Tag: Atlanta Hawks

Billy Donovan on Bulls-Hawks and the importance of competitiveness

Before their loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan spoke about th eimportance of competitiveness.

The Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks are in a tight race to earn home-court advantage in the first game of the Play-In Tournament. Whoever finishes the season as the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference will get to welcome the other to their arena for the 9-10 game, where one team will move on and the other will see their season end.

Because of how tight the race is, the Bulls need to be fully focused every single night down the stretch of the season. They don’t have the luxury of some other teams who aren’t fighting for anything anymore. If they want to make the Hawks come to the United Center, they need to play hard every game.

Ahead of the Bulls’ game against the Hawks on Monday night, Billy Donovan spoke about this very topic. (H/t Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times)

“Probability-wise, there’s a likelihood we see each other again,” Donovan said. “All these games are important in terms of the competitiveness. I was pleased coming out of the Minnesota game just because of what happened. You knew they were going to make a run. I thought, when they got up, the guys did a great job of making the plays necessary to regain control of the game.”

Unfortunately, the Bulls lost to the Hawks on Monday, meaning their lead on Atlanta in the standings is now at just half a game.

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Billy Donovan breaks down three-point disparity in Bulls loss to Hawks

Head coach Billy Donovan spoke about the difference in three-point shooting in the Chicago Bulls’ loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

The Chicago Bulls aren’t the best three-point shooting team. They sit somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of makes and attempts this season, but on Monday night, they barely scratched the surface compared to their opponent. The Bulls took just 28 threes against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, who chucked up 40.

Chicago ended up making just seven of their attempts, which put them at a serious disadvantage, as Atlanta made 19. That’s a 36-point difference on three-pointers alone. In the end, it was too much of a gap for the Bulls to make up, as they lost by a score of 113-101 in a game with serious Play-In seeding implications.

After the game, head coach Billy Donovan spoke about the difference in three-point shooting. (H/t Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times)

“Some of the threes were a byproduct of the battles at the point of the screens offensively and defensively,” Donovan said. “On both ends of the floor, [the Hawks] won those battles in a lot of ways. They shot the ball exceptionally, as well. You give them credit for that. We didn’t shoot the ball nearly as well, and certainly we didn’t generate nearly as many threes. . . . It’s more the corner threes for me that we have to be better at.”

If the Bulls want to make a run, they can’t keep getting outshot from distance like this.

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DeMar DeRozan shares optimistic thoughts after Bulls loss to Hawks

After the Chicago Bulls’ loss to the Atlanta Hawks, DeMar DeRozan provided an upbeat perspective.

The Chicago Bulls welcomed the Atlanta Hawks to town on Monday night for a game with major Play-In seeding implications. The two sides are battling it out for who will get home-court advantage in the 9-10 Play-In game. Unfortunately, Chicago wasn’t able to maintain their lead on Monday.

The Hawks walked out of the game with a 113-101 win over the Bulls, marking their fourth victory in five games. Vit Krejci poured in a career-high 18 points as the Hawks’ offensive shot a combined 19-of-40 from beyond the arc (47.5%). Meanwhile, the Bulls made just seven of the 28 three-pointers they attempted (25.0%). Those numbers alone led to a 36-point disparity.

Despite the loss, DeMar DeRozan provided a somewhat upbeat perspective after the game. (H/t ESPN)

“As bad as it feels now, I don’t think we played that bad,” DeRozan said.

DeRozan finished the game with 31 points, two rebounds, five assists, and two steals while shooting 10-of-23 from the field.

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Bogdan Bogdanovic and Hawks coach Quin Snyder had an intense, heated interaction on the bench

The player and the coach insist that everything is all good now, though.

Even though the Atlanta Hawks won the game, it wasn’t smooth sailing for veteran Bogdan Bogdanovic and head coach Quin Snyder.

Late in the fourth, despite carrying a massive lead, the two individuals had an intense interaction while on the bench. There was a delay in the game after Bogdanovic spilled a water bottle, and then visibly frustrated, he approached his coach.

Clearly upset about something, Bogdanovic then got into the face of Snyder. He pointed to himself and was yelling about something before eventually, his teammates got involved and had to separate the two parties.

Atlanta ended up winning the game by a convincing margin, so the vibes were mostly good afterward.

Snyder was asked about the heated interaction and he said that everything was all good.

Here is what Snyder said during his press conference:

“Bogi was terrific. And he and I are in a great place. Better than good. Great. I love how he played as well. And he’s defending, which has been a point of pride for him.”

Bogdanovic also insisted that there were no problems between the two.

According to the Atlanta wing, it was “normal” and that the intensity just suggests that everyone cares about each other.

He added that while it was sad the moment got caught on the broadcast, it is better than both of them holding it in.

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Pat Connaughton/Blake Wesley NBA Tracker: March 25-31

Not a flashy week by any standard.

It wasn’t the most productive week for Notre Dame’s NBA representation, but [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] got it off to a decent start. In the Milwaukee Bucks’ March 26 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, he made only a single 3-pointer but tied his career high in assists with nine, which he set earlier this season.

Connaughton finished his week with four points, four assists and three rebounds March 30 against the Atlanta Hawks. For the week, he averaged 3.3 points, 4.7 assists and 2.3 rebounds a game.

[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] scored five points, had three assists and picked up a steal to help the San Antonio Spurs defeat the Phoenix Suns on March 25. He had four points, five rebounds and three assists in a March 29 win over the New York Knicks. That helped a week in which he averaged 2.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists a game.

Here are some photos that were taken of Notre Dame’s two NBA players during the past week:

Coby White says Bulls are trying not to focus on the Hawks

Coby White said that the Chicago Bulls are trying to not pay attention to their Play-In race with the Atlanta Hawks.

When the season began, it looked as though the Chicago Bulls may be heading on a one-way flight to a top lottery pick. Since then, they’ve turned their season around and now find themselves in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference. They’ll almost certainly be playing the Atlanta Hawks in the 9-10 Play-In game. The only question is, who will have home-court advantage?

For a while, it looked like the Bulls would be welcoming the Hawks to the United Center, but Atlanta has gained some ground on them in the standings as of late. Now, it could go either way.

While the Bulls understand what they are playing for in that regard, Coby White recently said that they are trying not to pay attention to it. (H/t Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune)

“We not really trying to put too much into it,” White said. “We just want to take it one game at a time, get one win at a time, and try not to really look to the future.”

Chicago is only one game up on Atlanta, so as of now, it’s their ninth seed to lose.

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Boston’s first round playoff opponent mix getting tougher with news Joel Embiid will return

Could the Celtics’ first round matchup be more challenging than anyone expected?

The Boston Celtics showed us last week that not only can the Atlanta Hawks beat them despite being out a significant chunk of their best players at State Farm Arena. They showed us that they can do it more than once. Which is not the sort of thing that fans of the Celtics want to think about, given the Hawks could be Boston’s first round opponent pending the results of the league’s 2024 play-in tournament.

The Philadelphia 76ers announced that star big man Joel Embiid will return before the end of the NBA’ 2023-24 regular season, spicing up the potential first round matchup mix even more. In light of blowing a 30-point deficit, then losing to Atlanta again, could the Celtics’ first round matchup be more challenging than anyone expected?

The hosts of the CLNS Media “The Big Three NBA” podcast, A. Sherrod Blakely, Gary Washburn, and Kwani Lunis, took a closer look on a recent episode. Check it out below!

If you enjoy this pod, check out the “How Bout Them Celtics,” “First to the Floor,” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Could the Atlanta Hawks be the Boston Celtics’ kryptonite?

Or could we explain the two losses by acknowledging that Boston is a bored ball club?

Could the Atlanta Hawks be the Boston Celtics’ kryptonite? Or could we explain away the two highly unusual losses of the Celtics this week to the Hawks on their home court of State Farm Arena by acknowledging that Boston is a bored ball club with an insurmountable lead in the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings?

Add in the fact that they have been experimenting with atypical lineups in preparation for the NBA’s 2024 postseason, and you have a very good set of excuses for the twin losses we would all rather forget. And while all of that very well could be true, what if it is not?

The cohost of the CLNS Media “The Big Three NBA” podcast, A. Sherrod Blakely, was joined by Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to talk about how the Celtics and Hawks matchup, and if the Celtics should be worried about seeing Atlanta in the playoffs. Check it out below!

If you enjoy this pod, check out the “How Bout Them Celtics,” “First to the Floor,” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Just how high is your panic meter for the Boston Celtics?

For those of us who are in the continuity camp, the alarm bells may be deafening.

Just how high is your panic meter for the Boston Celtics after watching them drop a pair of games to the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena of the course of the last week? For those of us who are in the continuity camp, the alarm bells may be deafening at this point. For those of us who want the experimentation Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla has admitted the Celtics are dabbling in, it is still fairly low.

There are still plenty of regular season games left in front of Boston. Can they take a fair number of them being losses like these? For that matter, can the Celtics?

The hosts of the CLNS Media “Still Poddable” podcast, Brian Robb, Sam Packard, and Jay King, took a look at their own panic meters after the first Hawks loss, so it can’t be much better now. Check out the clip embedded below to hear their takes.

If you enjoy this pod, check out the “How Bout Them Celtics,” “First to the Floor,” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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How much do the Boston Celtics’ two losses to the Atlanta Hawks really matter?

Maybe less than we think.

The Boston Celtics lost not one, but two games to the Hospital Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena this week. It appears that the Celtics are evidently mystified by a team without seven of their best players, whether dinged up or mostly healthy.

But given the Celtics’ current stranglehold on the Eastern Conference standings and high odds of getting the top overall seed regardless of how they close out their season, how much did these games even matter? Is that a loser’s mentality? Or is experimentation that important for Boston’s title hopes this summer?

The hosts of the CLNS Media “How Bout Them Celtics!” and “Talkin’ Cs” podcasts, Jack Simone, Sam LaFrance, and Bobby Krivitsky, tried their best to answer these questions on a recent episode. Check it out below!

If you enjoy this pod, check out the “How Bout Them Celtics,” “First to the Floor,” and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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