On the second night of a back-to-back, the Atlanta Hawks were tasked with cooling off another surging Eastern Conference opponent in the Toronto Raptors. The two teams recently faced off on Monday night in Atlanta, where Toronto escaped with a 106-100 victory. The result was not much of a different on Friday night, as the Raptors beat Atlanta 125-114 in Toronto.
Toronto is coming off a brutal week that saw them play five games in a six-day span, including a triple-overtime thriller against Miami and another overtime game against Chicago. Right now the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture is undergoing a bottleneck, with a handful of teams hovering around the sixth seed and the play-in teams as well— here are the four teams seeded seven through ten:
Toronto Raptors: 28-23
Boston Celtics: 29-25
Charlotte Hornets: 28-25
Atlanta Hawks: 25-27
Offensively this game functioned as an inverse of Atlanta’s victory over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday. In that game, the Hawks could not miss from deep going 20-of-41 as a team. Against the Raptors, however, the shooting splits were a bit grim: the Hawks shot 31% going 9-of-29 from three, compounded by the fact that the Raptors shot a scorching 63% on three’s going 17-of-27. This shooting discrepancy is what doomed the Hawks.
As a whole, the Hawks seemed to be noticeably affected by their second game in a row. The defensive energy was missing for a good chunk of the first three quarters and despite getting some good looks, Atlanta’s shooters just could not seem to find the bottom of the net. This was also due to the athleticism and length of the Raptors that was on display Monday night as well. Fred Van Vleet is the smallest player in their starting lineup, but he has the strength to hold his own against size mismatches.
It should be noted that the Raptors went on a 31-5 run in the first quarter that turned the rest of the game into an uphill battle. Toronto would attack in transition and pushed the pace at every chance they got. De’Andre Hunter managed to chip in 14 first-half points and after falling behind early, Atlanta went on a 17-7 run of their own to end the first half.
Whenever the Hawks were able to close the gap the Raptors managed to hit timely buckets again-and-again. A night removed from his 43-point outing against the Suns, Trae Young finished with 22 points along with 13 assists. John Collins also contributed 23 points, but it took him 19 shots to get there. Still, he was one game removed from suffering a shoulder injury against Phoenix and was questionable coming into Friday’s contest.
Entering the second half, the Hawks were only trailing 59-60, but a slow start to the third quarter reset their progress. Atlanta allowed Toronto to score 36 points during this period. Once again, the fourth quarter was a game of catch-up and Atlanta could not do enough to pull out the victory. Toronto forward, Pascal Siakam, led all scorers with 33 points and first-time all-star, Van Vleet, finished with 26 points and 11 assists.
With thirty games remaining for the Hawks and the sixth-easiest schedule remaining, the Hawks are hopeful they can go on a another second-half run heading into the playoffs. Atlanta heads to Dallas to take on the Mavericks for the final time this season. Atlanta last saw Dallas in their season opener, where the Hawks steadily controlled that game. The headline for this one will be Trae Young versus Luka Doncic. The two will forever be tethered together considering they were traded for each other back in the 2018 NBA draft. Tip-off for this one is at 6:00pm eastern from the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
