Friday: Washington @ Atlanta

[HMFFL]

Favored to win: Atlanta by 6.5 points

Over/Under: 203

GO HAWKS!!

[Harry10]

Blatche could give the Hawks alot of problems. Hawks should win this one, but it is going to be hard, even without Jamison the Wiz have 2 very good players and four 7footers.

Josh, Marv, and Al need to use their speed against the Wiz front court and Joe doesn't need to out shoot Gilbert, but just match his 30pts

[neanderballa]

Anybody have any idea whats going on with Javaris Crittenton? He's definitely on the Wizards, but he gets no pt, they didnt even play him in the preseason.

[uga_dawgs24]

Anybody have any idea whats going on with Javaris Crittenton? He's definitely on the Wizards, but he gets no pt, they didnt even play him in the preseason.

He had a double-bone bruise so he was out for a while. Then he had surgery so he is out for longer.
via yahoo.

Even when eh comes back I doubt he will get much pt due to being behind gilbert and foye.

[HoopsGuru25]

I like the under big time in this game. I noticed a trend about the Hawks at home last year where their defense blew in games which they were expecting to win(most noticeably the Clippers game and the SA game w/o Duncan)but were constantly able to hold 50 plus win teams like LA,Cleveland,NO,and Portland,and Denver well under their season average. There defense blew for 3 quarters vs Indy but that was one of the mediocre/bad teams that the Hawks decided to take a nap against last year at home as well. I'm going to assume that they will play much harder on D vs a team that's expected to make a run for the 4th seed like Washington.

[tontoz]

The Wizards made a big trade this summer, the 5th pick + bench players for Foye and Mike Miller. They will be starting Haywood/Blatche since Jamison is out so Horford/Smith will be at a pretty big size disadvantage. Arenas looked 100% against Dallas. I expect a tough game.

[conleyorbust]

Seems like the spread is pretty high on this one. I'm expecting a pretty exciting game between two very deep and fairly talented teams. If Josh and Al play like they did on offense last game, the Wiz (and every other team in the league) could be in real trouble. I'd expect Joe to be on Gil and Bibby to be following Miller/Deshawn around while he's on the floor.

I think the HC advantage should give us the lift in this one but nothing's for sure.

Go Hawks!

[uga_dawgs24]

Is Collins expected to be back for this one or will he still be out due to his ankle? If he is back I think his big body could be useful.

The PG/SG rotation will be interesting. Gilbert will start for them at the point, so would JJ guard him and we let Bibby go against the 2 guard? That could be a problem. I wouldn't mind more of Crawford and Teague due to their speed guarding some bigger guys.

[azuresou1]

I think Crawford will see lots of time, with Joe guarding Gilbert and Crawford guarding the 2 (whether Miller or Foye).

They actually match up really well with us, so I'm a little worried.

[dlts20]

Wiz fan here. All the matchups tonight are great. Theyre not the same without Jamison but it still should be fun. I saw on another Hawks site where they had Blatche starting but actually Oberto starts. I could see Flip starting Blatche tonight though, since you guys are so athletic. Most likely Oberto will start and they will pull him early if its not working out. Flip also hinted that McGee would get more run this game since due to you guys being so athletic. I think the Wood vs Al matchup could be the key. Both guys have advantages so we'll see how it goes.

I also hear alot of Hawks fans talking about putting JJ on Gil but as a Wiz fan I would love that. JJ is a beast but he's still far too tall to stick with Gil. I think Gil could get him into foul trouble or atleast wear him out for his Offense. I also would love little Bibby trying to guard Miller. Miller is close to 6'8 and has put up alot of points in this league. I think you would be better off sticking with Bibby guarding Gil while he's in the game. Should be fun either way. Im kind of hoping that you guys shot your load a little in the Pacers game and are due to be cold tonight

[evildallas]

I think Collins dressed on Wednesday and just got a Coach's Decision - DNP. If his ankle was keeping him out I would have expected Hunter to dress.

[HMFFL]

I expect this game to be very difficult and come down to the end. Vegas seems to think it's going to be close, but not too close, so we'll just see what happens. We should win, but we must contain agent zero.

[ilikecb4]

I bet on all games today hope Hawks beat wiz by 7

[HoopsGuru25]

I don't think the Hawks settled for a jumpshot the entire time the Hawks were out on the floor with that Crawford/Mo/Marvin/Smith/Smith unit. Amazing job of controlling the tempo by Crawford.

[tontoz]

Crawford showing why we got him, 15 pts at the half.