The slide continues.
The Atlanta Hawks suffered a fifth consecutive loss as they fell to a 100-92 defeat over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center on Monday night.
De’Andre Hunter posted a new career-high of 35 points with Keaton Wallace adding 13 points. For the Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards led the hosts with 23 points with Julius Randle adding 20 points.
Heading into the game, the Hawks were left very much up against it as injuries, again, mount for the team. Trae Young (right hamstring tightness), Jalen Johnson (left shoulder injury), Dyson Daniels (left ankle soreness), Larry Nance Jr. (right hand surgery; injury management), and Kobe Bufkin (right shoulder surgery) were all absent for the Hawks through injury, while Bogdan Bogdanovic was a ‘DNP-CD’ last night though this is possibly due to the Hawks having another game ahead of them tonight against Houston.
As such, the Hawks were heavy underdogs heading into this contest and despite an 11-2 start for the Wolves to begin the game (quickly turning into a double-digit lead), the Hawks showed spirit to hang around despite being heavily undermanned.
However, the Wolves began to stretch the lead at the end of the first half, taking a 17-point lead into the break and, surely, just a quick run in the third quarter away from dispatching the Hawks. But it wasn’t to be, as Hunter and the Hawks ignited in the third to outscore the Wolves 31-20 behind Hunter’s 11 points to reduce to lead to six points heading into the fourth quarter, and the game very much on.
This renewed sense of hope was short-lived, as the Wolves began the fourth quarter with a 12-2 run to open up a 16-point lead — a 92-76 point lead with 9:53 remaining. The Wolves, incredibly, would only score eight more point for the rest of the contest, allowing the Hawks to reduce the lead to eight points (94-86) following a Vit Krejci basket with 5:46 remaining. While the Wolves’ offense had thoroughly dried up by this point the Hawks now joined them, and both teams would only score six points each for the remainder of the contest in one of the worst fourth quarters I can remember in recent memory — both teams combining to shoot 2-of-17 from three in the final quarter.
However, it must be said that the state of this game reflects far, far poorer on the Wolves than it does on the Hawks, who would have been expected to have been run out of the building and generally played some good defense last night (though, again, it must be reinforced how poor the Wolves were. Edwards led the scoring with a 6-of-20 shooting performance). However, the Hawks’ lack of overall quality on the game compared to the Wolves was just too much of a factor for them to overcome to win this game.
Here, Mouhamed Gueye leads the break in transition after the steal from Clint Capela, and charges to the rim where he’s easily offset by Naz Reid. Capela collects the rebound and fires the ball out to the perimeter, where Garrison Mathews moves the ball to the relocated Gueye in the corner, who misses the three:
On this play, the Hawks can’t penetrate the defense, as Wallace shifts the ball to David Roddy, who misses the three:
On another look from three, Gueye airballs the outside shot:
Dominick Barlow got some run in the second half, but his misses highlight the lack of quality the Hawks had available to them, missing from both right at the rim:
And this open look from three:
This lack of quality was also reflected in the turnover battle, in which the Hawks committed 22 turnovers on the game.
To begin the game, the Hawks struggle to break through the Minnesota defense, and the ball slips off Vit Krejci’s hand leading to a turnover and a Timberwolves basket in transition:
From the wing, the returning Zaccharie Risacher drives into the paint, meets the Minnesota defense, gets caught in the air and tries to make a pass but commits the turnover:
Here, Wallace and Mathews combine for an odd turnover where Mathews is looking behind him but doesn’t seem to notice and react to the pass from Wallace, and the ball ends up in the hands of the Wolves:
On this play, Onyeka Okongwu creates a turnover, fueling a transition opportunity for the Hawks, with Krejci finding the oncoming Roddy, who drives right into traffic and commits the turnover:
These 22 turnovers led to 21 Minnesota points, including these two baskets from Rudy Gobert in the fourth quarter, one to end the game:
Gobert’s size was another issue the Hawks struggled to contend with in this game, collecting five offensive rebounds and scoring 18 points on the game, shooting 7-of-9.
In the two-man game with Mike Conley, Gobert combines with Conley, who sheds Mathews a little too easily, and when Conley returns the ball to Gobert he finishes with authority at the rim over Okongwu:
Gobert had words to say to Okongwu after that dunk, with the Hawks big not taking kindly to the sequence, and both players received technical fouls.
Again in the Conley-Gobert pick-and-roll, it’s all too easy for Gobert to rise up after the pick-and-roll and collect an easy alley-oop from Conley over Okongwu:
Off of a missed three from Randle, Gobert basically tosses Gueye aside, collects the offensive rebound and scores at the rim:
Some of the Gobert offensive rebounds were not the fault of Okongwu, but on this possession he allows Gobert to get in front of him to establish rebounding position, collects the offensive rebound and is fouled at the rim:
Again, Okongwu — once the Minnesota three in the corner goes up — just watches the ball above him and is in no position to contest Gobert for the offensive rebound and commits the foul at the rim:
The Hawks are now 0-5 since Okongwu has stepped into the starting lineup, but this matchup in which he started was the most confusing yet. It’s difficult to justify Hawks head coach Quin Snyder’s decision to start Okongwu on Gobert, and Capela facing Naz Reid in the second unit…that doesn’t make a lot of sense, frankly. Okongwu performed as you might expect in this matchup, swamped by size on both ends of the floor (shooting 2-of-9 from the field) — it was just an odd one from Snyder.
However, all these aspects considered (the turnovers, the lack of overall quality, the Gobert matchup), the fact the Hawks only lost by eight points was admirable, putting up some solid defense which limited the Wolves to 100 points on 39.5% shooting, recovering from a slow start to the game to compete in the second half.
“I thought we had a rocky start, but we knew we were going to compete, that’s who are guys are,” said Snyder postgame. “As the game went on we played better defensively and found some stuff in transition. Gosh, we had some really good looks that if they go in there’s a different outcome. Certainly can’t fault the effort. We weren’t perfect but for the most part, when we did the things that we know we want to do, we had some success.”
The one undeniable piece of quality play the Hawks showed came from De’Andre Hunter, who scored a new career-high of 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 from three:
“He was aggressive from three,” began Snyder on Hunter. “I think when we run, because he’ll run, and we get the ball advanced quickly those shots are there because the defense is trying to get back and he’s spaced. Then when they closed out on him and didn’t have his three he was able to get into the lane. He’s can rise up with those short, mid-range twos, and then he went to the rim, he did all those different things. I thought his reads were really good and tonight was a night — with a few guys unable to play — that the team needed that and he took them on his shoulders.”
Hunter became the go-to scorer for the Hawks by default with Young and Johnson absent, and it seems bizarre that he didn’t start the game. I can understand to a degree why Hunter didn’t start the second half — had the Wolves began the game with a quick run to begin the third quarter and facing a 20-point deficit it wouldn’t have been worth stretching Hunter too long with another game tonight. However, if the Hawks had no such plans to wave the white flag, it’s still bizarre he wouldn’t start the third quarter.
Regardless, it’s a new career-high for Hunter on an efficient night’s work. Clint Capela played a solid game off the bench, but outside of that there was not a lot to write home about for the Hawks — they were very shorthanded, those who did play (for the most part) did not play well. This was more understandable in the case of Wallace, Gueye, and Barlow who were all in action the previous night for the Hawks’ G League affiliate College Park Skyhawks and had to travel to meet the Hawks in Minnesota.
The Hawks are now in the midst of a five game losing streak, and while some of the previous losses were quite poor, this is the one loss that shouldn’t be overreacted to. The Hawks, as a team, did well to be in contention for this game for as long as they were — the Wolves certainly helped in that regard…they should have blown the Hawks out of the water on the night — but credit to the Hawks for making a game of it as long as they did.
The Hawks (22-24) are back in action tonight at State Farm Arena against the Houston Rockets (31-14), one of the hottest teams in the entire NBA. The Rockets will also be on the second night of a back-to-back, having triumphed over the Celtics in a narrow affair in Boston.
Until next time!