Finally, a game where the Hawks were consistently good for four quarters! It was great to finally see the Hawks playing good defense, hitting open shots, not forcing passes and taking care of the ball. The 10 point victory doesn’t really reflect how dominant the Hawks played vs. Orlando. When’s the last time the Hawks won a season series against an Eastern team? It has to have been many moons ago.

Great performances from JJ (34 Points-mostly open jays) and Josh Smith (19 pts, 11 Rbs- 4th Double-Double in a row). The Hawks also got good shooting out of Marvin and Ty. Lost in all of this was Salim-it seems that he’s in the doghouse again- he’s been getting less than ten minutes a game lately.

Observations about the Magic: Brian Hill has no clue. Against one of the weakest interior defensive teams in the league, I would make sure that Dwight Howard touches the ball on every half-court possession. Instead, the Magic were not even looking inside and were settling for 18 footers (which they missed). Howard should’ve had 30 points on Zaza/Lorenzen, but Brian Hill took him out at the end of the 3rd Quarter and didn’t put him back in until there were five minutes left and the Hawks had a comfortable lead.

Redick sucked; on one of his misses, I gave him a “This ain’t Duke, Coach K isn’t here to cry for a foul call”. Being only 15 rows behind the Magic bench and with less than 10 K in attendance, I’m sure that he heard it. The people in the section got quite a laugh out of it.

I’d like to see the Hawks go after Arroyo; he seems pretty much buried on the Magic bench behind Jameer Nelson. He’d be much better than Speedy’s broken ass and would give the Hawks another guy to push the tempo a bit more.

In attendance: Myself, Ismail and 16 co-workers from my school, most of whom were Turkish and came to see Hedo Turkoglu play (he had a horrible night). I was able to get $110 seats through my dad’s work; I was also able to get 16 $25 seats to give out to my co-workers.

The Spin: Thrashers voucher; I went and redeemed it for two tickets for 3/2 because that night is Hossa statue night. When I got home, I realized that I have a soccer game that night at 7:30. I might go to the game at 6:30 when the gates open, get the statues, then leave for my game.

All-Stars in Attendance: Chipper Jones was courtside along with Chris Dimeno from The Zone. No one else that was noteworthy, unless you include Fishface and the fake Charlie Criss.

I knew going into the game, the Hawks might be flat. They used a lot of energy the night before in Orlando to come back and beat the Magic. Unfortunately, my prediction was true as the Hawks contended for much of the game but couldn’t quite erase the seven point lead that the Sixers built up in the first half. The Hawks had a decent 3rd Quarter, but still trailed by 7. Early in the 4th, the Hawks got it down to two or three points for a couple of possessions, but couldn’t hit the shot to tie it up. With about 8 minutes left, the Sixers went on a run and suddenly the Hawks were down by double-digits. At that point, we knew it was hopeless and left. Sure enough, they ended up losing by 15.  

The only player that stood out for the Hawks was Josh Smith. He had another strong performance on both ends of the court. JJ had a sub-par game and never found his rhythm. Zaza had a stinker. Marvin looked OK and hit some nice shots.

For the Sixers, Igouldala had a strong game, as did Dalembert. Andre Miller impressed as well; i’d love to see a guy like that run the point in ATL.

In Attendance: Myself, Janet, Ismail, Steve, Christina

The Spin: Me- Mystery Prize: Zaza Bobblehead ; Janet-Highlight Factory BMT

The Giveaway: JJ Statue in a USA Uniform

Still hot or not?

She seems to have hit the weight room.

I’m not going to get carried away, but from watching the Pistons game on Friday and seeing them beat the Celtics today 100-96, I think we’re going to see an upswing in the coming months. Today’s game was probably the best 48 minutes i’ve seen the Hawks put together this season.

In Attendance: Myself, Janet, Ismail. I had four freebies from Pops’ work in the section below Headlines Grill, but I could not find a taker for the fourth.

The Spin: Myself- Hawks Spirit Item (Coozie); Janet- 2 free Hawks tickets Voucher ( I immediately went and used it on Sixers tickets for the 27th because it’s JJ Statue night).

The Game: No PGs today. Lue and Claxton were both hurt. It’s funny that the Hawks would have one of their best performances of the year with Salim,  Marvin and JJ running the point. The Hawks started strong, led by ten at the half and by 6-10 for the majority of the 3rd Quarter. The Celtics would go on a run in the 4th Quarter and they must’ve shot 75% for the first 9 minutes of the quarter, but the Hawks didn’t cave in. The Hawks had some terrible calls go against them, further letting the Celtics into the game. However, the Hawks maintained their composure and got some clutch shots from J-Chill, Zaza and JJ down the stretch to hold on to the victory.

Player of the Game: J-Chill. 23 Pts, 14 Rebs, several key rebounds and defensive stops. Along with J-Smooth, we really missed their energy over the past six weeks. With both of them on the floor, the intensity level increases significantly.

As I commented in Steve’s latest post, Josh Smith made a HUGE difference in this game too. When he’s into the flow of the defense, he’s a game changer. In this game, he had some huge blocks, made some great defensive stops and had a career high five steals. The one downside to not having any PGs was that Josh had more ballhandling responsibilities. He turned the ball over 8 times, mostly off of forced passes into the post. Even still, it’s good to have him back- his presence makes a world of difference.

The spin:  Al - Hawks tickets, Me - Hawks Mechadise coupon, aka squat. 

The game:  Halfway down 400, I realized I didn’t have my ticket so we had to turn around and go back.  We got to the Zurns at 7:40, the game started 7:30.  Christina and Lupita headed off to see a movie while Al and I went to the game.   On the way, Al said he just wanted to spin the wheel and go.  I agreed.  The hawks had half their roster hurt and they were playing the Pistons.  I didn’t have high expectations for this game.  We got to the game as the 2nd quarter was starting.  Surprisingly, the Hawks were up by 8ish points.  We went to Headline to sit in the better seat, but, because all the Pistons “fans” came out of the woodwork to see this game, the section was pretty full so we went to our regular seats.  The Hawks were able to hold their lead till halftime.  Al and I planned on leaving after the 3rd to meet up with the ladies at Fox Sports Grill (the movie they were planning on seeing wasn’t playing).  We were sure the Hawks would blow it and give ample excuse to leave early.  Sure enough, just a few minutes into the quarter the game was tied.  The rout was on.  But it wasn’t to be.  The Hawks re-took the lead.  Late in the quarter, I realized we needed another round of beers before they stopped selling.  We rushed down to headlines just in time for the last two beers sold.  We stayed there for the 4th.  While there we spotted Tancredi, one of the Pistons’ “fans”.  We talked briefly about Tech’s win over Duke and Gailey’s possible departure when Tancredi abruptly said, “Oo! Kiss Cam! I gotta go.”  He never acknowledged our presence again that night.  I’m sure you know how the game ended.  The Hawks held off the Pistons rally for a unexpected win.  I have no doubt this is nothing but a fluke, so I’m not too excited about it.  I will say this:  It’s gotta suck as a player when the crowd is louder for the visiting team.  If you suck, I suppose you deserve it.

for me to become a bigger fanboy of Christian Laettner:

http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20070108&content_id=81370&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp

I know that I bring this up every year, but the HOF voting once again leaves a lot to be desired.

Voting Results: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hof07/news/story?id=2725461

I was very happy to see the level of support that Tony Gwynn (the best pure hitter of our generation), received ( who are the seven idiots that left him off the ballot?). However, I can’t believe that Cal Ripken received the 3rd most votes all-time! I mean, come on, he’s a .276 lifetime hitter. I know people can’t get over the record, but does that mean that we should consider AC Green for the Basktball HOF too. Matt and I were discussing this and I wouldn’t even consider Cal in the top 5 of Shortstops. My five are:

1. Honus Wagner
2. Ozzie Smith
3. Alex Rodriguez
4. Luke Appling
5. Robin Yount

Others I considered better at the position: Omar Vizquel, Derek Jeter, Luis Aparicio, Lou Boudreau, Pee Wee Reese

I’m not saying that Ripken doesn’t have his place in the HOF, but a near unanimous vote is pushing it.

Other Thoughts:

1. Surprised to see Lee Smith so far below Goose Gossage in the voting considering that Smith held the all-time Saves record until this season and has over 100 more saves than Goose.

2. I would’ve thought that Orel Hershiser would at least get 5% of the vote; he was one of the strongest pitchers in the late ’80s and had a nice resurgence as a leader for the Indians in they halcyon days of the mid 90s.

3. Dale is fading away each season; if only he’d have hit those two more homers or retired before those last pathetic years, he might be receiving more consideration. What a shame because his numbers stack up there offensively with most of the other power hitters of his era. Plus, he was the best CF in the NL for 7-8 years.

4. The lack of support for McGwire gives me hope that Bonds will get snubbed when he’s eligible.

5. Other players that I think are really getting overlooked: Harold Baines, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson ( very much in the same situation as Murphy)

6. Jim Rice is overrated; he was a less than average fielder and played in a pitcher-friendly park. The only reason he gets as much publicity as he does is because he played in Boston; otherwise, he’d be out of consideration by now. 2452 Hits, 382 HRs and .298 don’t exactlt overwhelm me.

So, since nobody wanted my two tickets for Tuesday’s game vs. the Hornets, I decided to take Ismail to the game. This was not going to be an attactive affair as the Hornets were missing Chris Paul, Peja and David West. I figured that since this was the case, I might actually see the Hawks win for once. Boy, was I wrong.

The attendance was announced as 10K, but I doubt if there were even 2K in the stands. It was by far the worst attended Hawks game i’ve ever seen. One could’ve literally counted the actual amount of people in the seats with no problems and some level of accuracy.

The Spin: Free Coke Coupon. The Mystery Prize was a bobblehead of Zaza, apparently leftover stock from last season.

The Game: The first half was very low-scoring and lots of missed shots. JJ , who apparently just got over the flu, looked like he had tired legs and was missing a lot shots. The half ended with the Hornets leading 48-43.

I went down to the Philips Zone again to watch some of the Tech game and got hooked when they went on a run in the 2nd Half. At that point, I was much more interested in seeing the Jackets than the Hawks, so I let Ismail play the hockey and basketball games while I watched on the big screen. I was so engrossed in the Tech game that I failed to notice that the Hawks only scored 13 points in the 3rd Quarter and were losing by 14. It only got worse in the 4th Quarter as the Hawks got down by 27 at one point. At that point, I had no intentions of going back up to the seats, so I watched the end of the Tech Victory (!) and we left with a few minutes remaining in the game and the Hawks down by 20.

OK, this has got to be the new low, right? Losing a 21 point lead versus a good Jazz team is one thing, but being blown out at home by a depleted Hornets squad is something different all together. This team sucks, pure and simple. I was surprised to wake up this morning and not find Knight and Woodson canned. I lay the majority of the blame on Billy as Woodson can’t be expected to “polish a turd”. I never thought i’d be pining for the days of Babcock, but at least we were in the playoffs for the majority of the years that he was around. What has Knight’s “rebuilding” gotten us? We are no better than when he started; in fact, we are much worse. Marvin sucks, Shelden is not a lottery pick, we gave up the house for JJ, J-Chill is not an NBA Starter, Speedy is proving to be a waste, etc. Not to mention all of the players we’ve passed up in the draft. We’re a fucking joke.

I don’t think we’ve ever actually posted this — Jar Jar and Tyronne Lue, together at last.

So I was looking at that gossip site perezhilton.com and I came across this photo of Jessica Simpson and John Mayer celebrating the New Year. And then I noticed the face behind Simpson.

Can I get a Sussy call?