The Quest for #2 : The story of the 2007 - 2008 ATL Hawks

[ixcuincle]

Extreme Makeover




Hawks 102 - SuperSonics 82

The new Sarunas Jasikevicius seems to be quite the ball player.

A day after getting a makeover to update his outdated face , the new Sarunas Jasikevicius helped his Hawks win by scoring 60 points in a blowout of the Seattle Supersonics. The Hawks (28-24) got off to a good start and left the heartbreaking loss at Detroit behind them , as Jasikevicius erupted in the 1st half for 28 points. He would go on to score 50 until the middle of the 4th , where he was pulled for Tony Delk. But he wasn't done yet. With the game well decided , Delk was substituted out with 1:23 to go and Jasikevicius entered the game to roaring applause from the Phillips Center crowd. Despite fatigue , he was still able to hit the long shot that he had nailed all night and broke the 60 point barrier with a 3 as time expired.

"I was just feeling it today" , Jasikevicius said in the post-game interview. "It must be the new look. And after I saw Kobe Bryant score 62 the other night against Dallas I decided I would try to show the world that Kobe isn't the only one that can score 60."

He's sure shown the world , all right.

[kevC]

60 pts His face is looking good though

[Jing]

rotfll... that is just insane. 60 points hahah good job at rate getting the win.. lol
60 points

[streetballaz1]

lol ,great makeover

[ixcuincle]

Hawks 93 - Bucks 92

The Hawks have got to stop living on the edge. They could fall off.

But they didn't.

Sarunas Jasikevicius hit the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer and scored 39 points as the Hawks (30-24) narrowly avoided an upset loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (9-47). The Hawks were able to win this game despite poor play for 3 quarters. The Hawks were never fully in sync in the first 3 quarters , at one point turning the ball over repeatedly and giving up an 11-point lead to the Bucks. In the 3rd quarter the Hawks turned to an old formula used against previous foes when down: Look to the three , and often. Rick Brunson came off the bench when Nick Van Exel went out with an injury and hit several three's to get the Hawks back into the game. Sarunas Jasikevicius , who had scored 18 in the first half , erupted and tried to cut the Hawks' deficit. The Hawks ended the 3rd half down 2 , and the game went down to the wire from there. With about 20 seconds remaining , the Bucks led 90 - 87. Rick Brunson tried to tie the game with a three-pointer and failed. Slapping his leg angrily , Coach Alvin Woodson went absolutely livid. "At that point " , he said , " I thought we had lost the game." The Hawks fouled T.J. Ford and Ford went to the free throw line , where he promptly missed both free throws. "My mouth was wide open" , Woodson later said in his press conference. "Usually he should hit those." The Hawks grabbed the rebound and promptly called a timeout. Then , Brunson made up for his miss with a fade-away three from the right end of the floor and the Hawks began to believe. That was , until the Bucks ran the clock down and hit a layup with 1.5 seconds left. Phillips Arena was in shock. Their Hawks had been looking weak against the Pacers last game , and they had played poorly defensively most of today. Woodson compared his defense today to a slice of swiss cheese , filled with holes. The Hawks poor defense almost cost them this game.

But Sarunas Jasikevicius wouldn't allow it. In his return to Phillips following his phenomenal 60-point performance , Jasikevicius again was the celebrity after the game. But it wouldn't be his points scored ( although he scored 39). As the ball was inbounded , Jasikevicius caught the pass and dribbled forward. He had attempted a three-pointer in this same situation against the Pistons and failed. This time , however , was a different story. As time expired , he drilled the game-winner and clutched his fist to the cheers of the ecstatic Phillips Arena crowd.

"I had hit a three at the buzzer the last game [against the Supersonics] but that wasn't for the win , so a final second three wasn't all that new to me." , Jasikevicius said after the game. "But this one was actually the first I hit to win a game , it feels pretty good."

[Jing]

lol... simply amazing... he is probably canidate for mvp or something.

[The_Flying_Tomato]

He's gotta be averaging like 40 PPG

[ixcuincle]

He doesn't mainly because when he started playing for the Hawks he didn't average that much , which is bringing his average down to 20-ish ppg.

Hawks fall in OT , lose two straight

The Hawks (31 - 26) lost their 2nd straight today to the Sacramento Kings (24 - 34) in overtime , 124 - 120. Again the blame on today's loss fell on the Hawk's shoddy defense , which gave up 124 points to the Kings. Mike Bibby could not be stopped , exploding for 53 points for the Kings. The Hawks were trying to get back to winning ways after a blowout loss to Toronto 115 - 91 , where coach Alvin Woodson did not travel with the team due to personal matters. Apparently the lack of their head coach affected their performance , as the Hawks did not seem like the team they were under Woodson.

Returning to the team following a 1-game hiatus , Woodson tried to get them back on track. Unfortunately they ran into a red-hot Mike Bibby who couldn't be stopped this game. "Everything we did (defensively), everything we tried backfired.", Woodson said later during his postgame press conference.

The Hawks looked strong and were in control of the game for 3 quarters , at one point leading by 9. The Kings , though , would slowly get back into it with Bibby leading the way. The Kings would take control in the 4th but several crucial three's by Hawks players helped narrow the gap and eventually tie the game. The Kings had a chance to win the game in regulation , but a jumper clanked off the rim at the buzzer and the game went into an extra period. In overtime , the Hawks , who had fought so hard to tie the game in the 4th quarter , seemed out of gas as they trailed early in the extra period and never fully recovered. A couple of three's would narrow the King's lead but time and time again the Kings penetrated through the Hawk's shoddy defense and got easy buckets.
"We're just not playing the type of defense we're capable of" , Woodson later said. "We are aware we can't win in the NBA on offense alone. Championship teams like the Spurs and Pistons win with defense..."

Game Notes : Woodson , due to an undisclosed personal matter , was unable to coach the Raptors game. It is assumed a computer controlled the game in his absence.

Box Scores and Related Images

[Gator]

Nice dynasty! But childress isn't a PF lol...

[ixcuincle]

He occasionally comes in as power forward but since Marvin Williams is fully healed and is back to his pre-injury state there is no need for Childress as much. He mostly comes in to play shooting guard but every once in a while when Brunson has the sg spot and I want more offense in the game I will bring Childress in to play power forward.

[ixcuincle]

Hawks lose 3 straight , fall to Miami 103 - 99

The Freefalling Hawks lost again to premiere competition , falling to Miami 103 - 99. Jason Williams led the Heat with 28 points before being injured in the early 4th quarter. The Hawks poor defense has given up 3 straight century-point games and the once strong Hawks must start realizing the importance of defense.

"These last 2 games (against the Heat and Kings) keep coming down to the wire. We have to stop letting them back in the game.", Alvin Woodson said after his team dropped its 3rd straight game.

The Hawks have hit a rough part of the schedule though. 2 out of the last 3 opponents had 30 wins or more and were premiere competition. But , how will the Hawks be ready for the playoffs if they cannot beat premiere competition when neccesary? Hopefully the Hawks will get things together again.

[pauleninas]

I don`t know but it seems that you really like Sarunas Jasikevicius do you?

[ixcuincle]

I really didn't know who he was until I started having point guard problems in the beginning of the season and saw him as a free agent ranked at 68. After a minor adjustment period he started to emerge as a brilliant 3 point shooter and now often erupts for over 30 ppg. Now his average is around 21 ppg , which is nice.

Anyways I have been , and still am , on vacation so updates have been infrequent. I apologize. Basically when I was away I brought my laptop with me to play some NBA live during free time. Unfortunately the Hawks have repeatedly lost games to teams that had been eliminated , like Milwaukee. Several times the Hawks found themselves neck-and-neck with competition in the 4th , where a defensive collapse would eventually cost the Hawks the game. The Hawks have only won 3 games in Februrary and their record has fallen to 34-30 (If you see the last schedule of februrary I posted...basically I lost every game except the Bulls game , the Knicks game , and the first Magic game.) Fortunately , they still have the 7th best record in the Eastern Conference.

[HonorGlow]

Hey man, I was going to wait until the lettering on the right hand side was better but I guess I've delayed this long enough...

Atlanta Hawk's Team MVP:
(headshot courtesy of cklitsie):

...check out many others here

It's funny, ever since I've seen Sarunas on your website, I've been seeing him all over the place! I'm really glad that you got him into All-star calibre form and it's really really cool to see somebody be the frontman of a Live dynasty team besides the obvious people such as O'Neal, Kobe, Duncan...yatta yatta

Well if I had to make a decision between Playing Live vs Posting Dynasty Updates...I think I would have made the same decision as you did during holidays!

But let me know when you finish your season so I can compute your end of season efficiency scores!

[KIG1]

sarunas is just tearin it up

[The_Flying_Tomato]

only 18 ppg? WTF

[ixcuincle]

Jasikevicius scores 55 in Hawks Win

Following a stunning loss to the Orlando Magic (36-35) the Hawks were left looking for answers. The Hawks were blown out in the 2nd half and a close game between their old interdivisional foe turned into a huge Magic victory which kept them close in the playoff chase.

They found an answer in the sign of Sarunas Jasikevicius , who scored 55 points and erupted for 19 points in the 1st , 4 in the 2nd , 19 points in the 3rd , and 13 points in the 4th as the Hawks (37 - 33) managed to win in a wild month of March. The Hawks have struggled in the month of March , going 6-8. "Obviously we haven't played the caliber of basketball we are capable of" , coach MIKE WOODSON (apologies for misidentifications in previous posts) said. "We know we can play a lot better than this."

The Hawks let the Bobcats in the game in the 1st half and the game was close until the 2nd quarter where the Hawks finally started to show signs of life and pull away. The Hawks lead would swell to 10 and at one point 20 before the Hawks began to get lazy and allow the Bobcats to start a faint rally , at one point cutting the deficit to 8. But clutch Jasikevicius free throw shooting in the 4th quarter sealed the Bobcats fate. The Hawks next opponent is the Indiana Pacers , a team over .500 that the Hawks have beaten before 92 - 87.

Box Scores

[ixcuincle]

Atlanta 94 - Indiana 93



Sarunas Jasikevicius went berserk again , scoring 54 , and the Hawks (38 - 32) won their 2nd straight to keep afoot in the playoff hunt. They are currently ranked 7th in the East.

The game against Indiana (40 - 30) remained close throughout. In the 1st quarter Indiana jumped out to a 10 point lead and the Hawks had their usual 1st quarter troubles. But three-point shooting would help the Hawks pull back into the game and at halftime the Hawks led by two , 58 - 56. The game seesawed in the 2nd half but in the end it would be Jasikevicius who would put the team on his back and break the 50 point plateau for the 2nd straight day.

Game notes : Marvin Williams sat today's game out with a leg injury. His status is questionable. The Hawks play New Jersey , another team with a winning record , next.

[Laxation]

huge game from Sarunas there, good stuff

[ixcuincle]

New Jersey 116 - Atlanta 114 (OT)
Jasikevicius scores career-high 78 in loss

In the end , Sarunas Jasikevicius was too tired to play , and was benched in the final seconds. He had just scored 78 points to eclipse his previous high of 60 scored against Seattle. Unfortunately , for the Hawks , Jasikevicius' benching would cost the Hawks the win as a Tony Delk jumper at the buzzer clanked off the rim , giving the Nets a win in a hard fought slugfest between two over-.500 teams.

The game was close throughout the first half and Jasikevicius ended up with 20 points at the half. But , like he did all season , he stepped up in the third quarter , hitting multiple long-range three pointers to help the Hawks pull away. At one time the Hawks led by 10 ; Jasikevicius had 51 points at the end of 3. The way he was playing , everyone in Phillips Arena knew he would break his previous career high of 60 , it was just a matter of when.

The Hawks began to get lazy and allowed the Nets back into the game. After Jason Kidd made a free throw to give the Nets a 3 point lead with 3 seconds left in the 4th , Jasikevicius got the inbounds pass and crossed midcourt , then rose up and hit a three pointer as time expired to send the game to overtime. But , a tired Jasikevicius couldn't finish the rest of the overtime period , and he had to be replaced by Tony Delk. With the entire team basically being carried by Jasikevicius , the Hawks eventually ran out of gas and fell to the Nets. They play the Bobcats next.

[pauleninas]

man I`m a Lithuanian in Lithuania Jasikevicius is probably the most popular player right now, but why do you like him so much? Because he played in maryland?



And it`s just unbelievable that he scored 78 points!!!!!!


make some real sliders!

[Marquis]

WOW 78 points
Keep going with Jasikevicius

[The_Flying_Tomato]

and he didn't even foul out

[ixcuincle]

Atlanta 103 - Memphis 100

The Hawks continued to pick up crucial wins as they try to clinch a spot in the NBA playoffs. They defeated the Grizzlies 103 - 100 on a final second shot by Sarunas Jasikevicius with less than a second remaining. Sarunas Jasikevicius had 51 points in the win and has now scored over 50 in 4 straight games.

The game remained close throughout until the 4th , where coach Mike Woodson called for a gutsy play. With time ticking down in the game and Atlanta having missed a shot , a Memphis player was running upcourt with a 2-1 break. Instead of allowing him to go uncontested , Woodson called for the team to foul him. He would have to earn his 2 points from the line. This gutsy decision , however, paid off when he missed the first of 2 shots. Woodson called a timeout after the second shot fell through , and as usual Jasikevicius stepped up in crunch time and hit the game winning 3 with less than a second remaining. After this 3 , Memphis called a timeout which was puzzling seeing that there were only 0.1 seconds left in the game. Memphis then inbounded the ball and , not having enough time to get a shot off , just passed it to another player.

The Hawks now enter a difficult stretch , as a lot of their opponents they face in April this season have records of .500 or better. "It will be a challenge" , Woodson said in his post-game press conference "We know a loss doesn't help. We have to win all the games we can and hope we can sneak into the playoffs." The Hawks currently hold the 7th seed in the East , but Orlando is gaining ground fast. One thing is for sure , the game later in April between Orlando and Atlanta is going to be criticial for the Hawks.

Notes : Jasikevecius was informed he had won rookie of the month honors for March due to his spectacular play. Marvin Williams is still sidelined with injury , but the team is not worried , since Tom Gugliotta has stepped up as a solid replacement for Williams.

[pauleninas]

I do not believe what I am seeing here


Are you going to continue this strange dynasty?

If yes?

try to make the game realistic as posible please...