AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > January > 16
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Twisted!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MILWAUKEE - I knew this was going to be a twisted day around 5:45, when the Weather Channel informed me that the forecast for metro Atlanta wasn’t nearly as nice as things were going to be here, near the frozen tundra.
But you don’t know twisted until you fall into the hotel and flip on the TV to find the live Packers’ news conference on dang near every station, like this is breaking news or something - and one station had the audacity to splash a “Road to Glory” graphic across the screen like some sort of campaign slogan. As Don King would say, “only in America.”
Brett Favre might as well be the President of Wisconsin, because he’s the first quarterback I’ve seen all the networks show live at 2 p.m. talking about conversations he had in the training room the day before. And he wasn’t alone. The coach came on next. And then Charles Woodson (the one bright spot so far), Ryan Grant, Donald Driver and some other dude I’ve never seen put their spin on things.
Who needs ESPN when the local stations are drowning you in wall-to-wall coverage? (And speaking of the big dogs on the blocks, couldn’t the NBA make them do the TV schedule over and bring on something other than the Bulls-Heat game tonight?).
Any who, my bags made it here just fine, thanks Delta. We won’t know until later if the Hawks’ groove (what else do you call the systemic demolition of two solid opponents, and yes, despite their record Chicago remains a hurdle for most teams, in as many games?) made it here without spilling out all over their luggage.
Someone told me last night that they thought Hawks played better in their last two games than they have at any other time during this season, and that includes wins over Dallas, Phoenix, Orlando and any of the outings during their five-game winning streak from last month.
It’s hard to argue, the final frantic minutes of last night’s game aside.
That said, I’m still left wondering what it would be like to see the Hawks start hot and then spend the final three quarters choking the last breath out of an opponent. They tried to preserve their lead last night and almost got caught. Why not crank it up even more when you’re winning by 25?
The Prevent never works. Everybody knows that. If the Hawks get up big again tonight, a huge if, obviously, I wonder if they’ll be foolish enough to think they can coast to the finish line again.
