Bo Churney of Hawks Hoop: “The Hawks got a critical win by defeating the Knicks on Saturday night. Game recap aside, there are some other things from the game that I would like to address.THABO SEFOLOSHA Thabo Sefolosha has been really bad on offense to start the season. He is 5-for-23 from the field to start the season and that is not just because of a bad jump-shooting stretch; Sefolosha is blowing what should be easy layups, too. However, there is a bright side to Thabo’s play: his defense does not have the same off switch that his offense apparently does. This helps DeMarre Carroll more than any other player, as the Hawks can now afford to sit Carroll and give him some rest, or simply allow him to get some playing time where he does not have to matchup with the opposing team’s best wing player. Sefolosha’s offense will eventually get better and when it does, he will become an extremely valuable player to have on the bench.”
Brad Rowland of Peachtree Hoops: “The changing of the guard is complete. Atlanta Hawks point guard Dennis Schröder has been operating at an extremely high level this season, and that was once again true on Saturday night. Schröder scored a career-high 11 points while also setting a career-best with 5 steals in the comeback victory over the New York Knicks, but more importantly, Saturday night signified the completion of the shift from Shelvin Mack to Schröder as the team’s backup point guard. At least for now.”
Chris Vivlamore of the AJC: “Following the first three regular-season games, Hawks’ television ratings on SportSouth were up 44 percent over last season. In the first three games this season, the Hawks played the Raptors, Pacers and Spurs. The ratings were up nearly half of last season when the Hawks opened with the Mavericks, Raptors and Lakers.The season home-opening win over the Pacers did 18 percent better than last season’s home opener against the Raptors.”
