We just played the Hawks this week, which is one of the reasons I will simply refer you to the preview here rather than writing a new one. Things haven't changed that much.
The other reason to refer you is, well, I have a confession to make. Writing previews is hands down the hardest part of doing this and the part I critique myself on most harshly. No preview can be completely accurate. They all talk about what is likely to happen. But what is likely to happen isn't always what actually does happen. That's the magic of it all...the reason that it hasn't gotten old even after a couple of thousand games watched. But the magic of the unexpected makes it devilishly hard to encapsulate a game before it happens. Most of the time, that is. That Atlanta game made perfect poetic couplets with the preview. It just curled my toes. That almost never happens to that degree. And this was against an Eastern Conference opponent that I don't get to see as much. Plus that team is undergoing growth and changes much like ours so you couldn't rely on traditional, knee-jerk impressions. I would say I'm prouder of that preview than any other I've done this year. Which is probably another way of saying I got lucky.
Let's see if it happens twice.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)