[league standings]
One look at the score and you can tell this match-up wasn't much of a contest. The Hawks kept it reasonably close for about 15 minutes before slowly sliding into obscurity. A few points of interest for Atlanta; Mike Bibby dropped 21 points with only 4 assists (the added "ouch" in this scenario is that the Hornets out-dimed the Hawks 35 to 18). I think he's decided that he's tired of taking flack for not living up to everyone's expectations. He's not doing too terribly (with 11.4 points and 6.5 dimes in 10 games with Atlanta), but I think might be trying to save face, since they're still losing. Last night was somewhat of a statement game for him. A sort of "Screw you guys. I will not be taking the blame for you ineptness any longer". It would've probably of been more of "statement" had he played for a relevant team.
CP3 continues to cause a great gnashing of teeth in Atlanta. He went for 23 points, 18 assists, 2 steals and only 1 turnover against the team that passed on him in the draft... which puts him at 4-0 versus said team (3 teams actually passed on him and only the Jazz came out out even). Peja showed up and dropped 29 points (7 treys) and pulled down 8 boards. Chanlder and Pargo also had great nights, but the real story was rookie Julian Wright's performance. In 22 minutes he put up 13 points and 7 rebounds (4 offensive) and dominated the highlight reel (except for Tyson's massive block on Al Horford. I will now defer to Curry:
Julian Wright also got 22 minutes of playing time and put on quite a show. He had two incredible highlight dunks (the first was a behind-the-back alley-oop from Chris Paul, and the second was an offensive rebound putback that defied the laws of nature. Seriously, his arms must be made of rubber, because there's no way any mortal man could've jumped at this angle -- away from the basket -- and still slammed the ball)
The best part of the game? No, not the highlight reel. No, not the fact that we kicked ass and took names without David West (ankle injury). No, not the fact that we started (take a breath) Ryan Bowen in his stead. Nope. The best part was the 10 minute break between the third and fourth quarters. After a Super Hugo dunk went awry and tore the net (seriously, a Harlem Globetrotter was tossing him the ball... how could that go wrong), a crew of at least 8 people emerged to tie/tape the net back together. First off, why do we need 8 people for this? Secondly, why would it take more than 2 minutes? D, why don't we have any extra nets hanging around? I could go on for hours.
As per fourth quarter usual, "Apache" blared through the sound system, prompting endless dancing (especially after the song crossed the 50 second mark for the first time). Everyone was dancing. Even Curry danced (somewhat inadvertently) with a Honeybee. But nothing topped the moment when a camera found JuJu bobbing to the beat. An roar rose from the stadium as JuJu stood up and danced like it was 1999. Amazing.
After this, Pargo, Chandler, Peja, and some lucky ten year-old with courtside tickets started passing the ball around (and half dancing). Then, unsure of their next play, the av/sound guys opted for the inexplicably ever-popular "kiss-cam". Ordinarily I would hate this. But not tonight. Since the camera guys had an eternity on their hands, the camera ended up at the scorer's table. Then this happened:
Kiss Cam, baby! (courtesy of yahoo)The NBA: where Josh Childress still loves you even if you didn't trade for him and then added insult to injury by taking names against his own crappy team happens.
See you Friday.
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