The Hawks’ second preseason game finally happened, but they came up short on Monday night.
The Atlanta Hawks fell to defeat in their second preseason contest, falling to the Philadelphia 76ers 104-89 at State Farm Arena on Monday night.
In the absence of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Kelly Oubre Jr. each scored 14 points. For the Hawks (without Onyeka Okongwu among others) Zaccharie Risacher led with 14 points, with Trae Young, Jalen Johnson, and Clint Capela all adding 10 points.
There is a certain case of ‘rest versus rust’ to be had here, even in preseason. The Hawks haven’t played since last Tuesday, whereas Monday night’s contest was the Sixers’ third game in four nights and fourth preseason game in total, so perhaps it makes a bit more sense why the Sixers were a bit more organized in their play than the hosts. The Hawks started well with an 11-3 burst but the Sixers reeled in and opened up a double-digit lead in the second quarter before the game began to stretch away in the second half as both teams began to expand into their rotations.
For a preseason game, the result isn’t what really matters, but the one thing I will say for this game was that it was a little concerning how clogged the paint was at times, and the Hawks had a lot of difficulty getting inside and were forced to settle for a number of jumpshots:
In the end the Hawks shot 37% from the field and 29% from three, and the struggles were up-and-down the roster.
Postgame, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder was pleased with some of the opportunities the Hawks got but similarly admitted that there a number of looks that were not good.
“I thought we did get some good looks, I also thought there was times where we didn’t make quick enough decisions,” said Snyder of the offense. “They’re aggressive, physical defensively, they try and dictate, and if the ball stops you allow that to happen. If the ball moves and we move the game is a lot easier. We had some good possessions but we also had some not so good possessions. It’d be good for us to see what the game looked like when we did generate some of those open shots, whether we made them or not. There were plenty of times where that didn’t happen as well.”
With that said, since it’s preseason, so we’ll have a chat about lineups, rotations and individual performances rather than focus too much on the final result and why it occurred.
The Hawks ran the same starting lineup of Young, Dyson Daniels, De’Andre Hunter, Johnson and Capela, and while no one from the starters was particularly stellar there were some good moments. I think we should probably begin to assume that — unless things are disastrous from this point forward — this will likely be the starting lineup on opening night. Daniels has certainly made his impression on the lineup, and if there was a player who you could speculate could be taken out of the lineup it might be Hunter for Risacher, but I still think the advantage is with Hunter for now just because of the defensive looks the Hawks can throw with Daniels, Hunter and Johnson.
Daniels in particular showed more of his defensive prowess, coming up with a number of strong defensive plays in this game that will only continue to highlight his importance in the starting lineup.
Here, Dyson disrupts the play near the basket — credited with a block — and from this, Johnson scores down the other end:
This next play was an example of Daniels’ disruptive defense, and you can see that perhaps on another occasion he’d be coming up with a steal. Sadly on this occasion, the bounce doesn’t go Daniels’ way and the Sixers make a three:
The last clip here from Daniels is the pick of the bunch, as he picks up the drive from Maxey and blocks the shot out of bounds:
Daniels outlined the challenges of guarding Maxey as well as his own defensive philosophy.
“Everyone’s different, I have to guard everyone different,” said Daniels. “Tonight, Tyrese Maxey is super quick, can shoot the step-back three, can get on the rim, so it was about judging when I can pick him up, when I can turn him. Sometimes I try and pick him up early, get him on the back foot, turn him a couple of times when they bring it up. A couple of times tonight I made him get off the ball and make someone else bring it up, if I can do that I’m doing my job.”
What I appreciate listening to Daniels speak is that he speaks with a confidence, knowledge, and confidence of an elite defender — it’s so easy to forget this is only year three for Daniels in the league.
Daniels has certainly made an impression to Trae Young, who was singing his praises on media day even before seeing him on the court in a game situation. His estimation of Daniels has surely only increased since then, with Young praising Daniels postgame.
“I see one of the best defenders in the league,” said Young of Daniels. “Every time he’s on the ball he’s pressuring the ball. It helps our defense, it kills time off the clock. That’s what teams try to do versus us, they try and pick me up full-court and get the ball out of my hands and trying to use clock before we get across half-court. We’ve got one of those guys now and he’s going to help us a lot throughout the season. We’ll get wins because of the impact that he has on the defensive end.”
On Young’s game, he didn’t have himself the best of nights — 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field and nine turnovers. Young was very candid as to why his turnover count was so high postgame, effectively saying he uses preseason as an opportunity to find his teammates — especially his newer teammates — more often.
“Right now I’m trying to get everybody involved, I don’t really give a fuck about these turnovers,” said Young. “It’s the preseason so me trying to get people involved is what I always try and do. Especially for the new guys that we’ve got, it’s important for them to know they’re going to get the ball when they’re open, and if they run they’re going to get the ball … it’s preseason so I’m going to get my guys the ball.”
Young was probably fortunate to not get ejected for a second technical after he continued to thumbs down a call he disagreed with from the officials whilst already being on a technical foul. It was surprising he wasn’t reprimanded given how demonstrative he was about the call, but the fact it was preseason likely spared him. He was called for this push off on Caleb Martin, a call that was unsuccessfully challenged by the Hawks:
The starters were mostly OK, but it was the bench that was the unit that arguably struggled, especially when Young went to the bench. Kobe Bufkin struggled offensively, shooting 2-of-13 from the field but did produce five assists, and it was this element — when Young was off the floor — that Snyder liked.
“I think the biggest thing with Kobe when he’s in the game when he comes in for Trae is his facilitating,” said Snyder. “He can make other people better, whatever that looks like on any given possession that’s where he can have a positive impact on the game.”
The Hawks effectively ran a proper rotation in the first half, with Larry Nance Jr., Risacher, Bogdanovic and Bufkin serving as the 9-man rotation. Bogdanovic struggled in this game, shooting 2-of-11 from the field, while Nance was particularly impactful, grabbing seven offensive rebounds on the game. We’ll touch on Risacher separately soon.
In the second half the likes of Vit Krejci and Garrison Mathews — guys who were rotation players last season — got their run, but it’s notable that they were not part of the first half rotation, which I think we have to assume was a proper run out.
On the whole, given that the Hawks ran a real rotation in the first half, Snyder was pleased with some moments defensively — singling out the defensive efforts of Dyson Daniels — but that their communication could have been better.
“I thought we had some good moments,” said Snyder of the defense. “Dyson is so effective on the ball, he takes so much pride in it. On the backline, guys were shifted— I thought we started the game out very well that way and there were a couple of stretches where we were back but we weren’t communicating and they got some stuff in transition, and then our offense hurt our defense. There were stretches where we did some good things defensively. The challenge for us defensively is to continue to build on the possessions where we are executing.”
Meanwhile, Young believes that the Hawks could have nights where shots aren’t falling and they’ll need nights like this where they play well defensively to give themselves a chance.
“We played really good defense, we played hard on that end,” added Young. “I think guys are still figuring out where their spots are going to be. We had a lot of good looks tonight that didn’t fall tonight, and they’re going to fall. Guys aren’t going to shoot this poorly, I’m not going to shoot this poorly all season. We’re going to have nights where we shoot like this. They scored 100 points, that’s a really good defensive night for us. If we hold our hat on that end I feel pretty good about our season and the way it’s going to go.”
Let’s talk about Zaccharie Risacher, who scored 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field.
Risacher’s work came mostly inside the arc (shooting just 1-of-5 from three) and what is enjoyable about watching Risacher is that he doesn’t force a ton, and he’s able to impact the game as comes to him naturally — it feels as though things fall into place nicely.
On this play, a quick screen with Daniels and a roll to the rim before a nice fake to beat Andre Drummond and score at the rim:
It’s quick, easy, and natural — it all comes in stride for Risacher.
Here, Risacher hovers near the rim and the play breaks to him, and when it does he’s in place to adjust to evade the defense and finish in a crowd:
This last clip might be my favorite of the bunch — after Risacher misses a three, the ball finds its way back to him on the perimeter (courtesy of one of the seven offensive rebounds from Nance), and he makes a play off the dribble going to his left and finish amongst two defenders at the rim:
“One of the things that’s been fun to see with Zacch is his work ethic and he’s got a quiet toughness to him for a 19-year-old,” said Snyder. “There’s a determination that he has. If you watch him, you see that come out. He’s not always successful but he’s competing. He lets the game come to him. There’s always a tendency to try impose yourself on the game to a certain degree — that’s not bad — but he’s making the right plays, making good decisions. The work ethic that he has, that breeds that toughness because when you put that much into something you’re committed to it.”
Risacher’s preseason has been a huge positive so far, and it was good to see him with that starting lineup to begin the second half as Hunter was rested. Comparing Hunter and Risacher with the other four of that starting lineup would be something worth monitoring. The Hawks were clearly open to Hunter coming off the bench last season (even after he came back from injury Hunter remained there, which was a surprise after a certain amount of time), so perhaps they may entertain the idea again if Risacher continues to impress as he has so far. It seems clear that they really like Daniels in the lineup, so I’d be surprised at this stage if they change that side of things.
While you could look at this game negatively, I’d view this game from the lens that the additions the Hawks brought in over the summer — Daniels, Risacher, Nance — were arguably the most positive players of everyone last night for Atlanta, and that surely bodes well for the season, that the roster is improved and deeper this season.
The Hawks head on the road to continue their preseason on Wednesday night against the Miami Heat, the first of a road back-to-back to close their preseason.
…Until next time!