Hawks drop the L.A. back-to-back as road-trip misery continues.
The Atlanta Hawks’ road trip hit another bump in the road on Saturday night as their first trip to the Intuit Dome ended in a comprehensive 131-105 defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Trae Young scored 20 points to go with 14 assists, and De’Andre Hunter added 18 points off the bench. For the Clippers, Norman Powell led with 20 points, and Ivica Zubac added 18 points and 18 rebounds as eight Clippers players tallied double-digit efforts.
This fixture was never going to be easy for the Hawks. Not only were they on the second night of a back-to-back, but the visiting Hawks were without Jalen Johnson and Bogdan Bogdanovic who played in the Laker loss the night prior. For the Clippers, they were no doubt buoyed by the season debut of Kawhi Leonard, adding a feel-good factor to the fixture for the hosts.
The Hawks initially held pace with the Clippers in the first quarter before the hosts tore away to a 15-point lead as the Hawks offense ground to a halt. The Hawks, however, reeled off a 14-0 run to restore parity to the game.
But a torrid second quarter effectively decided the game as the Clippers outscored the Hawks 45-26 to push the lead, not just back to double-digits, but beyond a 20-point lead.
The Hawks’ offensive misses or miscues provided direct opportunities for the Clippers to get out in transition and score on the Hawks, who could not stop L.A. in transition or in the paint — 46 fastbreak points and 74 points in the paint for the game.
Let’s look at some of these baskets in the second quarter.
Dyson Daniels initially resisted the temptation to shoot on the wing guarded by Leonard, but gives in to the opportunity and airballs a three. Powell collects the miss, leads the break in transition and finds Amir Coffey for a corner three:
A mishandle by Vit Krejci gives the ball to Kevin Porter Jr., and Coffey positions his body to prevent Krejci from having a chance to challenge Porter at the rim, resulting in another dunk for the Clippers:
The Hawks miss two shots at the rim through Hunter and Clint Capela, with Zubac controlling the affair tipping the rebound forward. From here, James Harden outlets to Leonard in transition and hits another quick shot:
The Hawks commit another turnover on their next possession as Capela’s pass inside for Hunter is picked off, and the Clippers lead the way in transition as Harden finds Coffey with a head of steam, and he finishes at the rim despite contact from Zaccharie Risacher:
The Hawks’ offense while Young was off the floor was bad, and the Hawks were just completely lost offensively when he was on the bench — that’s just the eye test, the numbers provide an even more grim showing:
Two unbelievable —but telling! — stats from tonight’s Hawks loss to the Clippers:
1) The Hawks had a 68.8 offensive rating with Trae Young on the bench.
2) The Hawks had a 28.1% turnover rate with Trae Young on the bench. https://t.co/yAy5aDCRnq
— Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) January 5, 2025
Young checked back into the game after the Risacher foul on the Coffey basket — now trailing by 18 points — but this did little to stop the Clipper fastbreak tide.
Young immediately helps set the offense up on this next possession, getting the ball to the corner to Garrison Mathews. However, the three is missed and the Rockets come in transition as Harden finds Powell on the trail for another three-pointer:
Not long after this, the Clippers punish another Atlanta turnover as Young’s pass forward is intercepted by Harden, who gets to the rim and wraps the pass to Derrick Jones Jr. for an easy dunk at the rim:
A missed three from Mathews is immediately pressed on as Harden outlets to the streaking Jones Jr. for another dunk at the rim as the Hawks simply cannot cope with the Clippers’ quick offense:
Harden was, admittedly, brilliant in this stretch; six assists in just over five minutes of action in the second quarter.
From this point forward, the Hawks were down big in this game and never threatened to bring this back down to single digits. There were a couple of instances of the Hawks getting the lead down to 15, but missed opportunities to bring the lead below 15 were punished and the 20-plus Clipper lead was quickly re-established. Hawks head coach Quin Snyder waved the white flag with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, his side eventually falling to a 26-point defeat.
So many of the miscellaneous stats connected with each other: Atlanta’s 23 turnovers contributed to 32 Los Angeles points off of turnovers, 46 fastbreak points and 74 points in the paint. Snyder praised the Clippers’ physicality in creating turnovers.
“Give them credit, I think their physicality created a lot of those,” said Snyder when asked about the Hawks’ turnovers. “You have to be forceful and really precise against them, they’re an excellent defensive team. That’s the style of play, they’re a hard team to prepare for in that regard, to try and simulate that. Those turnovers can turn into baskets the other way.”
The Clippers feasted in the paint, 74 points and an outrageous 82.9% shooting at the rim:
Even if you were to add even an average three-point shooting night as the Clippers did (13-of-36; 36%) to this percentage at the rim the result is exactly as it unfolded last night — you cannot win basketball games conceding this high of a percentage at the rim.
Zubac and Jones Jr. in particular scored 30 points in the paint between them. Between their size and finesse (Zubac) and athleticism (Jones Jr.) the paint points just racked up; facilitated by Harden’s 15 assists on the game.
From the Hawks’ side of affairs, offensively it was a very rough showing, especially with Young off the floor. The Hawks attempted to boost their offense by starting Hunter in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to overturn the damage that had already been done,
“We felt like we needed some punch offensively too and he can provide that, particularly with JJ out,” said Snyder of starting Hunter in the second half. “That was something we felt could give us an opportunity to start the second half well.”
There were a few bounce-back performances from the Lakers game, with Garrison Mathews scored 15 points, including 12 first half points behind three three-pointers as he got his three-point shot back on track. Hunter scored 18 points off the bench having scored just three points on 1-of-12 shooting against the Lakers, representing a solid bounce-back performance.
“Part of playing these guys is if you have an open look you need to take it, so I was happy we did that,” said Snyder. “If you don’t, the probability that you get a better shot goes down. For ‘Dre to continue to be aggressive is something we need from him every night and that’s what he’s been doing. You’re going to have nights where you don’t shoot it great that’s part of it, especially when he’s shot it as well as he has the whole season. For him to come back and not shoot it as well in the first half but continue to play was good to see.”
If Mathews and Hunter had spring-back games, Onyeka Okongwu went in the opposite direction, scoring just four points in 27 minutes and struggled to enforce a presence in the paint, as did Capela as the Hawks’ center-play last night was left very much wanting in this spot. Zubac was the dominant force at the rim and in the paint; and that will disappoint the Hawks that neither center really stepped up in this spot considering they’re both more oriented to playing in the paint/around the rim.
Ultimately, it was the second night of a back-to-back without Johnson and Bogdanovic — the absence of the latter always hurts in some degree but the absence of Johnson is very tough for the Hawks, not just defensively but handling the ball.
Injuries are all part of the game, but the larger issues at play for the Hawks are the turnovers, ball-handling with Young off the court, and another 70-plus points in the paint performance for an opponent on this road trip.
The Hawks (18-18) have a chance to recover and regroup before taking on the Utah Jazz (8-25) in Utah. The Hawks will be expected to take care of business in this spot, and it represents a chance to salvage a win from this road trip which have dried up in emphatic fashion since the Toronto victory.
…Until next time!