A not-so-happy return home for the Hawks on Wednesday night.
The Atlanta Hawks returned home but could not return to winning ways as they fell 114-104 to the Detroit Pistons at State Farm Arena on Wednesday night.
Dyson Daniels led the Hawks with 20 points and 10 rebounds with Jalen Johnson adding 17 points. For the Pistons, Cade Cunningham scored 29 points to go with 11 assists, and Malik Beasley added 19 points.
Prior to last night, the Hawks had only played one home game in 2024, and the Detroit game marked the first of a three-game home stand. The Pistons, however, also represented a test for the Hawks from the point of view that the Pistons are right there in the standings mix with the Hawks jostling for automatic playoff seeding.
With how tight things could be by the end of the season, these head-to-heads can be vitally important, so this was an important game for the Hawks…and they severely underperformed on the night.
The Pistons opened up a double-digit lead to finish the first quarter and never looked back in this affair, opening up a 20-point lead in the second quarter and held a 15-point or more advantage for all of the third quarter. The Pistons’ shooting — combined with the Hawks’ lack thereof — helped sustain them when they finally cooled off in the fourth quarter, but the Hawks continued their trend of struggling from the field. They ended up bringing the lead down to 10 points by the end of the game, but this final margin doesn’t really reflect the difference between the two teams last night.
The Hawks were unable to participate in shootaround prior to the game. DeKalb County (where the Hawks practice facility is) declared a state of emergency due to hazardous conditions, but the Hawks did not want to allow a lack of shootaround — and less than ideal preparation — be factor in this disappointing performance.
“We’re basketball players, we come in here and we get to warm up like usual, go through our routine before the game,” said Dyson Daniels. “Obviously we didn’t get our shootaround, but we come in here ready to play. Credit to Detroit, they’re a physical team. They play hard, they play fast, they jumped on us from the start. We’ve got to come ready to play and be better.”
Hawks head coach Quin Snyder pointed to the Hawks’ defense not being where it needed to be after missed shots/in transition.
“I thought there were some things in the New York game we needed to do better,” began Snyder. “There were a number of things that contributed. I don’t want to put it on the weather because we prepared, we went through our preparation, and we weren’t focused like we needed to be. I thought from a defensive standpoint early in the game — particularly our transition defense — there were a lot of run-outs where we weren’t communicating.”
“I think there’s a great lesson in today’s game,” added Vit Krejci. “We can’t let our shooting affect how we play, especially how we defend. I think we shared the ball well, we just weren’t able to knock down shots. I think the problem wasn’t the offense in terms of we didn’t knock down shots, but it affected our defense and we stopped rebounding, and they got a lot of second shots.”
Ultimately, the Hawks didn’t lose this game because their defense wasn’t getting back — it didn’t help, absolutely, but in a game the Hawks lost by 10 points with the Pistons shooting 50% from the field it was the Hawks’ offense that really let them down in this game. The hosts shot 37.9% from the field and failed to capitalize on their 19 extra field goal attempts (103-84).
“Not being able to make a shot, that always exasperates things,” said Snyder. “You don’t get the affirmation of playing a good possession and you give up something on defense, things spiral like that. We found life late when we were down but there wasn’t enough time. Not the kind effort we need but this one of the things that’s tough about the NBA and also, in some situations, a good thing is that you play again tomorrow night. We’ve got to be ready to come and compete, collectively, tomorrow night.”
At the head of the Hawks’ offense, Trae Young struggled to make his typically strong impression offensively, but unlike other games, this was more so to do with how Detroit defended Young and forced him to give the ball up and make the right pass. Young got off the ball often, and he would have had a lot more than nine assists had shots been actually made. Young scored 13 points on 5-of-13 from the field — also facing some stern defense from Ausar Thompson which contributed to his struggles last night.
The struggles shooting the ball were also found amongst the Hawks’ other significant contributors: Jalen Johnson began the game well but ended up shooting 8-of-21 from the field and 0-of-6 from three while De’Ander Hunter shot 2-of-14 from the field and 0-of-9 from three. Both players got plenty of good looks — often finding each other for these looks — but they just did not fall last night.
On this play, the Hawks move the ball well from inside, to outside, to the side as the drive from Daniels leads to the kick-out to Hunter, who misses a good look at a three:
Here, Johnson drives into the paint and kicks it out to Hunter, who again cannot hit the three:
Again, the Hawks display good ball and man movement, with Johnson again finding Hunter for the corner three which is missed:
This time, Vit Krejci gets into the paint and kicks it out to Johnson for a three-point attempt that is missed:
The pick-and-roll with Hunter and Clint Capela draws the defense away from Johnson in the weakside corner, and Hunter delivers the pass to Johnson, who again cannot hit the three:
“I think we if we look back at the tape we got great looks,” said Snyder of the shot profile. “It’s the mental of that moment when you miss you’ve got to have urgency to get to the other end and get a stop, try to get out in transition and get something easier. When a team is giving you those shots, those are shots that you might not have a great, but we had a really tough night tonight.”
Dyson Daniels added that the Hawks got the shots they wanted, again, it was just a matter of the hosts unable to knock them down.
“I think we got good looks,” said Daniels. “We got kick-out threes, we got the shots we wanted and it was one of those games where it didn’t fall. Making is contagious, when you’re on a streak and guys are making threes that’s contagious, you feed off the crowd’s energy. When you miss, it’s contagious as well. We’ve just got to lock in. The positive is we got the shots we wanted, they just didn’t fall tonight. It’s going to be hard to win any game when you shoot that bad.”
Meanwhile, Bogdan Bogdanovic suffered another difficult game amidst his shooting slump, shooting 0-of-9 from the field and 0-of-4 from three. Again, Bogdanovic got some good looks but he just cannot hit anything right now:
You can see the Bogdanovic just doesn’t have the same burst right now, doesn’t quite look like himself. Despite his struggles, the Hawks continue to have faith in his abilities.
“You just got to believe in him,” said Snyder of Bogdanovic. “We’ve seen Bogi make shots, he’s done that here and through his whole career. When those things are happening and you’re not making them you’ve just got to keep competing and that’s what he’s trying to do. I believe in him.”
Bogdanovic’s struggles matches with the theme of last night in that the Hawks really struggled shooting from three. Outside of Krejci (3-of-5 from three) and Garrison Mathews (2-of-4) the rest of the Hawks shot 1-of-29 from three. 1-of-29… That is not a typo — just a horrid shooting night from three for the Hawks, shooting 6-of-38 in total; their worst shooting night of the season. It’s always hard to win basketball games shooting that poorly from three, but again Snyder looked to the defensive end of the ball as to where the Hawks weren’t focused.
“I’m sure we’ll have some guys will get in the gym and put some shots up but I think more of it’s mentally to understand tonight we needed to execute better defensively,” said Snyder. “More urgency, more connectedness where we’re helping each other and rotating. (Malik) Beasley is a shooter that we’ve got to close out to his body and not let him shoot it in our face. All of those little things… You’re not playing the same team but there’s different aspects of the game that require that same level of focus and concentration. That’s not something you can necessarily work on in practise, it’s something we have to do between today and tomorrow, collectively and mentally.”
If you were looking for Hawks who played well, Vit Krejci, I thought, was actually very good despite scoring just nine points with those three made threes. He probably should have been utilized more last night offensively since no one else really had anything going, and Krejci was at least showcasing a hint of shooting.
Dyson Daniels was strong inside the arc, shooting 10-of-21 from the field for the game, including 0-of-5 from three (so, 10-of-16 from inside the arc), while Clint Capela was solid off the bench, shooting 6-of-8 from the field en route to 16 points and 10 rebounds — and that’s really about it. The Hawks really struggled last night, but with how road-weary the team is from traveling so much in January, it’s understandable the first game home showed some heavy legs and poor shooting.
Speaking of the Pistons briefly, Cade Cunningham was excellent (minus the 10 turnovers) and showed why he’s likely to receive an All-Star nod, scoring 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting to go with 11 assists, winning the point guard battle versus Young. The Hawks struggled with the combination of Cunningham’s speed and size, which he utilizes at his own pace, according to Dyson Daniels, who spent much of the night guarding Cunningham.
“He’s a super smart guy,” said Daniels of Cunningham. “He plays at his own pace, it’s hard to speed him up. He’s got guys setting really good screens for him. Duren and Stewart, those two big guys set really good screens for him and he’s able to get downhill and get to his floater, his mid-range. He’s got size, so he can shoot over guys like me that are my size. He’s got the full arsenal, everything to his game. He’s taken a leap this year, playing at a super high level.”
The Hawks briefly put Hunter on Cunningham, but this did little to slow down overall. Cunningham, and the Pistons as a whole were really strong defensively at times with their movement and rotations — they were very impressive last night, and, as a neutral, their journey from the doldrums last season to how they’re performing now (firmly in Atlanta’s wheelhouse of competition) has been fascinating to watch unfold. The two sides will meet twice more before the end of the season — important games for the Hawks to claw back and try and even the season series. The Pistons currently hold a 2-0 lead having taken victory in November.
Overall, it was just one of those nights for the Hawks where shots wouldn’t fall across the roster — those can happen in the NBA. The defense wasn’t great, but the offense was the area where the Hawks were really let down. The only larger takeaway from this game is that Bogdanovic is really, really in a slump right now. That’s the main concern from this game, the rest I honestly think can be chalked down as ‘one of those games,’ with the Pistons well worth earning their victory.
The Hawks (22-21) are back in action tonight against the Toronto Raptors (11-32) at State Farm Arena.
Until next time!