Boy, This Crow Tastes Damn Good!!!

When the Hawks went out on the court nine nights ago in Boston fresh from spending the night in the hottest bar at their hotel in Boston paving their way towards fresh new Hawks players in eighteen years I thought that they would get killed in all four games. At the very least, I thought that they could possibly steal Game 3. I stated that Coach Woodson was going to coach his last four games. After Game 1, when the Hawks played like a JV squad and got murdered I was totally convinced that this was going to be a quick kill. I was making plans to rooting for the Braves and preparing for the NFL draft with the Falcons. In Game 2, the team showed no effort or heart (for the exception of Horford might just end up being a star) and got smoked--again. Before Game 3, I was fearing that there would be a half Hawk-half Celtic fan base in Phillips Arena and that Boston would roll on again. Instead, we got the best game that Josh Smith has played with the Hawks in his short career of underachievement. However, Horford taunted Pierce with 22 seconds in that game while he was down. I became convinced that the Celtics were going to get more pissed than Roger Clemen's wife and take a machete to the Hawks tonight led by the insane looking Garnett.

For the first six minutes of tonight's game the Celtics did get the machete out. They ran out to a 16-3 lead and were preparing for the kill shot--that never happened. The Hawks clawed back quickly and refused to let the Celtics finish them off. Then something remarkable happened:

Somebody went head to head literally with Kevin Garnett.

ZaZa Pachulia who played eleven minutes and scored no points. At least on the scoreboard. In the first half, Garnett pushed off Pachulia after the whistle in an obvious attempt to intimidate the Hawks players as he and the Celtics had done in the first two games. Pachulia scored the biggest "points" of the night by storming back at Garnett and pressing his head into his forehead while rambling trash in a language that no one on the court could interpret. This caused a near melee, but it proved a point. The point was that "We will not be bullied anymore. You can not intimidate us anymore." This was the decisive factor in the game. It energized the Hawks. It energized the fans (many many more Hawks fans at this game with much fewer Celtics fans). The Hawks went on to later play the best fourth quarter in Atlanta Hawks play-off history. The Hawks were down ten going into the fourth quarter. This was an easy time to pack it in and say "We played our best. They're just better." However, Joe Johnson would not let them. JJ took over the entire game in a Kobe-like burst when all the chips and the season were on the line. He wanted the ball. He needed the ball. He got the ball. He took the game over and could not be stopped. JJ finished with 35 points, but more than that he took over when his team needed him. He played like the star clutch player that he is but no one knows about. Now everyone should know what the NBA already knew. That JJ is an above average player on a young up and coming team. Josh Smith followed up his great game with another great game as he dropped 28 points and shot 12 of 13 free throws including the clutch free throws at the end of the game to finish off the Celtics.

Now the series is tied at two all. It is now a best two out of three series. On Wednesday is Game 5 in Boston (Please don't stay at the same hotel!!! Stay in Providence. Fly in just for the game. No more bars). The series must return to Atlanta for Game 6 and a thunderous arena full of old gear wearing fans. The Hawks are off the mat. They have now punched back...and I'm enjoying every bite.