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Posted by: Micah Hart at 5:17PM EST on March 23, 2007
Two games on the slate this weekend, and against two completely different
opponents. One we beat handily on their court, one they whipped us like they
were our daddy.
Portland and Dallas are both Western Conference teams, but the similarities
pretty much end there. The Mavs are right in the middle of the greatest stretch
the franchise has ever known; the Blazers are pretty much at their lowest point.
One team we will have to play our best against to even compete, the other we
have to guard against taking too lightly. Hopefully, the chips will fall our way
and we will have a chance to pull out two wins.
In breaking
down the Blazers today with Hawks coach Greg Ballard, he talked about
Portland's youth movement. Personally, I think they are a dangerous, dangerous
team despite their record and the fact that Zach Randolph may not play. LaMarcus
Aldridge, Brandon Roy, Jarrett Jack, and Sergio Rodriguez are all good young
players who can beat teams despite their inexperience. If we go in thinking we
can just show up and win tonight, we will be in trouble.
Sunday is a different story. As everyone knows, the Mavs have been nearly
unbeatable since starting the season 0-4. We hung with them for about a quarter
in Dallas last month before they turned out the lights on us. Larry Drew said
something interesting today in
breaking down the
Mavericks, stating that for us to beat Dallas we need to get out and run
and, in a sense, outscore them. I always thought of Dallas as an offensive
juggernaut like the Suns, so it's interesting to hear that strategy.
I also spoke to
Anthony Johnson, who is quite familiar with the Mavs having spent the
first half of the season on their roster, about how to beat them.
Basically, we have to play our best game of the season and hope we catch them
on an off-night. That's not to say we aren't capable of winning - witness
some of our better wins this season against Phoenix and Detroit - but anything
less than 100% effort for all 48 minutes will make it very, very difficult.
Either way, both games should be a lot of fun. Oh, and don't forget -
Sunday's game against Dallas is a 1:00 ET start, not 2:00 as it originally
said on the schedule. Make a note of it.
Permalink
Posted by: Micah Hart at 5:24PM EST on February 26, 2007
Last night's loss to Phoenix was a tough one, because the Hawks really played quite well in defeat. Tonight they take on the other title favorite, the Dallas Mavericks, in another game that will require the team's absolute best effort to come away victorious.
In playing the Suns and Mavs on back-to-back nights, the Hawks become only the second team to have to run that gauntlet this season. Houston played the two on consecutive nights back in mid-January, losing both. It's very, very possible that will happen to Atlanta as well, as Dallas is currently on an 11-game winning streak and is 46-5 since starting the season 0-4.
To win tonight, the team will have to get a great performance from
Joe Johnson - there is just no other way it's going to happen.
I am not knocking Joe by any means - some days you have the touch, and some days you don't. Most days, Joe has it. Yesterday, unfortunately, he didn't, and because of that we fell just shy of a major, major win. Three or four times against the Suns we got the ball to Joe for a wide-open shot that would have taken the lead or tied it up, and it just never fell. What can you do? It happens.
The Hawks video staff put together a
little montage of highlights
from yesterday's game if you care to check them out. For those who didn't make it, it really was one of the most entertaining games we've seen at Philips this year.
Check it out!
To win tonight, we basically just need to play like we did yesterday, but have Joe shoot better. Fortunately, the Mavs don't have a 7-foot inside dominator like
Amare Stoudemire. Unfortunately, they do have a 7-foot perimeter dominator in
Dirk Nowitzki, so we can't exactly breathe a sigh of relief.
Either way it goes down tonight, I am just hoping for good effort, and hopefully, if just a few (ok, maybe several) things go our way, maybe we can shock the world.
Tune in tonight on FSN South at 8:30 ET to catch all the action!
