Atlanta Hawks (Out)”Shot” the Deer; Hawks Win in Blowout Led By J.J.

Quick Recap for the people who didn’t watch it:

In my Bucks vs. Hawks Preview, I predicted the Hawks to win by a good margin. Looks like I was right.

In the first quarter, Joe started the game on the right note for the Hawks, draining his first shot. However, the Bucks got off to a great start offensively as well, making 4 of their first 5 shots. That start was good enough to give them a 3 point lead early in the game. However, it was all downhill from there for the Bucks. The Hawks got to running and pushing the ball up and the Bucks had a hard time stopping them. The Hawks played like a well-oiled machine in the first, controlling the tempo, moving the ball around, and attacking the basket. In the last 3 minutes of the 1st quarter, the Hawks got to an 11-0 run giving themselves solid 11 point lead after one quarter. Joe Johnson & Josh Smith led the Hawks in the first quarter, producing 21 of the 28 Hawks points.

In the second quarter, the Hawks offense continued to play great and Joe Johnson continued to shoot the ball well. The Hawks started the quarter in a 9-0 run. giving themselves a 20 point lead early in the second quarter. The run can be credited to Joe Johnson’s two threes, the Hawks defense forcing turnovers, and the unorganized Bucks offense. The Bucks offense got it going in the middle of the second quarter, but they still couldn’t stop Joe Johnson. Joe Johnson kept draining shot after shot. Joe hit 5 three pointers in the second quarter (six in the first half) and scored 28 points in the first half. Led by Joe Johnson, the Hawks went into halftime with a 26 point lead.

In the third quarter, the Bucks players (except for Bogut) continued to struggle and the Hawks’ offense continued to sstay solid. The Hawks turned the ball over a lot in the quarter, but when they didn’t, they hit their shots. Hinrich, Joe Johnson, Marvin, Josh Smith, and Al Horford carried the Hawks’ scoring load in the 3rd quarter. They all combined for all of the 29 points the Hawks scored in the 3rd. Joe Johnson once again led the way, scoring 8 of them. Joe finished the quarter (and the game) with 36 points. The Hawks solid defensive effort and their jumpshots gave the Hawks a 29 point lead after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, with the outcome of the game most likely decided, it was the battle of the benches. Like most everything in yesterday’s game, the Hawks showed that they were better. The Hawks’ bench extended all the way up to 33 points at one point. The 4th quarter was just basically a shoot around for both teams. Both teams weren’t playing much defense and both teams got great looks. No one really cared to play much defense since the outcome of the game was decided a long long time ago. The game eventually ended and the Hawks won.

Final Score: Bucks:  85 | Hawks: 110

Why Hawks fans should be excited after this game:

• Joe Johnson got his stroke back and played his best game of the season.
• Jamal Crawford showed that he is actually capable of sharing the ball (8 assists).
• Marvin Williams played pretty decently (16 points). Granted, most of them came from garbage time..but still.
• Hilton Armstrong doesn’t look completely useless.
• Al Horford returned from injury and played solidly.
• Josh Smith played more under control than usual.
• L.D. let Teague play even though he made quite a few mistakes on the floor.

My other Noteable Notes:

• There are a lot of pretty crazy numbers regarding yesterday’s game. Read my By The Numbers entry here.

• According to NBA.com, more than 13,000 people attended the game. That has to be wrong. Maybe they gave the number of tickets sold for the game? If that’s the case, it still poses a tough question. If you bought a ticket, why weren’t you at the game?

• Live or die by the jumpshot? The Hawks lived and lived well last night. The Hawks did take a lot of jumpshots but give them credit for going inside at first and widening the floor a bit. I actually liked the way the Hawks ran their offense yesterday. The turnovers and the amount of free throws they attempt (only 8) need some working but I thought their plan of attack was solid throughout the game.

• Only 2.5 games behind Orlando now and 4.5 games ahead of New York. Hawks need to keep pushing. I’m not sure if Orlando is reachable, but at least make sure New York or Philadelphia won’t catch up.

Next up: The Denver Nuggets. This is a Nuggets team that doesn’t have Carmelo Anthony anymore, but they are still a hard team to face. They have actually done well, winning 8 of their last 10 games since trading Carmelo. Can the Nuggets once again shock the NBA nation and beat our beloved Atlanta Hawks?

Final Thought: In the past two games, we’ve seen two Hawks players have their best games of the season (Teague and Johnson). Who’s next? How about you Jamal? You like to kill the Nuggets, right? How about you Smoove? Maybe you can dunk on Kenyon Martin or block Chris Andersen?