The Hawks are on the cusp of making a giant step forward, as playing these close game may prove. But they have a lot of learning and growing to do before they can begin to make these close losses quality wins.
One more point.
One more free throw.
One more pass.
One more of anything and the Hawks would have taken out the team with the best record in basketball, the Sacramento Kings.
The Toronto Raptors are quickly becoming a poisonous thorn in the Hawks flesh.
The Raptors had beaten the Hawks in two very close games this year, both games that the Hawks had in their collective hands, but yielded at the very end.
Tonight, the Raptors snuck into Philips Arena and without Vince Carter, caught the Hawks dead flat, and used their front line to force many issues with the home team.
Is DerMarr a bust or does he still possess greatness?
Michael Carvell believes that we won't know until next year, as he delves into the life of DerMarr.
Michael Lee of the AJC asks "Are these guys for real?"
The Hawks are supposed to beat up on Bulls, Nuggets, Knicks and Warriors. But a 26-point drubbing of the Eastern Conference-leading New Jersey Nets? Believe it.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim didn't have to worry about any loose elbows being thrown his direction Tuesday night. Bad boy of the moment Kenyon Martin was gone and, apparently, so was the fight in Nets, who lost 103-77 to become the sixth consecutive team to lose in a far-from-full Philips Arena.
It must have been Final Four Fever.
With college basketball?s biggest event moving to Atlanta this week, the Hawks played with the fervor that defines their youth, and the vigor of a Final Four participant.
Scrappy defense, saving balls from going out of bounds, and flat out hustle carried the Hawks to an improbable 103-77 victory Tuesday night.
What was improbable was they handed such a beating to the Eastern Conference leading New Jersey Nets.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim was the latest target of the NBA's newest bad boy, Kenyon Martin of the New Jersey Nets.
Martin was whistled for a flagrant foul in the fourth quarter of New Jersey's 116-102 victory over the Hawks on Sunday. It was Martin's sixth flagrant foul of the season and earned him an automatic two-game suspension that will include New Jersey's game at Atlanta on Tuesday.
The NBA will review the game tape but is unlikely to overturn the suspension. The league also could extend the suspension or add a fine.
There was a general feeling of uneasiness an hour and a half before the game when it was confirmed that Shareef Abdur-Rahim was going to be absent from Saturday?s game against Chicago to witness the birth of his first child, a son.
There was good reason to be nervous, though. The Hawks had lost the other four games without their leading scorer, averaging about twenty points a game in deficit in the process.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim has been an NBA lottery pick, an Olympian and an All-Star, but early Saturday morning, Abdur-Rahim became something that may dwarf them all -- a father.
Michael Lee of the AJC also writes about Reef's replacement, Alan Henderson, and about how the Bulls may not be what is Best for Travis.
Jason Terry got a steal, drifted into the lane and tossed a behind-the-back pass to Nazr Mohammed, who sank an easy lay-in. Terry, upon tying his career high with 13 assists, screamed and beat his chest like King Kong.
Lately, writes Michael Lee of the AJC, Terry and the Hawks have been the kings of the court in Philips Arena, where they have won five games in a row following a 112-96 win against the Chicago Bulls.
Playing without Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who was in California for the birth of his first child, the Hawks won their third in a row overall and got their first eight-win month under coach Lon Kruger.
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