Minnesota Sports Forum

Our guys play the Atlanta Hawks tonight at 7:30 PM in Atlanta. We've had some surprising performances on the road this year with wins over Charlotte and Chicago in their home arenas. We really need to win this one as we attempt to surge closer to the playoff hunt.

We're just two games behind Portland in the loss-column, which means we can pull closer in the standings tonight with a win. As Cool said in the other thread, we need to go 33-22 to finish the season at 41-41. I don't think that's an unreasonable conquest, but in order to do that we're going to need win games like this one.

Oh, and it'd be nice to have a win streak. We're the only team in the NBA to this point that hasn't won two games in a row. Hopefully, that ends tonight.

Howard is a game time decision I think (?). I'm debating if the Hawks are better with or without him.....

ahh I see we are matching up against next years Wolves free agent signing Paul Milsap

Q12543 wrote:Howard is a game time decision I think (?). I'm debating if the Hawks are better with or without him.....

Yeah, as of two hours ago, he said his back was feeling better, but he wouldn't know if he'll be able to play until after warmups.

If Howard is out, I'd expect Atlanta to trot out the same starting lineup they used on Monday against Oklahoma City -- Schroeder, Korver, Bazemore, Sefalosha, and Millsap. They won't scare you with size, but that's a lot of shooting to defend. Offensively, this is another game where the gameplan should be to feed Towns down low early and often. Defensively, we have got to be sound with our rotations or we'll get thrashed from behind the three-point line. I also don't see Dieng playing more than 25 minutes tonight. This is a really bad matchup for him.

Q12543 wrote:Howard is a game time decision I think (?). I'm debating if the Hawks are better with or without him.....

14 ppg / 13 reb / 1.5 blk / 63% fg / 22.3 PER

But some of the advanced stats are positive, too. 2.2 DBPM.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Howard is a game time decision I think (?). I'm debating if the Hawks are better with or without him.....

14 ppg / 13 reb / 1.5 blk / 63% fg / 22.3 PER

But some of the advanced stats are positive, too. 2.2 DBPM.

Yeah, he's put up some pretty sexy stats, but the team is worse last year defensively and are on pace to be worse record-wise. The biggest change I can think of is swapping out Horford for Howard.

Oh, and Houston is better this year than they were last year with their major roster change being....getting rid of Dwight Howard.

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Howard is a game time decision I think (?). I'm debating if the Hawks are better with or without him.....

14 ppg / 13 reb / 1.5 blk / 63% fg / 22.3 PER

But some of the advanced stats are positive, too. 2.2 DBPM.

Yeah, he's put up some pretty sexy stats, but the team is worse last year defensively and are on pace to be worse record-wise. The biggest change I can think of is swapping out Horford for Howard.

They don't have Teague anymore either

But Schroeder is pretty good isn't he? I never considered Teague anything other than a solid starting PG. Isn't DS pretty much the same?

Q12543 wrote:But Schroeder is pretty good isn't he? I never considered Teague anything other than a solid starting PG. Isn't DS pretty much the same?

I agree but that means instead of an above average backup pg they don't have that anymore

kekgeek1 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:But Schroeder is pretty good isn't he? I never considered Teague anything other than a solid starting PG. Isn't DS pretty much the same?

I agree but that means instead of an above average backup pg they don't have that anymore

Good point. Let's hope Dunn has some success tonight. I'd love to see him push for a longer rope and build more trust with the coaching staff. Perhaps then we can finally see some Dunn-Tyus pairings and give LaVine a little more of a break (although I do love LaVine playing with that second unit).