Quotes, Notes, and Links: Atlanta Hawks 94 Detroit Pistons 85

Recap

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Highlights

Al Horford:

"We were a little sluggish. I think everybody was feeling tired from the night before. I think everybody just had to push through to get this win."

Larry Drew:

"We’re not going to go out and blow out a lot of people. We have to learn how to win at the end. Sometimes it’s going to be pretty, sometimes it’s going to be ugly but we have to win in those types of situations."

Which is the primary cause for concern. The Hawks haven't been quite as good as their record indicates despite playing five teams that have combined to go 5-12 when not playing the Hawks.

On the other hand, as Joe Johnson put it:

"We have not yet played our best basketball, and we're still winning."

A secondary (and hopefully short-term) cause for concern: Marvin Williams's knee. Michael Cunningham reports that the Hawks are calling it a sprain and already listing him as questionable for Friday's game in Minnesota.

Williams:

"I’ve already got a lot of treatment. I will just go home and kick my feet up and see how it feels in the morning."

The Hawks could play that game with four centers, three shooting guards (Jamal Crawford hopes to play), and no small forwards on the (shortened) active roster. If you had the second week of the season in your When Does Shoddy Roster Construction Complicate Larry Drew's Job pool, congratulations.

Drew got on the guards for not contributing on the defensive glass:

"We didn’t get bodies on people. It’s not just our big guys, our guards have got to dig out long rebounds."

Before you know it the guards might be held accountable for their defensive performance, too.

Michael Cunningham was generally on fire in his post-game blog. To wit:

Maybe [Joe Johnson]’s just tired after playing 42 minutes at Cleveland and then logging 42 again tonight. It’s apparent L.D. is going to ride him in situations like this and tell him to keep shooting, but the game changed when Al and Smoove started touching the ball more late.

and

Good thing for the Hawks Villanueva likes to jack up bad shots. Josh Powell might have matched him brick for brick if he had played more than 13 minutes.

Locker room talk, baby.

More criticism for Charlie Villanueva's performance from Justin Rogers at MLive.com:

On the defensive end, the Hawks attacked Charlie Villanueva. Immediately after Prince's three-pointer, Zaza Pachulia posted him up and converted for an easy bucket. After Villanueva missed a three on the ensuing possession, he failed to stop Horford on the fast break going the other way. Next possession, Horford posted up and scored over . Two possessions later, Smith beat him on the fast break. Next possession, he ended up defending Joe Johnson on the perimeter. Johnson drove, drew contact and converted the basket and free throw.

That's 11 point in three and a half minutes. Of course you wouldn't know it by Kuester's post-game comments.

"Charlie Villanueva is playing outstanding basketball right now," he said.

I don't know, maybe it's was the effort Villanueva put into missing all five of his three-point attempts.