Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Hawks at Bobcats: Small Forwards Need Not Apply

Charlotte announced yesterday that Gerald Wallace would miss tonight's game with a strained right foot. Tonight's game will be the fifth of the last six that Wallace has missed. In the last two games, Sam Vincent has dealt with Wallace's absence by giving 68 minutes to Jeff McInnis. That rather raises the bar for Mr. Woodson this evening. Maybe he'll respond by putting Acie Law IV, Tyronn Lue, and Anthony Johnson all on the floor at the same time.

Charlotte has lost seven in a row by an average margin of 17.7 points. Their nine-point loss at home to the Lakers on Monday night is the only game they've lost by fewer than 14 points during the streak.

Atlanta will likely be without Josh Childress who flew back from Charlotte today to get an MRI on his right knee:
Childress hyperextended his knee late in Tuesday's home loss to Detroit. He finished the game but said he woke up in pain at the team hotel in Charlotte Wednesday.

"We don't think it's anything to [sic] serious," Childress told the AJC while sipping a smoothie at the Charlotte airport. "But they wanted me to get it checked out just to be safe."
It's the little things Sekou contributes, I find.

Ballhype: hype it up!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hawks present line-up late in the first quarter: Lue, Law, JJ, Sheldon, Wright. Inexplicably, they've forced three consecutive turnovers and scored six unanswered, mostly by driving the ball.

I really hope Woodson doesn't get this in his head where he thinks, "Yes, I should play two points along with a 2 and two offensively inept centers more often! They're so effective!"

Anonymous said...

And... another loss to a team not at full strength (although the Hawks were without Childress too). Is it too early to start hoping for the team to tank utterly to improve their draft position?

Bret LaGree said...

Ron, in terms of the first round, they'd just be improving Phoenix's draft position and the last three second-round picks Billy Knight has had he's used on Salim Stoudamire, Solomon Jones, and Anthony Johnson.

It's got to be a coaching change over the All-Star break. These guys are playing hard enough that I'd like to see them get the reward of playoff basketball even if it is a hopeless matchup against Boston or Setroit.

Atlanta Spirit can cough up the dough to pay for two head coaches for 34 games can't they?