It was a disappointing night for the Atlanta Hawks, dropping their first of two consecutive games at the Crypto.com Arena, with a 130-114 loss to the Anthony Davis-less Los Angeles Lakers for the second straight week.
The coup de grâce came early on in this one, as the Lakers went on a 25-8 run in the 2nd quarter, putting Atlanta in a 21-point hole at the break. It was truly an abominable performance from the Hawks in the first 24 minutes. Atlanta shot 32.7% from the floor and conversely, allowed Los Angeles to shoot 57%, including 16-20 at the rim.
The Lakers held a 42-16 advantage in points in the paint, as well as a 22-3 advantage in fast-break points. Oddly enough, the Hawks actually had one fewer turnover than Los Angeles at the half, with most of the Lakers’ fast-break opportunities coming off of Atlanta misses (turned 48% of live misses into transition opportunities in the first half per cleaningtheglass.com).
Trae Young got loose in the third quarter, scoring 17 of his 32 points as the Hawks managed to cut the lead to 10 with under a minute to play in the period. Back-to-back LA three’s, courtesy of Kendrick Nunn and rookie, Max Christie, would give the Lakers a comfortable 98-82 lead going into the fourth quarter and the Hawks were all but finished.
Young had 32 points and 9 assists on the night, but also coughed the ball up six times. Dejounte Murray, John Collins and De’Andre Hunter all scored 16 points on not-very efficient shooting. Onyeka Okongwu probably should have played more in the first-half with the Hawks rim defense being so bad, even when he played he did not make much of a difference as both him and Collins were attacked time-and-time again in the paint. The bench group of Bogdan Bogdanovic, A.J. Griffin and Aaron Holiday were a non-factor tonight, as the three combined for just 12 points through the first three quarters.
It was a balanced scoring effort from the Lakers who seemed to get whatever look they wanted to. LeBron James looked like he was playing NBA 2K on rookie-mode, scoring 25 points to go along with 10 assists, with 9 of them coming in the first-half, and 7 rebounds, in just 32 minutes of action. Russell Westbrook had a vintage-performance contributing a near-triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists. Thomas Bryant was a beast in the paint, finishing with 19 points to go along with 13 rebounds. Kendrick Nunn Dennis Schroder added 23 and 21 points respectively, and both players combined to go 8-15 from downtown.
Atlanta now sits at 18-21 on the season, 10th place in the Eastern Conference and will look to get back on track against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday evening. Tip-off for that one is at 9:00 p.m. eastern.
