The Atlanta Hawks were defeated by the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night by a final score of 120-112. The loss brought an end to Atlanta’s five-game winning streak, while Detroit picked up their 11th (!)
win in a row.
Jalen Johnson finished with 25 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in a team-high 39 minutes for Atlanta. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 24 points, but struggled to find his touch from beyond the arc, shooting just 1-for-9 from the perimeter. Onyeka Okongwu added 21 points, but had a tough day on the defensive end of the floor. For the Pistons, Cade Cunningham led the way with 25 points, 10 assists and six rebounds.
The Hawks were without Kristaps Porzingis (right knee soreness), Zaccharie Risacher (left hip contusion), and of course, Trae Young (MCL sprain) for this one. Meanwhile Detroit were missing Caris LeVert (left ankle sprain), Tobias Harris (right ankle sprain), and Jaden Ivey (G League assignment).
Summary
Detroit built a 67-54 halftime lead on the back of some extremely efficient shooting, going 8-for-19 (42%) from beyond the arc and a ridiculous 17-for-20 (85%) from two-point range over the first two quarters. 16 of the Pistons’ 20 two-point attempts in the first half came from inside the restricted area. They also went 9-for-10 from the free throw line.
While Atlanta didn’t shoot it poorly (56.7% True Shooting in the first half), they struggled with turnovers (eight), and only took six free throw attempts (4-for-6 at the line). On defense, they had a hard time stopping Detroit from getting what they wanted – as evidenced by the number of attempts they conceded from within the restricted area.
“In the first half, we didn’t do a good job in pick-and-roll defense,” said head coach Quin Snyder after the game.
Atlanta opened the third quarter on a 13-5 run, cutting Detroit’s lead to five after a three from Okongwu off the pick-and-pop with Dyson Daniels.
Detroit would waste no time retaking control of the game however, responding with a 13-5 run of their own over the next three minutes. They kept the Hawks at arms length for the rest of the period, and took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Atlanta began the final period determined to make a comeback.
Okongwu got the quarter started with a lay-in over Cunningham.
A few plays later, he knocks down a catch-and-shoot three to cut the lead to 10.
After a missed three on the other end from Detroit, Alexander-Walker converts a tough lay-in, forcing JB Bickerstaff to call for time to try and slow the Hawks momentum.
Out of the timeout, Atlanta plays good defense, resulting in a miss from Stewart. Then on the other end, Vit Krejci gets two great looks from three but can’t convert – an unfortunate result for a player who had been on a shooting tear entering tonight’s matchup.
Fortunately, this wouldn’t slow Atlanta’s momentum. After another miss from Detroit, Dyson Daniels comes up with the rebound off an Alexander-Walker misfire, then drops in a floater to cut the Pistons lead to six.
After baskets from Mo Gueye and Cade Cunningham, Jalen Johnson hit a three (off another offensive board from Dyson Daniels) to make it a three-point game!
Duncan Robinson misses a three on the other end and the Hawks come back down and showcase their ball movement. On this possession, four players touch the ball in four seconds before Okongwu rewards Dyson Daniels’ cut with a beautiful bounce pass for the score. Beautiful basketball. One point game. Timeout Detroit.
The Pistons coaching staff made an interesting decision coming out of the timeout, opting to sub defensive stalwart, Ausar Thompson, into the game for All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham*.
*Who was returning from a three-game injury absence
After coming up empty on a play drawn up for Duncan Robinson, Detroit’s defense is put to the test and Javonte Green ties up Dyson Daniels, resulting in a jump ball.
As you can see in the play below, what happens on the jump ball is just really unfortunate. The ball gets batted around after the jump. Okongwu and Daniels both try grabbing it, but neither of them come away with it. The ball winds up in the hands of Detroit’s Daniss Jenkins, who takes it the other way for an emphatic slam.
This was the first of two plays Snyder called “tough” and “really crucial” in his post game press conference.
After the Jenkins jam, Atlanta’s offense stalled on their next possession, which ended in a shot clock violation. Then on the other end, Duncan Robinson got past Vit Krejci and converted a tough lay-in over Dyson Daniels, pushing Detroit’s lead back up to five. Timeout Quin Snyder.
Out of the timeout by Atlanta, we see Detroit’s Thompson for Cunningham substitution pay off. Johnson’s handle is too loose, Thompson comes up with the ball, and it’s the Hawks third consecutive empty possession at a crucial point in the contest.
Okongwu fouled Jalen Duren on Detroit’s next possession, who went 1-for-2 at the stripe, extending the lead to six. Then on Atlanta’s next offensive possession, Thompson strikes again – this time just ripping the ball out of Johnson’s hands, leading to another two points for Detroit off a Duren putback.
Dyson Daniels tries to get the points back quickly, but Duren stuffs his attempt at the rim. The refs called this out on Daniels (though the replay showed the ball might have actually deflected off of Duren), and it’s five straight scoreless possessions for the Hawks.
After a Thompson slam on the other end, the Hawks looked to be down for the count, however Nickeil Alexander-Walker wouldn’t concede so easily.
First, he knocked down this three from the left wing to end Atlanta’s scoring drought, and cut the Pistons lead to seven with 3:30 left to play.
Then, a couple plays later, he gets past Cade Cunningham (subbed back in for Robinson) for a layup plus the foul to make it a four-point game.
The Hawks lock down the interior on the next Pistons possession.
Then Alexander-Walker drives and draws a shooting foul on Duren. He would go 2-for-2 at the line to make it a two-point game.
Just a brilliant stretch from NAW to breathe life back into this Hawks team when they desperately needed it. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be enough.
On Detroit’s next possession, Cunningham made the second “tough” and “crucial” play described by Snyder postgame. Going one-on-one against Dyson Daniels, he gets to his spot just inside the free-throw line and nails the jumper to make it a two possession game.
The Hawks call Jalen Johnson’s number on the next possession, but he can’t finish around Isaiah Stewart on the interior and Detroit come up with the rebound.
With just over a minute to play, Cade Cunningham wastes no time going for the gut punch – racing up the floor to finish through Okongwu at the basket to put Detroit up by six.
Alexander-Walker gets a decent look from three on Atlanta’s next possession but it doesn’t fall. Duren comes up with the board and the Hawks are forced to play the foul game.
A few heroic late game threes from Vit Krejci made the rest of the final minute semi-interesting, but Detroit were perfect at the line down the stretch. In the end, Atlanta came up just short in their attempt to extend their win streak to six.
A few observations from last night’s contest.
Rim Protection Falters
Coming into the game against Detroit, the Hawks’ boasted the fifth-best defense in the league in the month of November, with their improved rim defense being a big factor in that ranking. Last night, their rim protection was nowhere to be found, as Detroit brutalized them for 66 points in the paint – 58 of which were scored from inside the restricted area.
Per cleaningtheglass, Detroit took a whopping 49% of their field-goal attempts at the rim last night – a mark which ranks in the 98th percentile relative to all other games played during the 2025-26 season, and the highest opponent rim-frequency the Hawks have allowed in a game so far this season. Additionally, the Pistons converted these looks at a stellar 74% clip – seven percentage points higher than the league average.
Detroit is a gritty team, and Atlanta really struggled with their size and physicality on the interior. They came into this matchup ranked no.2 in the league in rim-shooting frequency, and all of their players were attuned to punishing Atlanta whenever their bigs got pulled too far away from the rim. Cade Cunningham gave the Hawks fits.
This performance was likely just an outlier but even so, it shows that despite the impressive numbers as of late, there is still a lot of room for this team to grow on the defensive end of the floor – even in Trae Young’s absence.
One ray of sunlight from last night is that Atlanta continued to thrive defensively with Mo Gueye on the floor (read more about Mo’s rim protection here!), posting a defensive rating of 86.7 in his 21 minutes*.
*Atlanta were +17 in Mo’s minutes against Detroit
Turnovers Were Costly
Another factor in the loss was that the Hawks committed 19 turnovers, directly leading to 30 Pistons points – the second most points off turnovers they’ve conceded in a game this season.
Johnson (four turnovers) and Okongwu (five) were the main culprits, but almost everyone had a hand in these errors. Of the eight Hawks who played more than five minutes last night, Nickeil Alexander-Walker was the only one to finish the game turnover free.
Snyder called the turnovers “an opportunity to learn” postgame, while Johnson admitted he “has to be better”.
As is to be expected, the Hawks have struggled to take care of the ball in Trae Young’s absence this season, posting a team turnover rate of 16.4%* with Young on the bench or out of the lineup relative to a stellar 11.1% turnover rate with him on the court per cleaningtheglass.
*A mark which would rank 25th in the league this season
Three-Point Shooting Comes Down to Earth
Another trend from the recent winning streak that regressed last night (in addition to the rim protection) was the team’s three-point shooting numbers. The Hawks were shooting 41.4% from three over the five games prior to last night’s matchup – the second best mark in the league over that span, and a massive uptick from their first nine games of the season when they were shooting just 33.2%.
Last night, they shot just 15-for-44 (34.1%) and were 13-for-42 (31%) before Vit Krejci hit two miracle heaves during the final 30 seconds. While Jalen Johnson (3-for-8) and Onyeka Okongwu (4-for-7) continued to shoot well, Krejci was just 1-for-6 before his late-game heaves, Alexander-Walker was just 1-for-9, and Gueye went 1-for-5. Kennard and Keaton Wallace were efficient (combined 3-for-6) but on low volume.
“I didn’t feel like we were our normal selves from three, and when we went on that little [cold] stretch in the second, I didn’t feel like the looks were something that we couldn’t live with.” said Alexander-Walker after the game. “Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t.”
The Hawks like to hunt transition threes but last night, they struggled to get out and run (scoring a season-low six fastbreak points), which may have been a factor in the mediocre three-point shooting.
That being said, there’s little question that the shooting over the win streak was likely unsustainable, and it will be really interesting to see how this team shoots over their next 5-10 games.
