arc of time

bk and i went to the funeral march that was game four of the eastern conference semis yesterday at phillips. we had incredible seats thanks to the president of my company’s international division and the ceo of my company.

of course, by now, you know the drill. the hawks got swept by the reigning mvp and his supporting casts of clowns (sorry, after lbj there is almost no one on cleveland i like.)

the guys did give us a show though, keeping it close and eventually being done in by their inability to hit key shots, lebron’s insnace three point shooting and bad officiating.

so the season is over. but i am excited and happy with the hawks performance. i wrote a thank you note over on the atlanta metblog, so cruise on over there and check that out.

while you are there register for the site and leave a comment. we sure would love it.

sekou smith has a message for all of use hawks fans and i couldn’t agree more:

We’re going to have plenty of time to roast those who need to be roasted. And there will be loads of opportunities for second-guessing and all that other fun stuff.

Just not tonight. I’m giving it a rest until 2009.

Your team is 21-10 for Baby New Year’s sake (43-42 in the calendar year for 2008, just fyi), show ‘em a little love for once.

HAH!

for sure. it must be symptomatic of watching so much losing basketball that hawks fans will completely dissect a team that enters the new year ELEVEN games above .500!

for the next few days i am taking sekou’s advice

of course they will. i know that. most likely when they have to travel boston next week, but for now they look just damn unstoppable.

as, rs and i went to the highlight factory and watched the hawks just dominate the raptors, another playoff team from last year, which meand the hawks are now 4-0 against four teams that made the postseason.

and the amazing thing, they did it with a quiet night from joe johnson and with josh smith out most of the game hurt. j-smoove is going to miss two to four weeks which will be a real strain on the hawks. while “flip mo,” the combination of flip murray and mo evans has proved ever the great replacement for j-chills, the rest of the bench is a huge question mark.

woody must know this too because solomon jones seemed to play more minutes that jj in the second half (the game was never really in question,) i don’t think bibby came off the bench in the 4th quarter and even mario west go in on the action.

the reserves looked decent too, so i am cautiously optimistic we can weather the injury to j-smoove, especially with what looks like continuing improvement from big al, especially on defense and grabbin offensive boards.

it probably won’t be enough in boston, but by giving themselves a 4 game cushion to start the season, they are in a much better position to withstand 4 games without their defensive leader.

the hawks beat the hornets last night to go three and oh. this is a team many consider to be a contender for the nba title and one of the elite teams in the league.

for my part, what i am starting to love about this team is the grit they play with. they came out and jumped all over new orleans, especially after chris paul had to sit with two fouls. but cp3 came back in and he was unstoppable.

the hornets pulled ahead and last year’s hawks team, down 6 on the road against an elite team would have folded and the hornets would have put them away big. not this year. just like they did against the sixers they reached in and found some huge defensive stops and made some key baskets, including big threes from flip murray and yes, marvin williams.

wow.

it’s going to be an exciting season.

see you guys at the highlight factory on friday.

my favorite and much-maligned nba franchise, and the only atlanta team i root for, the atlanta hawks showed up at phillips arena for the home opener last night, having shocked even me, probably the most optimistic hawks fan on the planet, with an absurdly dominant win in orlando.

i was looking forward to good things as as, bk and i took our seats at phillips arena to watch the hawks take on elton brown, tech dropout thaddeaus young and the 76ers.

by midway through the first half things were going horrible wrong. the hawks couldn’t score a basket to save their lives, marvin williams was throwing up brick after brick after brick, and josh smith had a sum total of zero points.

by the half point of the second quarter the hawks had started whittling away at the lead and like micah hart writes in the official hawks basketblog the crowd never gave up on the team, giving them a boost of energy every time they put together a small run.

and then in the 4th quarter they turned it on. marvin had been benched, joe johnson decided once again to put the team on it’s back and carry them, and josh smith finally showed up to play (he finished with an impressive double-double.) even zaza pachulia (the only hawk who has an actual blog dedicated to him, incredible i know) came through with some big putbacks under the glass.

when the hawks tied and then took the lead, phillips arena went absolutely nuts. loud, raucous, flags waving, it was a sight to be seen. it honestly was even more energetic than the crowd for the opener against the mavs last year.

and when j.j. hit the three that sealed it, i felt like i was once and for all in a real basketball city.

so we’re 2-0 now having beaten two quality teams in two good wins.

some initial thoughts…

1. atlanta has the potential to be a great basketball town. the arena is amazing, the profile of the city screams for it. i think another playoff season advancing beyond round one might do it
2. there is no player in the nba i would rather watch than joe johnson. i know he isn’t kobe, or kg or lebron or chris paul. but in terms of sheer guts, character and determination matched with unquestionable skill, i will take him as my team leader over any of those guys
3. thank god we resigned josh smith
4. it’s time for marvin to put up or get out. he spent the second half on the bench watching flip murray.

micah hart called it the hawks biggest game in nine years.

over at braves and birds, michael was raving at the run the hawks were putting together.

and with a chance to put serious distance between them and the nets in last night’s matchup, the hawks promptly wet the bed.

i didn’t see the game, but it just brings to mind what has been so frustrating all year; and that is a team that can beat the best in the nba on any given night, but just can’t seem to find any consistency.

i think a coaching change is probably in order, as much of a cliche as that seems.

kk, atlanta’s best realtor (and crimass light seller-extraordinaire) and i are on our way to phillips tonight for the hawks-sonics game.

looking for the hawks to be able to put up two in a row after a pretty impressive win against charlotte the other night. the hawks have looked great and times, good at others and outplayed drastically at others, but what they haven’t managed to do yet is put together a winning streak.

let’s hope that changes tonight against seattle.

i’m going to give marta a shot again tonight. if you are curious about my last experience o”_n marta check here.

i am TOTALLY getting into the hawks. i made it over to the season opener against dallas, which was an absolute blast (you can read about it over on the atlanta metblog, i won’t recap here,) and i have watched both of their subsequent losses on tv, one against detroit and last night against the nets.

the hawks stand 1-2 after a grueling opening 3 games. they should be 3-0, having played lights out in both losses, but key turnovers against detroit and an inability to hit some key frees and get defensive rebounds doomed them against new jersey.

still, that team that came back and took out the mavs is still there and i have a lot of hope for the hawks.

al horford was a great draft pick and is going to be fun, fun, fun to watch all season.

it’s gonna be fun, and i’ll see you all at phillips arena on sunday for the wizards game.