Entering Monday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, the Hawks had won seven in a row, coming off a thrilling victory against the Los Angeles Lakers. It was the second night of a back-to-back and coming into the matchup, Atlanta had played five games in six days.
Trae Young was a game-time scratch. Young was unable to play through a right shoulder contusion, which he suffered during Sunday’s game against Los Angeles.
Despite the up-and-down nature of this season, Hawks head coach Nate McMillan seems set on a ten man rotation. A huge part of the most recent winning-streak has been the effectiveness of the team’s bench, which has outscored opponents by an overwhelming margin of 160-68, spanning the last three games. Depth was always supposed to be a strength for Atlanta. Now that the rotations are set, there is a set minutes-distribution on the wing with Reddish gone, and Bogdanovich looking healthy again. Atlanta’s bench outscored Toronto’s, 41-12.
It is cliche to point out, but the NBA really is a game of runs, and this was probably best captured during the first half. Rather than a consistent back-and-forth, each team took turns running up the score against each other. After failing to score on the first three possessions, Atlanta went on an 11-2 run, which was followed up by an 8-0 run by Toronto. The first quarter was relatively clunky, with neither team being able to take control. In the second quarter, there was another 9-0 run by the Raptors, but the Hawks went on a 12-2 and lead by nine going into the half.
This game at times felt like a shootout between Gary Trent Jr. and Kevin Huerter. Huerter did most of his damage in the first half and dropped 16 points on a blistering 6-6 from the field. He would end up finishing the game with 26 points and had the second-highest point total among all players besides…the aforementioned Trent Jr., who finished with a career-high 9 three-pointers en route to 31 points. Trent Jr. was in a special kind of zone and entered the game, having scored at least 30 points in his last four games. A lot of that output came during the third quarter, in which he put up 17 points alone.
The third quarter is where things fell apart unfortunately. It was one of the worst quarters of basketball for the Hawks in recent memory. The team struggled to create offense against a pesky Raptors defense that forces the second most turnovers in the league. Delon Wright was tasked with a bit too much, as he had trouble gaining any separation from a litany of long, athletic Toronto defenders. Getting into offensive sets took a bit too long, and the whole scheme sputtered without Young to get past that initial point of action. The Hawks were outscored in the third, 32-15, and saw a nine point lead evaporate into an eight point deficit headed into the final period.
Even though Atlanta outscored Toronto in the fourth, 28-26, it was not enough to overcome the shaky third. However, Bogdanovich hit some late three’s to keep the Hawks within striking distance with just under two minutes left. The Raptors managed to close things out with a corner triple from OG Anunoby around the 20 second mark that ended up being the dagger.
Ultimately, it was a hard-fought game that Atlanta could have definitely taken, they shot well enough but lost the turnover battle. It did not help Atlanta with Toronto hitting 18 three-pointers.
The Hawks will get some rest and not see the court till Thursday night. They will host the red-hot Phoenix Suns for their second and final matchup of the season. Tip-off for that game is at 7:30pm form State Farm Arena.
