Last night seemed to be the tipping point in this 2021 season for the Atlanta Hawks, as they fell in a shoot-out to the Portland Trailblazers, 136-131. Without looking at individual statistics, advanced statistics, or even the injuries/health and safety issues this team has had to face, the Hawks should have won this game. Plain and simple. The Trailblazers, who have been on a skid of their own, were without their best players, CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard, both considered to be some of the top offensive players in the league and definitely on their team. Yet somehow, this game still got out of hand for the Hawks’ defense.
Anfernee Simons was able to drop a whopping 43 points on Atlanta, which is just mind-boggling. Don’t get me wrong, Simons is incredibly talented, but this was simply a complete lack of effort from the Hawks. It is becoming more and more apparent that the problem for this team is less about talent and more about hustle, effort, and heart, all of which were key in Atlanta’s run this past year. Now, and perhaps the worst part of all this, this loss came in a game where Trae Young arguably had his best individual performance to date. He had 56 points, an NBA season-high for all players, and 14 assists, on incredible efficiency. This means that all his teammates had to do was just not let their man go off, which did not happen.
Four different Blazers starters dropped 20+ points. No matter what the circumstances have been this season, it has been challenging for the Hawks to get a stop on anyone, and when you pair that with awful bench play and a genuine lack of situational awareness from coaches, you are set up for failure. General Manager Travis Schlenk had this to say about the loss last night: “It’s the same thing ever night. Ultimately this falls on me. So, we need to take a long look at this and see if this group is the same group we saw last year, of if this is the group this year.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself. Again and again, I saw Blazers players given whatever opportunity they wanted offensively. When things like that start to happen, you start to look at the chemistry this team has and the culture in the locker room. There is no evidence of a cultural breakdown between the relationship of players and coaches as it was last year, but something is different.
Capela is a great case study for this. Last year, if you would’ve told me Capela would have the dropoff defensively that he has had, I would’ve thought you were insane. It’s easy to place a lot of that blame on the injury he had, but considering he had an injury that sidelined him for a portion of the season last year and came back just the same, it’s hard to believe there is any correlation. It just seems like, with Capela and the team as a whole, their mind is just somewhere else during these games. The energy has evaporated, and their motivation to win seems to be at an all-time low.
Let’s hope that Travis does end up shaking up this roster because if things stay the way they are now, we can forget about even getting the opportunity to make the run we had last year. We’ll see if the Hawks can turn things around on Wednesday night against the Kings.
