Stop the Presses! The Hawks are off the snide. Our Hawks were able to take advantage of Boston playing consecutive nights by beating the Celts 120-117. A great game from Al Harrington who finished with 34 points. Salim continues to impress and get major minutes; the kid can shoot. What a steal for a second rounder! Marvin Williams once again did nothing to change my mind that it was a mistake to draft him. Oh, for the love of Chris Paul. The biggest surprise, however, was the monster 4th quarter from Zaza Pachulia (19 pts, 13 Rebs). He made amends for the last home game (missed two free throws to ice the game) by owning the offensive glass and making several key shots down the stretch. This time, he also made two key free throws with 33 seconds left to keep the lead. JJ missed some free throws to put it out of reach, but later made amends by knocking down two with less than 15 seconds to play. Whew!

One of the highlights of the night was seeing Hawks reject Dan “Rudy” Dickau get teed up and also fouling out.

Paul Pierce is awesome. This is my first time seeing him play- the guy can flat out score. He finished with over 30 points and seemed like he never missed a shot the whole second half. I can’t understand why anyone else was shooting the ball down the stretch; I guess that’s why Doc Rivers wore out his welcome in Orlando.

Game Experience:

Everyone met at my house at 6:15. I made the call of a first Hawks victory; no small prediction given my general pessimism. I figured that two nights in a row would wear down the Boston, a team that’s not that good in the first place. A caravan of two car loads left my house- Steve, Matt, Ismail and I in one car, Mike and his girlfriend’s brother-in-law in the other. After dinner in the CNN food court, we made our way in to Phillips. Three of us bought $10 seats separate from the season tickets, but we moved at the end of the first quarter to our half-empty home, section 303. I’m pleased with my luck in selecting section 303- for the first four games, there has been some nice breathing room and easy accessibility to the aisles. The overall crowd level was OK and it looked to be about 2/3 full. The atmosphere down the stretch picked up as it looked like the Hawks would get the W; the Memphis game was a little more pumped up. After the game, I left feeling that the Hawks are really starting to show a marked improvement-they are not as bad as the 1-9 record indicates. This team will get better.