The Atlanta Hawks returned to State Farm Arena following their victory in New Orleans on Saturday night and swept the back-to-back as Atlanta rallied in the fourth quarter to secure the 113-110 victory.
Jalen Johnson led the Hawks with 28 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds and Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 23 points as four Hawks scored 20 or more points. For the Hornets, Kon Knueppel scored 28 points with Collin Sexton adding 22 points.
A game of runs would be best way to describe this game, particularly in the first half as the Hawks began well, before a Hornets run swung the early advantage in their favor…then the Hawks went on a run… you get the general idea.
It was a closely contested first half, with no team leading by more than eight points in the first half. That trend would continue for much of the second half, including towards the end of the third quarter, where the Hornets held a one point lead but a great sequence for the Hawks saw them flip this small advantage, and momentum, on their side.
It starts with a great find by Johnson to set up Mo Gueye for a dunk at the rim:
Gueye then follows this up with a great block at the rim, blocking Miles Bridges at the rim and right into the arms of Keaton Wallace, who can begin the fastbreak:
This fuels the Hawks’ transition, who swing the ball around to Alexander-Walker, who hits the three at a pivotal point in third quarter:
Some good plays by Vit Krejci here, who may not have been able to impact the game scoring-wise last night but came up with a good offensive rebound and assist in that sequence.
The Hawks kept this momentum rolling in the fourth quarter and took the game’s first double-digit lead with 7:59 remaining in the fourth. Alas, similar to the previous 36 minutes, any advantage either side in this game never lasted long.
The Hornets dug into the Hawks’ lead, who hit offensive trouble to the stage where their once strong-looking fourth quarter momentum into a three points Hornets lead with 3;17 remaining. The Hawks would have to find one more run within themselves if they wanted to secure this game, so let’s take a look at how it happened.
The first stage of the comeback isn’t even the Hawks getting on the board, it’s, arguably, the offensive foul call on Sexton which, if uncalled, would’ve given the Hornets a five point lead. Instead, Dyson Daniels draws the offensive foul on the drive:
With the shot clock winding down on the Hawks’ next offensive trip, Johnson bails out a difficult possession as he drains the clutch turnaround jumpshot over Bridges:
Johnson is present in the Hawks’ defensive sequence that follows, and between himself and Onyeka Okongwu they do a good job forcing a difficult pass by Knueppel in traffic to Moussa Diabate, with Alexander-Walker in close proximity to put pressure on the attempted catch, as the ball trickles out of bounds:
The Hawks ensure to make a quick reply as Alexander-Walker gets his head down on the drive, getting into the chest of Sion James to score at the rim after carving an opening:
This was the last made field goal of the game, by either side, and the Hawks — while missing some shots offensively — locked in on the defensive end to produce consecutive stops.
The first comes courtesy of Daniels, who contains the Sexton drive and contests the shot, only for the loose ball to be contested by Alexander-Walker and Diabate for the jump-ball:
Unsurprisingly, Diabate wins the tip but Krejci does a great job containing Bridges and his physicality, and forces a tough, turnaround shot as the clock winds down:
Krejci had a bit more of a difficult time keeping Knueppel in front of him, and after a late rotation from Okongwu to make life difficult at the rim the shot is missed, with Daniels, Okongwu and Krejci all scrambling for the rebound:
Sexton and Krejci get tied up for the jump ball, with Krejci winning the tip and Okongwu saving the possession to return the ball to the hosts:
This was a hugely important pay not just from Krejci, but a great save by Okongwu to save possession and essentially force the Hornets to have to play the fouling game. Alexander-Walker made life perhaps a little more stressful than need by by splitting two trips to the line, but not before he produces a potentially game-saving strip at the rim:
“We know what kind of defender he is,” said Hawks head coach Quin Snyder of this Alexander-Walker play. “When you have guys who have that ability, there’s times in the game where they raise their level: that’s what I saw.
A fantastic defensive highlight, but one that is short-lived as his second split pair of free throws in the clutch gives the Hornets one final chance to tie the game at the buzzer. As he often is, Daniels is in place to offer strong perimeter defense — combined with a poor shot from Bridges — which fails to draw iron, and the Hawks secure the victory:
Another successful sweep of the back-to-back for the Hawks, who did not want to use fatigue as an excuse in this game, especially as the Hornets were also on the second night of a back-to-back.
“Those games are tough ones, both coming off of back-to-backs“ said Dyson Daniels postgame. ”They came in and fought hard, we strung stops together. Shoutout Nickeil getting a strip at the end. It’s what we pride ourselves on is our defense, get stops, get out running and that’s how we want to play. Whenever we do that, we’re going to be alright on the offensive end.“
“Being in the present moment,” added Alexander-Walker of how to fight off fatigue in a back-to-back situation. “They were on a back-to-back so I think it took away the excuse we had … trust me, we felt it, I felt it all game.
Jalen Johnson believed it was more a case of ‘mind over matter.’
“It’s all just mental at the end of the day,” said Johnson. “They’re coming off a back-to-back too, not to make excuses, or we can find a way to scrounge out those type of wins, dig deep. It was big on our end to not let fatigue play a factor at the end.”
Fatigue certainly didn’t seem to evident in the Hawks’ four 20+ points scorers: Jalen Johnson (28 points), Alexander-Walker (23 points), Dyson Daniels (22 points), and Okongwu (20 points).
Johnson was excellent last night, truly the leader of this team behind an efficient 28 points (11-of-22 from the field), eight rebounds, and perhaps the most impressive stat of the night from Johnson: 11 assists with zero turnovers. Point-Jalen was finding his teammates all night long, picking his own spots and his teammates spots with patience and control all night long.
“His decision-making is a huge thing for us,” said Snyder of Johnson. “He’s really taken pride in that. That, and defending are two areas of the game where he’s watching a lot of tape. Usually, he’s so dynamic in transition and some of the turnovers for him are careless passes which he’s tightened up on. In the half-court, being in situations where he’s poised in the lane, he’s patient, and he really is able to read the defense.”
From finding the baseline cutter in Zaccharie Risacher with the bounce pass:
To getting into the Hornets’ defense and spraying out to the perimeter, finding Okongwu for a corner three:
In transition, Johnson finds Okongwu for an alley-oop, contributing to two of the Hawks’ 17 fastbreak points on the game:
As a side-note, impressively, the Hornets scored zero fastbreak points last night — a huge credit to the Hawks’ defense getting back down the floor off of their misses.
Continuing with Johnson’s playmaking, Johnson combined on a number of occasions with Daniels, and these plays were fun to watch as they combined for similar plays. On the drive from the wing, Johnson finds Daniels — who sets a screen for Johnson prior to receiving the ball — who gets into his floater:
Next, Daniels tries to get inside the paint but is cut-off by Mason Plumlee, and passes the ball back out to Johnson. Johnson drives and Daniels runs this beautiful faux-screen/spin into the open pocket where Daniels gets into his floater:
Johnson and Daniels also found themselves working into some three-point opportunities such as this one, where Daniels sets the screen on the drive for Johnson, while Daniels fades to the three-point line as the defense leaves him open on the perimeter to swarm Johnson:
While Daniels made this three, the Hornets allowed this play to happen on a number of occasions, with Daniels shooting 1-of-4 from three.
Daniels was asked about these opportunities postgame, and described how the Hawks can work such scenarios to their advantage, and outlining the need to continue to work on his three-pointers.
“It’s about mixing it up,” said Daniels. “If they’re dropping, I’m going to keep taking shots and I made one, the last three didn’t drop so it’s about getting into the paint and creating for myself, creating for others. If they’re going to be that far off me we can use that to our advantage. We can be setting screens and getting guys like ‘JJ’ downhill on open play in the pocket, use my floater. There’s a lot of ways to work around that when they’re dropped off like that, it’s just about exploiting that matchup. For me, it’s about getting in the gym and becoming more comfortable shooting those threes so they do have to respect me more out there. I also have got to take them with confidence and knock them down.”
Daniels is beginning to attempt more threes now compared to the start of the season. In his last two games he’s attempted eight total threes, but only shooting 1-of-8 of those opportunities.
“Sometimes teams want to bait you into an early shot,” said Snyder of Daniels postgame. “…You’ve got to stay aggressive, whether it’s taking your shot or driving to the basket. I thought he made really good decisions in there, too. When it’s crowded in there, sometimes it’s the threat of him passing out which creates the shot…”
Outside of those threes, Daniels enjoyed a great game: 22 points on 10-of-17 from the field, nine rebounds, six assists and two steals. Daniels’ floater was excellent last night, combining with Johnson on a number of possessions.
Alexander-Walker, meanwhile, had a slow start to the game but found his rhythm to finish with 22 points on 8-of-17 from the field, 3-of-7 from three, and 4-of-6 from the free throw line.
Defensively, Alexander-Walker’s contribution late on was huge in the context of this victory, something that Alexander-Walker takes pride in and described how he sees plays such as the strip on Knueppel.
“I try to pride myself on being a defender in this league and understanding where my minutes were going to come from,” said Alexander-Walker. “It’s just instinctual, one-on-one, playing defense understanding guys on the gather, on pick-ups and ball placement. Sometimes you kind of bait into it with body placement, forcing him, cutting him off on one side. Once you do that, there’s only so many alternatives to a counter. Once he gets into that counter you try to know ‘OK, this is the motion.’ More times than not, doing it offensively you’re going to know ‘I’m can either to scoop here or try go quick.‘ I knew the time, and the feel in the moment, to time it.”
With Kristaps Porzingis resting on the second night of a back-to-back, Okongwu got the nod again at center and he delivered, as he often does, scoring 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting. He took a lot of threes this game, shooting 2-of-7 from distance, but came up with some big plays throughout the night, and a big play to save the possession after the late jump ball.
Those four, Johnson, Daniels, Alexander-Walker, and Okongwu have consistently performed and contributed in their own way as Trae Young, and others during this stretch, have missed time.
With the bench not quite having a huge impact scoring, their production was essential on the night. Keaton Wallace was solid off the bench with 10 points, but Krejci struggled to get involved scoring the ball, and Risacher — while starting strong — seemed to float through this game, scoring just five points in 21 minutes.
As a team, the Hawks took great care of the ball, registering 32 assists for just seven turnovers. Similarly, the Hawks punished the Hornets for their turnovers, scoring 23 points off of the Hornets’ 15 turnovers. For the second night of a back-to-back, the Hawks played well and executed well down the stretch to overturn, albeit, a small Hornets lead — less so with their offense but sealing the game with their defense once they took the lead. This was a victory that was secured with the Hawks’ defense, which is always an encouraging outcome for the Hawks when they’re able to seal games like this.
The Hawks (11-7) will now travel to Washington to take on the 1-15 Washington Wizards. While that may seem like a good thing, there are lingering memories from last year where the Hawks lost two straight games to the Wizards, which were both awful losses but more demonstrated that, despite the record, upsets of this nature can happen in the NBA if the Hawks underestimate their opponent.
They will be, of course, heavy favorites to win and should see a comfortable victory, but last season serves as a solid cautionary tale!
Until next time!
