It Was A Good Day

For those who didn't watch, and therefore, didn't see the Hawks close and painful 99-88 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder Tuesday night, here is what you missed:

• A spirited Thunder team, led by the efforts of Kevin Durant (who the HHB would award a full 100 in shooting in any video game entry) and the entire Thunder frontcourt, who owned the Hawks all night.

• The Thunder outrebounded the Hawks 52-40, including a staggering 19 offensive rebounds. Hands in the air, who doesn't think this will haunt the Hawks come playoff time? Not so fast, Josh Smith (3 rebounds in 38 minutes). (yeah, we said it--playoffs---the HHB fears no superstition!)

• Marvin Williams was M-O-N-E-Y, especially around the basket, where he made a couple of shots that miraculously made its way into the basket. Moustache Marv led the Birds with 21 points and tacked on 7 rebounds.

• Mike Bibby continued his steady ways--even though it seemed he wasn't on, he was 6-13 and was 2-5 from 3 point range. He turned in a 14/7/6 performance, of which the 6 assists led the HHB to complain loudly once again that the Atlanta Official Scorer always seems to cheat the home team players from stats. It definitely seemed to all the Bird Watchers in the Official HHB High Definition Viewing Center that Bibby had more dimes on the night. The thought was later echoed by the stellar broadcast team of 'Nique and "I'm Bob Rathbun". This theory first began when we would watch Dikembe Mutombo pull down rebound after rebound and then check the stat sheet and he would have something like "6" when it was really like "10". Another area this manifests itself is in the blocked shot category, where we see someone like Horford have 3 or 4 blocks in a half and the stat sheet says 1. Deflation, everybody!!

• Oh, by the way, Joe Johnson messed around and had a triple double (20/11/11)! Every last stat in Jo-Jo's second career TD was necessary and we continue to marvel at how a guy can have a touch so soft, the ball bounces on the rim like it was a Tempur-Pedic pillow.

Along the way Josh Smith was once again unstoppable inside and did indeed hit a clutch three late to silence the Thunder. Smith is magnificent once inside and finishes with such nice touch, it's a wonder he's shoots from anywhere else, and yet he does. That late game three just bought another 10-pack of airballs and bricks from long range for Smoove. Merry Christmas!

Thanks to the lack of protection on the boards and execution from the free throw line, the Hawks kept this closer than it had to be. Alas, the Thunder's youth let them down with some bad shots and fouls and the Hawks did what they had to do to take a 30-20 fourth quarter to the victory.

In Other News:

Acie Law played 1 minute and had an assist with no turnover and RFM played 18 minutes and had no assists and a turnover. Don't feed the HHB any common sense around these numbers. Don't tell us Law played a meaningless minute while Murray played in real time! Just look at those numbers! Checkmate, America!

Also, while we love seeing the home broadcast team of IBR and Nique, there is no excuse why all these games can't be televised in high definition. If we want to see every gleam on Al Horford's shaved dome or every stray hair in Marv's Moustache that's our right, and all the Fox Sports Nets need to comply. The HHB watched Pistol Pete circa 1970 on NBA Classics in better definition than last night's game. Come on, Fox, grab a mitt and get in the game!

A Christmas Thought:

We here at the HHB are very thankful that the Franchise is an amazing 18-10 and moving forward as a team. The return to relevance is something that we have shouted praises for often in this space, and something that we don't regards lightly. A special thanks to Billy Knight, who Built This City and then, as Sekou Smith put it nicely in his blog, decided to bounce.

We hope you enjoy Christmas tomorrow, and if you don't celebrate the holiday yourself, hopefully you at least have the day off and enjoy.

Merry Christmas, everybody!