Welcome to the Highlight Factory. I'm coming to you live from the Atlanta Hawks vs. Denver Nuggets game. A I is in the building so you know there's about to be a show! We missed him here in Atlanta last season because by the time he'd been traded to the Nuggets, they had already come to town. The fans are excited and so am I!
This photo is awkward and my smile is ridiculously huge, but whatever.
Starting lineup for the Hawks: Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Anthony Johnson, and J J J Joe Johnson
Starting lineup for the Nuggets: A I, Carmelo, Najera, Camby and Carter
Camby jumps against Smith, Hawks ball. The first quarter is underway.
Marvin hits a jumper to to give the Hawks the early lead. Turnover, Hawks.
A I scores the first bucket for Denver. The crowd goes wild.
Marvin is on fire early. If you can be on fire less than 2 minutes into a game.
The Nuggets have missed 3 point blank layups.
Turnover Hawks.
They are a little sloppy with the ball early on. They need to get that under control quickly because Denver likes to run.
Marvin with the jam, according to Ryan Cameron.
Both teams are sloppy with the ball in this opening quarter.
The score is 14-6 Hawks with 7:58 to go.
Denver turnover, Joe for 2, timeout Denver.
Out of the timeout , Hawks foul, Josh Smith. Melo to the line, he hits 1 of 2
Josh just picked up his second foul, enter the other Josh who immediately picks up his first foul. Wow.
16-9 Atlanta 6:14 to go in the quarter.
Childress for 2
A I for 3
Early on it looks like the Nuggets have decided that they are not going to let Joe beat them.
AJ for two. He's playing like a spry teenager. He's been rejuvenated I suppose.
Melo at the line, sinks one, enter Acie Law, and two.
20-16 Atlanta
Joe for 3, obviously Denver forgot he can hit those.
Turnover Hawks.
It's quiet in the arena.
The Nuggets are getting all the rebounds on this particular possession.
Joe for 2. I thought they were going to pay special attention to Joe, but I guess that was only for a couple of plays.
Timeout
They've opened up the 400's here in the arena, that normally only happens when its a sellout. I know that Atlanta fans normally show up fashionably late, but I seriously doubt this arena is going to fill up completely. I hope I'm wrong, but.....
Enter Solomon Jones out of the timeout.
27-16 Atlanta 2:45 to go.
A I for 2
Marvin is still on fire. He's got 8 points on 4/5 shooting.
A I for 2, this is not good for the Hawks.
Enter Ty Lue for Marvin Williams. That makes all the sense in the world. Not. So on the floor we have T Lue, Acie, Joe, Solomon and Chills. I wonder who is going to rebound.
Foul on Lue, A I to the line. One and two.
Turnover Hawks, miss AI, Lue for 3.
Chills at the line with 2 seconds left in the quarter. One, enter Mario West for Joe, and two.
End of the first quarter, Hawks 34, Nuggets 22.
I like our aggression early. They still need to take care of the ball better and if at all possible they should probably not let A I beat them.
In case you were wondering, K-Mart is out with a staph infection. Poor thing.
Enter Joe for Solomon Jones. See this is what frustrates me about Woody. His substitutions make little to no sense most of the time.
Too many steps, Hawks ball.
J Chill with the jam
Denver miss
Hawks miss
Denver miss
Hawks layup.
Denver foul, Chills at the line for 2. One and two.
Melo is on the bench, but I think he should be in at least as a decoy. JR Smith for 3.
Let's go Hawks, Let's go Hawks, turnover.
Smith another 3, someone better get a hand in his face even though it didn't work last time.
Joe for 3, timeout Nuggets. Joe has 14, the score is 47-31
I can see my mom who is sitting in section 120. Some guy just won a trip to Vegas just because he looked like he should go to Vegas apparently.
It's time for the Delta 3 point takeoff. If the Hawks hit a 3 in the next 2 minutes some fan gets 10,000 Delta miles or something to that effect.
Turnover Nuggets out of the timeout, turnover Hawks right out of the turnover.
Denver miss
Defensive 3 seconds, Lue to the line, and miss.
Melo for 2, welcome back.
Marvin for 2.
I don't think the fan is going to get those miles considering the 2 minutes ae over.
Timeout on the floor.
Enter A-Town dancers in over sized dress shirts and ties. They may want to consider dancing to something that's a top 40 hit. Just a thought.
The arena is filling up a little. It's a decent crowd for a Tuesday.
Josh Smith is back and so is AJ and Al. Joe for 3 he's got 17 and there's still over 5 minutes left in the quarter.
Melo slam.
AJ from JJ according to Ryan.
54-37 Hawks.
Hawks miss.
Nuggets make.
Foul on Carter.
Marvin with the rebound and lay up
Melo Lay up. We are not doing a good job on him. He has 17
Horford with the jaaaaaam!
Nuggets miss.
AJ for threeeeeeee!
The Hawks have a 20 point lead with 2:17 to go in the quarter.
Make some noise for Harry the hawk. Apparently it takes two to make a thing go right.
Out of the timeout, Chills just beat the shot clock. Lucky bounce.
Hawks steal and promptly turn it over.
A I for two.
Mario West with the jaaaaam!
Foul on AJ with 1.9 to go in the half. A I at the line, misses one and makes two
At the half, Hawks 65, Nuggets 44. Please, please don't implode in the 3rd quarter as usual! Be back in a few. Hopefully my battery will hold up!
So I missed the beginning of the third quarter, but it wasn't my fault. I was waiting on the elevators that take forever. In fairness to the elevators its not their fault either, it's because the attendants feel the need to stop at every floor even though on most of them no one has called for an elevator. I guess they're just hoping to get lucky. Back to the game.
75-55 Hawks. Melo has 28 points.
6:15 to go. Timeout Hawks after an uncontested JR Smith layup.
It's time for Acie's Laws, he gives you 3 laws, only one of them is real and a fan has to guess which one. They're normally pretty weird. Apparently it's illegal to lend your vacuum to a neighbor in Denver.
Ciara's in the house, along with Melo's wife La La. They look like BFF's.
Offensive foul on Melo.
Let's go Hawks, Let's go Hawks!
J Smoove with the jaaaaam! He has 4 points and 2 rebounds.
J Chill for 2.
Block by Josh, Hawks turnover.
J R Smith likes to shoot 3's, but tonight he's getting all the layups he can stand. The interior D needs to tighten up for the Hawks.
Enter Acie Law.
Enter Marvin Williams
A I at the line. First one no, second yes.
Timeout on the floor.
Kiss Cam time! Let's get it on...
Out of the timeout, Nuggets miss.
On the floor for the Hawks, Law, Horford, Chills, Marvin and Lue.
79-60 with 2 minutes left in the quarter.
A I for 2.
Camby foul, Horford to the line for 2. No, Yes.
A I for 3. The lead is down to 15. We aren't exactly imploding, but we're getting close. Le's say we get Joe back into the game Woody. We need a basket badly. Law delivers.
At the end of the half it's 82-67.
We need to play to win and not play not to lose. We tend to get a little tight in games like this and we sorely need to avoid that!
I'm glad A I is playing well. My mother loves him and she's got to be thrilled with his performance thus far. He's hit some difficult A I type shots.
Ocho Cinco is in the building. Jermaine Dupri is in the building bundled up like he's at the North Pole. It's cold outside and all, but it's not cold in this arena.
Start of the fourth, Marvin is fouled. He's at the line for 2. No, Yes.
Denver turnover.
George Karl must be fuming at this point.
Josh for three. Noooooooooooooooo! In fairness to him, the shot clock was winding down and he literally had no choice. I know they want to take some time off the clock, but we cannot start having shot clock violations THIS quarter.
Turnover Nuggets.
Miss Hawks.
Miss Nuggets, rebound Nuggets, Miss AI, foul on Marvin Williams, Nuggets ball.
Defense, Defense, Defense.
Foul on Ty Lue. Yes guys let's try to get into the penalty as soon as possible in this quarter. A I at the line. Yes, No.
Melo foul, Hawks ball.
Law has dribbled the air out of the ball the past couple of possessions.
Melo foul, his fourth.
Law for 2.
A I for two and one. Free throw, good.
J J J Joe Johnson for 2.
87-71 Hawks.
87-74 Hawks.
Chills to the line. Timeout on the floor. Welcome back the A-Town dancers. They have on these cute little jersey dresses and they're dancing off Eve's song Tambourine. There was a lot of shaking and gyrating.
Unfortunately I lost my connection shortly after the A-Town dancers appeared. What's even more unfortunate is that I didn't notice it until well into the fourth quarter. Long story short, we won. We jumped on them early and never relented. AI got ejected towards the end, but it really didn't matter.
We go to Milwaukee tomorrow night, hopefully we can keep up our winning ways.
