NO WAY...This is Happening Again...

The fight was there. The effort was true. The Hawks had the edge, but couldn't break through. Missed chances, a costly trend. A game in their hands that slipped at the end. Same mistakes, a story told. The pressure high, and our team went cold. Nowhere in the blame. Well, maybe ref what's-her-name. This is the same stuff, just a totally different game. Welcome back to Hawks Digest, everyone. I am Chris Tipmore. Happy to see every last one of you guys again. Hey, man, I got big news. You know, I said before we even get into it, big news. Yes, Clint Capella returned in this game tonight, and I will get into him in a minute, because this is about postgame, but before I get into him, I gotta get on you guys. And that's in a good way. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hawks Digest is now over a thousand subs, and we are on the way to beyond. We couldn't have done it without you guys. Regardless of everything that's happening with this season, you guys have come here and made Atlanta Hawks Digest one of your first listens when you need that Hawks content, when you just gotta have it, and we gotta give it to you. We're gonna continue to give it to you. Me and Walter, we're invested into this team, love the Atlanta Hawks, and love that you guys are loving the channel. If you're still in that 80% tile that is still skeptical about the Hawks Digest, man, I'm telling you, it's good content. Just click on the video and just be on the road for the show. You know what I'm saying? Just take off your shoes, leave on your socks, and let's have a great time, you know? So, let's get back to this, man. Let's get back to it, guys. Today, I must say, this was something else because the Atlanta Hawks started off this game on fire. They were playing with pace. At one point in time, they held the magic of being 4-of-12 from the field, and they ended up being 4-of-18 at one point in time, around about the 3 minutes and 50-second mark of the first quarter. Hawks, you know what I'm saying, were showing effort, getting out there, having guys miss shots, they were knocking down shots. It was all smiles in the first quarter. It was great to see. You thought that the Hawks was on their way to possibly a blowout, just running those guys out, and I was thinking in the first quarter, I said, man, how great would it be for the Atlanta Hawks to be able to come out in this game, blow these guys out, and by the fourth quarter, we're sitting starters, almost like in football when you're taking the knee in the fourth quarter, you know what I'm saying, to run out the clock. That's what I was hoping for, but instead, something else happened. This game right here looks similar to me like the New York Knicks game. It just had certain elements about it that just had that same feel to where the Hawks were right there, right there, right there, and they just couldn't overtake it. You know, Hawks even tied the game in this game, but I'll get to it. In the first quarter, again, 33-21, Hawks was on it, you know what I'm saying, took that early lead. You were thinking that they would blow these guys out, but in the second quarter, you would see it from actually before even the second quarter. There was something that happened in the first quarter that ended up being a trend the whole night for the Atlanta Hawks. I was looking at it, and I seen Zachary Richachet, not to call him out in particular or singly, because it was a group effort. Everyone was missing around the rim. But it was at this point when I had this thought of, when Zach missed the layup, got it back, missed again, and then him and Banchero locked up for the jump ball, I was like, man, I sure hope this ain't going to be a night to where the Hawks are kind of missing around the rim, you know, having a tough time putting the ball into the basket. And then, of course, the Hawks kept on scoring and got that lead in the first quarter. And I was like, okay, maybe nothing to worry about. Then in the second quarter, the Magic would go on a 6-0 run. And timeout, timeout, okay, nice timeout, Quinn. But the Magic continued the onslaught behind Paulo Banchero. He just took off. He had 20 points in the first half alone. And I was wondering, is there going to be any kind of way to possibly get the ball out of his hands? And I know you had Franz Wagner, and he was doing numbers as well. And that was the same thing that happened in the last game. It was just those two and nobody else. And this kind of felt similar to that as well from the last time we played the Magic. Now, as far as how it felt like from the game with the Knicks, because for one thing, we're missing so much around the rim. We were missing so much around the rim. And I will give you just some quick context on how big this was. The Atlanta Hawks were 17 for 39 around the rim. Not foul line up, not painted area up, not from the three-point line because we were 10 of 30 from there. Then you hit one on the left side, and you were 0 of 2 on the right side. Come on, y'all. We can't win like that. You know what I'm saying? The Atlanta Hawks missing around the rim, 17 for 38. I'm talking about right here. Like this is the rim. So I'm here, and I'm like trying to lay the ball up off the glass, anything. It was a lot of times where the Hawks were laying the ball up a little bit too hard. I feel like, you know, maybe going a little bit too fast. Maybe they need to decelerate a little bit. You know what I'm saying? They're getting closer to the rim. And there was a couple times you look, and you would see Trey, he was accelerating, and then he would decelerate trying to slow the thing down, slow the game down to be able to get right there to the rim and be able to put the ball in the basket. Because, again, we missed a lot around the rim tonight. And that wasn't the only thing, too. Those ugly free throws really rose their head again. They rose their head again for the Atlanta Hawks. Now, with all due respect, I could care less about what the free throw percentage and everything was from the Orlando Magic. Even though it was 68%, it was 26 of 38, okay? But our Atlanta Hawks were 19 or 28, 67%. So that was nine more points we left on the board. I understand they're like, well, hey, we left about 12 on the board. I feel you. But at the same time, if the Hawks knock down their free throws, they make this game a little closer. We lost 114 to 108, you know? And we could not put the ball in the basket as a team in a consistent basis. Yes, we had guys in double figures, but it was more so like 10, 11, 13, you know, stuff like that. Trey was the only person that got over 20 points tonight. And as a matter of fact, Trey had 38 points tonight. But I'll get into individual performances. It's not a whole lot, you know what I'm saying, tonight. Again, you know what I'm saying, this right here was a collective loss. Similar to those Knicks, man, you just kind of like bail those guys out. And the Orlando Magic, they stuck to their physical nature. Tonight the refs were something else. The refs were really something to deal with tonight. They let them play a little bit, but the Magic are a physical team, and they stuck to their DNA tonight. And it was some calls that was iffy, for sure, but it was also some calls that were missed. Also, they were passing out technical fouls like they possibly was at a strip club or something because they were just passing out those technical fouls. Both teams suffered in that aspect, so it is what it is on that. But the refs were something else tonight. But again, we're not going to put it all on the refs. You still have to go out and be efficient, play the game, and take advantage of the miscues of the others. And getting into that, let's get into real quick, before we finish up these team stats and get into our individual performances. The Atlanta Hawks, again, started it off 33 points, but 38 points in the second quarter from the Magic, 31 points in the third quarter to extend their lead a little bit. The Hawks were able to come back and tie this game in the fourth quarter because guess what? The Hawks are resilient. They're going to continue to fight. That's not anything that the Hawks fans should have to worry about. These Atlanta Hawks are going to fight every single game, regardless. So you don't have to worry about them slacking. They may miss shots, they may have turnovers, but you don't have to worry about them slacking in effort. They're trying to win the game. They're trying to get back into it. But there's no moral victories in this NBA. I can look at bright spots and everything because there were bright spots in this game, but ultimately you would have loved to go ahead and start off the homestand with a win against a division opponent, against an opponent you're going to see again, and just imagine having to play these guys in the playoffs or something like that. That's going to be something of a series. Also, we're moving into the individual performances now. And again, Clint Capella, he returned tonight. CeCe, the return of CeCe. And I do see some bright spots as far as having CeCe on the floor for the defensive efforts of the Atlanta Hawks. He's going to be big anyway just because we do not have Larry Nance Jr., someone who can space the floor. He is out with a knee injury, will be reevaluated, possibly could miss the rest of the season. We'll see. Possibly could come back right at the end and play a couple of games before we move on to the playoffs, hopefully. And also, of course, Veet Kraychee, who was taken out by Jonathan Isaac, who ain't do nothing tonight, by the way, 0 of 2. My bad, y'all, not trying to attack him, but he attacked our guy Veet Kraychee, man. Veet Kraychee is out with a back injury and will be reevaluated in a few weeks, probably about three weeks now. And hopefully we'll be able to get Veet right back before the playoffs as well. Speaking of these playoffs into existence, got to, you know what I'm saying, got to Atlanta. But individual performances, like I said, Clint Capella showed up again tonight, but it wasn't effective on the offensive end. Clint Capella tonight in 18 minutes was 1 of 6. That's 16% from the field. 1 of 2 from the foul line, that is what it is. But at the end of the day, he only gave you 4 rebounds. That's the thing that he does best, is rebound. And he only gave you 4 tonight, 3 points, still gave you 1 assist as well. You're going to need more off the bench from Clint Capella in that aspect. 3 points is not going to cut it. Maybe if it's like 8 points, 10 rebounds, you take that. But that's not going to work. And then from your starting center, just because I'm on centers, you get 11 and 7 from him. So between your two big men, you get 11 rebounds. That's not going to cut it. It's just not. It's crazy because you got 11 rebounds from a guy who had a terrible shooting night. You know, we got that from a guy who had a terrible shooting night. So, I mean, Onyeka Okonwu, yes, 11 points. But he only gave you 7 rebounds, only 11 rebounds between your bigs. And that just cannot happen, guys. I'm sorry. There's no way around it. Dyson Daniels, tonight he had a bad game. Okay, let's not jump on him too bad. But he had a bad game. He was 3 of 15, that's 20% from the field. He also was 4 of 6 from 3. You know, I'm sorry, 4 of 6 from the foul line. He was 0 of 3 from 3 because I was about to say that don't sound right. He had 10 points and 11 rebounds. He and Zachary Richesha were the guys that was rebounding for the Hawks. Those are the only two guys that had double-digit rebounds for Atlanta Hawks tonight. And also, this is something else for you. Even though he had that off-night, Dyson Daniels still got you 3 steals, still got you 4 assists. You know, yes, only 10 points because he was 3 of 15, terrible night shooting. Just could not make things around the rim. Again, he only shot 3 threes. So, 3 of 12 was him missing close shots around the rim as well. Everybody was missing around the rim tonight. We cannot beat teams like that making it tougher on ourselves in that aspect, in that regard. It's just not going to be able to happen. We're better than that. I do believe that we are better than that. Zachary Richesha, he had 11 points and 12 rebounds tonight. And he didn't even shoot well. He shot 3 of 5 from 3. That's 60%. But outside of those threes, he only hit one bucket inside the 3-point arc. So, he was 4 of 15 from the field, but he still gave you 12 rebounds, 7 on the defensive end, 5 on the offensive glass, and then still with those 11 points. Again, that's our forward and guard who had more rebounds than both of our bigs. We can't let that happen, y'all. That cannot happen, okay? And my last player, of course, which would be the player of the game, honestly, Ice Trey Young. You know what I'm saying? Another game for Trey. In the month of February, Trey only has two games to where he did not score 30 points so far. He has like four 38-point games now in the month of February. He is on an absolute tear, and we know that his scoring had to go up. Because why? We are struggling when it comes to points overall. Shout-out to Karius Levert, an honorable mention, because he's going to continue to play. 13 points tonight. Didn't hit any threes, but he was 6 of 13, 46%. And he was giving you effort. He was out there trying. George Nguyen, he was 2 of 4 from the three. And, of course, you know what I'm saying? He's going to continue to shoot. But ultimately, we just didn't have enough offense. Ultimately, I feel like we just did not hit enough around the rim. And ultimately, I feel like also those free throws from It's Free came to bite us again. That's nine points that we left out there again. And, again, 17 for 39 right here by the rim. So, all those things played a part in tonight's loss against the Orlando Magic. Right now, the Magic are still ahead of the Atlanta Hawks for the seventh seed. The Hawks have some climbing to do. We have another big game coming up against Detroit, who is also ahead of us. We was able to beat them last time, but they've already beaten us a few times this year. We need to get this get back. We were at home. We still have 15 more home games now about to end the regular season. And we've got to have it, y'all. We've got to have it. We're coming back off an all-star break. Take that with a grain of salt, but at the same time, you would have loved to win this game tonight. Atlanta Hawks, they will be back in action against the Detroit Pistons. Y'all make sure y'all support those guys if you're going to the game. Scream really, really loud because we need these wins as we're pushing forward to the playoffs, okay? Last few things before I get out of here. I'm almost out of your hair. Bob Rathburn. Shout-out to Bob Rathburn because on Saturday, he will be going into the Georgia Sports Announcers Hall of Fame. Doing this thing for 29 years, representing the Atlanta Hawks. He's going in. Shout-out to you, Bob Rathburn, for all you have done for this city, for our Atlanta Hawks, and just being the voice of play-by-play along with Dominique Wilkins. Both of these guys are going to be in the Hall of Fame together. It's a beautiful thing, and I just wanted to take my time to give a pioneer like Bob Rathburn his flowers, okay? Had to, had to, had to. Also, if you guys didn't hear, Victor Wiminyama is out for the regular season. He's out for the rest of the year. They hope to have him next year. Spurs may tank. We'll see what happens with that. They know that they have our picks as well, so we have yet another opportunity, a platinum opportunity for Get Gold. We have a platinum opportunity to make these playoffs, put that pick somewhere in the 20s, you know what I'm saying, and ruin all the Spurs' hopes of having multiple chances to get possibly Cooper Flag and everything, because they're talking about that down there in San Antonio. But, again, guys, thank you so very much for getting us to 1,000 subs, and, you know what I'm saying, now it's time to get to that beyond part, okay? So thank you guys for always tuning in. Until next time, guys, for Hawks Digest, I am Chris Tipmore, and, hey, man, took one L tonight. We will bounce back. I firmly believe that. Peace.