Archives For Miami Heat

Seasonal Recap: Southeast Division

Chris Barnewall —  April 19, 2013 — Leave a comment

Another season comes to a close. I’d like to say this division was a thrilling race the entire season, but no, we can’t have nice things when the Magic and Bobcats are in a division. To end the season we have the Heat’s dominance, the Hawks injuries, what could have been with the Wizards, the Bobcats “fail?” at tanking, and the Magic’s success of tanking.

 

Miami Heat, 1st, 66-16, 3-0 for the week, 1st seed in the EastMIA

What a season for the Heat. The Heat came off their title season with no sight of a championship hangover, as they dominated everybody the entire season. The scary part was how the entire season the Heat have never once looked like they were giving 100% effort. There wasn’t a single game that I can think of where I said, “Yeah, they really gave a full effort out there.” Constantly, they were playing with a relaxed attitude and they were STILL blowing everybody away. I think the perfect three stats to show the Heat’s dominance this season is that they shot 55% eFG%, 58% TS%, and they had a net rating of plus-9.9. I’ll be shocked if the Heat don’t end this season with another championship.

 

Atlanta Hawks, 2nd, 44-38, 0-2 for the week, 6th seed in the EastATL

The Hawks started off the season playing better than most people expected. They were third in the East and looked like they might be able to make a little bit of noise in the Eastern Conference. Then the injuries started; the Hawks haven’t been fully healthy since the first two months of the season and that has largely weighed down on the team. The biggest losses of the season were definitely Lou Williams and Zaza Pachulia. Pachulia and Williams were such huge parts of the eight-man rotation and without them I don’t see how the Hawks can possibly get past the first round. Continue Reading…

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Hawks Playoffs Primer

David Vertsberger —  April 11, 2013 — 1 Comment

With the NBA Playoffs just over a week away, I went ahead and took a look at every (realistic) potential matchup the Atlanta Hawks may face in the postseason, and discussed how to go about coming away the victor, as well as giving my prediction.

 

Miami Heat (1st)MIA

Season series: Heat 4-0

3 Keys:

  • If there’s one thing you can take away from the abundance of Miami Heat highlight clips on YouTube is that they can run the fast break like no other team can. Turning the ball over against this squad is the equivalent of a death sentence, you may as well surrender two points and avoid having LeBron James fly over the top of you. This means trouble for Atlanta, who’s 22nd in the league in turnover percentage. The Heat will double the handler on every pick-and-roll, meaning point guard Jeff Teague, who’s matured a great amount since last year will need to be extra careful when controlling the offense. 
  • Miami finds themselves crushed on the boards often, ranking 26th and 24th in offensive and defensive rebounding percentage respectively. They rank 25th in total rebounding percentage, yet are still ahead of the Hawks who rank 27th in the league. It’s quite the head-scratcher considering Atlanta boasts a frontcourt of excellent rebounders in Al Horford and Josh Smith, plus their defensive rebounding percentage is 12th best in the NBA. Anyway, rebounding is Miami’s most glaring weakness and that’s where the Hawks need to take advantage. Now I’m not saying send all five guys to the offensive glass because that would be counterintuitive to the first key, so the load is basically on Smith and Horford, since Zaza Pachulia won’t be returning to the Hawks this season.
  • The Heat’s offense surrounds the skillful endeavors of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, their trio of superstars. However, a great deal of it comes from their role players nailing wide open long bombs off of a kick out from James, Wade, or Bosh. As effective and monumental as help defense is in today’s game, it must be used in a very limited fashion if you’re going to beat Miami, as all three stars are extremely proficient passers and will find the open shooter when doubled. Thus, individual defense is huge. The Hawks may not have a farm of talented one-on-one defenders, but Horford can check Bosh, Deshawn Stevenson defended Dwyane Wade in a Finals series two years ago, (which he won) and Josh Smith is athletic enough to somewhat stick with James.

Prediction: Heat 4-0

 

New York Knicks (2nd)NYK

Season series: Knicks 2-0 (one game remaining)

3 Keys:

  • The New York Knicks have been abysmal at guarding opposing point guards, When your best option is 35-year old rookie Pablo Prigioni, that’s probably what happens. What does this mean for the Hawks? It means they don’t Continue Reading…
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Weekly Roundup: SE Division Recap (3/17-3/23)

Chris Barnewall —  March 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

Welcome to our new segment here at HawksHoop. These weekly posts will be looking into the Southeastern Division and go over each team’s record, position in the standings, record for the week, and anything special about them from the week.

 

MIAMiami Heat, 1st, 54-14, 4-0 this week
The Miami Heat are the best looking team in basketball right now as they end the week with a win against the Detroit Pistons to extend their win streak to 25 games (second longest in NBA history). The Heat look unstoppable right now and I’m not sure if anybody has the ability to beat them.

 

ATLAtlanta Hawks, 2nd, 38-31, 2-2 this week
The Atlanta Hawks are currently sitting 2nd in the division that the Heat have ran away with. They’ve had a fairly successful season as far as expectations go, but injuries have derailed what could have been a better season. The Hawks continue to miss Zaza Pachulia and Lou Williams, as their two losses on the week (Dallas and Portland) showed their bench and defensive weaknesses that have formed with those players being sidelined.

  Continue Reading…

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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: 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 — 2 Comments

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.

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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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