The Hawks 2011 playoff debut got under way beautifully last night in Orlando. Joe Johnson led the way 25 points & 5 assists. As usual, Jamal Crawford was close behind with 23 points & 5 assists. Both player’s 5 assist led the team, which really should make any Hawks fan excited about the overall offensive effort of the teams two most “explosive” offensive players. Al Horford scored 16 points, but fell short 4 rebounds of his usual double-double. Josh Smith tallied up 15 points of his own with 8 rebounds.

On the “flip side” of things, the Orlando Magic or shall I say Dwight Howard obviously was a handful. If you missed it, Dwight poured in 46 of his team’s 93 points. Jameer Nelson scored a solid 27 points but only dished out 1 assist. I like the Hawks chances when Jameer only has 1 assist. I don’t think coach Van Gundy has his two best offensive players accounting for all but 20 of the teams points in game 2 on Tuesday. If the Hawks let the Magic supporting cast cash in on top of what Howard & Nelson managed to accomplish in game 1 this isn’t going to be as good of a series as anticipated for the Hawks.

Game 2 of the series will be Tuesday night back in Orlando. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 ET.

(polls)