Initial Feedback: Homecourt Advantage Is Huge This Season

By James Goeders

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

Jeff Teague: The loan bright spot for the Hawks on a night when only three players scored in double figures. Did a decent job being matched up against Tony Parker and added 3 steals to go with his 5 rebounds and game high 20 points. Did not have an assist, but that's more because no one's shots were falling after Teague got the ball to them. 8/10

Joe Johnson: After such a strong finish Monday night Joe just couldn't find his shot against the Spurs. Did have 7 assists but went 0-for-3 from behind the arc and only 5-for-12 from the floor. Did not have a rebound and was held to only 10 points (his second fewest points on the season). Joe only took four shots after halftime (making 2-of-4) . 3/10

Josh Smith: Spent a big part of the game on the offensive end just standing around the three point line. Not able to take advantage of the long rests that the Spurs gave to Duncan, though that could have been more the zone defense the Spurs went to while he was out. Another Hawk that was cold from the floor (shot 6-for-17) and couldn't grab any rebounds (1 offensive/5 total) to lead to second chance points. Tiago Splitter absolutely shut him down inside. 3/10

Marvin Williams: Rough first half for Marvin who kept leaving Richard Jefferson alone at the three point line. Did not make his first basket until there were 9 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. He did play with intensity when the game was still in question in the second half hitting a couple of threes and grabbing 9 rebounds. Need Marvin to pick up his game so that the team doesn't have to rely so much on Ivan Johnson and VladRad. 4/10

Zaza Pachulia: Complete nonfactor offensively most of the game. Missed him defensively when the starters were on the bench for the extended period in the 2nd quarter, but he wasn't doing much on the glass (you might be noticing a pattern with the Hawks tonight). 2/10

Kirk Hinrich: Looked good shooting for his first game since April 28, 2011. Went 3-for-4 from the field making a three on his first shot of the season. The biggest positive will be less minutes going to Pargo and Green. 4/10

Tracy McGrady: Had a couple of nice passes to Ivan that Johnson just couldn't finish. Ended the game with only 3 assists, but on a better shooting night by his teammates that easily could have been close to double digits. TMac's best asset is setting up other players, and when shots aren't falling he's going to come up short on the stat sheet. 3/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: Missed both 3pt attempts and was a huge liability on defense. VladRad consistently left Bonner alone to drain threes which greatly contributed to the Spurs run in the 2nd quarter. Did make his two late free throws to avoid the goose egg. 1/10

Willie Green: 17 minutes and 3 points on 1-for-5 shooting. Atrocious while the game was still competitive. 1/10

Ivan Johnson: Ivan wanted to have a strong showing in front of his hometown crowd, but instead he had trouble on both ends of the court. Went completely invisible for big stretches and got abused inside defensively. Had a few pointblank shots that just wouldn't fall. Need more out of the first big guy to come off the bench. 3/10

Jannero Pargo: Got in for the final six minutes when the game was way out of hand. With Hinrich looking strong in his first game of the season we will not see much more Pargo. 2/10

Jerry Stackhouse: Another sacrificial lamb getting minutes with the Hawks down 20+. At least maybe the starters will be well rested for Detroit. Did hit his second three of the season and had 2 of the Hawks 6 offensive rebounds. 1/10

The head coach

Left the second team in for a long time in the second quarter when it was apparent they were getting destroyed both inside and outside. Team just went cold in the second half and really missed Al Horford’s help on the boards. Wish Drew could have figured out Matt Bonner as he was consistently open at the 3pt line (5-for-7 on the night). 3/10

A thought regarding the opposition
On a night where Tim Duncan and Richard Jefferson were held to single digits and the Spurs had more turnovers than the Hawks, they were still able to get an easy win at home by destroying Atlanta on the glass (44-34 that was even worse when the game was in doubt), inside (52 points in the paint compared to Atlanta's 34), and behind the line (11-23 vs. 4-12). The Spurs won this game by getting 51 points from only 4 bench players.