The Atlanta Hawks suffered a crushing defeat on Wednesday night, losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves by a final score of 125-124. The loss drops the Hawks’ record to 36-37 on the season and with 9 games remaining, they sit one game ahead of the Toronto Raptors and one-and-a-half games ahead of the Chicago Bulls in the race for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.
Atlanta’s injury report looked the same as it did on Tuesday night, with Dejounte Murray out with an illness, and Jalen Johnson sidelined with both a mild left hamstring and a mild left groin strain. For Minnesota, three-time All Star Karl-Anthony Towns suited up for the first time since suffering a grade-3 calf strain on November 28th, while Anthony Edwards and Jordan McLaughlin missed this matchup with an ankle sprain and an illness, respectively.
Both teams shot the ball extremely well in the first quarter, with Atlanta shooting 70% from the floor, hitting 5 of their 7 three-point attempts and Minnesota shooting 50% from the floor, going 8 for 12 from beyond the arc. After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Hawks were up 40-39. Atlanta had a lot of success in the pick-and-roll in the 1st, with Trae Young killing Rudy Gobert’s drop coverage, then showing great patience and vision to find his roll-man later on in the period when Naz Ried entered the game and played the p&r a bit more aggressively.
The 2nd quarter was a bit of a slog, as both teams cooled off considerably from three-point range and combined for 9 turnovers* and 13 fouls in the quarter, after only committing 4 turnovers and 5 fouls in the opening frame. Minnesota was able to get to the basket much easier than they were able to in the first quarter, going 7/10 at the rim after going 0/4 in the first quarter. At the end of the half the Wolves held a 5-point lead.
*4 of Atlanta’s 5 turnovers in the 2nd quarter came in the first 3 minutes of the period – not a good stretch for the team
Both sides traded baskets to begin the 3rd quarter, with Minnesota extending their lead to 9-points with just under nine minutes to go after a KAT hook shot over De’Andre Hunter. Atlanta did not take long to respond though, going on an 18-4 run over the next five minutes, and took a 97-94 lead into the 4th quarter. The Hawks did a lot of their damage at the rim and from beyond the arc in the 3rd quarter, going 7 of 8 at the rim and 5 of 7 from beyond the arc, with Saddiq Bey* knocking in 3 three-pointers himself in the quarter .
*Historically more proficient as a catch-and-shoot shooter, it was encouraging to see Bey hit a few threes off the dribble tonight – including this tough one in the 4th – as he’s been struggling with his shot as of late
Atlanta went with an all-bench unit to start the 4th quarter, and it paid off thanks to a dominant stretch from Onyeka Okongwu (6 points and 2 blocks in the first 3 minutes of the quarter) and a tough Saddiq Bey step-back gave them an 11-point lead, their largest of the night, with nine minutes to go. However, just like the Hawks in the 3rd quarter, Minnesota wasted no time in responding, going on an 18-4 run of their own to take a 4-point lead with four-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game. After a few good defensive possessions from the Hawks, a John Collins transition lay-in gave Atlanta a 1-point lead with a little over a minute to play. Then Mike Conley answered right back with a jumper of his own, before Young free-throws would put the Hawks back up by 1 with 50 seconds to go.
The Hawks forced a miss on their next possession, and had a chance to extend their lead with just 6 seconds separating the game-clock from the shot clock. Trae Young drove to the rim, opted not to challenge Rudy Gobert at the basket, and instead found Bogdan Bogdanovic for a spot-up three which did not fall, leaving the door open for Minnesota to retake the lead. On the Wolves’ final possession, John Collins was called for a questionable foul on Karl-Anthony Towns as he was driving to the basket, giving Towns two free-throws to give Minnesota a 1-point lead with under 4 seconds remaining in the game. The Hawks did challenge the call and I linked the play above so you can see it for yourself. To me, it looked like KAT used his left arm to initiate the contact with Collins, however the referees did not see enough evidence to overturn the call, and Towns was sent to the free-throw stripe. KAT knocked down his two free-throws, and while Atlanta did have a chance to win it at the end, their sideline-out-of-bounds play did not go as planned and the Wolves were able to claim victory in this one.
While a lot of the angst will be directed towards the officiating crew for the last call on Collins, this was another situation where Atlanta had chances to put the game to bed yet allowed their opponents to hang around, putting themselves in a position where they could be hurt by an errant whistle. The Hawks allowed Minnesota to take 12 shots at the rim in the 4th quarter (they made 9 of them), and score on 9 straight possessions down the stretch – something that just cannot happen to a team that’s trying to close a game out. Yes, there was a bad call against the Hawks at a crucial point in the game, but that’s far from the only reason the Hawks lost last night’s game.
Trae Young led all scorers with 29 points, though he shot just 3/12 from inside the arc and committed 6 turnovers on the evening. De’Andre Hunter, John Collins and Saddiq Bey chipped in with 16 points each for Atlanta. Onyeka Okongwu put up 14 points and 7 rebounds to go along with 3 blocks in what was another impressive performance for the third-year big. Aaron Holiday did a nice job filling in for Dejounte Murray with the second unit racking up 7 assists and 4 steals, and was a team-best +12 in 16 minutes of action. Bogdan Bogdanovic was just 1/6 from three tonight, but finished with 11 points on 5/11 shooting. Clint Capela added 11 points and 8 boards as well.
Naz Ried was the high-man for Minnesota, scoring with 26 points on a highly-efficient 11/15 shooting clip. Jaden McDaniels finished with 25 points. Karl-Anthony Towns put up 22 points on 8/18 shooting, and looked pretty good considering he’d missed the last 51 regular-season games. Rudy Gobert put up a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double and Taurean Prince chipped in with 15 points on 4/8 shooting.
Atlanta’s next matchup is on Saturday against the Indiana Pacers, who are currently just a game-and-a-half behind Chicago for the 10th seed, and just three games behind Atlanta for the 8-seed. Expect that one to be another close one, as both sides will be desperate for a win.
Tipoff for that one will be at 5pm on Bally Sports. Go Hawks!
