UPDATED - Tonight's Game: Orlando Magic vs. Atlanta Hawks - Open Thread

by Ben Q Rock on Dec 10, 2007 12:02 PM EST in 2007/2008 Previews Comment 8 comments

	vs.
16-5		9-10
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Anthony Johnson
Keith Bogans	SG	Joe Johnson
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Josh Smith
Rashard Lewis	PF	Marvin Williams
Dwight Howard	C	Al Horford

Very abbreviated preview today. It's the last week of school and I have projects to finish and exams for which to study. Sorry about that.

That refined Hawks logo sure is sharp, but I wish they kept the away uniforms red instead of changing them to dark blue.
Hoopinion, which covers the Hawks, doesn't think that Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis pose as much a threat to Atlanta as Carlos Arroyo and Jameer Nelson do:

Atlanta has demonstrated no ability to guard quick point guards at any point this season. If Anthony Johnson and Acie Law IV create a third option for Orlando's offense, the game could be out of hand before the Hawks have a chance to start warming up early for the third quarter.
Tim Povtak reports that Keyon Dooling practiced with the starters over the weekend. ~~Keith Bogans won't know if he can play until just before tip-off~~.
- UPDATE: John Denton reports that Bogans has iced his sore thigh and feels good enough to start tonight.
Bethlehem Shoals thinks Dwight Howard should have won the dunk contest this year and should be favored to win it this year. I'm sure Bullets Forever will have something to say about that, given its campaign to get Nick Young into dunk-contest contention.
If Joe Johnson and Josh Smith go off on us tonight, well, at least I have them on my fantasy team.

0 recs | Comment 8 comments

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Oh we will

It'll just take a few hours.

Bullets Forever: Blogging with Phenomenal Swag!

by JakeTheSnake on Dec 10, 2007 6:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Hey, Jake!

Scouting the opposition tonight, partner?

by Ben Q Rock on Dec 10, 2007 6:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Just the possible dunk contestants :p

I was originally planning on catching some of it, but something came up and that fell through. Although I have to admit I probably would've switched about halfway through so I could figure out how on earth the Heat beat the Suns.

Bullets Forever: Blogging with Phenomenal Swag!

by JakeTheSnake on Dec 11, 2007 12:02 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Dunks

J-Smoove had a few.

by Ben Q Rock on Dec 11, 2007 10:27 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

MVP?

Does Dwight look lethargic to you? He does not seem to have much energy and is relying completely on his athleticism a la King James of yester year. I hope this gets worked out of his system because it seems the team goes as he goes. We are no San Antonio quite yet. Lewis should take over on night like this, but he has not shown that he has that in his bag. Will it come or is he a perennial side kick type? And Jameer really needs to become more consistent and receive more minutes. Also, Dooling at PG is scary at times.

by Eyriq the Red on Dec 10, 2007 11:19 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Ugh

Lewis is never going to be that go-to guy. I mean, we can give the ball to him and ask him to score, but he's not going to impose his will on the game in the way T-Mac did. Sucks. I guess $118 million doesn't buy you what it used to...?

Dooling is our best reserve, but I think he's better suited to the two-guard, which makes trading either he or Arroyo difficult. Trade Arroyo, Dooling has to play the point. Trade Dooling, there's no good bench scorer and we're down to two good perimeter defenders (Evans and Bogans). Tricky.

by Ben Q Rock on Dec 11, 2007 10:30 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Reply: Ugh

Reddick is a better scorer than Dooling and Evans is a better defender than Dooling. Dooling's offense is a mirage as he invariably starts relying on his patent dribble then take 17 footer routine (thank hollinger for the analysis, but heck, it's true). At this point though he is a leader off the bench so the point is moot, but I think we would be better served swapping him and Reddick in the rotation both short term and long term.

by Eyriq the Red on Dec 12, 2007 8:01 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs