Right after I posted a blog about Mike Bibby being so important to the Hawks, he goes 0-7 from the floor in 19 minutes (granted, I qualified my statement using records of the Hawks w/out a full game from Bibby on the road), but the Hawks still defeat the Miami Heat 91-83. The reason the Hawks won last night because of a monster effort that Al Horford put up, scoring 21 points and 22 rebounds (career high in rebounds), and equaled the number of rebounds that BOTH Udonis Haslem and Jermaine O’Neal of the Heat had.
The Atlanta Hawks were lucky in my opinion to get the #3 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. I said that both Greg Oden and Kevin Durant would be flops compared to the predictions that some were saying about the two of them. I was correct about Oden and though Durant is a big time scorer, he doesn’t do much else, which the Hawks have a big-time scorer in Joe Johnson. Al Horford has become one of the cornerstones of the youth that has made this team what it is. He won’t score 20 points a night, but he has shown already that he is a consistent scorer and rebounder. He has averaged 11 points, 9 rebounds (9th best among Centers in the NBA), and 2.5 assists per game (2nd best among Centers in the NBA). Most likely, he will probably average those numbers for most of his career (remember, he is only 22 years old), but he is going to continue to be a solid center in the Hawk’s young and talented lineup.
