A first loss of the season for the Atlanta Hawks.
The Atlanta Hawks slipped to their first defeat of the NBA season as they fell short 128-104 to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center on Sunday night.
Trae Young led the Hawks with 24 points and eight assists with Onyeka Okongwu and Garrison Mathews adding 14 points each off the bench. For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points to go with 11 rebounds and nine assists, and Chet Holmgren added 25 points.
For the game itself: Thunder separate themselves in the fourth quarter
The Hawks entered this contest as significant underdogs — not helped by the absences of De’Andre Hunter (right knee inflammation) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (right hamstring tendinopathy) — heading on the road for the first time and against one of the title favorites in the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Hawks began this game well and went toe-to-toe with the Thunder in the first half, even taking a 10-point lead in the latter exchanges second quarter, holding a 10-point lead with 2:25 remaining, and an eight point lead with 56 seconds remaining after a bucket from Zaccharie Risacher. But what followed from there was the Hawks losing control of this game somewhat as the Thunder went on a 7-0 run to end the half, including a buzzer-beating — and impressive — layup from Jalen Williams to get the Thunder faithful on their side, and the momentum shifted there and Atlanta lost what control they had.
That said, the Hawks battled in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter trailing by just three points — an achievement of sorts given the struggles of Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels (a combined 4-of-20 from the field) and the amount of turnovers the Hawks had racked up through three quarters (15).
However, in the fourth quarter the Thunder turned up the intensity, especially defensively, and tore away from the Hawks. Behind an 11-0 run, the Thunder took their first double-digit lead of the game and never looked back, eventually blowing the game out to a 20-point lead and — with one eye on tonight’s game against the Wizards — Hawks head coach Quin Snyder cleared the bench with three minutes to go.
Let’s look at how the Hawks became stuck in the fourth quarter, and it was not so much what the Hawks did wrong but why the Thunder are who they are and why they’re considered one of the favorites in the Western Conference.
The Thunder have so many defenders they can — and did — throw on Young, and Cason Wallace is one such defender, and he picks the ball from Young here and finds the charging Gilgeous-Alexander for the transition basket:
The Thunder’s defense inside was suffocating, blocking 12 shots on the night and one of them coming from Gilgeous-Alexander here, as Daniels makes the pass to the cutting Vit Krejci, who is denied at the rim:
Wallace, again, picks Young’s pocket and leads the fastbreak himself this time but is blocked by Daniels at the rim:
While Daniels blocked this shot, the Thunder reset and make a three from the out of bounds play with Lu Dort connecting from three:
Holmgren was a force on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter, and he showcases it defensively here as he blocks Okongwu’s attempted drive inside and denies him at the rim:
With Atlanta now really struggling on offense as the quarter drags on, Young’s intended pass to Daniels is anticipated by Alex Caruso, who gets the ball to Gilgeous-Alexander, who drains a three to put the Thunder up 16 points and, realistically, out of shot of the visitors:
The game got really out of hand off the back of two more Holmgren blocks which led to Thunder baskets:
In the end, the Hawks were outscored 18-39 and shot 6-of-20 from the field to go with four turnovers. They found themselves limited to the perimeter on account of the Thunder’s defense, and the threes they took were tough looks (0-of-6), but credit to the Thunder for making it so. The Hawks finished with 19 turnovers (10 of them from Young) which just isn’t going to get it done.
Postgame, Quin Snyder praised the Thunder while also acknowledging the value in facing a team like the Thunder to highlight where the Hawks are currently and where they have to go.
“OKC is one of the best teams in the league,”said Snyder. “For three quarters we did a really good job. The end of the half was tough, but you’re still up at halftime. It was a physical game, we have to continue to learn how to play through physicality. I thought we missed some good looks and they were able to get down and convert those in transition. That’s that competitive endurance is something we need to continue to develop and I thought we did. We battled and got a good test of where we are. We’re not there yet but some really good things.”
‘A good test of where we are’ is I think the main takeaway here for the Hawks. There are very few teams like the Thunder or as deep as the Thunder. The Hawks haven’t ‘failed’ by any means in this spot; they pushed them for three quarters and the Thunder turned up their defense and the Hawks — underhanded — just didn’t have enough. Many other teams will suffer the same fate, or worse, and long before the fourth quarter as the Hawks pushed the Thunder to last night.
Risacher’s first NBA start
With Hunter sidelined, Zaccharie Risacher stepped into the starting lineup and he performed well, scoring 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
“I’m feeling good,” said Risacher after the game. “Every game is an opportunity, an opportunity to learn.”
Risacher’s work inside/near the rim was enjoyable to watch last night. He makes use of his size and length, and he’s a good player for Snyder’s system when it comes to attacking the offensive glass:
In the fourth quarter, Risacher had this drive and finish to the rim with his left hand which was impressive:
As was this move off the dribble in the second quarter, as he drives inside, gets to the free throw line and steps back to hit the jumper:
This is the kind of move you’d want to see more of and see Risacher grow into more offensively off the dribble.
Postgame, Snyder was asked about Risacher, he praised the rookie for fighting back in this game after a slower start to the regular season compared to the preseason.
“I don’t want to be critical of Zacch but Zacch led us in scoring for the first games in the preseason and the regular season started, and he got knocked back a little bit and he punched back tonight,” said Snyder. “I’m using that metaphorically, but my desire for Zacch is to not get too high or too low. I think that’s what he deserves as a player, whether he’s picked one, 19, or 58, I just want him to keep getting better. That’s the really encouraging thing, to see the things he’s working on show up in games. Whether he’s coming off the bench or starting, it really doesn’t matter. It’s the minutes he’s out there and I thought he really competed. He’s got really good instincts.”
Risacher offered an explanation as to the difference he has found between the preseason and the regular season so far.
“It’s more physical than in preseason,” said Risacher. “I think they’re like ‘preseason is over, every possession matters.’ Everybody wants to win, it’s not about preparing anymore it’s about winning. That’s what I like to do and I’m ready for it.”
I have to imagine Hunter will return to the starting lineup when he’s ready to go again, demoting Risacher back to the bench, but this was not a concern for Snyder as he mentioned above. The early signs are encouraging for Risacher and last night was a positive step in his development.
Into the rotation
With Hunter, Bogdanovic and Bufkin all out, the Hawks had to dig deeper into their rotation last night, with Vit Krejci, Garrison Mathews and David Roddy all getting rotation minutes.
Roddy’s path into the rotation is arguably more difficult than Krejci and Mathews, but he did well in the 19 minutes he played, scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Mathews in particular was strong off the bench, scoring 14 points hitting 4-of-8 from three. With Okongwu adding another 14 points, these bench performances were certainly needed as Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson really struggled offensively, each shooting 2-of-10 from the field.
Snyder was asked specifically about David Roddy postgame and extended his confidence to the others who came off the bench and emphasized the defensive part they played.
“I said before the game we have confidence in those guys, whether it was Garrison, David, Vit,” said Snyder of the bench. “We’re playing that group without anyone who has experience in this league at the point guard position. For those guys collectively to play together the way they have— Jalen handles the ball more, I think ‘O’ gives us some of that as well where those guys really have to share and defend collectively. We had some really good defensive possessions. If there’s one thing to me that stood out in the first half it was the way we guarded, we just have to be able to sustain that. Those guys, that’s where they can put a flag in the ground and guard and hopefully score off of some of their stops. Really, for all of us, but for that group in particular.”
Daniels and Johnson will be better in games going forward — this is a game I wouldn’t take anything too far out of context. The Thunder are that good, and this game was not going to be the reflection of the season for the Hawks. That’ll come after these two Washington games. It’s a case of extremes; they would be/are expected to beat Brooklyn and Washington, and expected to lose against OKC. Friday at home to Sacramento, Sunday on the road in New Orleans…these will be the measure to see where the Hawks are at early on in the season.
For this game, the Hawks gave it a good go for three quarters, and, in the end, the Thunder showed why they are so highly regarded. They’ll move on, and so will the Hawks, and there are some very winnable games coming up and we’ll all leave this OKC game where it belongs.
The Hawks (2-1) are back in action tonight against the Washington Wizards (0-2) at State Farm Arena.
A perfect chance for an immediate bounceback for the Hawks.
…Until next time!