The Hawks found themselves in a large hole to end the first and never recovered.
The Atlanta Hawks continued their Western Conference road trip but were unable to overcome a dominant Golden State side on Wednesday night, falling to the Warriors 120-97.
Jalen Johnson led the Hawks in scoring with 15 points and 14 rebounds, while Trae Young posted 12 points and 11 assists. For the Warriors, Andrew Wiggins scored 27 points with Steph Curry adding 23 points.
The game, in essence, was decided in the first quarter. The Hawks were keeping initial pace with the Warriors in the early exchanges, but as the quarter began to wind down, the Hawks’ offense stalled while the Warriors — no matter what rotation was coming onto the floor — didn’t miss a beat.
What happened in the final five minutes of the first quarter I think actually serves well as a microcosm for several aspects within this game: missed shots that were solid shots, poor shots which just missed, turnovers, and Golden State’s defense.
From the Hawks’ side of things, they missed a lot of threes in this game (12-of-45) and many of their shots down this stretch were also three-point misses. Even within these threes you can see the themes of the night.
In Dyson Daniels and Kobe Bufkin on these possessions, the Hawks had a number of shots that either missed badly or missed entirely:
In Bogdan Bogdanovic on these possessions, the Hawks often got good looks at threes but could not convert:
On that last play you can also see the Warriors’ defense on display: an excellent job defensively by Jonathan Kuminga on Johnson before the pass to Bogdanovic. The Warriors did well to limit/contain penetration and force the Hawks into settling for outside shots. This one from Bogdanovic was one of the better attempts — there were a number of quick/poorly timed shots.
Additionally, the Hawks’ turnovers in this stretch were very detrimental.
From the corner drive, Bogdanovic is met by Kuminga, who again shows his defensive capabilities and leads the fastbreak for the Warriors, resulting in a made basket:
On this next play, Young turns the ball over and the Warriors are sure to punish, as Buddy Hield hits a transition three:
There were 17 turnovers in all for the Hawks, leading to 22 Warrior points, but these ones in particular at this time in the first quarter were costly.
The Warriors, meanwhile, were so sharp in their offense. Their off-ball movement was excellent, the Hawks found it very difficult to keep up (even Daniels struggled with Curry’s movement) with this combination of movement of man and movement of the ball proving far too much to live with all night long.
“That’s what they’ve done for years,” said Hawks head coach Quin Snyder of the Warriors’ movement. “It starts with Steph Curry. They’re hard to guard and they make you communicate on a unique level. They’re hard enough to guard as it is but we had some breakdowns, they put a lot of pressure on you in that sense. Whether it’s getting caught with a back screen, giving some things up, not switching in tight curl.”
Additionally, Golden State’s second unit was able to come in and immediately pick up from where the starters left off. Conversely, the Hawks’ second unit struggled in the first quarter and couldn’t generate any offense to end the quarter. Had the first half and second half rotation battle been reversed, this would have been a game still in the first quarter — the Hawks’ second unit played a lot better in the second half, but not in the first.
In the end, the Hawks were outscored 41-22 in the first quarter and were left to play catchup for the rest of the night. Their deficit quickly grew to 20 in the second quarter — then 25 as the first half ended about as poorly as you might imagine.
The Warriors were very strong and finished the half well, but the Hawks certainly looked like a side that was just desperate to get into the locker room and gave up another handful of points doing so. In the second half, the lead grew to a game-high 31 before the Hawks showed some signs of life in the third quarter and brought the lead down to 13 points.
This arguably did more harm than good ultimately, providing the Hawks with some fool’s gold, and they kept their starters in longer than this game needed them to. For a 31-point deficit in the second half, there were only four minutes of garbage time at the end and the minutes for the starters were high. Johnson logged 35 minutes while Daniels and Young racked up 30+ minutes — there was just no need in a game like this.
Postgame, Snyder discussed how the Hawks lost encouragement in the game from missing shots but called on his team to continue to remain engaged despite these misses.
“We hurt ourselves in the first half turning the ball over,” said Snyder. “I thought we had a number of guys who had good shots that didn’t go. It’s tough, you have to stay locked in spite of that. That’s hard to do, it’s easier said than done. In the first half we became discouraged at times not seeing the ball go in, turning it over and it knocked us back. We were never really able to get the ball to go in and you try do other things.”
There was an acknowledgment from the players that they got a lot of good looks that just didn’t fall and accepted that it was just one of those games.
“We missed shot that we normally hit, and we’re going to hit,” said Trae Young. “We had a lot of really good looks that didn’t go down tonight.”
“We started kind of slow,” added Clint Capela. “I think we scored less than 100 points … it was kind of an off night for us. I don’t think we had a guy shoot above 50 percent. It was one of those nights for us.”
To add on what Capela mentioned, it was a very even shot distribution among the main rotation. Outside of Onyeka Okongwu and Kobe Bufkin, the rest of the ‘main’ rotation shot 10 shots minimum and 16 at most. Of those seven players, the highest shooting percentages were Daniels’ and Capela’s 41.7% — everyone was missing in almost equal amounts. Bogdanovic was the player who seemed to struggle the most, shooting just 2-of-14 from the field and 1-of-7 from three.
The Hawks’ strength in depth has returned but the rhythm will take some time, as will getting used to playing together on the court as the Hawks have barely played at full strength. However, when general idea of the Hawks still getting used to playing with each other again was put to Snyder last night he rejected the notion somewhat and described in detail the things that players can do in the game that are universal, regardless who’s in or out.
“I think more than anything we have to space,” began Snyder. “When we play in small spaces when there are four guys in one side of the floor, you’re not able to make plays for each other. There are little things that require more concentration and just a little more effort. Communicating with each other on that, I don’t think we talked enough tonight, sometimes that happens when you’re not making shots and it’s actually you need each other even more. Regardless of who’s in the game, how long they played, you can run.
“You can see there’s a corner that’s empty and you can fill it, you can see where the ball is and you can space. Doing that gives us a chance to get connected. Regardless who’s in or out, who’s been injured, those are things we have to do no matter what. If we miss on one possession we have to do it on the next possession. When we’re playing well that’s what happening and we’re able to find each other because we are an unselfish team.”
Now with the roster returned to strength, Keaton Wallace (a two-way player, limited to 50 NBA games on his current contract) was inactive, Larry Nance Jr. was a DNP-CD, while Garrison Mathews and Vit Krejci were both not part of the 9-man rotation before garbage time. These were impact players for the Hawks when they played, it’s odd to see them buried out of the rotation but such is competition in the NBA — it can be brutal.
One final element from this game: the Hawks snatched 21 offensive rebounds and took 105 shots, scoring only 35 baskets. That is…rough, to say the least.
Ultimately, the Warriors were sharper offensively and picked the Hawks apart with their movement, while Curry picked his moments and didn’t even need to dominate, scoring 23 points on just 10 shots. Defensively the Warriors were very strong too, and they certainly played their part in limiting the Hawks, who stunk with their shooting anyways: open or contested.
This was always going to be one of the tougher games on trip — it typically has been difficult for the Hawks to find success around the Bay: only twice have the Hawks bested Golden State on their home floor since the 2010-11 season (February 25th 2011, March 26th 2021).
The Hawks (7-9) are back in action on Friday night as they take on the Chicago Bulls (6-10) as this four game road trip comes to close in Chicago.
Until next time!