The Atlanta Hawks’ three-game winning streak was snapped by a 141-116 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers (who broke their own three-game losing streak) on Tuesday night. Nickeil Alexander-Walker led the Hawks with 26 points and CJ McCollum scored 25 points. For the Lakers, LeBron James scored 31 points, while Luka Doncic added 27 points.
With the Lakers on the second night of a back-to-back, the Hawks were initially favored heading into the contest…until LeBron James was confirmed to be playing on the second night of a back-to-back for
the first time this season. The Hawks were also dealing with a few absences themselves, including Kristaps Porzingis (left Achilles tendinitis), Zaccharie Risacher (left knee, bone contusion), and Luke Kennard (neck strain).
Nevertheless, while a strong start from Alexander-Walker kept the Hawks in step with the Lakers in the opening phase of the game, it didn’t take the Lakers long to establish a double-digit lead and a seven-point advantage to end the first quarter.
What followed in the second quarter would put the Lakers in a commanding position, one from which they never saw the lead dip below double-digits. The Lakers would outscore the Hawks 44-30 in the second quarter — including a 17-0 run — to take a-21 point lead into the half, shooting 70% in the quarter.
As it was the quarter that shaped the rest of the game, let’s take a look at how the Lakers shot up to 44 points. Part of it has more to do with Doncic than the Hawks — Doncic was on fire in the second quarter, and some of the three-pointers he hit were insane, hitting three in the second quarter alone.
With Alexander-Walker in his space, Doncic pulls up over him and drains the three:
There’s no defense for this; what more can Alexander-Walker do in this scenario? It’s just a tough make from Doncic.
In transition, the Hawks get sucked into the paint, and towards Gabe Vincent in the corner, and lose track of Doncic on the perimeter. Vincent finds Doncic, who hits the deep three:
It’s a deep three from Doncic, but it’s poor defense to lose track of him in transition.
Doncic’s ability to make difficult shots is incredible to watch at times, and on this possession his hot streak continues as he hits the three over Dyson Daniels:
Doncic does a great job taking advantage of Daniels having to step around Jalen Johnson’s leg. It buys him the space he needs to pull up and he takes advantage immediately. Doncic finished the second quarter with 14 points, fueled by these three-pointers and the Lakers’ 17-0 run — he was instrumental behind the run, and the majority of these shots were tough shots and he deserves the credit for that.
Jake LaRavia scored 10 points in the second quarter, hitting two three-pointers. The first one comes from the Hawks trying to double Doncic in the corner, who is able to squeeze through the double and find LaRavia for three:
Doncic shouldn’t be able to lean in and split the double team like this; that was too easy. While it’s ultimately on both Asa Newell and Alexander-Walker for allowing it to happen between them, Newell should probably be the one to close the space, with the baseline preventing Doncic from driving around Newell on that side.
LaRavia would make a tough fadeaway three in the corner at the end of the shotclock after the drive from James:
James himself had a couple of layups where he was able to steam into the paint and finish at the rim, this play being one of them:
While the Hawks are slow back in transition here, once James gets a head of steam there is no chance for anyone to stop him.
The Lakers’ size advantage played into their hands throughout the game, but plays like this — a breakdown from almost almost everyone involved — allows Deandre Ayton to easily score at the rim:
Onyeka Okongwu has to switch here because Daniels gets stuck on Ayton’s (possibly illegal) screen, Daniels then just leaves Ayton to return to Doncic who is already guarded by Okongwu now (for reasons I can only presume involve Daniels expecting the rotation behind him).
The rotation won’t come from McCollum, who has stepped up and away from his man in the corner to come up to Doncic, and Alexander-Walker ends up on the back foot and Ayton gets to the spot, Alexander-Walker swipes and misses, and Ayton finishes at the rim.
While the Hawks scored 30 points themselves and shot 44% from the field in the second quarter (not amazing, but not bad either), they were not helped by one of the worst offensive games from Jalen Johnson of the season. Johnson’s outside shot was not falling, and he tried to get going inside the arc but couldn’t find the touch at the rim.
Johnson was 0-of-5 in the second quarter and was a minus+20 in the quarter — an absolutely fair reflection of his quarter — and for the game itself scored 13 points on 5-of-17 from the field and 1-of-7 from three.
The second quarter misses weren’t great, starting with this contested three in the corner with Doncic in his face:
On the drive, Johnson drives into a crowd and is contested at the rim and his guided layup attempt is off, lifting it too far:
Johnson isn’t helped by Newell here, bringing another defender into the mix at the rim — one of those rookie things when it comes to positioning/spacing.
From the corner this time, Johnson drives, and steps through to beat two defenders but can’t guide his reverse layup home:
On the perimeter drive, while Johnson disposes of Jared Vanderbilt with ease, he pulls up in traffic with Ayton to his right, Doncic to his left, and Doncic emphatically swats Johnson’s shot out of bounds:
Those were the second quarter misses — pretty rough showing from Johnson in the quarter, not to mention defensively it’s just saddening, knowing Johnson’s capability on that end in previous seasons and you have plays like this occurring more frequently:
Johnson didn’t fare much better for the rest of the game; he tried, he continued to try to get to the rim and finish but to no avail. Not on this attempt on Ayton (on which he skies so high and hangs, but misses badly on his way down):
Nor this open attempt inside, where Johnson just leaves it short, summing his night as a whole:
The Lakers scored 81 first half points on 60% shooting and 60% from three (including 12 made three-pointers). A disastrous second quarter, and one which gave the Lakers a comfortable platform to build on in the second half.
The hosts would go on to build a 32 point lead not long into the third quarter after a 12-0 run, but began to take their foot off the gas and were sloppy on the ball. The Hawks took advantage, and a 13-0 run saw them reduce the gap below 20 points — not the makings of a comeback just yet, but a start in the right direction. Mo Gueye had a good stretch at this time, and would procure three steals in the third quarter alone (racking up five for the game itself).
The fourth quarter began with the Hawks trailing by 16, and, to their credit, brought the gap down to 11 points with 9:07 to go. Having cut the lead by 21 points in less than 12 minutes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Hawks may just have a chance to make things interesting, and bring the game to single digits.
However, 11 was as close as the game got. Threes from James and Marcus Smart — sandwiched by a missed Corey Kispert three and a missed dunk from Gueye — quickly restored a 17 point lead for the Lakers, averting any danger of a single-digit contest. Behind James’ 12 fourth quarter points, the Lakers would stretch their lead beyond 20 points, and the Hawks eventually waved the white flag and cleared the bench with 3:45 remaining.
Postgame, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder believed the Lakers were simply more physical than the Hawks were on the game (something he reinforced multiple times across his postgame press conference), and believed the Hawks were not consistent enough across the game to take anything away from the game.
“They were the more aggressive team, they were more physical,” said Snyder postgame. “A lot of the things we knew we needed to do with respect to the game-plan — we put them on the foul line, they attacked us in transition — we just didn’t have the urgency during some significant stretches of the game. When we found it, I was happy with the way we battled back and did cut it. If you don’t have that level of consistency against a team that was clearly focused and determined. It’s hard to sustain that; you’re not just going to go on a 40-point run. We’re battling back, we miss a dunk, we miss a three, and they answer and make a couple of shots. They’re going to make runs too. We saw stretches where we executed — not necessarily offensively with respect to plays but executed defensively. We ran, spaced, all the things our group has done and know what they need to do. We just didn’t do it on a consistent enough basis to have success.”
“They were very aggressive with us, they were the more physical team,” added Snyder in a later answer. “That’s something we’ve been doing pretty well but we didn’t have that consistently over the course of the game.”
“We weren’t able to get into the paint as much as we wanted,” said Dyson Daniels of the Lakers’ physicality.
The Lakers certainly played with a greater sense of urgency, and that was really evident in how they moved and shifted defensively — they made life difficult for Atlanta to drive, they closed driving lanes when they did drive.
Coming off of a loss in Sacramento on Monday — their third in a row — would have driven this sense of urgency to respond, but it’s also worth mentioning the reverse fixture in Atlanta from early November. Lakers head coach JJ Redick was extremely unhappy with the Lakers’ effort in that game (a 20 point loss) — this game was a complete contrast of that game from an effort point of view.
On the second night of a back-to-back, they were excellent, and recovered well from their wobble in the third quarter after feeling (and discussing postgame) the effects of being on that second night of a back-to-back. The Lakers just wanted it more, and that was reflected in almost every facet of the game.
From the Hawks’ perspective, they received good contributions from a couple of different spots. Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 from three, while CJ McCollum scored 25 points on 11-of-23 shooting. McCollum was able to provide the Hawks with timely offense, and the ability to go create a shot, which was needed at times as the Lakers’ defense clamped down.
“It’s good to see the ball go in,” said McCollum postgame. “I work really hard on my craft, so when I miss threes — especially open shots — it’s frustrating. It’s a long season, still adjusting, mentally and physically, to the changes and getting used to everything. I’m getting better each night.”
Meanwhile, the other player involved in the trade, Corey Kispert, also enjoyed a much stronger second game, scoring 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 from three. Kispert also did a good job attacking the rim and getting to the free throw line, where he shot 4-of-6. Both McCollum and Kispert played much better games than their debuts, having had more time to understand Snyder’s system. However, some of the Hawks’ regular contributors did not enjoy strong games to support the likes of Alexander-Walker and McCollum.
We’ve discussed Jalen Johnson already, so no need to beat on that drum any further. He’s been great this season but last night may have been one of his worst games of the season. Onyeka Okongwu, similarly, had a very tough game: seven points on 3-of-8 shooting and 0-of-3 from three. As kind as the Golden State matchup was for Okongwu, this Lakers matchup — especially with LeBron in the mix — is a very tough one for him. Ayton’s size is obviously difficult to contain (he had a few catches deep in the paint), and James’ athleticism is so difficult to stop, not to mention any switch he has to make with Doncic, or to cover for someone else being beaten by Doncic. Okongwu just struggled to make an impact on either side of the ball, particularly offensively.
Vit Krejci, meanwhile, is starting to return to Earth shooting the three (1-of-7 in this game) — he’s down to 43% for the season and is shooting 31% on five attempts in January so far (seven games), and shooting 35% from the floor in the same stretch.
The three-point shooting was poor: 13-of-46 overall (28%) for the Hawks, with Johnson, Krejci, and McCollum combining for 4-of-22 from distance. The Lakers, conversely, shot 19-of-34 from three (56%), led by Doncic’s five threes. It’s a shame for the Hawks, who I think wasted a really strong game taking care of the ball: just six turnovers, tied for their best outing of the season in that regard.
The Lakers were just far superior in transition, scoring 23 fastbreak points, and with Atlanta missing 55 shots (45-of-100 from the field) — along with a running LeBron James — that’s going to make transition defense even more important, and the Lakers took advantage of those misses.
It’s hard to argue with the overall result: the Lakers played harder, and were much better on the night. Yes, there were struggles for Johnson and Okongwu, but there doesn’t have to be a lot more read into it than that. The Hawks are still missing some players and integrating new ones in important roles, more so in McCollum’s case, and he had a decent game (even if he took a lot of shots to get there).
The Hawks (20-22) still have a chance to emerge a very positive 3-1 on this road-trip as they take on the Portland Trail Blazers (19-22) at the Moda Center on Thursday night.
Until next time!
