Atlanta Hawks at Miami Heat GDT

[angryguy77]

Man I feel so happy and relieved we aren’t facing Miami Round 1. No Bam. No Lowry and his flopping. No Butler. No zone defense. No Spoelstra magic. No Herro becoming Ray Allen.

I still wanted the 1 seed to have HCA against Milwaukee in a potential series, BUT I wonder how this looks if we face ATL first round AND the Bucks actually draw the Heat lol. MIL would obviously win but it’d probably be a bit more of a grind than expected than if it were ATL/TOR/CHI

Bucks will sweep Miami. They're a bug on the windshield.

[GreenEnvy]

How did the Heat go from the top seed and a 3-pointer away from the Finals to this? They are pretty much the same roster (besides Tucker/Love). Nine less wins despite Butler playing 7 more games and Adebayo playing 19 more than last season.

[Birdman]

I wanted Miami, not Atlanta..I said all year Heat were overrated

[Vermont Green]

I will say that ATL SHOULD be better than MIA.  ATL has Young, Murray, Collins, Capela.  They should have a better team.  But ATL has been a major underperformer. 

We'll see if ATL and pull it together.

Saying this again.  ATL appears to me to be a better team than MIA right now.  They have not showed it all year, and not even much lately (7-8 in March).  Collins has been invisible for them all year, that is the equivalent of losing a top player.  And they switched coaches so that is not an easy thing do mid-season.  But they still have the ingredients to a decent team.

The Celtics need to take them seriously.  If they do, they should be able to close them out.  It is more than just winning the series though.  If they get lazy and end up having to play an extra game or two, that could make the next series a little harder, and the one after that.  They need to play like it really matters every game, every possession, even if up 2-0 or 3-1 or whatever.

You would think they understand this, the players, the coaches, everyone.  But there were enough times this season where they did let up, that there is some reason to be concerned.  They can't be thinking, oh good, we got ATL, this should be easier than MIA.  In fact, the opposite is true, ATL is a better team than MIA.  If ATL can steal this series, or even hang in for 6 or 7 games, they can head into the off season with something positive.  Don't want to let them start feeling good about themselves.

[Phantom255x]

Kind of funny that Butler guaranteed a win for Miami, then they lost 

If this was another guy saying this though (like a C's player, or even the other way with Trae Young) they'd get clowned for it. Butler really is loved by the media/fans.

[Moranis]

Kind of funny that Butler guaranteed a win for Miami, then they lost 

If this was another guy saying this though (like a C's player, or even the other way with Trae Young) they'd get clowned for it. Butler really is loved by the media/fans.

More so because he wasn't good.  They basically lost because he was so bad.

[RodyTur10]

Lowry playing the game of his life. It looks like Miami has some hard decisions to make in the offseason. Trade Jimmy while he still has value…but what do you do with Bam? Go full rebuild or try to build around him?

Bam is not a guy to build around. On a championship team he should be the 3rd best player.
Since Miami is old and has such a lack of depth they should explore the market for Butler, since there's not a way to contention anymore.

Adebayo is an afterthought and if there's a team who still believes he's on his way to becoming a big star then you capitalize on that too. Miami should focus on getting assets to build for the future and not fool themselves that they can do a quick remix around Herro and Adebayo.

[RodyTur10]

Haven't faced ATL in the playoffs since '16 when they beat the C's.  So I guess there is some revenge factor there for storyline purposes. 

Horford was on that Hawks team too

Millsap and Horford played so well off each other and made it impossible for us to get to the rim. That was a nice Atlanta team.

[Vermont Green]

Lowry playing the game of his life. It looks like Miami has some hard decisions to make in the offseason. Trade Jimmy while he still has value…but what do you do with Bam? Go full rebuild or try to build around him?

Bam is not a guy to build around. On a championship team he should be the 3rd best player.
Since Miami is old and has such a lack of depth they should explore the market for Butler, since there's not a way to contention anymore.

Adebayo is an afterthought and if there's a team who still believes he's on his way to becoming a big star then you capitalize on that too. Miami should focus on getting assets to build for the future and not fool themselves that they can do a quick remix around Herro and Adebayo.

If MIA is looking to sell off Bam Adebayo, I am interested, short of Tatum and Brown.  Not sure how we could make such a deal.  They already lack size, they had to sign Kevin Love.  If they trade Bam, then they have no bigs at all.  I agree, you can't expect Bam to be your best player, but he is plenty good in my eyes.

[GetLucky]

Lowry playing the game of his life. It looks like Miami has some hard decisions to make in the offseason. Trade Jimmy while he still has value…but what do you do with Bam? Go full rebuild or try to build around him?

Bam is not a guy to build around. On a championship team he should be the 3rd best player.
Since Miami is old and has such a lack of depth they should explore the market for Butler, since there's not a way to contention anymore.

Adebayo is an afterthought and if there's a team who still believes he's on his way to becoming a big star then you capitalize on that too. Miami should focus on getting assets to build for the future and not fool themselves that they can do a quick remix around Herro and Adebayo.

If MIA is looking to sell off Bam Adebayo, I am interested, short of Tatum and Brown.  Not sure how we could make such a deal.  They already lack size, they had to sign Kevin Love.  If they trade Bam, then they have no bigs at all.  I agree, you can't expect Bam to be your best player, but he is plenty good in my eyes.

If the Celtics got Bam, they'd be unstoppable.

[Roy H.]

This cracks me up:

Atlanta Hawks ( vs. Miami Heat (7)

Kendra Andrews: Heat

Jerry Bembry: Heat

Jamal Collier: Heat

Nick DePaula: Heat

Nick Friedell: Heat

Kirk Goldsberry: Heat

Israel Gutierrez: Heat

Tim Legler: Heat

Tim MacMahon: Heat

Bobby Marks: Heat

Dave McMenamin: Heat

Kevin Pelton: Heat

Jorge Sedano: Heat

Ramona Shelburne: Heat

André Snellings: Heat

Marc Spears: Heat

Ohm Youngmisuk: Heat

Final tally: Heat 17, Hawks 0

[SparzWizard]

This cracks me up:

Atlanta Hawks ( vs. Miami Heat (7)

Kendra Andrews: Heat

Jerry Bembry: Heat

Jamal Collier: Heat

Nick DePaula: Heat

Nick Friedell: Heat

Kirk Goldsberry: Heat

Israel Gutierrez: Heat

Tim Legler: Heat

Tim MacMahon: Heat

Bobby Marks: Heat

Dave McMenamin: Heat

Kevin Pelton: Heat

Jorge Sedano: Heat

Ramona Shelburne: Heat

André Snellings: Heat

Marc Spears: Heat

Ohm Youngmisuk: Heat

Final tally: Heat 17, Hawks 0

I should be concerned that they're all gonna pick Celtics

[Moranis]

This cracks me up:

Atlanta Hawks ( vs. Miami Heat (7)

Kendra Andrews: Heat

Jerry Bembry: Heat

Jamal Collier: Heat

Nick DePaula: Heat

Nick Friedell: Heat

Kirk Goldsberry: Heat

Israel Gutierrez: Heat

Tim Legler: Heat

Tim MacMahon: Heat

Bobby Marks: Heat

Dave McMenamin: Heat

Kevin Pelton: Heat

Jorge Sedano: Heat

Ramona Shelburne: Heat

André Snellings: Heat

Marc Spears: Heat

Ohm Youngmisuk: Heat

Final tally: Heat 17, Hawks 0

It is weird that no one picked Atlanta, but I suspect if you did a poll on here before the game it would have been +90% picking the Heat as well.  Heck, even though I thought Miami would win, I though the Hawks would start out fast so I put 5 bucks down on the Hawks, figuring I'd cash it out in the 1st quarter, but then got distracted and just let that baby ride (well mostly ride, I did cover myself by betting 5 bucks on the Heat after the odds changed - guaranteed money, ha). 

[Roy H.]

This cracks me up:

Atlanta Hawks ( vs. Miami Heat (7)

Kendra Andrews: Heat

Jerry Bembry: Heat

Jamal Collier: Heat

Nick DePaula: Heat

Nick Friedell: Heat

Kirk Goldsberry: Heat

Israel Gutierrez: Heat

Tim Legler: Heat

Tim MacMahon: Heat

Bobby Marks: Heat

Dave McMenamin: Heat

Kevin Pelton: Heat

Jorge Sedano: Heat

Ramona Shelburne: Heat

André Snellings: Heat

Marc Spears: Heat

Ohm Youngmisuk: Heat

Final tally: Heat 17, Hawks 0

It is weird that no one picked Atlanta, but I suspect if you did a poll on here before the game it would have been +90% picking the Heat as well.  Heck, even though I thought Miami would win, I though the Hawks would start out fast so I put 5 bucks down on the Hawks, figuring I'd cash it out in the 1st quarter, but then got distracted and just let that baby ride (well mostly ride, I did cover myself by betting 5 bucks on the Heat after the odds changed - guaranteed money, ha).

They were 17-0 in favor of the Lakers, too, which in hindsight looks odd considering that it was an OT game.  With the internal turmoil, though, I understand that unanimous prediction more.