The Hawks finally got the majority of their squad back this past night, however the result was not indicative of that.
Atlanta fell 118-134 to the 2020 champions, who are without their superstar Anthony Davis. This is the third time the Hawks have given up 130 points in the last five games. Once again, the defense did the somewhat healthy Hawks in, with effort looking at an abysmal low on that end of the floor.
The Hawks offense kept them in the game for the majority of the first half, cutting a near 20 points lead to three points to end the first half. That’s when this team started to show it’s true flaws, as it was impossible to keep up with a team when you allow them to score every time they go down the floor. Schlenk’s motivational speech may have pushed the guys to exceed against the Kings, however Atlanta seemed to have little to no effort on nearly every possession this game. Schlenk’s words rang true again, and it seemed like the players were having trouble finding the motivation to get a stop even in a tightly contested first half.
Both John Collins and Trae Young had great games offensively, with Collins dropping 21 points without a three and Trae having his signature double-double with 25 points and 14 assists. Kevin Huerter also found his groove again and had a great game again with a highly efficient 16 points. However, the most appalling of these statistics was Cam Reddish’s zero points, especially considering he was given a mere 13 minutes on the floor.
Rotations have been at an all time low this season for the Hawks, as its been hard for coaches( yes there’s been multiple if them) to find any continuity with their lineups. Reading the box score and seeing Delon Wright having more minutes than Cam was almost as bad as reading the score of this game.
The great part about a game like this is that it can be a wake up call to management that this lineup is clearly not working, and hopefully some changes will come prior to the trade deadline, with Ben Simmons name consistently floating over this teams head. The Hawks will be back playing on Sunday, as they face the Clippers in a game that will be the last of this terrible Western Conference Road trip.
