The Atlanta Hawks dropped a third consecutive game as they fell to fellow Southeast Division rivals Miami Heat 129-117 on Wednesday evening at State Farm Arena. Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 23 points, while rookie Kingston Flemings also scored so far career-best of 23 points. For the Heat, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo scored 24 points apiece with Antetokounmpo adding 18 rebounds.
Having lost two games against the Houston Rockets, the Hawks returned to State Farm Arena to face a familiar
foe: a Heat side looking for their first victory of the season. Initially, it was a close affair between the two sides, but the Heat began to edge away as the first quarter came to close and established a double-digit lead as the paint points began to mount.
In the second quarter, the Hawks made a run to bring the margin down as low as three points before the Heat re-established themselves and their double-digit lead; a half-court heave from Nikola Jovic at the halftime buzzer putting the Heat up by 13 points. The third quarter saw the Hawks, again, trying to mount a comeback before another Miami run stretched their lead to a game-high 18 points before settling at 15 heading into the final frame.
The Hawks mounted a run in the fourth quarter, and with seven minutes remaining the lead had been trimmed to four points — plenty of time to take the lead and see the game through with the home-crowd very much onside. However, Miami responded, and restored their 10-point lead and edge away to secure their first win of the season.
Postgame, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder acknowledged that the Heat were just better last night, while also commenting on the Hawks not moving the ball as they should have, affecting their offense.
“Credit the way they played, they, they beat us,” said Snyder. “They were aggressive on the glass, they did a lot of things and there were times when we responded, but we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to move the ball better, particularly when the team’s aggressive on us on the ball. We have willing passers, but we have to pass. It’s about when you pass, and our ability to get off the ball quicker and get more movement I think will help us offensively. When we’re not connected on the offensive end, it really impacts our team.”
The Hawks made multiple runs in this game to cut the lead to single digits but could not sustain it.
“Just a little too late, energy-wise,” said Nickeil Alexander-Walker. “We’re showing that we can compete. I think throughout the game, we have to do a better job of consistently competing. There’s times where our compete level drops, and that’s what it was tonight.”
I think the Hawks lost this game for three reasons: they got absolutely killed in the paint/at the rim, the Hawks committed a lot of turnovers that could have been avoided, and Atlanta missed too many bunnies at the rim.
The main issue last night defensively was defending at the rim: the Heat made 21 baskets at the rim and scored 70 points in the paint. Onyeka Okongwu certainly had his work cut out for him with both Giannis and Adebayo attacking the rim, or Miami operating Adebayo in the high-post, bringing Okongwu away from the rim and leaving the rim largely unprotected…and then there were instances where Okongwu or Jock Landale were close to the rim and it didn’t matter.
This lack of rim protection in this game was seen in the early stages, as Andrew Wiggins drives to the rim and scores before the defense can rotate to attempt a block:
After a turnover from Kingston Flemings, the Heat come the other way, and from the corner, Pelle Larsson is able to drive by Aaron Wiggins and score at the rim without a challenge:
Here, Adebayo throws an entry pass to Giannis, who has Landale at his back, and with the only size the Hawks have at even having a remote chance of slowing him down, Giannis is able to flip the shot home, plus the foul:
Again, Adebayo throws the entry pass into Giannis, who gets Landale at his back, uses his size to carve space and finishes at the rim:
After a wide miss by Adebayo on the jumper, there is absolutely no size and no chance the Hawks can prevent Giannis claiming the offensive rebound and scoring at the rim:
After the drive from Klay Thompson draws Okongwu, Giannis receives the dump-off at the dunker’s spot, and with Okongwu now behind the play, Giannis can dunk at the rim for another basket at the rim:
After Dyson Daniels does a good job contesting the much larger Adebayo at the rim, he — and the rest of the Hawks — are powerless to fight against the second effort of Adebayo, who claims and rises in a crowd to score at the rim:
On this drive from Antetokounmpo, Okongwu provides little resistance (hesitating on the drive) and it allows an easy basket at the rim:
This time in a rare pick-and-roll scenario, Antetokounmpo gets a head of steam, and when he does it’s just one of those things that’s very difficult to stop even with sufficient rim protection:
In a more open-court scenario, Okongwu again doesn’t do enough to track the threat going to the rim and Mitchell scores an easy basket:
It’s a tough matchup for the Hawks when there’s an old-school tandem of a dominant power forward/center combo, and the Hawks just don’t have the size to combat this dual-headed threat.
“Obviously Giannis and the question before about Bam breaking the rebounding record for the Heat, so, he’s out there and then Giannis is out there too and Portis is physical and they have size across their front line,” said Snyder. “We can’t accept that those aren’t plays and balls that we can come up with. There’s just another level there, and at times we found it. But there are things, that throughout the possession when you have breakdowns, it becomes difficult to rebound because you’re in a rotation situation.”
It was undoubtedly the key to the game, but with the way the Hawks are set up I’m not sure what more could have been done to prevent it. Sure, perhaps Okongwu could have gotten back to the rim quicker on some drives to try and contest, but there’s no guarantee that would have changed the outcome on those baskets and, overall, those instances were far fewer than the Heat just inherently having a size advantage possession after possession.
Individually, the Hawks did not enjoy many strong offensive performances, in particular Jalen Johnson did not enjoy a positive game scoring the ball, scoring just 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting. Snyder believed the Heat trapping as they did impacted the Hawks and their ability to move the ball as they normally would.
“The impact that Jalen has in the game in transition and his unselfishness, his willingness to pass the ball, playing without the ball is something that our, our whole team, the more we embrace that, the more difficult we are to defend, and that’s everybody,” began Snyder on Johnson’s difficult game. “Tonight, they were trapping us in lots of actions, so those reads really dictate that you need to throw the ball ahead and just move it and see how you break the defense down. That’s one of the biggest things for us is to have the ball change sides. When we’re playing actions, that allows them to double, and when they do, we’ve got to take advantage of that. That’s something we need to do a better job.”
Johnson was still able to rack up 11 assists, and the Hawks 35 assists but it was the 15 turnovers which were costly for the Hawks. Not so much because Miami punished them for it (only scoring 13 points off of turnovers) but they were largely avoidable turnovers which prevented the Hawks themselves attempting shots.
The story from the Hawks’ side from a player perspective was that of Kingston Flemings, who scored 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 from three:
“Just staying aggressive,” said Flemings of his night. “We got a lot of rebounds, and we were pushing in transition, that’s when we’re best. So, just trying to get rebounds, push and just playing the flow of the offense.”
Flemings also got the nod to close out the game in place of CJ McCollum down the stretch, running with the Hawks’ crunch time lineup. When asked about this decision after the game, Snyder explained the reasoning for it and how McCollum has supported Flemings.
“Kingston did a terrific job,” said Snyder of Flemings. “I think this is part of the process for him. This is a long runway, as I’ve said and it’s not about any one player, it’s really not. Tonight, Kingston gave us a lift. He was pushing the ball and made some good things happen. We talked about it as the coaching staff, (and) CJ knows how we feel about him, he’s crucial to us being who we want to be. Kingston had been in the game long enough that it felt like throwing CJ in a tough situation, putting him in cold at that point. As I said, CJ’s all about the team and the team winning and that’s an aberration. But I think CJ more than anyone understands with his professionalism and his career, but our whole team, that’s part of having depth on any given night. Hopefully you have guys that can lift their level, and tonight was Kingston. It’s been other guys as well. That’s how we can be a good team by having that depth and versatility and guys getting behind one another. You saw that tonight. Nobody’s more supportive of Kingston than CJ.”
Flemings echoed this sentiment and described how McCollum has been helping him in his rookie season so far.
“I mean, otherworldly, to be honest,” said Flemings when asked about the importance of McCollum’s veteran presence. “Him and Nickeil, I work out with them almost every single day, taking bits and pieces. For CJ to be playing this long at this high of a level, it’s not easy to do. You don’t even see a lot of players doing it. But just CJ, the things he’s done, he’s in my ear all the time. Every timeout when he’s on the bench, just telling me what he sees, offense, defense, helping me in those ways. Just invaluable having players like him on the team. I’m grateful for it.”
“I just work with him every day, so, seeing his mindset, seeing his aggression, the way he competed tonight was amazing,” added Nickeil Alexander-Walker of Flemings. “He provided energy, came in aggressive, played to his strengths, got the team within striking distance in multiple ways. His force and everything was amazing.”
In some of those plays from his highlights above, what continues to be really impressive is Flemings’ decision-making. He could spring into a three or a jumpshot, but turns it down and drives inside, where he can either kick it out or rise into a more open jumpshot. It would be easy to take the three in front of him but takes maturity to recognize that there is a better shot available to him; his patience has been impressive to watch.
“The game is still super fast,” said Flemings postgame. “I think it’s definitely slowing down for me. It’s just being aggressive. I see a lot of the plays throughout the court, nothing really changed. It’s just when the defense knows I’m going to pass, my passes aren’t going to be there. So, the coaches talk to me about that, everyone’s talking about that. Putting the ball on the rim, I’m going to continue to do that. Just put the ball up, make some shots, and you play like that, it makes the defense second guess. So, doing that, just constantly trying to gain confidence throughout.”
Other Hawks who had a good game include Dyson Daniels, he was so disruptive defensively last night — three steals doesn’t fully reflect how active he was last night. Alexander-Walker scored 23 points on 8-of-18 from the field and 5-of-9 from three, while CJ McCollum was active in the first quarter and made some tough baskets en route to 13 points. Despite Johnson shooting 4-of-12, Lu Dort shooting 3-of-11, and Aaron Wiggins shooting 4-of-11, I thought the offense wasn’t really the issue (barring those turnovers); the Hawks just had no answer to Miami’s size — the roster is just fundamentally built in a way that does not jive well with the way Atlanta’s roster is built.
The Hawks have now lost three straight games, but this doesn’t require overreaction. Two of those are against the Rockets, and they’re just a step above the Hawks from a talent perspective: that’s going to be a very good team if health endures.
This loss last night I think is just a clash of styles that doesn’t suit Atlanta; the Heat’s front court was just too big and powerful for the Hawks to handle last night. Future matchups will be interesting to see how the Hawks go about teams like this with two prolific bigs.
The Hawks (2-3) are back in action tonight at State Farm Arena to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers (3-1), who were in action last night in a win against the Wizards in Cleveland.
Until next time!
