Jan 08 2009
Magic @ Hawks Part 1
The Atlanta Hawks had a great chance tonight to close the gap with the Southeast division leading Orlando Magic. The game was at Philips Arena and the Hawks have been playing very well at home this year. The starters didn’t get off to a good start tonight and Orlando’s starters did. It was beginning to look ugly at Philips tonight until the bench came into the game. Guys like Maurice Evans and Flip Murray started to make things happen with the help of Solomon Jones who got more playing time tonight with Zaza Pachulia out due to illness. I really thought coach Woodson should have let them play longer, but he brung back the starters in the 2nd quarter and when halftime arrived the Hawks were down by 15 points.
When the 3rd quarter began it was the same thing and the starters just couldn’t get nothing done. Josh Smith and Joe Johnson went to the bench early in the 3rd period around the 6 minute mark and once again it was the bench that slowly started to step up for the Hawks.
The start of the 4th quarter was going to be a big mountain to climb for the Hawks and they were down by 16 points now. The bench guys really took off and pulled the team up on the bumper of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. The lead was down to 4 for the Magic and Mike Bibby blew a breakaway layup and this turned out to be a huge play. After the Hawks bench worked so hard in the 2nd half to make this a game again, it was Woodson taking the bench out again and turned it over to the starters to finish. Our starters weren’t playing well and our bench was and it makes you scratch your head why Mike Woodson didn’t stick with them. He does things like this a lot in Atlanta and he doesn’t understand that some guys struggle on certain nights and some perform really well and the Hawks bench could have won this game in Atlanta tonight.
Orlando won the game 106 to 102 and grew their lead bigger over the 2nd place Hawks in the Southeast division. Dwight Howard had a monster night on the glass with 19 rebounds and added 23 points too. Josh Smith and Marvin Williams were the two bright spots for Atlanta tonight and they combined for 37 points. Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson got more minutes than Smith and Williams and Joe Johnson had 13 points and Bibby managed 17. Murray led the bench guys with 14 points and he didn’t get to finish the game on the floor for the Hawks. Joe Johnson played more minutes than any other Hawk tonight and shot the ball more than anyone else did and there was still 4 guys on the team that scored more points than him. The Hawks really need to cut Joe’s minutes and quit running plays for him at the end of games when we need a bucket. He just doesn’t come through enough for him to be the go-to guy at the end of games.
Atlanta’s bench was named player of the game and they deserved it. Mike Woodson after the game only talked about the team struggling at the free throw line, their lack of effort and how you can’t spot a team 21 points and expect to beat a team like Orlando. Judging by his words, he had given up on the game at the start of the 4th quarter, but the bench guys didn’t and they had a shot to win at the end, but the bench didn’t get the chance to close out the deal. Woodson never gave credit to the bench and he didn’t see the effort they gave tonight and I can imagine there is a lot of guys on that bench that are upset with Woody.
Part 1 of this battle is in the books with Orlando drawing first blood. It will be up to the Hawks now to regroup and go down to Florida on Friday night and win part 2 of this battle. There will be a lot of focus on this game Friday night and they can’t lose two in a row to the Magic. The Hawks only hope for the playoffs is by having home court advantage and the team must do whatever it takes to beat the team from Central Florida.
