Game Preview #44: Atlanta Hawks @ San Antonio Spurs

by CapHill on Jan 27, 2010 1:30 AM CST in Game Previews

During the last week, there has been much discussion on PtR about what's wrong with the team and can it be fixed. No one has a real answer, except for We Suck^TM. Even we believers in the mojo have no explanation. So when there is no logic or rational behind something, I did what every American sports fan does - I found someone to blame.

I did absolutely no research for this preview (other than that required to fill in the blanks) and haven't seen one Hawks' game this year, but it's not fair to LD to make him work while he's on vacation. Hack preview ahead.

Atlanta Hawks @ San Antonio Spurs
Where: AT&T Center - San Antonio, TX
When: January 27, 2010, 7:30 PM Spurs time
Watch: FSNSW (SA), SportSouth (Atlanta)

How They Stack Up


17-9	Home	18-5
8-9	Road	11-9
101.0	Offense	102.9
96.1	Defense	98.1
47.7	FG%	46.8
37.8	3-pt%	35.8
73.5	FT%	76.5
42.4	Rebounds	41.7
13.3	TOs	11.7
4-6	Last 10	8-2
Lost 3	Streak	Won 3
2nd, Southwest	Position	1st, Southeast


Country/Time Zone	Game Time
Argentina	10:30 PM
Mud Slides	5:30 PM
Philippines	9:30 AM
Central Europe	2:30 AM
Palestine/Egypt	3:30 AM
East Coast	8:30 PM
Rain and Cold	6:30 PM
Perth, AUS	9:30 AM
Tokyo, JP	10:30 AM
Sydney, AUS	11:30 AM

Spurs (25-18)	Matchups	Hawks (29-14)
Tony Parker Jekyll and Hyde	Point Guard I never know what to expect from Tony. Advantage: Hawks	Mike Bibby Point Guard

Manu Ginobili Buzz Cut - Meh	Shooting Guard Manu has been up and down this year. I know Johnson is a former Sun, but he's been playing near or at All-Star levels since coming to the Hawks. Advantage: Hawks	Joe Johnson All-Star

Richard Jefferson Loved by All	Small Forward At least Williams still has potential. Advantage: Neither	Marcus Williams Could have had Chris Paul

Tim Duncan No longer DPOY	Power Forward Smith has learned to stop chucking 3s, while improving his rebounding and assists. But I still have to give the ATS white box to Timmeh. Advantage: Spurs	Josh Smith Slightly athletic

DeJuan Blair Rookie Calls	Center I love Blair, but the refs hate him. Plus, Horford's stats are better. Advantage: Hawks	Al Horford Double Double Avg

George Hill Player	Bench & Role Players Amazingly enough, Crawford has been playing well off the bench this season. However, the bench isn't very deep, so BAM should prevail. But I've said that before. Advantage: Spurs	Jamal Crawford Worthwhile

Gregg Popovich Bring back the Beard	Coach This shouldn't be a tie, but the Spurs are behind schedule, and Woodson must be doing something right, considering how the Hawks are playing this season. Advantage: Tied	Mike Woodson May actually be a coach
	images via yahoo.com

	Other Factors
Intangibles
The Spurs have lost 3 straight at home. The Hawks are over .500 on the road. Advantage: Hawks
Mojo
I'm not sure it is possible to have less mojo than the Spurs right now. The Hawks have won 8 of their last 10 and have overtaken Orlando for the division lead. Advantage: Hawks
Winner:
I have lost all faith. We lose.

Key To The Game

Not Play Crappy/Protect the Lead - I don't think I need to explain, but lately the Spurs have come out strong, building up a double digit lead in the 1st quarter, and then let it all slip away. And the multitudinous areas of concerns are interior defense, pick and roll defense, perimeter defense, and my personal favorite, FT%. Did I mention defense?

Strength of Schedule

This is the fourth game of the homestand, and they've all been losses. Yippee! It is after a day of rest, but I don't know that it matters.

The Hawks beat Houston on Monday, with this the 2nd stop of their foray to Tejas. They've won 3 straight. That must be nice.

Last Time They Met

We haven't played the Hawks yet this year, and I'm too tired to look up the last game. We probably won, back when we knew how to do that.

Some Other Reading

Hawks

Peachtree Hoops - The Hawks' SBN blog.

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell: Best damn TrueHoop affiliate out there. Always a must visit Spurs site.
Project Spurs: Features live chats, call-in shows and podcasts (in Spanish too), with lots of content.

Where to Tune In

TV

This game will be aired by FSNSW in San Antonio and by SportSouth in Atlanta. If you have cable or satellite, you'll have to look up your individual channel. And of course, there's always League Pass for the haves. For the have nots, read on.

Online

As always, NBA League Pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash. Most Spurs games will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area.

Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". Or you can shoot an email asking for more assistance(with your PtR username) to poundingtherockmail@yahoo.com, and one of the admins can help you out.

NBA League Pass audio is still free this year, so check it out.

Radio

If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM).

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Comments

With the way we’ve been playing, you could’ve said “Advantage Hawks” all the way and I wouldn’t have complained.

"Yes, it's important that I have good numbers, and I'm well-respected as a player. But I think it's more important that I'm respected as a man." - Some Tall Guy Who Wore #50

by theonlyromeo on Jan 27, 2010 2:55 AM CST reply actions

Shouldn’t we have the advantage just because we’re sick of losing? Meh, that’s what I thought against Chicago. But not play crappy is great advice. Hope Pop tells them that. Bibby over TP though? Cmon Bibby sucks. TP kinda has too but still…

by Aloud on Jan 27, 2010 5:34 AM CST reply actions

TP is much worse to me than Bibby at this point. Bibby can still actually make some shots. Parker can’t even do that.

Evey- "Are you a crazy person?"
V- "I'm quite sure they'll say so."
V for Vendetta, blowing your mind away since 2005.

by KA1Z3R on Jan 27, 2010 6:01 AM CST up reply actions

yes 22pts, 6 rebounds 8 assists, 50%. Bibby must be CP3 x2

by biolb on Jan 27, 2010 2:03 PM CST up reply actions

Yeah, the longer we lose the stronger our mojo gets. You can’t keep Duncan down too long. I’m not so sure about all the other scrubs, but Duncan, not so much…

Sure there is a knot in my stomach but I’m going to try really hard to be an optimist today.

1. We started 4-6 and 9-9 depending on whichever you find worse. Since those we have gone, 21-12 or 16-9. Even with our horrific 5 losses in the last 6, those records aren’t terrible and incredibly close to the 2 wins per single loss ratio I want. I’m willing to say the first 20 games can use the chemistry excuse so that covers that first 10 or 18 games.

2. We were 24-13 before this horrible stretch. That is a good record and really close to where we need to be with the whole 2:1 thing. So let’s look at these 5 losses. First you have a THIGAFONI and a FOGAFINI against good home teams that are really clicking right now. We were coming off wins to LA and OKC too which were very impressive. Utah is the devil. Houston is a bitter division game and anything can happen in a Houston-Dallas-San Antonio matchup. Chicago shot lights out.

3. Chicago is the worst team to beat us and their record is 21-22. That is impressive.

4. We’ve lost a lot of close games too and that reflects on the record more than our team in my opinion. Other teams, I might say the opposite. We haven’t lost a home game by double digits yet either. Our worst home loss was Dallas by 9 points.

by BlaseE on Jan 27, 2010 8:50 AM CST up reply actions

1. I basically agree.

2. Yes, it is, but 24-18 is not very good at all. We’re now closer to the Grizz than we are to the Nugs. That’s terrible. As for the excuses — I’d excuse it if it looked like we were playing hard. We weren’t playing hard in any of those games. Tim and Dejuan were both trying, but everyone else looked bored and completely out of it.

3. That’s kind of unintuitive. It’s not limiting bad losses that makes a good team, it’s getting the job done against the best competition. And with the exception of the Lakers game and the Dallas game way earlier in the season, these Spurs have maybe two or three “getting the job done” wins. Sure, they haven’t lost to the T-Wolves (while the Jazz lost the season series to them), but can anyone honestly say the Jazz aren’t a better team (right now) than the spurs are? Because they totally, totally are. It’s depressing but it’s true.

4. I do agree with that. The loss to Boston could have easily been a marquee win if we had just done a little more, same with a lot of games. But part of being a championship team is doing that. And we haven’t done it. I kind of expected we’d start gelling right now, or at least look like we’re TRYING to start gelling.

I do appreciate the optimisim though. Your post reminded me of things that make me a little more positive. It’s like going from “shot in the head with a shotgun” to “shot in the thigh with a pistol.” Still depressing and painful but significantly less so. Oh well.

Come back Spurs!

by DocRostov on Jan 27, 2010 1:50 PM CST up reply actions

2. We were never 24-18. 25-18 isn’t ideal, but if you agree on points 1 and 3 then you know that record is deceiving. I don’t know how bored Hill, Manu, and Parker look. Dice had one of his better games against Chicago as well.

3. This is like the 18th time I’ve written this on PTR, but Pop has different priorities against good team and bad teams. The only priority against a bad team is winning. Against good teams, you are scouting and hiding your best plays. Only Cleveland really gives a shit about regular season records of the truly elite teams. The Spurs were swept by Cleveland and LA was swept by Orlando in each team’s respective Finals victory season over the other team. Different teams, different priorities.

by BlaseE on Jan 27, 2010 2:11 PM CST up reply actions

Good stuff, Cap

LOL @ the Alamo in the SP video;) I, too, thought of searching for someone to blame ~ the players (RJ), Pop, the refs, the NBA (are the conspiracy theorists right?) Went from angry to disappointed to sad…I mean, seeing RJ grimace after every shot clanked off the rim just made me wanna give him a hug (ala JanieAnnie’s tux-n-tennies post;) And all this trade talk is toooo depressing…but today’s another day and I love MySpurs, so I’ll be glued to the game with hope in my heart in about 11 hours – GSG!

Honestly. You kids today, with your hippity-hop music and your Twiddle. - Lauri

by p2cat on Jan 27, 2010 9:16 AM CST reply actions

I hope they win tonight too. I won’t be able to watch either the Spurs or the OSU games tonight, so hopefully my suffering will count for something. Otherwise, I’m going to have to go down to SA and get bella and Lauri to help me sacrifice a chicken.

Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. - Jane Austen

by CapHill on Jan 27, 2010 9:58 AM CST up reply actions

If they win, you are no longer allowed to watch games. :P

suicide > RJ

by Tim C. on Jan 27, 2010 10:13 AM CST up reply actions

At this point, it’s gotta be something bigger. I’m thinking we may have to sacrifice Wayne. It would be tough on all of us, but damn it he’s gotta take one for the team.

Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed. - CMoney

by bellasa on Jan 27, 2010 11:14 AM CST up reply actions