The Atlanta Hawks finally got back to the elusive .500 mark on Monday after defeating the Portland Trailblazers, 122-113. Portland was horrendously under-manned with the majority of their team being shipped out via trade or out with injuries, such as: Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons, & Jusuf Nurkic to name a few.
But give credit to the ‘Blazers they made this game a lot closer than it should have been. Newly acquired, Josh Hart, was coming off a career-best 44-point performance against the Washington Wizards, and he picked up where he left off. Hart was hitting mid-range jumpers in the paint against a Hawks defense that deploys a solid amount of drop coverage. He also continued his hot shooting from deep, going 4-of-7 against Atlanta, on the heels of a 6-of-9 outing in his previous game against the Wizards.
Atlanta trailed Portland heading into the second half, 67-58, despite an impressive early showing from Trae Young who notched 21 points before halftime. Young eventually finished the game with 46 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds, after finishing with 47 the night before against the Indiana Pacers.
Things continued to look shaky, as the Blazers extended their lead to 15 at the beginning of the third quarter, but the Hawks were able to answer back and go on a volcanic 31-6 run, fueled almost entirely by Young. He accounted for 21 points in that stretch, and Atlanta was able to hold onto that lead for good. Although Portland was once again able to close the gap toward the end of the contest, pulling within two points with under two minutes left in the ball game.
Albeit in a victorious performance, the Hawks have a tendency to come into matchups, in which they are heavily favored on paper, with a lackadaisical attitude, depending on who their opponent is. Against the Phoenix Suns in early February, one of the league’s top teams and what might have been the best win of the season, the whole team came ready to play from the jump. There was a notable difference in the way Atlanta’s defensive activity looked from the start. Too often though, like in this Portland game and even the Indiana game the previous night, there is a disjointed nature to how the team functions, especially defensively. Young dropped 93 points in both games combined, and the Hawks narrowly won both, that should tell everyone what they need to know.
Coming into Wednesday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets, the Hawks sat at 34-34, riding a three-game winning streak, with an opportunity to create a some breathing room in the standings and finally get over the .500 mark. Coming into the matchup both Charlotte and Atlanta were nearly identical in the standings.
It should be noted that Hawks forward, John Collins, was not available to play, and has not touched the floor since last week’s win against the Los Angeles Clippers. Danilo Gallinari was also ruled out mid-game, with a right bicep contusion. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot saw most of the minutes at the power forward position for Atlanta.
There was something about Charlotte’s personnel that really bothered Young right from the opening tip-off. The Hornets boast a combination of length and athleticism, which they used to blitz Young with on hard double-teams, using two large defenders, forcing the ball out of his hands. Atlanta shot 13-of-37 from deep, which is not great but not necessarily abominable, and still it seemed like players were missing a ton of wide-open shots.
Shooting woes really summed up the game, with Young unable to get going as he only took 12 shots and finished with just 9 points on 3-12 shooting, including 0-6 from three. The nine points by Young were a season-low. Bogdan Bogdanovic was also cold and contributed 12 points but on 5-of-16 from the field. Even so, the Hawks were in this game for the most part, leading by five at the half and entering the final period tied at 85 a piece. Atlanta gave up 31 points in the fourth, but the game did not really get away from them until around the four-minute mark in that final frame.
After De’Andre Hunter split a pair of free throws to cut the Hornet’s lead to one, Hornets forward, P.J. Washington, hit a big three after Clint Capela failed to get out on the perimeter to contest the shot. On the ensuing possession, Charlotte was hellbent on forcing anyone else on the Hawks to make a play besides Trae. There were moments where Hunter had the ball on the perimeter with no defender near him, the same thing happened to ‘Bogi’, who kept the rock moving before it eventually found its way to Kevin Huerter, who missed a contested floater. Plays like this were difficult because the Hawks had multiple wide-open look’s but decided to keep the ball moving, only to end up with a more difficult shot.
Following the missed opportunity, Hornets guard, Terry Rozier, hit a difficult step-back three over Young, who was not able to bother the shot. To Young’s credit, he was at least trying to be active in the passing lanes defensively throughout this game. Turnovers were a much bigger issue for him, as he lost the ball six times and after the Rozier dagger, threw an errant behind-the-back pass to Huerter, which was stolen by LaMelo Ball.
That was essentially the game, even though there were still about three minutes remaining. Charlotte’s lead ballooned from one to seven in the span of a minute, which was enough to put Atlanta down for good. Atlanta now heads into Friday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies one game back of Charlotte in the Eastern Conference’s play-in tournament. Tip-off for Friday’s game will be at 7:30 p.m. eastern.
