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[wdt92]

[wdt92]

November Recap
TNT
Dec 2, 2016

Atlanta Hawks Boxscore | Western Conference | Eastern Conference

EJ: "Welcome back fans, and man oh man, what a doubleheader we had tonight! We saw the Bulls dominate once again their Eastern Conference competition, as they toppled the LeBron James led Cleveland Cavaliers 134-112. The Bulls dominated this game in the fourth primarily through MVP candidate Jimmy Butler leading the Bulls scoring with another 30 point performance!"

Shaq: "That's true, Ernie. This kid is good."

Charles: "He really is, it was an honor and a pleasure watching him tonight."

Kenny: "Butler really is having a tremendous season. However, I am curious if you guys think the game would have changed if Kyrie didn't have the back soreness in the 3rd?"

Shaq: "Yes."

Charles: "No. Not at all. Listen-"

Shaq: "Stop it, Chuck! Kyrie Irving is a 22 point-per-game scorer. There is no way he doesn't help them."

Charles: "So? Who is he going to guard? Kyrie is a great player and it is no doubt he is a piece to the Cavaliers' puzzle, but this Chicago team is tearing the East apart right now. I am looking at Butler and D-Wade and-"

Kenny: "Rondo."

Charles: "Rondo, yeah, my favorite player this season. These guys are dominating in ways I didn't expect. Shaq, I don't see Kyrie stopping Wade from hitting his 44% threes. I don't see Kyrie stopping Rondo from getting his passes to these guys, and I don't see Kyrie stopping Miro-tick. These guys are just flat out playing better basketball right now."

EJ: "Chuck, with that said, do you guys think Chicago is a threat right now to the Warriors? Chicago has a 15-3 record and the Warriors are cruising right now with a 17-2 record."

Charles: "They're the next best team, so maybe. I think if the Bulls can catch the Warriors off guard with Wade's amazing three point range this season, they may have a shot. The thing the Warriors have, that the Bulls don't, is ability to create that shot. You watch the Bulls and if anyone picks up the dribble they're driving to the bucket. KD and Steph can pull up from anywhere, and I think that versatility will make the difference. But right now, yeah, I have those two teams at the top of the NBA."

Kenny: "Yeah, I have to agree with Charles. Thing that the-"

Shaq: "Why don't you guys think that the Bulls can beat the Warriors when they just decimated the defending champs?"

Kenny: "Offensive posessions, Shaq. Kevin Durant really makes the difference here. If it was the Warriors team from last year, I think Chuck and I both would have the Bulls win in a close game."

EJ: "Moving on to our next game tonight, we had the 11-10 Clippers take on the 8-12 Pelicans that saw New Orleans edge the win out in a 116-107 win. AD was phenomenal putting up 33 and 11 in the win. Right now, looking at the West especially since it has been a month since the Chris Paul trade, who would you say won that trade now?"

Charles: "You know, in hindsight, I think the Raptors won. At the time, it looked fairly even but so far, Lowry and Gay haven't produced the way I expected."

Shaq: "I agree with you, Chuck."

Kenny: "I think it's still too early to tell. I don't think Toronto has clearly won because of the draft pick that LA got in the deal. If both teams lose, clearly they will probably lose their star and made this gamble by Toronto a worse deal than what the Clippers did."

EJ: "Also tonight was the Hawks taking on the Detroit Pistons on NBA TV-"

Charles: "There's a barn burner.. Okay America, now is the time to turn the television off!"

Shaq starts laughing loudly as the team barely makes it through the highlights.

EJ: "Well the-"

Shaq: "Chuck, what time is it?"

Charles: "Time to go to bed, America! It is one o'clock in the morning and the 7-13 team and 7-14 team are now getting highlights!"

The rest of the crew start laughing as the highlights show new signing My'Khail Thomas hit a reverse layup.

Kenny: "That was nice, though!"

EJ: "That is newly signed Hawk, My'Khail Thomas."

Charles: "My'Khail better call my agent to get him out of that sorry team."

The crew laughs again, as Charles is trying not to laugh himself.

EJ: "Well Atlanta won the game 105-93. Seeing the middle of the pack and now heading into December with our November highlights show, where do you think the middle teams like Atlanta-"

Charles: "Those teams aren't middle teams, Ernie. They're bad."

Shaq laughs again, as Ernie is smiling also.

EJ: "Chuckster, I'm trying to work a segway to the rest of the league besides Chicago and Golden State."

Charles: "Oh, sorry Ernie. I just can't lie on television about turrible NBA teams."

EJ: "With our theme of recapping the last month, we saw a lot of mid-tier to even low-tier teams winning individual awards. Like Russell Westbrook winning player of the month despite his team not making it into the playoffs if the season ended today with a 9-11 record. Do you guys think that there is a chance for these teams to move up?"

Kenny: "There's always a chance-"

Charles: "No there isn't."

Kenny: "What do you mean, Chuck? You don't think OKC can move up?"

Charles: "Maybe OKC, but only because they got a running dynamo named Russell Westbrook on that team. The rest of these teams don't got a chance to really compete with the Rockets and Warriors out West or the Bulls, Cavs, or Raptors right now."

Kenny: "What about the next tier? I think all these teams can get into that next tier. I don't see OKC or the Spurs who have a worse record, to be unable to compete with the Clippers for example. And out East, I think there is so much parity right now, the Eastern Conference may be at the strongest point it has ever been in. I mean the 8th seed is only 5 and 1/2 games out. It's actually pretty brutal out there too."

EJ: "Well before we close up here, I think it's now time for one last-"

The jingle plays for EJ's Neato Fact of the Night.

[wdt92]

Atlanta will be sending F/C Paul Millsap, F/G Kent Bazemore, C/F Mike Muscala
Portland will be sending SG Allen Crabbe, F Maurice Harkless, PF Ed Davis, 2017 1st Rnd (Top 5 Protected, Grizzlies)

In a move to hopefully help both teams, All-Star Forward Paul Millsap will now be joining the Portland Trail Blazers in their attempt to push forward through the heated Western Conference to the next level of contention. This move also clears a lot of cap space long term for Portland to resign players as they need to.

Meanwhile, the Hawks get a lot younger by sending off their last starting 2015 team member as predicted earlier in the season. This year the Hawks have found themselves out of the playoff race and seems to be buying fully into a momentary rebuild in their hunt of becoming once again competitive. Millsap averaged 19 and 9 for the Hawks and was essentially their best player going into the month of December.