With Anthony Johnson unavailable, Mike Woodson couldn’t start his third-best point guard as is his wont. That limited his ability to shoot his team in the foot to turning a decent-to-good backup point guard (Lue) into an overmatched starter.

I like Lue’s chances to play Flip Murray even or get the best of him. He has no chance of slowing down Chauncey Billups.

Also, Maxiell v. Smith was great fun to watch. Probably even more fun for you as Maxiell won handily.

“All in all, the Hawks looked damn good: they have a lot of solid, young players (if he played for any other team, Josh Smith would be a household name already), and the pieces really seem to be falling into place.”

Do you mean Joe Johnson?

I believe that Josh Smith didn’t sign a contract extension, so that means he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season. Maybe we’ll be seeing him in commercials sooner than later?

Acie Law and Al Horford looked really good though. I think the Hawks are good enough to battle for an 8th seed.

PistonsNation: No, I meant Josh Smith, and I guess the fact that I needed to clarify solidifies my point that he’s unknown. He’s explosive as hell — great rebounder and outstanding shot-blocker despite the fact that he’s a short 6-9, plus he’s a terror in the paint with his dunks. If he was a on team determined to build around him instead of a team with 10,000 former lottery picks each thinking they’re the main guy of the future, he might already be an All-Star.

They had so many young guys that their speed up and down the court caused was probably the biggest problem for us. Most of 2nd and 3rd quarter the Hawks had their shot off before we could get our defense set up. We some trouble with fouls too.

I feel that way about Joe Johnson. I feel that guy is a heck of a player now and hasn’t even reached his full potential.

Josh Smith is nice but there’s still a major flaw in his game, that jumper. He’s a the kind of guy that can help a team win with all the things he does so well, but I don’t don’t think he’s the type of player you can build around.

If I may harp on the negative here, Flip Murray looked gawd awful. I only watched the first half (can’t sit at the bar drinking the entire night on a Sunday), but he looked determined to press. In 5 or 6 possessions, he took the ball down and was determined to put up a shot, even driving into three and four defenders.

I say give Afflalo some run subbing for Chauncey with Tayshaun running the point. Watching Murray stink it up in the first half last night showed how important Stuckey is. Either Murray needs to learn how to run the point, maintain momentum, and let the game come to him, or he needs to be the reserve point guard, rarely coming off the bench but kept as insurance in case Rip or Chauncey go down. As a starter, you can spend a little time shooting your way into the game, but off the bench trying to maintain a lead, it doesn’t work.

I am curious as to what the “+/-” column in the NBA.com statistics stands for and how do they come to that specific number?

Adam:

Say a player enters a game twice, in the first and second half. Say he plays five minute during each stretch. The score when he first enters the game is 25-20, his team is winning. If he leaves and the score is 35-28, then his team added two points during his time on the floor. So he gets +2. Then say in the second half, he comes in when the score is 67-63. When he leaves, his team is leading 78-75. His team lost a point on the lead, so he gets 1 for that stretch. For the game, he had a +2 and a -1, so his +/ for the game is +1.

Just do it for more minutes and more stints in the game.

Observations from the game from here in Atlanta. The fact that our starting frontcourt could have 20 points TOTAL between the three players and we still win is a testament to our depth this year. Maximus’ 15 pts definately helped the cause of course. That kid is a beast unleashed. I’m interested to see if his overall game can develop over time ala Charles Barkely. He was just a big ball of energy initially and as we all know, his game rounded out quite nicely. Hayes was off in the first half but responded nicely in the 4th. I like the diversity of his game. Since he wasn’t hitting his three, he posted up and drove a few times. Flip just seemed out of control all game. Just forcing too much. I though Dice would avg about 10 pts as a starter, but it will be interesting to see if he gets enough shots. I imagine he needs 10-11 shot attempts in order to hit half and average 10 pts. The Dynamic Duo in the backcourt looked phenomenal. Sheed… enough with being jeolous because Dirk won the 3 pt contest. Let it go. Damn. He had 3 attempts in the first 5 mins of the darn game. But if he continues his defense at this pace, he merits strong consideration for Defensive Player of the Year. He and Max run that paint. Enter at your own risk. Dice chips in also. I liked our defensive intensity last night. Tay looked way too passive with Rip back. We need a game plan that can incorporate all of our weapons. Can’t wait to see Amir and Stuckey. Come oooon Thursday. I need another Pistons fix.

I hear ya, Thursday seems like so long away. They need the time off though, they have another 3 games in 4 days again.

Flip Murray has been pretty good lately (minus last game), but he doesn’t pass enough to be point guard. Murray should never be point guard, he excels when someone else is at point so he can drive to the basket. Put someone else (who passes) at PG when Murray is on the floor so other players can get their open shots.

I like to mix up even amounts of driving to the basket and midrange jumpers with a little bit of 3’s. It breaks down and spreads out our opponents defense, not knowing where we are going to take our shot from. Stuckey drives to the basket too, but he’s not as selfish with the ball.

Tay looked good at backup PG, how many PG’s are tall enough to guard him? Because the size difference between Prince and most PG’s, someone would have to help the PG guarding Prince if he gets close to the basket. Which would leave a Piston with an open shot.

With how much we need Maxiell in close games, Amir is going to have a hard time getting minutes unless we are up a dozen plus points in the 4th. We almost have to many good players (I know that’s not really a problem), I always want a guy or two to get more minutes (Amir and Nazr last game), but there’s only so many minutes in a game. Once Stuckey is back there is going to be one hell of a fight for minutes.

Chauncey Obviously shows why he’s worth the money…kinnnnnda
www.clutch3.com

I thought Amir would get Nazrs minutes during that game since we were going against such an athletic team.

Agree about Lue, put him on the bench and start Law ASAP.

Hawks got my vote as a playoff possible.

They’re looking more sharp than Orlando or Miami or Washington, just off the random box scores and whatnot.

They may not collectively know what it takes for a run outside of guys like Mike Woodson and Joe Johnson, but the team has a lot of energy to blow through and get there.