I can’t think of a shooting guard for the All Flab Team but I got Fat Kyle Lowry, Paul Pierce, Jabari Parker, and DD.

Khalid el Amin.

[hawkmanreturns]

Haha. I keep lookin at him like, "Do you even lift, bro?" And he's super low-energy too. Maybe he'll hit his stride soon?

No idea why he's here and not that Wood dude.

I can’t think of a shooting guard for the All Flab Team but I got Fat Kyle Lowry, Paul Pierce, Jabari Parker, and DD.

Khalid el Amin.

I loved that little guy at UCONN!

[benhillboy]

I can’t think of a shooting guard for the All Flab Team but I got Fat Kyle Lowry, Paul Pierce, Jabari Parker, and DD.

Khalid el Amin.

I loved that little guy at UCONN!

He was a 2 guard? He always reminded me of a little bear cub eating honey buns lol.