The Hawks made 19 threes, but it wasn’t enough.
The Atlanta Hawks suffered their fourth straight loss, falling short to the Sacramento Kings 123-115 at State Farm Arena on Friday night.
Trae Young led the Hawks in scoring with 25 points and 12 assists, while Garrison Mathews added 23 points. For the Kings, De’Aaron Fox scored a season-high 31 points, and veteran DeMar DeRozan added 27 points to the Kings’ cause.
For the game itself: Playing catch-up
New game, same situation for the Hawks.
Bogdan Bogdanovic, De’Andre Hunter, Dyson Daniels, Kobe Bufkin, and Vit Krejci all remain sidelined with injury. The Hawks made one alteration to the lineup with Larry Nance Jr. coming into the starting five…he would go on to play seven minutes.
The Kings were favored heading into this fixture, and they played like it for most of the night. In the first quarter, they built a double-digit lead which grew to as many as 17 points in the first half. The Hawks, however, did not take this set of circumstances lying down and made a run in the second quarter to reduce the lead to just three points with 1:57 remaining in the half after free throws from Onyeka Okongwu.
The Kings were trapping Young but Young did well to get off the ball, and the Hawks did well to make plays in the first half when he did so. Clint Capela (10 points), Okongwu (11 points) and Young (12 points) kept the Hawks close, but the Kings put a run together to end the first half to take a 10 point lead into the break.
Double-digit leads are always a very precarious thing for both teams heading into the break, but especially the trailing team: you’re one sloppy start and one run away from the game being there-or-thereabouts to it suddenly getting out of hand. The Hawks found themselves in the latter camp, as the Kings began the second half the stronger of the two sides and opened the lead out to a game-high 18 points. The Hawks had already come back from 17 point deficit, and would need to launch another comeback.
It didn’t come immediately, and while they got the Kings’ lead below double-digits later in the third, it didn’t remain so. The Hawks’ offense was fine but, again, it was the defense that let them down: they just had no answer to Sacramento’s scorers. So, the Hawks committed to a three-point barrage, led by Garrison Mathews. Mathews caught fire, and the Hawks were able to get the stops to reel the lead in.
The Hawks turned in an 11-0 run, with Young tying the game at 109 with a long two in the corner. The Hawks had, somehow, managed to turn this game around. Down two significant double-digit deficits, they used the three and chained some stops. They were there. The Kings, throughout this whole run, did not panic or use a timeout, not even when Young tied the game. Instead, they responded with poise, and their immediate response to that 11-0 run I think was where they took the momentum out of the Hawks.
After Young’s basket, Fox uses the screen from Domantas Sabonis to shed Keaton Wallace, gets inside and gets his runner to go:
Mathews gets a great look at a three in the corner on the next possession, and with how he shot in the second half you would have bet on Mathews making this one, but it just didn’t fall:
The Kings ensure this miss is punished, as DeRozan gets to his patented mid-range jumper and sinks it:
Keaton Wallace has shot the ball well from three, but is unable to connect on the Hawks next trip down the floor:
Fox takes the rebound, Sabonis creates the space, the defense is lax, and Fox easily gets into a mid-range jumper, gets the fortunate bounce to give the Kings an immediate 6-0 reply and forcing the Hawks to take a timeout, the momentum of their comeback halted and the crowd reigned in:
I have to say, it was ballsy from Kings head coach Mike Brown to not call a timeout after Young tied the game, it would have been very easy to react to that. But he let the Kings play through it, and they responded with poise.
Mathews would hit a three to bring the Hawks within three again, and after a miss from DeRozan the Hawks got one more chance to tie the game, but Jalen Johnson was unable is connect from three:
Fox would then hit a three-pointer in front of the Hawks’ bench to cap off a 31 point performance and put the Kings up six:
The Hawks cut the lead to five, but could bring it no further than that; one lead too many, and the Hawks fall to defeat.
Live by the three, die by the three
It was very clear as the second half unfolded what the Hawks’ strategy evolved into. Garrison Mathews led the Hawks in the second half with his shooting, it really was his outburst (7-of-13 from three in the second half) that paved the way.
Mathews scored 23 points behind a career-best seven threes, and without him, the Hawks’ would’ve been down by 20-plus points in the third quarter, and without his continued shooting the Hawks wouldn’t have stuck around and made the run they did. Of course, it wasn’t Mathews on his own but he was the galvanzing force last night in that second half.
I think the Hawks knew they weren’t going to be able to get enough stops, so they simply sought to outscore them from the three-point line. You have to say it worked in terms of getting the Hawks back into the game; they got there, they tied the game. But just as much as you can thrive on the three, you can die by it. The three alluded the Hawks when they needed it following that 11-0 run as the Kings continued to do what they did all night on offense through a steady diet of Fox’s all-around game, DeRozan’s mid-range and free throw shooting, and Sabonis’s screen-setting and passing.
In the second half alone, the Hawks shot 13-of-28 from three, led by those seven Mathews threes. For the game itself, the Hawks attempted 50 threes, making a season-best 19 of them. For the night that it was, with the injuries they have, I thought it was fine for the game strategy to turn out this way and you can commend the Hawks for giving it a go last night because they certainly showed spirit, emotion, and guts.
“It was really good the way we competed,” said Young postgame. “The way Keaton and Garrison came in the game really changed the game. We made some runs, wasn’t able to take the lead but the way we fought was good to see.”
Snyder goes to the bat for Young
I’d love to bring you some quotes from Hawks head coach Quin Snyder about the three-point shooting, Garrison Mathews, and more I’m sure! But postgame Snyder only had one thing on his mind to let the media know, and that was the extensive efforts of Trae Young.
“I thought we played with courage,” said Snyder. We were down, I think, 18 on two separate occasions and we competed. I thought it was our best fourth quarter defensively of the year. That’s something we talked about, we didn’t have that competitive endurance. Everybody should get their pens out and start writing about Trae Young. He was poised with the officials, from the beginning of the game he got blitzed, he trusted his teammates, he was unselfish, he got off the ball early to shooters, then he hit he started hitting Clint in the roll, he managed the game, he took a charge with six minutes left in the game.
“If anybody doesn’t look at his performance tonight and respect the mental toughness that he has to play with right now, when everything is going through him with admiration for his competitiveness, the trust he has in his teammates… The guy was unbelievable. I’m not diminishing other guys’ efforts but that was a hell of a performance and we shouldn’t lose track of that because we lost the game.”
That was the entirety of Snyder’s postgame press conference right there. A bit disappointing to not highlight some of those other performances but Snyder really wanted to make his point on Young.
He’s obviously not wrong: Young had his share of adversity in this game. He faced stiff defensive pressure, I thought there were quite a few fouls he should’ve gotten calls for and didn’t, penetration was difficult… But he made, for the most part, the right decisions last night, and he’s had to bear the absolute brunt of all these injuries from a load perspective, playing 42 minutes last night.
“I respect him a lot for that,” said Keaton Wallace of Young. “We’re not healthy, and he’s got to play 40-plus minutes every other night. That’s tough, anyone that plays basketball knows that’s hard. That just shows he wants to win. He’s a competitor. We’re behind him, whatever he’s on, we’re on. We’re going to get to it.”
Young was asked about the officiating postgame and expressed his displeasure in his own way, attempting to take the high-road instead.
“This shit is getting old with them,” said Young. “That’s been the thing since I’ve been here in Atlanta but I’m not going to talk about the refs anymore, that’s not my thing. I’m older and more mature now, so I don’t need to worry about those people in stripes. I’ve just got to worry about my team. I feel like the game was called we played through calls and still found a way to get into the game. It wasn’t as deflating as some of the (other) calls, we still had a chance to win which is a good sign.”
More than these frustrations right now, I think one of the elements that gets lost at the moment with these injuries is that Young is one of the few players who has the confidence to go out there and play his game and attempt shots and not be afraid. Last night, a number of players looked passive and turned down shots, especially off the dribble. Make or miss, Young isn’t afraid to take the shots and the Hawks really need others who will go make and take those shots too. Jalen Johnson will go get his drives and opportunities, and I enjoyed Wallace pulling up from three and making some shots, obviously Mathews let it fly with confidence too.
It’s a tough spot for Young right now, and without other offensive threats for teams to guard and release pressure on Young offensively, it means teams can load up on Young, and if Garrison Mathews hits seven threes they’ll take their chances with that.
All-in-all…
Obviously a difficult spot for the Hawks. I don’t think many realistically expected a win, and there were many different points where this could have gotten ugly at home. But the Hawks rallied and showed fight, going on those two runs to bring the game close, and to tie it in the fourth quarter, to give the crowd something to cheer for… Everyone talks about not wanting moral victories but what else do the Hawks have right now? The Washington games didn’t give a lot of room for hope or enthusiasm but a performance like this does; they can call back to this moment as a moment when their backs were against the wall and they rallied. After the Washington game on Wednesday, Young called for his teammates to find something within themselves — this performance was an example of that.
The Kings, ultimately, are a better team — certainly right now with their health and it’s not even a debate — and their talent won out as they would have been expected to, but they certainly had to work for it and rally themselves. It might not have been a victory for the Hawks but it was a much-needed sign of life, fight and desire.
And that’s something to build on.
The Hawks (2-4) are back in action on Sunday, on the road to face the New Orleans Pelicans (3-3), who are dealing with a few injuries themselves with former Hawk Dejounte Murray and Herb Jones sidelined with injury.
…Until next time!