It was supposed to be a nice welcome home from the stress of a chaotic road trip, but Atlanta might prefer the road. After sleepwalking through an embarrassing loss to the Grizzlies on Thursday, Atlanta drops a 98-85 game to Philly tonight. They’ll be 0-2 on their new homestand. I want talk too much about the game, except that Jeff Teague led the Hawks in scoring with 21, and what hurt Atlanta was a horrible second quarter. Philly won it 37-21. Atlanta cut into the lead a little in the third and fourth, but it was too deep a hole. The big off the court news is Jason Collins. He sprained his elbow in that loss to Memphis. He went in for an MRI this morning, and the preliminary result is he’ll be out for two weeks. Atlanta was already hurting with the injury to Al Horford, and this gives Atlanta only one true center, Zaza Pachulia. Zaza only played 23 minutes, but Ivan Johnson, a natural forward, came in and logged 14 points and 13 rebounds in 25 minutes. Josh Smith and Marvin Williams, natural forwards, might also see time in the center. But they’re not used to it for any length of time. GM Rick Sund has his back to the wall in getting some extra depth in the post, but his pursuit of Kenyon Martin will be unfulfilled, as it looks like the free-agent will sign with the Clips. Sund will need to go to his Rolodex. It doesn’t get easier, as Atlanta will finish the homestand with games against the Suns and Pacers on Monday and Wednesday.

The nightmare is over. The crazy game of hopscotch that Atlanta has been on the past week-and-a-half ended with a convincing 100-77 victory over the Toronto Raptors. Joe Johnson put down 30, and Tracy McGrady came off the bench to add 15. For the Raptors, Jerryd Bayless had 15. Atlanta went 4-1 on the road trip, and, as I pointed out earlier, was made crazier due to it’s up and down nature (see that other blog post for a nuanced description of what I mean). The only loss came to San Antonio, a perennial trouble spot, while the big highlight was a gutty come from behind win in overtime against Detroit. The team would be excused for taking a night off, as that pace would be harder on them than some of the teams they faced, but they didn’t. There will be one more brutal stretch later in the season (and don’t forget, the circus will force them to be vagabonds late in February), but so far, this team has impressed. They come home to play Memphis on Thursday, and you’d better believe that home never felt so good. With the win, Atlanta ties Miami in the win column, while Orlando stays four back. Dwight Howard is pushing for a trade, sooner rather than later, and the distraction could push the Magic further out. It could be a two team race in the Southeast. We’ll see what happens the next time the Heat and Hawks tangle.

Tonight is the halfway point of Atlanta’s up and down (or north and south) five game road trip. They beat Milwaukee and then lost to San Antonio (extending the Hawks’ futility down there to fifteen seasons), before bouncing up to take on Detroit at the Palace. Atlanta was down by 11 at the break, and 6 with thirty seconds left before rebounding to tie with 2 seconds left on back-to-back 3-pointers from Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams. Joe has 25 points in regulation, while Marvin put in 18. For Detroit, Greg Monroe had 20, and Jason Maxiell had 19. While the teams get ready for the extra session, I’ll throw in some notes. I made the first earlier, but it bears repeating. This team is resilient, and in this messed-up season, you need that quality. Doesn’t it feel like absolutely nothing is normal? The second is a roster move. Donald Sloan was waived as Kirk Hinrich rejoined the team after his injury. He played tonight and five points in regulation while logging 27 minutes. Fans think that now that Hinrich is healthy, he should be trade bait as the Hawks need another big man with Al for the regular season. GM Rick Sund hasn’t made any noise about a move, and the Hawks haven’t faltered without Al, so he might not see a need. Miami likes to go small, but it might not matter. As long the Hawks keep winning, it might be moot. Back to the game. We have 1:30 left in the extra session, and Atlanta opened up a 10 point lead. Two more three-pointers (Marvin, Josh) figured into the explosion. Atlanta went on a 18-2 run (including the last two three balls to tie it up). After the requisite free-throw fest to end the game, Atlanta comes away with a 107-101 victory. Resiliency, folks. Resiliency. Atlanta picks up their 14th win, and will tie the Heat for tops in the division (depending on the Heat-Knicks result). The yo-yo road trip continues with a trip south to New Orleans, the worst team in the league (even though they are beating Orlando), before the final bounce north to Toronto.

A four game winning streak went down in flames as Atlanta lost to the resurgent 76ers 90-76. This was the first loss since Al Horford went down and comes on the front end of a back-to-back. Atlanta will hustle to the airport to get back home and play Cleveland tomorrow night. After that will be a critical five-game road trip. None of those games will be consecutive, but they will have a day off between them. Among the stops will be Milwaukee, San Antonio, Detoit, New Orleans, and Toronto. I’m sorry, but I have to digress. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put the Spurs and Hornets next to each other and then head north instead of going up and down like a nightmare game of hopscotch? This compressed schedule makes me scratch my head and I can’t be the only one.
Back to the game. You know it’s not your night when you’re leading scorer happens to be Willie Green. He had 14, and came in averaging 6.3. Jeff Teague had 12, while Tracy McGrady and Josh Smith each had 10. A couple of other stats. While the Hawks had a better shooting percentage than their hosts (43% to 41%), they only attempted 8 foul shots and get decimated on the boards, 51-32. Elton Brand had 16 boards for Philly while Thaddeus Young dropped in 20. Philly only dressed nine, while Kirk Hinrich joined Al on the bench. A lot of the subs saw action as, once the game got out of hand, Atlanta wanted to save the starters for the Cavs.
With the loss, Atlanta moves back into a tie for first with Orlando and Miami. The game with Cleveland is important. Atlanta needs to it to buoy their spirits heading into the road trip. They spend the first week of February at home, and keeping pace with the Floridians is vital.

At some point during this compressed schedule, the players have to ask why on earth did they agreee to this?
One person who won’t have to worry about it is Al Horford. With a torn pectoral muscle, he’s out for about four months, or the entire regular season. I’ve always liked the grit Al provided, and that will be missed. Hawks officials haven’t (publicly) pushed the panic button, and official word from the team is that they’re not chasing a replacement. This will be an issue with everyone. That’s the combination of too much downtime immediately followed by not enough.
Besides Al, the Hawks are missing Tracy McGrady. T-Mac may be back later in the homestand. (Atlanta has the MLK game on Monday plus another home date on Wednesday). Marvin was out earlier in the week, but is in the lineup tonight against Minnesota. Atlanta’s been using Zaza in place of Al. He’s had 6 points, but down the stretch, it’s Radmanovic and Ivan Johnson who’ve had most of the minutes. If you checked in during halftime, you would’ve seen a big T-Wolf advantage, but in the second, Atlanta used a 26-2 run to take the lead in the fourth before settling in a back and forth rhythm. You have to like Atlanta’s resiliency. It wasn’t there last season.
I was typing this through the fourth quarter, and Atlanta has won it, 93-91. Ivan Johnson made two foul shots with five seconds left to give Atlanta a big victory. That’s the definition of stealing a game. They were down by 18 and still pulled it out. Joe Johnson had 25, and Jeff Teague added 20, but those 2 foul shots from Ivan (he ended with 10) saved it. For Minnesota, Kevin Love poured in 30 and Ricky Rubio had 16.
I like the word I used earlier. Resiliency. It’s a long season, and there will be plenty of games, and we will see if exhaustion comes about, but a resilient team shouldn’t be counted out.

In previous posts, I predicted the NBA season would not happen. I thought both sides would be intransigent. I was wrong. It took a lot longer than expected, but we have it. Of course, with the compressed schedule, this will be a war of attrition more than anything. I considered typing this without spaces, but there was no sense being cute, at least not this early.

Okay, the Hawks won their first three games with a pair over New Jersey and one over Washington. Then they lost to Houston. This played into some of my posts from last season about being unable to beat a quality opponent. It seems I was wrong about this as well. Atlanta just handed Miami their first loss of the year in a 100-92 beatdown in South Beach. Give the Hawks credit. Miami had a four point lead at the end of the first, but Atlanta never went away. They stayed around before using a 33-21 fourth to put the shell-shocked Heat away. Tracy MacGrady came up big off the bench, as he scored 16, including several big buckets in that fourth. Joe Johnson led with 21, Al Horford had 16, and new starting point guard Jeff Teague contributed 15. LeBron had 28, while Dwayne Wade had a miserable night, scoring only 12 on 4-17 from the floor (but 4 of 6 from three).

Atlanta runs their record to 4-1, but it’s way to early to make generalizations. It’s a long season, and this week proves it. This was the first of five games in six days. They’re back in action against the Bulls tomorrow, before playing those dreaded back-to-back-to-backers starting Thursday (home dates with Miami and Chicago sandwiched around a trip to Charlotte). This affects everyone, so it should even itself out. The big question is which team has the most stamina, and, in the abbreviated camp, were they able to work on it.

I’ve ben running around all day prepping for the region 17 Junior College baseball tournament. Georgia Perimeter has the #1 seed and will host it, but it’s thirty minutes east of the city, so it requires a lot of logistical work. By the way, you can watch me call some of the action on PSBlive.com. Should be fun, if I can ever get there. But I found time to turn on the Hawks-Bulls Game 6, and kind of wish I didn’t. The Bulls are up by 20 with under 3 minutes to play, so it looks like Atlanta’s season has run its’ course. This is another in a long string of home blowouts. They answer one blowout with a gutty performance, but can’t string them together. This is something we’ve seen all year, and they finally ran out of tomorrows. Let’s look back. Al Horford played consistently well, doing the dirty defensive work. Joe Johnson has proved that he’s an all-around threat. (In these playoffs, the Hawks have won every time Joe scores more than 20, and lost when he doesn’t. He’s at 19 right now). Josh Smith still breaks down and thinks he’s a perimeter player (he’s not). The Kirk Hinrich deal might have worked in the playoffs if he didn’t get hurt in the second round. Jeff Teague is one of those players who does the things that do not show up in a scorecard but are essential to victory. Marvin played well in stretches, but he got hurt in the preseason and never really got on track. So what is next? Well, first we hope to have basketball. The NBA might go down the NFL’s road and burst into flames, but we hope the situation doesn’t come to that. I think the Hawks have to draft a playmaker. Not sure if a quality one will be available that late in the first round, but they might have to find someone they can mold into what Larry Drew needs. This season has been a success. They won a second round playoff game for the first time, since when, the 1990′s? (It might have been earlier, don’t feel like looking). They have to get more consistent, and Larry Drew has to prove to them that these efforts where they sem to stink up at home, just won’t be tolerated. Atlanta must be an arena where teams dread coming in. It was anything but this year. Okay, now that Hawks are done, I’ll be doing this baseball tourney and then helping Marcus Young with the Braves. Looking forward to that. One thing about sports that is refreshing. As one season ends, another is either staring up or going strong.

After a very disappointing game three in this series, the Hawks answered the bell for Game Four. And they did it in that particular gut-check time the fourth quarter. Chicago started the final frame with a two point lead, but Atlanta exploded in the fourth, outscoring the Bulls 33-19 and getting out of here with a 100-88 victory. This ties the series at two heading into Game Five, which will be up in Chicago on Tuesday. It also guarantees a Game Six in Philips Arena at the end of the week. And Jeff Teague didn’t have to lead the team in scoring for the Hawks. Three players got more than twenty. Joe lead the way 24, Josh Smith had 23, and Al Horford chipped in twenty. Derrick Rose got his points as well, with 34. Carlos Boozer added 18 and Luol Deng pitched in 13. Rebounding was just about even, but the Hawks shot better in all three categories (field goal percentage, three-point shooting percentage, and foul shooting percentage). That 1 of 6 abomination in the last game turned into a 4 for 11 outing this time around. Not much to write home about, but certainly better than Chicago’s 3 of 16. So besides the obvious place, Chicago, where does the series go from here, and most importantly, can Atlanta win in what is now essentially a best two-out-of-three? I like the fact that they played hard, and found open zones. I also like the fact that they went back to their philosophy against Orlando or let the star do his thing and keep the role players out of it. The strategy worked because the big players inside found room to operate. Atlanta made some threes, forced the defense to spread itself, and then found the lanes in coverage. But what I don’t like, and what I haven’t all year, is that Atlanta got stuck in a game where they needed to perform with their backs against the wall. They played lazily, got smacked around, and had to rise up. It’s this inconsistency that’s plagued them all season, and until they can string together a few games like this, they will not reach the elite status. We will see if it comes together again on Tuesday.

Remember when Dwight Howard went crazy against the Hawks in the first game of their first round series? It must have been, what, two and a half weeks ago? The kicker was that the rest of the Magic didn’t fare so well, and Atlanta put forth a team effort and beat the Magic. Well, in Game Three against the Bulls, the same thing happened, almost. It was Derrick Rose’s turn to scorch the nets, proving why he was named MVP. He poured in 44 (I guess that ankle sprain really isn’t an issue) as Chicago won convincingly, 99-82. The Bulls have won two straight and look to be in control of the series. Game Four is Sunday. The interesting part, at least from Chicago’s perspective, is that the other two players in double figures were bench players. Taj GIbson had 13, and Kyle Korver added 11. You’d think this would benefit the Hawks. It didn’t. The leading scorer was one Jeff Teague, with 21. Josh Smith had 17, while Joe, Al, and Marvin all pitched in with 10. The Hawks will not win with Jeff Teague leading the way. It was like the Bulls adopted Atlanta’s strategy. They keyed on specific players, and used lockdown defense to win ugly, but win nonetheless. Chicago had a rebounding edge of 13. Atlanta’s shooting percentage was a respectable 47%, (as was Chicago’s), but the Hawks took 9 less floor shots, and Atlanta three-point shooting rate was a miniscule 1 for 6. In this day and age, who ever heard of attempting just six three-pointers? It’s unheard of. Larry Drew needs to space out his players and get the defense to commit to them in the hope of create open looks. Chicago is winning this with defense. If the series goes back to Chicago with the Bulls ahead, it might not return. Atlanta will look to recapture the Game One magic and try to save a series that is being choked away.

Many people, myself included, wasn’t sure what the Hawks would do without Kirk Hinrich. The guard went down with only a few minutes left in the Game six victory over Orlando. Okay, here is the answer. Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford would have to play out of their minds. And they did. Joe Johnson scored 34 and Jamal continued his great play off the bench, adding in twenty, and Atlanta won the first game of this series, 103-95. Now, I’m listening to the TNT announcer going apopletic as Derrick Rose turns his ankle again after steping on the back of Jamal Crawford. This is someting that will have to be monitored. As I mentioned at the outset, Hinrich’s subtraction made an already thin part of Atlanta’s line-up thinner, and Johnson and Crawford made up the slack. If Jamal isn’t voted Sixth Man of the Year again, then something is wrong. Rose hurt his ankle in the Indiana series. I expect him to grit it out. Also, this win snapped a 15-game Hawk losing streak in the second round. A lot of sweeps have been avenged. This game was pretty close entering in the fourth quarter, but the Hawks pulled away. I didn’t think it possible given the way they limped into this series, but they do seem to have a toughness that can get them through these situations. They have the home court, and we will see if it is the second coming of the Magic series.