Initial Feedback: Fourth Overtime's the Charm

James Goeders, a chemistry doctoral student at Georgia Tech and avid sports fan, wrote the initial feedback for tonight's game.

Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.

Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.

Boxscore

Players
Joe Johnson: With T-Mac sitting out with a knee injury, Joe took his place by being invisible for three quarters before finally coming to life in the fourth and in overtime. If this was a role player his score would be higher, but this is your max-contract, franchise player going 6/17 for the game from the floor and only 1-for-2 from the line. He did play a ton of minutes in the triple overtime loss last night, which could have affected his play tonight. Will be interesting to see how well he'll play tomorrow night against the Bulls with another 40+ minute game tonight. 4/10

Jeff Teague: Shots are still not falling for Teague. Kemba Walker and D.J. Augustin got the better of him all night and made Teague look slow on defense. It just seems as though he is not playing with the intensity we saw the first week of the season. Only went 3-for-10 from the floor and did not get to the line a single time, but did have a big 3 to start overtime. Teague did come through with 9 assists, something we've seen him do all season especially when the points are not there. 3/10

Josh Smith: Josh put the Hawks on his back in the third quarter with 14 points in that quarter alone. Finished as the game's leading scorer with 23 points and added 13 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. For awhile in the first half he looked like the only starter who wanted to play tonight. Consistently attacked the basket and reduced the number of bad jump shots that we have come to expect from J-Smoove. 8/10

Al Horford: Joined Josh as the main offensive threats with Joe going ice cold for three full quarters. He physically abused the Bobcat bigs inside and was perfect from the line finishing a number of and-1s. Played the same tough defense we've come to expect and was a force on the boards grabbing seven. 7/10

Marvin Williams: Finished in double figures while only playing 31 minutes and only having two made field goals in the first half. Had two late three pointers that were huge, but then had him putting up a number of threes that were off the mark through the rest of the quarter and overtime. Only able to hit one-of-two free throws in the final minute that could have given the Hawks a three point lead and a win in regulation. Added 9 rebounds, showing that he deserves to play as many minutes as the other starters, especially with McGrady hobbled. 5/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: VladRad finally hit a few 3s again (2-of-4 on the night) and had 7 rebounds. Finished in double figures (11), and was the lone big to do anything off of the bench. Took Marvin's spot with the starters during the fourth, which was an interesting move by Drew. 4/10

Jannero Pargo: Pargo was another spark off of the bench adding 9 points and 3 assists in only 10 minutes of action. He played with the energy that we had seen Teague play with earlier this season. It might be time to start giving Pargo more minutes. 4/10

Zaza Pachulia: VladRad and Ivan Johnson got all of his minutes tonight, which is a shame after how strong he looked on both ends of the court during the first week of the season. Finished with only a single basket but did have 5 rebounds. Would have liked to see Zaza get more minutes with how ineffective Ivan was tonight. 2/10

Ivan Johnson: After his "break-out" game last night, I was hoping to see some solid minutes from Drago. Instead, he had no points in 11 minutes while snagging 2 rebounds and 2 steals to go with his 3 quick fouls. He needs to start playing more under control in order to give Josh and Al much needed rest. 2/10

Willie Green: Shot a perfect 3-for-3 from the field in his 9 minutes of action, making him 8-for-9 over the last 2 games. After a slow start, maybe the light has turned on offensively for Willie Green. 4/10

The head coach
Again, if the Hawks make their free throws this is probably another win in regulation. The Bobcats were overmatched inside, but the Hawks seemed to stop going to Josh and Al after their strong third quarters. Larry Drew did not come up with anything to slow down Augustin and Walker even after it was apparent they were the only scoring threats the Bobcats were going to have tonight. It is discouraging to see such poor defense every night against opposing point guards. It's one thing to give up 30 points to Derrick Rose, but the Hawks have now given up 29 to Mario Chalmers, 21 to D.J. Augustin, and 19 to Kemba Walker in the last two games. 5/10

A thought regarding the opposition
The Bobcats have some good young talent, and an exciting backcourt. The Hawks had no answer for their dual point guards as Augustin and Walker were their leading scorers. It still was a bit of a disappointment to blow a late double-digit lead and go to overtime with one of the worst teams in the conference.