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Weekly SE Division Recap, 3/30-4/5

Chris Barnewall —  April 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

Welcome to Weekly Southeast Division Recap, where I do the tanking so you can rest.

In this week’s Southeast recap we have resting, Josh Smith, Bradley Beal, tanking, and a battle for the worst record in the NBA.

Here’s how the teams did this week.
 

MIAMiami Heat, 1st, 59-16, 3-1 for the week

Now that the streak is over and the Heat have locked up the number 1 spot in the east the resting has begun. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have been sitting out with mysterious “injuries” for a while now. They’ve still been winning however going 3-1 this week with their only loss coming to the Knicks.

 

ATLAtlanta Hawks, 42-35, 2nd, 2-2 for the week

The Hawks go .500 for the week once again. While the Hawks picked up 2 wins, it’s still disconcerting they can’t seem to beat any playoff teams. They had a great chance to beat the Knicks on national TV, but fell to Carmelo Anthony’s 40 points. What’s further shining through is how much the team seems to not need Josh Smith, who continues his less than stellar play. Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Weekly Roundup , ,
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RECAP: Heat 98, Hawks 81

Daniel Christian —  March 13, 2013 — 7 Comments

FINAL

MIA (48-14) 98 – 81 (34-29)  ATL

Key Performers:

D. Wade (MIA): 23 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast, 5 stl
J. Smith (ATL): 15 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast
[FULL BOX SCORE]

The Hawks kept sinking and the Heat kept rolling; that sums up Tuesday night’s loss rather well, as Atlanta put forth another uninspired effort against an inspired Miami team. It’s weird with the Heat– they are some paradoxical combination of inspiring, incredible basketball with a when-do-the-playoffs-get-here? mindset. They seem bored, but yet still remarkably dominant. Even on a night when LeBron James shot 3-11, they absolutely trounced the Hawks. It’s disappointing to see Atlanta continue to struggle, but it’s a delight to watch the Heat. They’re on the verge of breaking the record for longest modern winning streak, and you can tell why. They are a phenomenal team, and with a team as beat up as Atlanta is, they probably should have won by 17.

Reaction Grades: [assessed 0-10]

Josh Smith: Smith had mild success in the paint, but he missed all six of his jumpers and wasn’t as aggressive as the Hawks needed him to be. Part of the reason the free throw disparity was so significantly in Miami’s favor was because the Hawks could not get anything going at the rim; they settled for jumpers and did not attack the basket– Smith was one of the main culprits here. His defense was alright, but his rebounding was subpar. Still, despite all of this, he was the Hawks’ most active offensive player, especially in transition. 6/10

Al Horford: Miami’s team defense is fantastic, but Horford seemed lethargic on offense on Tuesday night. Maybe it’s because he was tired, maybe something else, but his jumper in the pick-and-pop was off and he wasn’t aggressive down low either. He started off playing pretty well, but then hit a cold streak while the Heat pulled away. From then on out, he wasn’t too effective. 5/10

Anthony Tolliver: He had 0 points in 25 minutes, so…. I guess this wasn’t his night? 1/10

Jeff Teague: The Hawks made a little bit of a run when aggressive Teague reared his vicious head in the third quarter, but that was short-lived because Teague tweaked his ankle and had to go back to the locker room. Hopefully Teague recovers and is ready for the next game, because the Hawks cannot afford another injury to this already depleted roster. 6/10

DeShawn Stevenson: Well, look at this way: Neither Wade nor LeBron really torched the Heat. They were, relatively at least, contained. Stevenson played solid defense all night and he scored five points more than Anthony Tolliver. 5/10 Continue Reading…

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RECAP: Heat 103, Hawks 90

Bo Churney —  February 21, 2013 — 3 Comments

FINAL

MIA (37-14) 103 – 90 (29-23)  ATL

Key Performers:

L. James (MIA): 24 pts, 6 reb, 11 ast, 4 stl
A. Horford (ATL): 27 pts, 9 reb, 2 ast
[FULL BOX SCORE]

Was that Josh Smith’s final game as a Hawk? If so, he left an extremely empty feeling out on the floor. The Heat stormed past the Hawks in the fourth quarter, out-scoring the home team 40-17 in that frame to erase a double-digit deficit.

LeBron was the main reason for Miami’s havoc, causing steals with his athleticism on defense and quickly running up the floor in transition. The Hawks shot 50% from the field, but had 21 total turnovers, easily allowing Miami to stay in the game despite their spotty shooting the first three quarters.

Reaction Grades: [assessed 0-10]

Josh Smith: No, he didn’t shoot well from the field. No, he didn’t make the greatest decisions at every juncture throughout the game. However, he did one thing that we don’t see from every athlete: despite constant trade rumors, he went out and gave his best effort. He held LeBron to his least-good (saying worst seems weird, because it’s still over 50%) shooting night over the past couple of weeks, and was grabbing rebounds vigorously when he was tasked to do so. In the end, it just wasn’t enough, and to some fans, anything Josh could have done tonight never would have been enough. 6/10

Al Horford: Larry Drew put Zaza in the starting lineup in hopes of getting Al a lot of mismatches down low. This plan was successful, as Horford was able to capitalize off of a lot of easy opportunities. Defensively, he was able to keep Bosh and Haslem under lock-and-key, and was even forced to defend LeBron a time or two. 9/10

Zaza Pachulia: Z was definitely instrumental in disrupting Chris Bosh, but I felt like the team could have used more from him. He was wild on a couple of rebounding chances that he should have controlled, and really didn’t contribute as much on the offensive end like he usually does. His best highlight was probably a hard foul on LeBron that was called a flagrant. (which should probably be rescinded by the league in the coming days) 5/10

Jeff Teague: I believe the term to describe Jeff decision making from this one is “bad”. He tried to make too many risky passes, not realizing that LeBron lives off of intercepting risky passes. The six turnovers that he was credited with don’t even accurately tell the story, as he was responsible for a couple of more due to his lack of focus. He also missed a ton of open shots. Tough way to see Jeff’s stretch of great games end. 3/10

DeShawn Stevenson: He made his open shots, but I feel like he should have shot a couple of more times in this one. Like Josh, he was also tasked with guarding LeBron in the halfcourt, which he probably didn’t do as well as Smoove; a few of the defensive breakdowns that LeBron caused late in the game came off when DeShawn was guarding him. 5/10 Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Game Recap , , , , ,
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RECAP: Hawks 108, Magic 76

Raj Prashad —  February 13, 2013 — 1 Comment

FINAL

ORL  (15-37) 76 – 108 (29-22) ATL

Key Performers:

J. Smith (ATL): 30 pts, 10 rebs, 5 asts, 2 blk
A. Nicholson (ORL): 10 pts, 6 rebs, 1 ast
[FULL BOX SCORE]

What a way to go into the All-Star break. Atlanta started the game shooting just 1-of-10, but controlled the boards from the tip and jumped out to an early 25-19 lead after the first. Led by Al Horford and Josh Smith, the Hawks would score 30 or more points in back-to-back quarters as they ran away with their most lopsided victory of the season.

Reaction Grades: [assessed 0-10]

Josh Smith: For the third time this season, Smoove had a 30-point, 10-rebound and five-assist night, joining LeBron James as the only player in the NBA to do so at least three times. Smith was unstoppable, showing his range all across the floor. Oh his 13 made shots, only two came from 3-point range as Josh really controlled the offensive end along with teammate Al Horford. 9.5/10

Al Horford: For the second-consecutive game Horford and Smith led Atlanta to a strong win. Horford got it going early, ending the first quarter with six of his 26 points and seven of his 12 total rebounds. Horford and Smith dominated a young frontline of Andrew Nicholson and Nikola Vucevic up and down the floor, stepping out for midrange jumpers and forcing the duo into a combined four turnovers. 9/10

Anthony Tolliver: The forward has been respectable in the starting lineup, giving Atlanta depth off the bench and providing a big body on the boards. Tolliver was solid once again, scoring seven points and grabbing three rebounds in 25 minutes on the floor. This is Atlanta’s third win in four games with Tolliver in the starting lineup. 6/10

Jeff Teague: There isn’t much Teague needs to do on the offensive end when Smith and Horford have it going like they did Wednesday. He did dish out 11 assists along with his seven points and only committed one turnover. He wasn’t anything special on defense, but got the job done against Jameer Nelson. 7/10

Devin Harris: It really could have been an ugly night with the way Harris played. He missed all six shots he took, allowed Arron Afflalo and JJ Redick to get pretty much whatever they wanted on the offensive end and couldn’t find any sort of consistency, turning the ball over three times. The silver lining was his five assists and three rebounds. 3/10 Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Atlanta Hawks, Game Recap , , , , ,
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Josh Smith: Best Perimeter Defender?

Bo Churney —  January 30, 2013 — 1 Comment

So, can we stop this “Josh Smith only blocks shots” meme that some of you are still perpetuating?

According to Bradford Doolittle, who uses a variety of statistical metrics to determine this, Josh ranks as the best perimeter defender in the league, ahead of known defensive stalwarts like Andre Iguodala and LeBron James.

The article linked above is an insider piece, so I’ll provide just a snippet of what Doolittle says about Josh.

“Smith is certainly athletic enough to guard any position on the floor, though it’s questionable whether he is a true perimeter stopper because of the amount of time he spends at power forward and guarding the rim. According to my system, he has played 33 percent of his minutes at small forward this season. He ranks sixth on a per-possession basis against isolations and second in steal-plus-block percentage.

Even Doolittle says that this may be skewed a bit because of how much time Josh spends on other bigs, but this is clearly an affirmation of something that should be obvious: Josh Smith is really, really good at defense.

When asked about this recognition, coach Larry Drew was in complete agreement.

“His ability to defend out on the floor is pretty amazing. As a player back in the days when I was playing, and even my coaching days, I think I can count on one hand the number of guys that have that ability to defend all five positions the way he can.”

While Josh hasn’t always been this good on the perimeter, his progress this in this area has allowed the Hawks to play efficiently on defense without a “true small forward”. Smoove played great defense on LeBron is the matchups against Miami, and was really good against Carmelo on Sunday if you focus on the entire game and not just New York’s last play. (people quickly forgot the three-play sequence in the 2nd quarter where Josh forced Anthony into three missed jumpers)

Also, Doolittle uses Synergy’s defensive numbers, but he doesn’t even mention how good Josh’s are. In isolation plays, Josh is forcing opponents into 28.6% shooting, a turnover rate of 20%, and a PPP (points per possession) of 0.52.

For those of you who don’t understand points per possession, consider this: the Hawks play at an average of about 91 possessions per game. So, in theory, if an opponent just went at Josh Smith in isolations for the entire game, they would score… 47 points.

Now, Synergy has it’s flaws in that categorization of plays can be difficult, but the theory behind it is solid; look at every single play, and determine what happens. Simple as that, and the outcomes favor Josh a helluva lot more than they take away from him.

In 2012-13 Season, Analysis, Statistics , ,
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RECAP: Hawks 92, Heat 101

Daniel Christian —  December 11, 2012 — 1 Comment

FINAL

MIA(14-5) 101 – 92 (12-6) ATL

Key Performers:

A. Horford (ATL): 20 pts, 11 rebs, 1 ast, 2 stls
L. James (MIA): 27 pts, 7 rebs, 6 asts, 2 stls
[FULL BOX SCORE]

In a battle for the early season lead of the Southeast division, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade made sure that everyone remembers just how good they really are. The Heat tormented the Hawks defensively and were their usual flying death machine of an offense, creating said offense through that aforementioned defensive prowess.

Reaction Grades: [assessed 0-10]

Al Horford: It was another solid night for Horford, who scored 20 points on 8-14 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds en route to his sixth consecutive double-double. He abused Bosh early in the third quarter and set the stage for what looked to be an intriguing finish. However, eventually, Miami put the clamps on him, as well as the rest of the team, and they proceeded to put the game out of reach. Horford, though, was far and away Atlanta’s best player on the night. 8/10

Josh Smith: Smoove tied his career high of 4 3-pointers made in a single game, but don’t let that fool you. It wasn’t a great night for Smith, and you should know that because of the fact that he took 5 3-pointers, regardless of how many actually went in. It sends the message that he’s settling. And he was settling. After connecting on those threes (some of which he was just completely wide open for), he forced more and more jumpers, and obviously, his 7-18 performance doesn’t warrant too much enthusiasm. However, he did play a solid overall game. He worked his way inside the paint more than a few times and showed us why he just won player of the week, and he also rejected the life out of an attempted Chris Bosh dunk, only moments after Smoove himself missed what would have been one of the greatest dunks of his career. And despite the fact that LeBron scored on anyone and everyone tonight, Smith probably saw the most success while checking James.  7/10

Zaza Pachulia: Am I the only one who forgot that he was even on the court? 19 minutes and nothing to show for it but 3 rebounds? After the way he’s played so far this season, he’s earned himself a mulligan, but this is the second straight time he’s been a no-show against the Heat. 2/10

DeShawn Stevenson: DeShawn, again, did not play his greatest defense, but he did connect on 4 3-pointers. He took 11 of them, but if it’s any consolation, he was wide open for all of them. I know that no one wants Stevenson shooting 11 threes, but he started off hot and to be honest, I didn’t really mind it. 4/10

Jeff Teague: Even from the biggest Jeff Teague fan there is (which I like to believe is myself), there is no denying that he’s struggled of late. Teague scored 11 points, but again did not finish around the rim on several occasions and shot just 3-10 from the field. This was a guy who started the first 8 or so games of the season in the 50-40-90 club. He’s going to go through stretches with varying degrees of success, apparently, but on an overall basis, just more efficiency in regards to turnovers and, not so much shot selection, but instead just finding the right touch on those 8-foot runners would be a nice boost to his somewhat slumping game right now.  5/10

Continue Reading…

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RECAP: Hawks 89, Heat 95

Daniel Christian —  November 9, 2012 — 1 Comment

FINAL

MIA(5-1) 95 – 89 (2-2) ATL

Key Performers:

J. Teague (ATL): 20 pts, 3 rebs, 11 asts, 1 blk
L. James (MIA): 21 pts, 11 rebs, 9 asts, 1 stl
[FULL BOX SCORE]

The Hawks trailed by 9 points midway through the 4th quarter, but a run fueled by Jeff Teague and Al Horford put the Hawks in position to win the game. However, a few questionable calls and some shaky defense led to a LeBron James dagger with 13 seconds to go, sealing a Heat win.

Reaction Grades: [assessed 0-10]

Al Horford:  He attempted only 9 shots and didn’t even shoot a free throw, although he did have some nice high-low action with Josh Smith. The offense needs to start running through him more than it runs through Smith, though. It’s just that simple. And that’s on Larry Drew. 6/10

Josh Smith: It was a disaster night for Smith, who went 6-19 from the field and 1-5 from the line. Even when he wasn’t shooting jumpers (which he of course did his fair share of), he was struggling to make anything around the hoop. His frustration was visible by the end of the game, but it was just an all-around off night for J-Smoove. 3/10

Zaza Pachulia: Zaza was effectively neutralized on the boards, pulling down only 4 rebounds in his limited 14 minutes of action. He seemed to be overmatched defensively and never found his niche in the game. He was called for a technical early in the 4th and didn’t receive any grace from the zebras after that.   2/10

Anthony Morrow: Coach Drew has seemed reluctant to play him so far this season, but he shouldn’t feel that way after tonight. Morrow was unconscious from all over the floor, and if it wasn’t for him and Teague, the Hawks probably would have lost by 30. 8/10

Jeff Teague: Teague played a nearly flawless game, scoring 20 points on 7-8 shooting and racking up 11 assists as he picked Miami’s transition defense apart. It’s too bad he had to ruin his perfect 7-7 night from the field with a pointless runner as time expired. Does it matter, though? He was fantastic. 10/10

Continue Reading…

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Hawks to Start Korver, Stevenson at Wings vs. Miami

Bo Churney —  November 9, 2012 — 1 Comment

Tonight’s likely starting lineups for the game against the Heat will be Teague/Korver/Stevenson/Smith/Horford against Chalmers/Wade/James/Battier/Bosh

Eh…

Stevenson is essentially a must in the starting lineup against the Heat; that much is obvious. The Korver decision is a little more interesting, though. Korver trying to check Wade on defense is likely to be a nightmare; however, watching Wade try and keep up with Kyle through a mountain of screens will be interesting.

In my opinion, I think that Zaza should have made the starting lineup for this game. We’ll likely see a lot of him, but I feel like he’s someone who could disrupt Chris Bosh early in the game and get some offensive boards to prevent Miami from running as much as they want. Of course, not having Zaza in the lineup means that Atlanta is more likely to try to run as much as possible. (Zaza’s not exactly the transition-game type) We will also miss out on the LeBron/Battier vs Smith/Horford battle, which would have been extremely fun to watch as a fan of basketball.

By the way, LeBron’s point totals in his last nine games versus Atlanta? 31, 23, 28, 34, 43, 34, 22, 27, and 48. (that’s an average of over 32) So who knows, maybe having a strategy that’s different from “let Marvin Williams handle it” could work.

Game starts at 7:30 ET.

In 2012-13 Season, Atlanta Hawks, Preview , , ,
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Preseason is here! Hawks open against the Heat

Bo Churney —  October 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

Smoove and Horford

Basketball is finally back for the Hawks! Atlanta will open later today against the defending champions, the Miami Heat.

Of course, the outcome of this game doesn’t really mean much of anything, but there are a few things to watch out for:

  • Al Horford. We did get to see him play in a few games in the playoff series against Boston, but this will be the first time that fans get to see a fully-healthy Horford play since January. Since Horford is likely to take a larger role on offense, it will be interesting to see if he has plays thrown his way to test how adept he is at creating his own offense. Also, Al is such a fun player to watch, so it will be nice just to see him out there at full strength. Continue Reading…
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