The Atlanta Hawks began their first game of a four-game trip with a loss to the Chicago Bulls on Monday night, falling 128-123. Kristaps Porzingis led the Hawks in scoring with 27 points with Trae Young
adding 21 points and 17 assists. For the Bulls, Ayo Dosunmo led eight Bulls in double-digit scoring with 21 points.
The Hawks’ road trip began with a boost to the lineup, as Porzingis, Jalen Johnson, and Zaccharie Risacher all returned to the starting lineup. Porzingis in particular returning with a bang, scoring 10 points in the opening frame as the Hawks opened up a double-digit lead and looked comfortable in the first quarter and for most of the second quarter. Atlanta held an 11 point lead with 3:50 remaining in the first half, but the Bulls would go on a run that would see the hosts trim the lead down to one point heading into the locker room.
Speaking at halftime, Porzingis believed that allowing the Bulls to close the gap gave them life, and that proved to be prophetic heading into the second half as the Bulls not only re-took the lead but built up a double-digit lead of their own, scoring 41 points on 64% shooting and hitting 7-of-10 from three in the third quarter.
Looking at the stats, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Hawks didn’t have any offensive issues in the third quarter, scoring 34 points on 53% shooting in the quarter. But the Hawks’ offense did get bogged down in the third quarter, going through a scoring rut of four points in just under four minutes. Young was on the floor to begin this stretch, and then off of it, but the Hawks struggling at this time in the third quarter may not be coincidence with Young off the floor.
The cold stretch begins with two Nickeil Alexander-Walker misses; one of them is an open three created by Young:
A great find by Young, drawing the crowd and an unfortunate miss by Alexander-Walker on this possession.
The next shot by Alexander-Walker isn’t a high quality, attempting to beat Josh Giddey off the dribble and tries to rise into hitting a runner but is slightly off balance and misses:
Young hits a shot and exits the game in between two missed Onyeka Okongwu free throws (0-of-4 last night from the line for Okongwu), and Okongwu would miss a three in the corner on the next possession in transition:
Johnson was able to get the ball out to the corner here to Okongwu to make this a passable shot, but Dyson Daniels gets caught in the air and the ball should’ve popped out to Luke Kennard, who would’ve been a significantly better option in this spot than the shot the Hawks got.
The Hawks get a better shot on their next trip, as a great screen from Okongwu for Alexander-Walker opens up a path of Alexander-Walker, who pulls up against the back-pedalling Nikola Vucevic but misses the shot:
To end this stretch for the Hawks, Daniels drives inside but takes a shot inside the paint in a crowd and misses:
A poor shot from Daniels here, and one I don’t think occurs if Young is on the floor here. The Bulls, as this stretch has continued for the Hawks, stretch their lead out to 10 points; this cold stretch from Atlanta certainly playing its part.
The Hawks ended the third quarter well, and reduced the gap heading into the fourth quarter to just six points as Young finds Mo Gueye for a last-second dunk. The Hawks would go on to overturn that deficit and create a six-point lead of their own behind an Okongwu three with 5:45 remaining in the final quarter. By the 2:46 mark, the Bulls had already re-taken the lead, only for Pozingis to tie the game game at 118 with 2:46 remaining. The Hawks, again, enter a clutch situation where the visitors need to make plays in order to leave Chicago with a victory. So, let’s go through it.
The Bulls break the tie with a three from Matas Buzelis, who pulls up with Johnson and Porzingis nearby:
It’s a ballsy shot from Buzelis but did Johnson and Porzingis get this switch wrong? Did Johnson need to switch to Vucevic, did Porzingis need to leave Vucevic in the first place? Porzingis still gets a contest in, and it’s not the easiest shot from Buzelis but on the surface I don’t know if that was a switch that needed to happen.
From the post, Porzingis tries to pass out to the perimeter but the ball is picked off by Vucevic, who finds the streaking Kevin Huerter, who beats Young and scores at the rim, lifting the Bulls’ lead to five points:
Porzingis could, probably should, have spun to his left because the space that was available to him on that side would’ve been extremely useful for him to use and shoot over Buzelis.
Instead, he spins towards the help defense, and Vucevic is placed perfectly here — he can block the shot if Porzingis tries to shoot over Buzelis, and he’s a huge man himself that he’s one of a few players who can intercept a pass from someone as tall as Porzingis. It’s an offensive possession that got away from the Hawks and directly fueled a Chicago basket in transition.
Following that basket, Young uses the slip from Johnson to try get a half yard to pull up from three but misses. Daniels shifts the offensive rebound to Alexander-Walker, who drives to the rim and misses at the rim after the contest from Vucevic, and the fight for the rebound from Porzingis goes out of bounds and to Chicago (after a coach’s challenge):
A bit of a hero shot from Young here, there’s still plenty of time for the Hawks to close that lead — you don’t need a hero shot there. Perhaps Alexander-Walker may have found Johnson after forcing Vucevic to rotate, but it’s a good play from Vucevic to give him credit.
The Hawks produce a great defensive possession, led by Daniels, to force a shotclock violation, and Johnson does what Alexander-Walker could not and, somehow, finds a way to finish over Vucevic:
To respond, Tre Jones and Vucevic engage in the pick-and-roll — understandable, putting Young through pick-and-roll defense. The Hawks, mostly, have a handle on the play but Daniels gets sucked into the lane, and it leaves Giddey open for a three which he hits off the find of Jones to give the Bulls a six-point lead:
It’s a tough one, that. Daniels, while getting sucked in, still gets a good contest in on Giddey, who is a player you’d live with shooting that shot in this pressure situation. Give Giddey credit, he made that shot in that pressure moment.
An immediate reply by Alexander-Walker for three followed by an offensive foul by Vucevic gives the Hawks a chance to cut the lead to one, or tie with a three with time remaining on the shotclock that they would get the ball again to end the game. The Hawks get a great look, as Young gets downhill and can hit Porzingis in the corner or, as he does, find the cutting Daniels underneath the rim but cannot guide the ball home:
This was a bad miss from Daniels — he has to score that and there’s no other way around it. Young does brilliantly here, and Porzingis spacing the floor and being an option here helps opens up Young’s options — he had choice of pass here, in the end it was Daniels and unfortunately it was a miss.
Still, there’s hope for the Hawks as they should get the ball back with time to spare, providing they can produce a defensive stop. Giddey drives into the paint and misses his runner inside but rebounds his own miss, and the Hawks are now forced to foul:
That’s a tough break for the Hawks; Porzingis is tied up with Vucevic underneath the rim (Vucevic has 17 rebounds and four offensive rebounds, I do not blame Porzingis for being preoccupied down there), and Johnson can’t shade over with Buzelis in the corner, meaning it falls to Daniels to rebound with the way this ball bounces out. Giddey’s size helps him compete in moments like this, and it just fell for him nicely, not sure what else Daniels can do in this situation.
The Bulls seal the game at the line and inflict a third loss of the season already for the Atlanta Hawks. Despite conceding 128 points on 52% shooting from the field, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder believed that the Hawks defended well in periods of the game, but conceded the Bulls’ pick-and-roll offense and drives caused the Hawks issues.
“There were stretches of the game where we really defended,” said Snyder. “They put a lot of pressure on you. I thought we did a pretty good job in transition. Pick-and-roll they didn’t always score on but they were able to get some advantages and we had some long closeouts. They’re very good at driving the ball and at that point started making some shots.”
“I think we have good moments defensively but we have moments throughout the game where they go on runs and those are moments we have to bite down (defensively) and not let them build on those moments,” added Kristaps Porzingis.
The Bulls’ scoring effort wasn’t led by one player in particular, it was offense by committee. Dosunmo led with 21 points but eight Bulls players scored in double-digits, with the efforts of Vucevic (17 points, 17 rebounds, and nine assists) in particular key to the Bulls’ victory.
While the Hawks didn’t have as many scorers, they did have three 20+ point games from Porzingis, Johnson, and Young. Porzingis enjoyed some of the smaller-ball matchups against the Bulls when Vucevic was off the floor, especially in the second quarter, and went on to score 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting.
While two rebounds isn’t ideal, there wasn’t much more you could ask from Porzingis — he hit his threes, took advantage of smaller matchups and scored efficiently. I wasn’t a huge fan of his late turnover and the decision leading up to it, but other than that a strong offensive game from Porzingis.
Johnson, similarly, enjoyed an efficient night scoring 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting and looked a lot more like the player the Hawks expected to see heading into the season. There were strong games off the bench for both Okognwu (18 points on 8-of-11 from the field) and Alexander-Walker (17 points on 6-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 from three). Snyder was asked about the efforts of Okongwu and Alexander-Walker postgame and outlined the strengths of players he believed were starting calibre.
“We look at those guys as starters,” said Snyder of Okongwu and Alexander-Walker. “They’ve been consistent. Onyeka is very poised when he gets the ball and is able to pass, playmake and score. Nickeil’s ability defensively on the ball is really important for us. We believe in him as a shooter, too. He’s knocking down shots and making plays. We continue to learn how to make plays for one another. Those guys thrive in those situations.”
There were shooting struggles, however, for Trae Young, who has continued his slow offensive start to the season shooting 7-of-22 from the field and 1-of-10 from three last night. A couple of these Young was looking for a foul but while the output is OK (21 points) the efficiency is concerning. Young typically starts season’s inefficient shooting the three, but the inefficiency inside the arc is arguably a greater concern right now, and at times he’s forcing it.
He was brilliant distributing the ball, absolutely slicing the Bulls’ defense open in the pick-and-roll — particularly with Johnson — and dished out 17 assists with one turnover (!!). That is an unbelievable return, it’s just a shame that he’s struggled to shoot the ball so far this season because the Hawks really need Young to be efficient offensively — there was easily a 30 point-plus game available to him last night.
While Johnson and Porzingis made strong returns to the lineup last night, Zaccharie Risacher certainly did not — two points on 1-of-5 from the field in 20 minutes of action. Whether he’s still carrying lingering effects of the ankle sprain is not clear, but Risacher added very little to the game last night — in fact, outside of those two points he added almost nothing that was reflected in the boxscore: zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals, zero free throws, and one turnover. He was pulled in the fourth quarter in favor of Alexander-Walker who closed the game and made a big three to cut the lead to three. Risacher will have much, much better games than last night but last night was poor — especially on a night where the Hawks could’ve done with any production from him in a five-point loss.
While adding more than Risacher on the defensive end — and speaking of potential lingering injuries — it was another tough night for Dyson Daniels offensively: four points on 1-of-8 shooting and no three-point attempts, which was unusual. Daniels is clearly bothered offensively right now, and if he is carrying a lingering injury he needs to rest because he has an important offensive role to play not just in terms of not being a negative on offense (which he is right now) but the Hawks need his ball-handling when Young isn’t on the floor, and that hasn’t been seen as much to start the season.
With the full compliment of players available, we saw a little more diversity in rotation last night — not all of it good. The Hawks ran out a Young/Kennard/Alexander-Walker/Mo Gueye/Okongwu lineup in the first quarter, a Keaton Wallace/Risacher/Kennard/Okongwu/Porzingis lineup in the second quarter, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of from a ball-handling perspective.
Snyder was asked about the Porzingis/Okongwu combination postgame and outlined the dynamic of having those two players playing next to each other.
“Onyeka is a really good player and we want to get him on the floor,” said Snyder of playing Porzingis and Okongwu together. “We think those two guys together, they’re both skilled. They’re learning how to do that. Onyeka hasn’t defended as much on the perimeter, and teams will cross-match against us so there’s a learning curve for those guys doing that. That’s another component of our team we need to continue to work on and cultivate and be better. I thought the two of those guys on the floor together tonight were solid.”
With Porzingis, Johnson, and Okongwu all healthy, available, out of foul trouble, and producing (combining for a very efficient 70 points), there was little room for Mo Gueye to get a ton of minutes last night (playing just nine minutes), nor Asa Newell. Newell has played well but he has little realistic chance of getting into the rotation when those four guys are ahead of him, and the big three producing as they did last night.
All in all, this was a disappointing loss for the Hawks. They had this game under control in the first half, allowed the Bulls to see life with that run late in the second quarter, came out strong in the third while the Hawks went cold, and made more plays than the Hawks down the stretch in the clutch.
The Hawks simultaneously saw really good and poor individual games, and they just couldn’t stop the Bulls in the second half when it mattered. It’s a disappointing start to the trip in the type of game, with everyone healthy as they were, that the Hawks are just expected to win this year. There’s no good excuse as to why the Hawks couldn’t have taken that game last night, but credit must go to the Bulls who made the plays down the stretch and have began the season now 3-0.
For the Hawks (1-3), they continue their road-trip against the Brooklyn Nets (0-4) at Barclays Center. If there’s a chance to get the trip back on track, the Nets represent a great opportunity to do so.
Until next time!
