Dejounte Murray, Atlanta Hawks sweep back-to-back with home win over Houston Rockets

Dejounte Murray, Atlanta Hawks sweep back-to-back with home win over Houston Rockets

On today’s show the Hawks get a home win over the Houston Rockets on this Saturday evening Kobe buffkin makes his rotation debut Deonte Murray has a big game for Atlanta and much more we’ll get into all of what transpired in this game in the big picture as well and we’ll do it right

Now you are locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day Hello friends welcome to episode 1651 of the lon Hawks podcast I am your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Saturday evening deep into that here into Sunday morning and Today’s Show is brought to you by the folks at LinkedIn jobs and they help you to find qualific that you

Want to talk to you and help you to actually do it faster and do it for free post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon MBA terms and conditions apply also I should I should encourage encourage you on the podcast as I always do to make us your first listen each and

Every day on this show check us out anywhere you get your podcasts places like apple and Spotify as well as YouTube on the video side and today’s podcast will focus heavily on what became a very nice win for the Hawks 122 to 113 at home against the rockets on

This Saturday evening two wins in a row for Atlanta on back-to-back days their sixth win in the last eight games they are playing better basketball right now um sort of unequivocally at this point in time it was kind of a salty game lots of emotions running high on the floor in

This one trash talking and reactions and extracurriculars Etc the Hawks actually had a terrible start in this game offensively they were d by as many as 12 points in the first half they had an awesome second quarter to kind of take control of the game they were kind of

Hanging around in the positive realm after that and then the fourth quarter they they kind of had a hang on for dear life honestly similarly to yesterday’s game on Friday where they they were pretty much in control of the game never lost control but certainly were more on

The edge of it down stretch but in the end a very nice win for Atlanta we’ll get into all of how this game sort of unfolded starting now and honestly it was both teams by the way were on a backtack in this game with travel both teams had heavy legs very clearly and

Also very very short-handed because there were tons and tons of injuries and illnesses to go along in this game so on the positive side Deonte Murray while his designation changed on the injury report from his low back tightness to a right lower back spasm he was able to

Play in this game and looked good and was certainly playing well was the key to the Hawks winning this contest so that was the one of the positive side but beyond that the Hawks had only nine players active and available for this game including Kobe buffkin who was

Called up this morning and also managed to basically play his his first rotation minutes of the season for Atlanta but that included those nine guys included Kobe they had six guys out for injuries or illnesses two guys still in the g- league and one of those guys by the way

Seth Lundy is hurt right now and then Trent Forest is unavailable to play so they were very very shorthanded in this game game down Hunter missed the game um just basically doing management for his knee Snider did say that pregame that you know they’re trying to kind of just

Be prudent with regard to Hunter so not a huge surprise that he didn’t play the back toback obviously you want to be careful with him going into the All-Star break Etc so no huge surprise there three guys had illnesses Bruno Fernando Patty Mills and Wes Matthews all out

With illness and then plus of course moay and C aella are still out Lundy actually turned his ankle at some point in the last couple days and did not play for college park tonight and then as I mentioned before Trent Forest is still on a two-way right now with the Hawks

But he is literally not eligible to play because he’s already reached his 50 game limits with the Hawks so long story short nine guys available for the Hawks in this game the Rockets were also short-handed in a big way to the point where spoiler the Hawks were actually

Favored in this game by seven points that probably sounds crazy because the Hawks were down so many players in this game but by the time this game actually transpired they were not necessarily the healthier team but they were the team that was less affected by by injuries

Because Houston was was without Fred Van Vitz and Alper and sangon who were basically their top two offensive players plus they were without Cam Whitmore and tar e so very very odd in the way this game kind of unfolded with all sides being shortened and it was

Kind of an ugly game I have to be honest with you and honestly not the best offensive performance from the Hawks in this game and because of that I’m going to go the defense first in this contest as they really do in a win but here we

Are a 108 defensive rating for the Hawks in this game one of the top five defensive marks of the season on a per possession basis for Atlanta that’s obviously a very clear positive I do have to say for context purposes the Rockets are pretty bad on offense um

They’re below average you know they bottom 10 in the league and offensive rating even at full strength and they were again without sangon and Van vet who in my mind are their two best offensive players so not a huge surprise that Houston was not able to play at a

High level offensively but given how the Hawks have have struggled defensively and this season nothing was assured and they did a good job to hold them to a 108 108 defensive rating in this game Houston did not shoot the ball very well um they were subpar from the field 44%

And from three at 30% only had 19 free throw attempts allowed in this game for the Hawks which’s actually a very good number 21 assists allowed and 17 turnovers is an excellent ratio anything short of two to one is really good that was almost one to one that’s awesome uh

It was the second game in a row and the second night in a row that the Hawks got smoked on the defensive glass um obviously that’s something to keep in mind for the future um it’s worth KN that they were forced to play incredibly small in this game so it wasn’t like

That was a huge surprise they lost the rebounding battle because not only without capella who of course is a great rebounder but the Hawks were without Fernando so they had to play uh backup center was Jay Johnson in this game and they basically had two forwards and one

Center available so you’re going to lose a rebounding battle that makes a lot of sense I was actually surprised they didn’t play more zone or really any Zone at all but they did enough defensively take advantage of Houston’s vulnerabilities and kind of Hold the Line even though they were again playing

Incredibly small in this game offensively it was not their best effort by any means they ended up with a 116 offensive rating which is certainly fine for this Hawks team it’s below their average um they were very good in the middle of the game um obviously that

There’s more more to life than that but the Hawks had 76 points in the two middle quarters combined and in the first quarter and the fourth quarter combined it was 46 points so obviously big difference there um and it was kind of you know night and day with how this

Game unfolded but in the end it was enough um they were below average shooting Wise from the field 45% and from three 34% but a big swing in this game was the free throw line they actually got to the line 37 times that is almost double what Houston was able

To do in this game getting downhill um and by the way they uh Deonte Murray set a new career high in free throw attempts with 15 now that’s not like a crazy crazy number for a career high but de is not always always been a high free throw

Guy but he was really able to get there effectively he was driving uh importantly in this game not only to have his own finishing get to the line set of teammates Etc he was very good in this one and uh that was again something to Circle a career high for Murray a guy

Who’s been an All-Star in this league Etc to have that be a a notable Mark there certainly impressive 25 assists is just fine but 11 turnovers that’s a very good important thing in the ball security battle they did very little on the offensive glass in this game unsurprisingly same reasons as the

Defensive glass they were so small in this one but they had four guys that scored at least 18 points on offense in this game and they were the guys that you would probably expect um it was Trey it was it was Murray it was Johnson and

It was Bay um and not a ton of support honestly beyond that offensively but there was sort of enough in this game and um you know we’ll kind of leave it there for now but you know Murray was good on offense for sure Johnson was pretty good Bay was pretty good and um

You know overmatched Houston team but a lot of just Strang looking rotations as we’ll talk about more in depth later on uh and the bench battle certainly kind of went to Houston old friend Aaron Holiday by the way had 18 points for Houston Off the Bench in this game

Actually looked really good but um you know we’re off the rails now and I will just say this again a very solid win were the Hawks supposed to win this game absolutely they were they were favored by seven points that’s not a Hu it’s not that’s kind of a telling thing I know

That you don’t not everybody loves them the point spread stuff but it’s a good indication of what the projections are from people that are very smart about this stuff and the Hawks were the better team for certainly most of three quarters and uh that was was enough to

Overcome a really woeful start and a kind of woeful finish in some ways we got very close down the stretch but in the end a taking care of business win for this Hawks team they’re now 13 to 14 at home which is not good but it has

Improved in recent days and by the way for the sickos out there the Hawks are now six and one in the last seven games against the spread um they are still alltime terrible against the spread this year they’ve been underachieving this this season but they’ve been better um

Not only just the way they’re playing but also just the way they’re competing against expectations coming into the year and coming into the the the respective games so the Hawks are playing better basketball I think we all agree on that at this point in time they

Were bed up here and they overcame that and that’s sort of a a good positive sign moving forward all right we’ll touch on all of what sort of unfolded in this game when it comes to the game Flow how buffkin looked Etc and then we’ll

Get into the player stuff at the end of the podcast but first from our sponsors on today’s show today’s show is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality profession that are right for the roles that you have available and

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Million small businesses use Linked In for hiring post your job for free by going to linkedin.com loock onba is linkedin.com Lon NBA terms of conditions apply all right so the game Flow now actually let this game out of the gate 8 to3 and it kind of felt normal at the

Outset because the starters were pretty much normally in place obviously capella is out right now as as Hunter but you know you have a lineup with Trey and Deonte and sadique Bay and jayen Johnson and aong wo it’s like a pretty normal lineup but the rest of lineups were not

Really very normal um Jay had a couple of huge dunks at the outside that we should mention um Jon was passing the ball at a high level early on it was an eight-man rotation in this game for Atlanta AJ Griffin did not play he was the ninth guy he was the only player

That not did not appear in this game that is not a huge surprise as I covered recently on the show Landry Fields kind of um I’m not saying he he announced anything but certainly the indication was that AJ is going to be going to college park at some point to get back

On the floor he’s not been really on the court for games game style play in quite some time so no huge surprise I actually predicted pregame even once Murray was in that Kobe would play and AJ would not so that’s kind of the feel around the team right now AJ is not particularly

Close to playing um but anyway it was Kobe buffkin first ever rotation minutes for the Hawks now he’s he’s appeared in three games before but they were all in total garbage time um and uh yeah he came in alongside bogy he played alongside either Trey or dejonte the entire game so he’s essentially

Functioning as the shooting guard most Knights um and he played eight minutes in both halves 16 minutes total and uh we’ll talk about it more later on when I have some audio from Quint Snider actually who talked about the way that Kobe played after I asked him about that

Postgame but he looked just broadly speaking good to me he played good defense he was not a huge part of the offense in this game couple catch and shoot opportunities not a ton of volume as an on ball player but certainly didn’t look out of place and that’s all

That’s kind of all you want to see remember rookie guard and a positive start for him Jaylen by the way was was the backup center in this game out of necessity I mean this is the way it’s not I won’t get on the rabbit hole too

Much here but one of the roster building challenges or deficiencies is the way I would probably put it right now for this Hawks team is that even when they are at full strength there are not a ton of size on the front line of this team now

Obviously when you have capella Aang Wu and Fernando as three Center that’s actually a really good three Center combination but they only have two power forts on the roster right now the third one is Mo who’s not played at all this year really for as far as the meaningful

Minutes are concerned and S Bay is more of a combo forward you know Hunter can play there a little bit as well but they’re a little bit weighted toward the guard spots on the supplemental roster in this game sort of in this season so perfect storm to be sure all these

Injuries and the illness to Bruno and all that stuff but in the end they essentially had a one Center and two forwards available in this game so when they actually put um jayen at Center they kind of had to tie him to sadique Bay because Bay is the only other

Forward they had and to give Jaylen any kind of chance up front you want to have a little bit more bulk around him but that also led to a kongu having to play with essentially four guards a lot in this game because they you know the

Three of them had to cover all the minutes together and they wanted to again rightly tie sadique more to Jaylen so it was uh some juggling going on for the Hawks in this game and uh they kind of had to you know make sure that Kongo

Was able to cover for some other guys when they had to do that um but the probably the worst stretch of the game for the Hawks was the end of the first quarter a 19-4 run by the Rockets the Hawks had four points in more than six minutes offensively they were in the

Quarter eight to 28 from the field they missed 15 of their last 17 shots to end the first quarter and honestly they couldn’t afford that I said that at the time obviously they were much better if you if you kind of just put that sample

Size to the side and cover the other 42 minutes they shot pretty well in the game but when you miss 15 15 out of 17 shots that’s going to snc your efficiency for the full game and it certainly did in this spot fortunately they were only down 12 against a lot of

The teams they would have been down by 20 or more um they also had some genuinely bad defensive moments bogy was really struggling helping overh helping Etc anyway the Hawks did wake up after that mercifully and um spoiler it a little bit the second quarter tonight was actually their best quarter by

Margin of Victory or margin of of advantage of the whole season so far they were plus 20 they were 38 it was 38 to 18 in the second quarter the first time since November of 2022 so more than a year ago that they outscored opponent

By 20 points or more in a single quarter so obviously they were dominant in that period they shot it well the Rockets did not shoot the ball well Etc Kung had a couple of big dunks had a ton of dunks actually at one point their first nine

Field goals six of them were dunks so they were at least attacked in the rim effectively in this game they had a run early on actually an overall run of I think it was 29 to 11 by the middle of the quarter there was a little bit of

Foul trouble for a kongu in this game he actually had three in the middle of the second quarter ended up coming out of the game um the only way that aong would have played as little quote unquote 32 minutes in this game was because of foul trouble and that’s why he only played

That much and I that’s still a lot of minutes for a center but given that he was the only Center I think he would have probably gone close to 40 if he could have but foul trouble kind of kept him off the floor throughout at times um

Trey threw his nightly absurd pass to Jaylen Johnson he actually missed the shot did Jaylen so it won’t like make the huge highlight round but I started laughing along with Kevin chard Courtside and the last possession by the way was hilarious if if you missed this

Bogie kind of messed up and I don’t know if he just did didn’t see the shot clock or whatever but he he threw a flaming bag of a pass to Trey fortunately Trey managed to get the ball out of his hands in time to beat the shot clock and

Actually hit the rim with the shot and that allowed Jaylen to streak down the floor and get a tip dunk to end the half and go up by eight points so that was a funny possession bogy just messed up but it worked out well for the Hawks and

Again they won the quarter by 20 to go into the halftime break up by eight after being down by as many as 12 in that period then they started well after halftime and over the course of about 14 minutes of action it was 45 to 18 in

Favor of the Hawks so if you want to be cynical you could say the Hawks won that stretch of 14 minutes by 27 points and they lost the rest of the game uh by considerable margin but hey who cares it all works out in the end um they took

Some bad shots Trey took a few bad shots he was not very good in this game I didn’t think by his standards a Kong Miss some free throws rocket made a couple threes like it was suddenly back in sort of into being a game again on the bright side Murray was was feeling

It which is good to see buin had a nice catch and shoot three but Jon was really kind of the focal point of the offense a lot in the second half they kind of played the third quarter to a draw like exactly a draw it was actually tied um

At one point and then the Hawks made a late shot to go up by three in that in that third quarter but they were up the whole way but the fourth quarter was much more much more of an adventure I should say Houston started started off the half started off the fourth quarter

Well getting getting down to six bogy was struggling during that time um they got back to 12 one point in the fourth quarter but from there it was too many contest jump shots I thought for the Hawks couldn’t get stops the lead was all the way down to four at one point

Late in the game Jabar Smith had two huge blocks local product jar Smith for the Rockets had two two huge blocks and then the Rockets crucially got back-to-back Second Chance buckets so offensive rebounds and putbacks and that led to the Hawks being up only by Four Points Murray did stop leading a

Littleit three-point play and then a big swing in the game was a kongu being called for his sixth foul and he would have foued out um contesting a shot on Jamari Smith a obvious challenge by Quinn in that you kind of have to do that when K was your

Only Center it was a big play in the game but he did it and he won it that was a big play because I got to stop on that play as well and then sadique Bay hits a three that I think was probably supposed to be the dagger in this game

But because the Hawks kind of gave it gave it back it wasn’t necessarily the case um Trey turned the allall over twice in a row in crunch time once on a carrying violation that he did commit it was a bad play by him and then a la ball

Turnover as well and then again it was down to 45 um and then Deon made another big play um s um actually just making free throws he was fouled away from the rim and then after a stop in a long possession where the Hawks had offens rebound actually they one of their few

In this game that a Kong Wu and then sidik Bay had a nice tip dunk to kind of officially end it to go up by nine in the final minute and that was that but look it was way way way too close for comfort down the stretch and the Hawks

Certainly have to own that um even not being at full strength they were up solidly in this game and kind of threaten to give it away they didn’t give it away in the end and the Hawks have been better recently at even when they falter what happened last night too

On Friday they they kind of had the same almost the same game Flow where they haven’t quite given it away this year at times early in the season they made a couple of those collapses that end up with losses that cost you but these last two games they’ve avoided that and they

Managed to get out of there with a victory so we’ll leave it there for now but certainly uh it was not all Breezy it wasn’t an A+ performance from the Hawks in this game but defensively very solid offensively kind of just enough and uh we we’ll get into player stuff in

A second because only eight guys play but we’ll have plenty to talk about especially with regard to buffkin and Murray Etc but first and wor from our sponsors on the show today’s show is brought to you by Nissan are you ever the clim driver that likes to push things a little bit

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Guys played no AJ and everybody else was either injured or ineligible or sick or anything any combination of all of those things I do want to start with Kobe buckin who got his again first ever rotation minutes in this spot he played in both halves eight minutes in both

Hales and I’m actually going to play some audio for you now I ask Quin cider post game about Kobe by the way if you are a someone who wants to check out um pregame stuff I also I always I just should say always I often share audio on

My patreon which is patreon.com btrr I actually asked Kobe sorry asked Quinn about Kobe pregame as well and that’s available there but I was the one that asked Quinn about Kobe postgame and here’s what he had to say about his rookie guard it was the most that Kobe’s played

I what did you see from him on both of I thought he did a terrific job you know he um he took shots when he’s open you know which we want there was a couple possessions you know most importantly it’s hard to stay in front of those guys

They’re quick and you know he was down in his stance moving his feet you know had his hands out was eating space you know just just fundamentally the things that you know you need to do to you know to be a solid defender in this league

And um you know to be thrown in the situation he was in tonight um you know he’s ready and we talked about this before the game I think a lot of it has to do playing in the g-league you know he’s got a rhythm and I mentioned it

Before you know he’s watching tape you know they’re not as I know fortunate enough to fly on a private plane you know you’re you’re in Grand Rapids getting the first commercial flight out in the morning and what that does is it allows you time you know with your coach

And he’s done a lot of film um you know there’s a lot of things that he’s doing he’s not just down there hooping he’s getting better and he’s been disciplined and it show tonight and he really played well so there you go from Quinn um firsthand obviously he was happy with

The way Kobe looked I certainly would have been as well um he wasn’t a huge part of the offense on the ball in this game he took four shots they were all threes and they were all catching shoots actually no sorry three or the four there was one that was an off dribble

Which was a pretty aggressive shot which I was okay with um and again he was playing off the ball mostly he was playing with TR Deon so no huge surprises there um I do wonder what what it would have been like if Deon didn’t play because I think they would have had

To play Kobe more on the ball with Trey off the court at some point but with Deonte there and Trey there Kobe was essentially functioning as a two guard in this game after playing a lot of point guard basically all year long um defensively I thought he looked good as

You kind of heard Quinn talk about there I thought he was he was engaged he had a nice couple of possessions where he was kind of cutting cutting eyes off there was one rep against Jaylen green that was awesome defensively that I certainly made note of um in the left corner um he

Looked the part obviously you don’t want to overreact but he’s got good size good length especially for a point guard but certainly enough to place him two as well he’s a smart player um and as you sort of hear there in Quinn’s answer this is an organization and particularly

Quinn who believes in the g- league I know that not everybody’s going to love to hear that explanation that is a big part of why he’s played so much in College Park is that they think that him number one just playing a lot but also they just think of the development and

All that stuff of being there I think Kobe’s defensive principles have almost certainly improved playing in the g- league playing a lot of minutes they also wanted him to play a lot of point guard which is good for just development in general of being you know an on ball

Creator and an on ball operator picking roles all that stuff that’s all kind of going into this and we didn’t get to see a lot of that bag tonight but a nice first game um in the rotation for Kobe and I’m sure more to come on that

Obviously in the future um from there garison Matthews was actually played less than Kobe did in this game n minutes for Garrison hit his only shot one of one from three had an assist was fine he actually played less than he was probably going to he was at the scores

Table for like three minutes at one point and nothing actually stopped so he he actually got pulled back um but I thought he was fine in his minutes and they kind of had to have one more guy to get some minutes in this game but the

Top six guys for the Hawks played 31 minutes or more on a back toback like they were not fooling around in this game part of that again out of necessity with all the guys out but bogie played the least at 31 minutes off the bench I it’s kind of this is actually hilarious

To say out loud because it’s a good reminder that plus minus is not going to tell you everything always you got to have to use all of your other intuition and evaluation because I thought bogy was not good in this game like very obviously not good and he had the best

Plus mins on the team they were plus 13 in B’s minutes that was not because of bogie um offensively he was 34 from the field one6 from three um bogie has kind of quietly had a pretty not like total disaster slump but we’re like a maybe six weeks almost of him not being

A great shooter and I I don’t worry about that bogy shooting btif fights are what they are he was probably a little bit over his head before that stretch but he shot the ball poorly at times in the last couple of weeks but also defensively I thought bogie was like

Their worst guy in this game uh he made a lot of mistakes uh which I mean you can live with bogy kind of being you know out talented he’s a step slower than a lot of guys on the wing like he’s not going to be a great defender at this

Point in time you can live with that but you hope that he will execute and he had a couple like you know Hing off the off the strong side corner just like some some breakdowns so not his best work for sure he’s also kind of salty in this

Game like I know I mentioned before that um all sides were kind of salty in this game but I thought bie was kind of like in a bad mood it seemed like on the court like he didn’t speak after the game so I’m not sure um but anyway like

Not his best effort and obviously I’m I’m I’m very high on bogy but he was not very good in this game I didn’t think um to the starters everyone was kind of have their own strengths in this game you know Kongo had 30 32 minutes of play

He was in foul trouble he missed four free throws which is kind of bad for him like he’s actually a good free throw shooter especially for a center um I think he’s like yeah he’s in the career range of like you know mid to high 70s

Is 80% this year so him going three of seven in the line is a little bit strange seven rebounds did have three blocks 11 11 points he was not his best in this game obviously a big role plac on him he was kind of Shackled by the

Foul trouble at times but I thought he was okay just not his best work um Trey actually played the next least minutes 33 minutes he was actually caught on camera on the bench kind of doing some you know rolling hip work on one of those like theun kind of things I’m not

Sure what was going on there um but he was he didn’t actually he actually was not very good in this game now defensively he competed at a high level for him but he was four of seven from two and two of nine from three eight did have eight assists but 18 points like

Just not his best on offense in this game at all fortunately they had Murray to pick him up but uh Trey been Trey had been red hot coming in like his numbers have been just crazy good since he came back from the concussion but tonight not

His best work and I’m sure he’ll bounce back in the near future uh sadique bay big Knight 24 points for Sadiq six rebounds three assists a steal and a block he was four of six on twos and four of nine on threes Quinn said postgame um kind of poked fun a little

Bit uh how it wasn’t long ago that he people people kind of harping on sadik shooting obviously it’s not been a great shooting season for sadik but he’s in the last four games 13 of 27 from three that’s 48% so obviously some positive um you know movement there on three point

Shooting which I’ve been saying was inevitable like he’s not as bad of a shooter as he was for a long time so Quinn clearly loves sadik he talks about him all the time in a positive way but I thought he was very good in this game um Jaylen Johnson 21 points six rebounds

Three assists two steals two blocks flying around he kind of had some weird moments in the first half um some weird breakdowns but like his dunk I think he had four dunks maybe five dunks in this game he was certainly finishing with reg regularity and with authority at The Rim

The passing is very nice to unlock and then defensively you know hit and miss but still certainly better than he’s been in the last couple games and some good Havoc creation he was plus 10 in the game uh and then Deon was awesome 34 points seven assists six rebounds two

Steals he was five of 10 on twos and four of nine from three to go along with again a career high in free throw attempts with 15 uh jonte had his third highest scoring game of the season tonight with 34 points um also he’s seemingly liked to face Houston in a

Hawks uniform not a huge sample size only four games but in those four games against Houston since he joined the Hawks he’s averaging about 28 and a half points a game so last year the Hawks had a pretty like memorable collapse against Houston when they were kind of up big

And blew a lead to a bad team but other than that like Jon has been really good against Houston and he was really good in this game he was assertive he was getting to the rim um sometimes the Shante settles too much there were a couple of jump shots that were probably

A little bit ill advised but he can make those shots obviously and also he was just good at getting all the way downhill to the rim um not not only just finishing but also getting fouled it’s not always been a huge foul guy but certainly he was good in this game he

Was intense he was focused and uh he picked up Trey on offense in this one so it’s nice to have Deonte back after missing two games and uh full Ste him ahead because he look good in this game hopefully he is fully healthy after the back issue the last few days so we’ll

Leave it there for now on this game the Hawks have two more games until the All-Star break Monday at home against Chicago Chicago is not very good at this point but they are certainly in the playin mix they are on their way down it seems like right now but um they didn’t

Do anything at the deadline kind of like the Hawks did so that’s a little bit something to kind of circle on Monday it’s a g it’s a home game um Advantage the Hawks probably there on paper and then Wednesday on Valentine’s Day in Charlotte is the final game before the

Actual break is concerned so the Hawks should be borrowing crazy injuries and they have some right now to be sure but borrowing something that I don’t want to see coming they’ll be favored in both games um obviously it’s very reasonable to Hope slink that they’re going to get

To eight and two in their last 10 before before the break and if they can get into the break at 26 29 that’s not great but certainly with with where they were a few weeks ago that would seem like a pretty positive end to the first quote

Unquote half of the season which is actually much more than a half of a season but anyway we’ll have full coverage of those games we always do and then we’ll sort of have some uh a little bit of a lull during the break I’m going to do some travel I’ll have hopefully a

Show or two to plug in while I am gone but um yeah stay tuned for all that we should be here wall toall as we always off for game coverage please subscribe to this podcast anywhere you get your podcast especially places like apple and Spotify and overcast as well as YouTube

On the video side ratings reviews likes subscriptions follows um shares all that stuff always appreciate it as well follow uh us on social media mostly on Twitter at loton Hawks or follow me there as well at BTR Roland if you are interested in some written content as

Well as some behind the scenes audio sometimes also patreon.com slbt Rolland and also if you’re an audio only subscriber to this podcast you will get some bonus content on a regular basis from the folks at locked on Sports Atlanta sort of just a companion to our

Show nothing less from me but C just some extra bonus concept to listen to along the way this season including I believe tonight as well so please subscribe to the podcast I really do appreciate that find a Hawks fan friend or family member in your life and share

The podcast with them I would definitely appreciate that as the community hopefully continues to grow in the future but a nice R for the Hawks we’ll talk about all the big picture stuff as well I’ll have some guest plan some guest plan some more mailback coming up

Pretty soon as we start of transition into the basketball only portion of the season because there’s not really trade stuff to follow right now there isn’t a ton of rumor stuff it’s just going to be like you know full speed full speed the head I should say to basketball and

Analyzing basketball and the future sometimes I’m sure and the drafts going up and all that stuff but a good time to kind of jump on board now in advance of the rest of the season all right that’s it for me on this fine Saturday evening into Sunday enjoy the rest of your

Weekend and we’ll see you after the game on Monday

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts episode No. 1651 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show breaks down Saturday’s game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Houston Rockets, including an ugly first quarter, a dominant second quarter, holding on in the 4th quarter, Dejounte Murray’s big night, and much more.

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