Also, I would prefer to take on the Hawks in the playoffs.  Don’t let their home record intimidate anyone.  I thought after two games against the Hawks, we really can beat this team.  Thaddeus Young obviously plays his best all-around game against the Hawks after learning a lot from Mark Price.  Same with Lou, the little guy from Atlanta.  Georgia Love. 
The one game we lost to the Hawks was due to poor coaching and not using the bench.  Our starters were tired in the second half. 

The second meeting with the Hawks was a one and done deal in the 4th and Thaddeus just put all the nails on the coffin with threes.  Horford did not play in that game. 

The final meeting will be on March 31st at home!  We must put a body on Horford and that is where Brand will be missed. 

Overall, though the Sixers should make it a very interesting series with the Hawks and it would be even better with homecourt advantage! Three point shooting aside, both teams play uptempo and that should be interesting.

Also, Elton Brand did a better one-on-one job against Dwight Howard.  So, our frontcourt really has to step it up defensively.

Between Howard and their 3-point shooting, we just don’t match up well with the Magic at all.  We’ll see what happens tonight but, even without Jameer, I’m not too confident.

Additionally, how come Iggy can’t dribble?  Al Harrington is able to go coast to coast under complete control and he is a PF.  Iggy, who started the year at SG, must have had 5 turnovers because he would lose the ball trying to cross over or do anything.  I was petrified every time he tried to do anything on offense.  The first quarter was great, the rest of the game was eh.  And for a sparsely populated Garden, my god does that place get loud.

Now I want to bring up this point because i’ve been thinking about it for a long time.

Is there anyway we would rather play the Magic in the first round, instead of getting the 5th seed and having to play the Hawks in Atlanta for 4 games?

Looking at the Hawks home record, 20-6, and seeing what they did to Boston last year in the playoffs… I really dont want to play the Hawks for 4 games when they are at home.  Plus the Hawks play a similar style as us which means we wouldnt have much of an advantage if the game speeds up.  But if the game slows down the have an obvious advantage with Joe Johnson and Al Horford. 

Orlando has just as good of a record at home, 22-7, and have a much better overall record than the Hawks.  But without Jameer Nelson, we could take a huge advantage if we get out on the break and if the Magic have an off game shooting wise, than they would be in trouble.  Tonight will be interesting because we came very close to winning last time they played us.  We will get to see how we match up against them and maybe it will answer my question.

After an 11 point 1st quarter, the Knicks put up 92 points over the last 3 quarters, hitting on 7 out of 11 attempts from 3 in the 3rd quarter.

You could see the difference defensively when Sam wasn’t on the floor.  The Knicks repeatedly went straight to the rim and got there easily.

Agree about Lou.  He is driving me nuts.  My older son watched the 2nd half with me.  I kept telling him to watch Lou’s body language.  Lou would bring the ball across halfcourt and I would say to him, he’s taking this shot.  Unfortunately I was right almost every time.  I get the feeling that Lou’s attitude is if he keeps the ball long enough he will always find a way to get a shot off or get to the rim, so he dribbles left, right, and everywhere else until he finds his opportunity, regardless of how poor it might be.  What really gets me is that DiLeo must be ok with it, otherwise he would cut Lou’s minutes or bench him.

Dannie, if this last statement…….“But I (we) are in it for the long haul.  So let’s keep showing support and hope Stefanski knows what the hell he is doing.”……..was meant for me, I’m not going anywhere.  If not, I’ll own it anyway after what I was saying yesterday.  I’ll continue to support them.