Riseup has been out of action for way too long; It’s time to get some playoff discussions going. For the first time in ten years, the Hawks won a first round playoff series! I thought for sure that the NBA suits would intervene to ensure a Wade vs. LeBron matchup.

Predictions: I can’t really see the Hawks winning more than two games. We won’t win a game if Joe plays the way that he did for the first six games of Round 1. I think that we’ll win Game 3 and that’s probably going to be about it.

I’m going to game 3 on Saturday; I’ll give a game report when I get back that night.

Was walking down 7th Ave tonight and saw a fake Steve. Managed to surreptitiously get a photo. I think it might have actually been Steve.

I took the family to see the Thrashers-Blackhawks game. Thanks to the imbalanced NHL scheduling, this was the first time that Chicago had visited since 2005. Since we moved back to Atlanta in 2000, we’ve always made a point to go see the ‘Hawks when they come to Atlanta. Janet generally cheers for the ‘Hawks and I’m usually torn but end up rooting for the Thrashers. Ismail started off the game cheering for the ’Hawks but ended up pulling for the Thrashers by the 3rd Period.

The game was one of the better efforts that I’ve seen from the Thrashers all season. They matched the Blackhawks step-for-step. Unfortunately for the Thrashers, some bogus calls didn’t go the Thrashers way-taking away two goals.

The Thrashers ended up losing 3-1, an unfortunate result when they actually deserved better for once.

Ismail, Janet, Olivia and I went to Sunday’s Thrashers-Flyers game. Our friend Bret gave us four tickets at the last minute; this is the guy that has tickets looking straight down the goal line about 15 rows up from the glass. Needless to say, they are great seats and we had an excellent view of the action.

The Thrashers once again played two periods of mediocre, uninspired hockey. This, of course, was then followed by a hard-fought, exciting third period. However, when the Thrashers decided to finally wake up and play, they were down 3-0 with 17 minutes left. Kovy scored one minute later at 16:00 and Kozlov netted another with seven minutes left on the clock to make the game interesting, but they could not find a third goal and ended up 3-2 losers. If the team’s effort in the last 17 minutes would’ve been given in the first 43, then the Thrashers would’ve walked away winners. However, as has often been the case over the course of this season, the team lacks the wherewithal to string together three strong periods. Very frustrating to see over and over again.

Ismail and I went to the Hawks-Clippers game last night. What I thought would be an easy win for Atlanta turned into a nightmare from the very onset. The Hawks started off shooting 1-12 and played the entire night from behind. Even though Mike Bibby was out with an ankle sprain, there’s no excuse for the lackluster performance the Hawks gave.

Woody summed it all up by saying, “”We were flat from the beginning to the end, and it’s unacceptable. We didn’t compete tonight. The first time I’ve seen that in this team all year. We just didn’t compete - at all.”

Al Thornton (31 pts) and Zach Randolph (25) could not miss and were killing the Hawks from both the inside and outside. The Clips ended up shooting 57% for the game- partially because the Hawks were playing poor defense but also because the Clips were sinking seemingly every prayer they threw up.

Although the loss is somewhat of an embarassment for the Hawks, especially at home, I think that the Clippers are much better than their 12-39 record indicates. They’ve had some major injury issues, but seem to have the core of their players (Camby, Baron Davis, Randolph, Thornton) healthy again. I think that they’ll have a pretty solid second half of the season and wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up winning 30-35 games.

However, it still sucks to lose to the Clippers.

The Spin: Enter to Win, but the lady hooked up Ismail with a Hawks bookbag and a water bottle. He also got autographs from former Hawks great Dan Roundfield and Ivano Newbill. They were signing before the game in the Philips Experience level.

For the third straight year, Riseup has been invited to attend the Hawks’ Blog Night. The first year that they offered it, I went, but I was unable to attend last year because of my soccer coaching responsibilities. Luckily, this year’s game is on a Sunday, so I’ll be representing Riseup once again.

Some of the highlights of this year’s event include:

Pre-game dinner in the Media Room
Q&A with GM Rick Sund
Watching the game and blogging from one of the Suites
Attendance at Coach Woodson’s post-game press conference

I plan on blogging during the game, so stay tuned…

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Ismail and I went to Sunday’s Hawks vs. Sixers matinee. Quite simply, the Hawks were awful. They didn’t bother to play a lick of defense, made several unforced turnovers and took too many ill-advised shots. This after coming off of two garbage performances against Orlando. I expected more from this team, but they simply didn’t come to play. Yes, Al Horford was missing, but the Sixers are a sub .500 team that was missing Elton Brand, so there was no excuse for the Hawks to play like that.

This was our first game in our new season ticket seats. The seats offer a great view of the action and for $10 a pop, you can’t beat the location.

On Monday, my old roommate Scott called to let me know there was a ticket available for the Titans/Ravens game this weekend. After checking airfares, I decided to go ahead and make the trip to Nashville for the game. After tailgating for a few hours, we headed to the game only to see a bunch of Ravens fans were also going as tickets were very available and the Baltimore fans were taking full advantage. In fact, we asked a scalper what he was looking to get for a pair of tickets. His reply: $150. After getting to our seats, I yelled at a few Ravens fans, “Quote the Ravens: We Suck.”

The first half was dominated by Tennessee as their offense was able to move the ball well on Baltimore’s defense. Chris Johnson took a run in for a TD and a 7-0 lead. Baltimore did come back and score with ex-Titans receiver Derek Mason catching a long pass from Flacco. The Titans shot themselves in the foot with two first half turnovers with the second a bad fumble from LenDale White with less than a minute in the half and the Titans in the redzone.  The stats for the half told the story as Collins passed for over 170 yards and the running game had over 70 yards. Baltimore had under 100 yards total. The problem was the score: 7-7. Many times when your team dominates like this but are either tied or losing, there is an impending sense of doom as missed opportunities stick out.

In the second half, both teams struggled on offense. The Ravens took a 10-7 lead after a long pass took them to the 4 yardline where two defenders fell down. In the fourth, the home team drove inside Baltimore’s redzone with a little over 9 minutes left. Collins dropped back to pass and was unable to locate an open receiver to the left. When he came back around, Alge Crumpler was wide open for a short reception. As he turned upfield, Crumpler was drilled by two defenders, causing him to fumble, which was recovered by the Ravens at the one. Although the Titans wer able to hold and then drive for a field goal to make it 10-10, Alge’s fumble would loom as another missed chance for a TD.

After Tennessee tied it with over 4 minutes left, most fans felt we were headed to OT. Instead, Baltimore drove for the game winning field goal with under a minute left, aided by a huge 3rd and 2 pass completed to Todd Heap where Flacco basically threw the ball up for grabs. After the game, we were told that the play clock on that completion had expired and there should have been a penalty. Who knows if the Ravens would have converted the 3rd and 7? It would have been nice to find out.

The crowd at the game was really good and quite loud but also very disappointed with the result. It’s really tough as the Titans had built up high expectations based on the regular season. Oh well, maybe next year. Final score: Ravens 13 Titans 10.

On 1/2/09, Dave, Al and I went in on the Hawks’ “Rest of the Season” Ticket Deal. For $10 a seat per game, we are getting $43 seats in the seventh row of the upper deck on the center court line. This was too good of a deal to pass up, especially because of the seat location.

Because the Falcons Playoff game started at 4:30, none of us were all that keen on wanting to go to see the Hawks at 7 PM, which was during the 4th Quarter of the Falcons game. However, I didn’t want our first tickets to go to waste, so Janet, Olivia and I went down to Philips (Ismail was spending the night at Grandma’s). Along with quite a few others, we ended up watching the 4th Quarter of the Falcons game in the Philips Experience level. Unfortunately, the Falcons couldn’t stop Arizona when they needed to and their season came to an end. At this point, the Hawks game was at the end of the 1st Quarter and we went up to our seats.

The game was really close, with neither team unable to put the other team away. Both teams were missing key players as the Hawks were without Marvin and the Rockets were without McGrady, Battier and Artest. The Hawks built an 8 point halftime lead, only to piss it away with a poor 3rd Quarter. The Rockets would take a 4 point lead with six minutes left, but the Hawks fought back and took over late in the game. Josh Smith finished with a season high 29 points, including a beautiful rebound slam that put the Hawks up by two. Joe Johnson (14 pts, 14 asts.) didn’t have his greatest game- with two minutes left, he turned the ball over in consecutive possessions to open the door for the Rockets. With the game tied and less than a minute left, the Hawks stopped the Rockets on defense and then came down for a final shot. With 3 seconds left, Joe penetrated the lane and then kicked it back out to a waiting Mike Bibby, who drained a three with 1.5 seconds left on the clock. The Rockets had one last look, but some tight defense by Bibby on the shooter ensured the Hawks a victory.

The Spin: Janet got “Enter to Win”; I got the “Mystery Prize”- an All-Star Game T-Shirt

The big game between Georgia Tech and LSU is tomorrow at the Dome. It wasn’t easy, but everyone’s now set with tickets. We’ll be heading down to the Gulch for the pre-game tailgate around 2 PM.

Predictions for the game: Pretty much everyone’s picking Tech to win, but that still doesn’t make me feel all that confident. The line is currently giving LSU 4 points.

My prediction: Tech 31-21. I’m basing this off of their last two performances against Miami and UGA. If they can come into the game executing their game plan, then I think that they’ll pull off the victory. However, if they play like they did vs. UNC and UVA, then it’s going to be a long day, especially with all of those obnoxious LSU fans incessantly yelling “Tiger Bait” the whole time.