Open Thread: Regular season game 14 vs. Atlanta Hawks
by Mike Prada on Nov 29, 2008 6:33 PM EST
in Game Threads
Email
PrintAtlanta Hawks at Washington Wizards, Nov 29, 2008 7:00 PM EST
The Essentials:
Hawks (9-6) at Wizards (2-11)
7 p.m.
Verizon Center
CSN
Previously:
November 19: Hawks 91, Wizards 87.
Notable Hawks numbers this season (pound the salt):
14th (5th East) in expected winning percentage (.536)
23rd (12th) in pace factor (93.6 possessions per game)
T7th (T2nd) in offensive efficiency/offensive rating (108.5)
23rd (11th) in defensive efficiency/defensive rating (107.4)
Notable Hawks numbers last season:
18th (9th East) in expected winning percentage (.436)
18th (8th) in pace factor (91.1 possessions per game)
16th (6th) in offensive efficiency/offensive rating (106.9)
18th (8th) in defensive efficiency/defensive rating (108.9)
Key Links (drop any others in the comments)
Peachtree Hoops
Zaza's Playground
Sekou Smith's blog
Wizards Insider: The Other Side: Atlanta Hawks
Starting Lineups:
Hawks
PG: Mike Bibby
SG: Joe Johnson
SF: Marvin Williams
PF: Al Horford
C: Zaza Pachulia
Wizards
PG: Dee Brown
SG: DeShawn Stevenson
SF: Caron Butler
PF: Antawn Jamison
C: JaVale McGee
Tonight's Lines
Hawks at Wizards: Wizards by 1.5
Over/Under on Total Scoring: 199.5
Long preview!
Glass glass glass: Our first game against the Hawks was one of the many early-season games where we were pounded on the defensive glass. Atlanta grabbed an obscene 42.3% of its misses in the November 19 game, which essentially was the reason they won since they only posted a 44% eFG% for the game. We didn't spend much time with Darius Songaila in at center in that game either, so it's not like the problem is going to completely go away. Atlanta's ninth in the league in offensive rebound percentage, after all.
Zaza Pachulia had a lot to do with Atlanta's rebounding dominance last time. He had 18 boards himself, eight of which were offensive. The good news is that maybe Mike Woodson will help us out and sit him the entire fourth quarter like he did in Atlanta's five-point loss to Toronto last night.
With 3:32 left in the third quarter, Zaza Pachulia went to the bench. The Hawks were up 2, in no small part thanks to the 8 offensive and 9 defensive rebounds Pachulia had already grabbed. By the end of the third quarter, the Hawks would be down by 4 points. In the fourth quarter, the Hawks would never regain the lead. As a team they would grab, in the fourth quarter, just 7 defensive rebounds. Toronto would grab 15 fourth quarter rebounds, 4 of them offensive. Pachulia would never leave the bench.
So...yeah...maybe that'll happen again.
Three-point test: It's only 15 games into the season for Atlanta, yet they lead the league in three-point shooting percentage. Atlanta is hitting 42 percent of its threes this year, powered by the dynamic foursome of Maurice Evans (49.1%), Marvin Williams (45.7%), Mike Bibby (43.5%) and Joe Johnson (39.6%). The Wizards' defense under Eddie Jordan treated the three-point line as if it was filled with land mines. This will be a good test to see how far the team has come in eradicating its bad habits under Ed Tapscott.
Mid-November blues: So Atlanta is 9-6, but they are 3-6 since starting the season with six straight victories. A lot of that has been the absence of Josh Smith, but perhaps Atlanta just isn't that good. Their three wins during this stretch came by 4 over us, by five over the Bobcats and by six over the Bucks. Not exactly impressive.
What's the problem? For one, Atlanta's not defending anymore. They were outstanding through four games, but sit just 23rd in efficiency right now. I imagine that'll pick up with Smith's healthy return, but either way, we're seeing a regression back to the mean.
The other issue is Joe Johnson. As if he wanted to prove my assertion that he's about as far away from a first option as Pluto is to Earth, he's gone out and shot 33 percent from the field in his last five games. That has prompted some people to go out and argue that the problem is that Joe Johnson doesn't get superstar treatment from the referees. Right.
Tired or not, the problem is that Joe Johnson isn't anywhere close to a superstar. He's a decent third option who can do some things well, but can't be the go-to scorer on a good team. This is what we call "regression to the mean." JJ's a nice player, but without Josh Smith, he's being asked to do way too much. The more JJ shoots tonight, the better off we'll be.
Pushing it: Atlanta's coming off a grueling five-point loss to the Raptors last night in Toronto, so they're making the journey down to D.C. in one day. Atlanta's bench didn't exactly get in much action either. Johnson played 44 minutes. Williams played 40. Al Horford played 37. Mike Bibby played 35. Meanwhile, Flip Murray, Solomon Jones and Acie Law played a combined 27 minutes. They may be tired, so pushing the pace early is key.
My Firefox plug-in isn't working, so I'll just have to go off my subjective feeling that we've played faster in these last two games under Ed Tapscott. That may be because we played Golden State and Orlando, two teams who are in the top 10 in pace this season, but Tapscott has said that he wants to run more. Running will be key tonight, since Atlanta's a slow-paced team that is tired and on the second game of a back-to-back.
I'm going out to dinner tonight with the family, so I'll probably catch this on delay. For those watching, comment here.
GO WIZARDS!
125 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
We're the favorites? Wow.
Eh, I’ll take the Wiz anyway and I’ll take the over.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Pech gave Songaila a shiner!
There better be a report on this.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
I dunno
They said it was some accident during a shooting practice between the two of them. That’s all they said.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
by Jake Whitacre on Nov 29, 2008 7:18 PM EST up reply actions
Stop. The. Ball.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Thanks Josh!
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Goodness gracious
How did Antawn hit that?
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
At this rate, yeah
Giving up 100% on 2 pt. shots is probably better than giving up 100% on 3 pt. shots.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
by Jake Whitacre on Nov 29, 2008 7:29 PM EST up reply actions
Nick!
He probably made that shot harder than it had to be, but it worked out.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Songaila!
Other than Blatche, he’s probably benefited the most from Ed Tapscott.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
That was all ball
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
3-point defense
So, when does Tapscott tell Stevenson, Young, Daniels and the rest of the guards to stick close to their man at the 3-point line?
Atlanta is hitting OVER 60% of their 3’s….
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
I just got here
Only 16 comments at halftime? Is everyone still out of town or do I complain about Stevenson in these things more than I think I do?
I think it's my odor
I could’ve swore I showered today…
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
by Jake Whitacre on Nov 29, 2008 8:09 PM EST up reply actions
Wow
I think Caron was a bit peeved about giving up that last basket. I think that ball had to sail at least 5 feet over the rim.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Halftime viewing
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Bibby
apparently shoots better against the Wizards than any other team. I’m glad he’s not in our division or anything.
Put McGuire on Bibby
At least try something; this is ridiculous. He only shoots jumpers, but he keeps getting open.
One problem
other than Stevenson and Daniels being awful this year, is that it looks like the defensive scheme places the players closer to the paint, and then calls for doubling which collapses the zone even more. I know Randy Ayers has a good reputation, but from what I’ve seen this season the defensive scheme leaves a lot to be desired.
Amen
Washington has been giving up oodles of wide open baseline jumpers.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
by Jake Whitacre on Nov 29, 2008 8:35 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah, I agree
All you have to do is set up a screen around the top and then have someone like Marvin Williams in the corner. Seems to be open consistently.
Contrast and compare
The Wizards are always stationed 2-3 feet inside the three point line. Always. Yet when they have the ball, the Hawks defenders are right there at the three-point line with them. At what point does this get written about?
Gah
I don’t think I even want to know what our FG% in the paint is.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
I think that's kind of been the story in most of the games this season.
We get a break and then we screw it up somehow.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
by Jake Whitacre on Nov 29, 2008 8:48 PM EST up reply actions
Tough job
Being the guy in the CSN truck who has to find good Wizards plays to show as they’re going to commercial.
Ugly, just ugly.
Sometimes I think they just show plays from last season
and hope that people won’t notice. Agreed, it’s tough.
Egads
I’m not sure I remember the last time that AD hit two treys in one game.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Egads x2
I’m not sure that I remember ever thinking that AD threw up a heat check.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
by Jake Whitacre on Nov 29, 2008 8:54 PM EST up reply actions
Sometimes it seems like McGee makes shots a lot harder than they need to be…
by Gilbert4SpaceJam2 on Nov 29, 2008 9:00 PM EST reply actions
go up STRONG big man!
He didn’t need to double-clutch….
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
One of the Wizards weaknesses – even though they have a lot of bigs….. None of them are strong finishers around the rim. All of them try to finesse the ball…. Blatche, Antawn, McGee (except on oops), Songaila, and Pech…. (Etan Thomas goes up strong, but STILL can’t finish)…
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
This is where Eddie Jordan's teams failed
4th Quarter -
5-6 minutes left…. close game
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
Atlanta with two consecutive stops – up by 5… with 3:24 left.
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
3 by Butler to tie the game
Wizards playing good D in the last 4 minutes or so.
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
Anyone hear that explanation by Chenier?
Butler fouled Horford because he didn’t want Songaila to get his 4th? huh?
He meant that once they called the foul, Butler took credit for it so it wouldn’t be called on Songaila
by Gilbert4SpaceJam2 on Nov 29, 2008 9:09 PM EST up reply actions
actually
If there’s a chance to give it to the guy raising his hand – they frequently DO
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
Ahh!
Pech is wearing the blazer!
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Songaila is carrying us on offense
and killing us on defense. No more fouls please?
by Gilbert4SpaceJam2 on Nov 29, 2008 9:16 PM EST reply actions
A review!
I feel special.
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
3!!!!
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
Except
he’s been playing GREAT defense…. moving without the ball… and has 16 points on 5-8 shooting…
I don’t see how having one pass , (thrown pretty hard from a few feet away) go through his hands – and now he SUCKS?
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
If anyone other than Butler or Jamison takes this last shot, I will be very angry…
by Gilbert4SpaceJam2 on Nov 29, 2008 9:22 PM EST reply actions
Apparently they can
Bullets Forever: A blog dedicated to the Washington Wizards with analysis, commentary, and more YouTube videos than your eyes can handle.
by Jake Whitacre on Nov 29, 2008 9:24 PM EST up reply actions
THIS is where they miss Arenas
Perhaps they should put Young in – he can create his own shot….
Need a 3, and Atlanta is gonna be playing for it. – So take a quick 2 and foul
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
looks like deshawn
is feeling his face tonight
Question:
Does this current stretch debunk the “Gilbert doesn’t really make his teammates better” myth or not?
NO
Gilbert is selfish -
He selfishly takes (and makes) all the important end of the game shots…. Keeping guys like Stevenson from shooting (and missing) the final shots…
Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......
Blech
I saw the last possession. I’ll re-watch tonight.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
Horrible officiating
Garbage officiating, did The Hawks pay the referee to stop the game to anaylze a clear 3 pointer to stop the Wizards momentum… I wish everytime the Hawks were feelin hot they would stop the game and anaylze there 3 point shots
When someone gets pushed or hit isnt that a foul?? I dont care what anyone says this was a badly officiating game, at one point Bibby completely went up and down without releasing the ball and there was no call, Jamison was pushed multiple times no call, Stevenson hit no call, Caron got good calls atleast (they seemed to favor Caron more), but when Hartford even moved FOUL… Whatever, waits for Arenas’ return
I feel your pain
But it’s not like this is the first time the Wizards have lost a very winnable game. The Wizards are just a very bad team right now. It’s unfortunate.
But yeah, still, stupid refs…
Bad teams don't get calls
And it takes them awhile to get respect once they start playing well. I remember the first time MJ didn’t get a call as a Wizard; it was quite a sight. He stared that ref down the entire night. Or Stackhouse, who made a career off getting to the line (especially in Detroit). Once he got here, the calls went down, his trips to the line went down, and he became yet another mediocre shooter for the Wizards.
Minutes Watch
Jamison played 41 minutes, Butler played 40 and a half.
AD played 37 and a half minutes
Stevenson played 34 minutes
Songaila played a little less than 24 minutes
Blatche played 19 minutes
NY played 17 and a half minutes
McGee played just over 13 minutes
Dee Brown, Starting Point Guard played 7 minutes
McGuire played 4 minutes
Thomas played 2 minutes.
McGee Only 13 Minutes
That’s okay to you? I guess this will depend upon how he’s playing, but I agree that Stevenson should play less, McGuire more, but I think Young should have at least 20 minutes and Songaila have MUCH less.
He wasn't playing well
Wasn’t pulling down rebounds, wasn’t defending particularly well…
Tonight, 13’s about right.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sport
- Days of NBA Lives: Wherein Roy Hibbert tap-dances to Maine
- Grizzlies Valentine’s Day cards are the key to love
- Kevin Love would like the NBA to take the MLB’s approach on All-Star games
- Kobe Bryant fires a few hilarious salvos at Jeremy Lin
- Brandon Jennings states the obvious regarding his 2014 free agency, everyone goes nuts
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
