Atlanta Hawks Hope to Feast on Turkey and Orlando Magic This Thanksgiving

John Boller — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:30:25 -0500

The last time the Atlanta Hawks played a game on Thanksgiving, President Barack Obama was 34 years old and winning a Grammy for the audio version of his autobiography, “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,” according to the president’s biography.

Meanwhile, Atlanta was being led by Steve Smith and Mookie Blaylock.

Now, go ahead and fast-forward 14 years later, President Obama is our 44th President, and the Hawks are tied for the best record in the NBA because of Joe Johnson and Josh Smith.

The Atlanta Hawks (11-3) are a perfect 7-0 at home this season, where the entrée will be the Orlando Magic (11-3) on Thursday night, followed by turkey for the main course, and for dessert, the best record in the NBA.

Could the NBA have planned their Thanksgiving any better?

Two of the three best teams in the league, who also happen to be in the same conference and same division, battle it out on Turkey Day to be the best team in the league.

Good thing it is on TNT, because they know drama, which is exactly what this game will be.

It is the first time that the two teams have played each other all season, and they do not play each other again until Jan. 9.

The Magic won the season series last year 3-1. The Hawks beat Orlando by 14 to open the season last year, but then Orlando won the final three games by an average of 14 points. Their second win over the Hawks last season was a 34-point blowout at Orlando.

Both teams have new looks to their rosters. For the Atlanta Hawks their new key addition is guard Jamal Crawford, while the Magic have brought in Vince Carter.

Crawford is the second-leading scorer for the Hawks with 16.7 points per game and Carter’s 18.7 points per game is good enough to lead the Magic.

Atlanta will have the benefit of playing on five days rest, while the Magic have to host the Miami Heat tonight and then fly out to Atlanta to start a three-game road tip that ends on Sunday at New York.

Advantage Hawks.

Atlanta will have to make sure and not let Carter get off to a fast start. Carter has led the Magic in scoring in four of Orlando’s last six games, including their last three and had a season-high 29 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Nov. 11.

The Thanksgiving Day matchup will also feature two of the premiere double-double players in the NBA. The Hawks’ Al Horford is scoring 13.7 points per game and pulling down 10.1 rebounds per game, and Dwight “Superman” Howard is averaging 11.1 rebounds per game to go with 17.4 points.

Howard is also the only Magic player to have played and started in all of Orlando’s 14 games.

The jump ball is at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, so if you are on the East Coast have dinner eaten and the dishes cleaned before then. For you central and West Coast time zones, better find a television set with some wheels.

Read more Joe Johnson news on BleacherReport.com

The Atlanta Hawks: A Great Team Doing Great Things

T.W. Scott — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:23:37 -0500

It seems the basketball gods are finally showing a little love to the birds of the South.

The Hawks have popped the season off 11-3 and up until Saturday night they were on a seven game winning streak.

One of the proudest moments of my Fan-Dom occurred this week when I did my usual rounds to check out the weekend dime and a couple of my favorite analysts power rankings and what do you know sitting atop all of them were my beloved Hawks.

The same Hawks team that just five short years ago won 16 games.

The same Hawks team that contributed to 95 percent of my July nightmares with their draft night brain farts (see Sheldon Williams)

The same franchise that for the last couple years were in a seemingly never ending court battle over ownership of the team

But it seems like all of that is ours past, hopefully distant past.

This could be the new era of Hawks Basketball the part of our 60 years documentary were the fast and up beat music starts to play.

That's just how we feel as Fans of the newly invigorated franchise that is fifth in the league in scoring 105 ppg , Very Up Beat.

Sure there are some bandwagon jumpers but they are more than welcomed, it makes life fun for the hope shot and often disappointed die hard fans of the ATL.

It's great to see some new faces packing out Phillips arena, and screaming their heads off for a team who do nothing but play hard and play the right way.

For years we have criticized Coach Woodson for what seemed to be his ineffective coaching style now after closer evaluation and a couple more wins we see maybe it not his own deficiencies but the team wasn't not totally buying into his system why he constantly had that confused and dumbfounded look on his face all the time.

The season to date the have won by following two basic principles

Defense, this has been catalyst for this recovery thought it may not be over whelming in the stat book (15th in points given up), the have come through time and time again and leaned on their D when they really needed it.

Unselfishness, with the offseason moves the team made the Hawks are now legitimately six deep with guys who can score at least 10 points on every night.

The biggest proponent to that has to be the play of one Josh Smith.

For years we have known that he posses all the physical tools to be great even the most critical of his detractors say he can be phenomenal if he ever gets his mind right and now it seems he is putting it all together.

There have been a number of players in the league who like Josh were very athletic yet lacked a serious jumper and decision making skills. For these types of players to succeed and reach their full potential one or two things have to happen

They either develop that jump shot or they stop shooting it.

It seem josh has chosen the later group, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Best stat in basketball right now 12 games J-Smoove one three point attempt. Man this cat is really maturing.

This team shows that you don't have to just go out and spend unmissable amounts of money or just pick up Free agents to win, yes I'm talking to you "clear cap room and suck for a year in order to pray for one of the 2010 Elite, Type of owners."

I guess there is something to say for continuity, and dare I say maybe Billy Knight knew what he was doing. Nah, just a great team doing great things.

Read more Joe Johnson news on BleacherReport.com

Bleacher Report - Joe Johnson

Atlanta Hawks Hope to Feast on Turkey and Orlando Magic This Thanksgiving

The Atlanta Hawks: A Great Team Doing Great Things