The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Indiana Pacers in their first game of the NBA Cup on Friday night, bringing their regular season record to an even 3-3 as the calendar flips to November.
Jalen Johnson led
the way for Atlanta with 22 points (9-for-16 shooting, 0-for-3 from three), 13 rebounds, and eight assists. Nickeil Alexander-Walker chipped in 21 points (8-for-14 shooting, 1-for-5 from three), three assists and two steals. Dyson Daniels turned in his best game of the season, finishing with 18 points (8-for-13 shooting), nine rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Kristaps Porzingis added 15 points (6-for-12 shooting, 1-for-3 from three) and eight rebounds. Onyeka Okongwu finished with 14 points (5-for-8 shooting, 2-for-4 from three), nine rebounds and two assists. Pascal Siakam led the Pacers in scoring with 18 points (5-for-15 shooting, 2-for-6 from three).
The Hawks were without Trae Young for this one – who underwent an MRI yesterday for the knee injury he suffered against Brooklyn. Meanwhile Indiana were down more than a few key players, with Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, Johnny Furphy, Andrew Nembhard, Kam Jones and TJ McConnell all joining Tyrese Haliburton on the injury report.
For the second consecutive game the Hawks found themselves in a 12-point hole early on*, allowing Indiana to race out to an 18-6 lead within the first five minutes. Looking to his bench for reinforcements, Quin Snyder inserted Mo Gueye, Onyeka Okongwu and Luke Kennard for the rest of the quarter, and the substitutes certainly did their part in helping Atlanta get back on track. The Hawks closed the quarter on a 26-11 run, walling off the rim on defense and catching fire on offense. Atlanta hit four threes during this stretch, courtesy of Okongwu (2), Alexander-Walker (1) and Keaton Wallace (1)**.
*They also went down 12-0 in the first three minutes of Wednesday’s game against Brooklyn
**Who dished out six assists in 8 first-half minutes. I see you Keaton.
The two sides essentially played each other even in the second quarter and the Hawks took a 63-59 lead into the halftime break.
While Atlanta shot the ball much better than Indiana did in the first half (62% true shooting vs. 50% true shooting for Indiana), one problem area for them was the offensive glass. Indiana nabbed 12 offensive rebounds (43% offensive rebounding percentage!) in the first two quarters, which they turned into 10 second-chance points. The Hawks also struggled to stay disciplined on defense and had a hard time keeping Indiana off the free throw line, gifting the Pacers 23 first half free throw attempts (they shot 16-for-23) which helped keep them in the game.
Both of these areas were a clear point of emphasis for Atlanta coming out of halftime, as they allowed Indiana just one offensive rebound and four free throw attempts in the third quarter – which Atlanta won 34-17, to put the game out of reach.
Said Quin Snyder after the game:
“The first half was good apart from the first few minutes, but we didn’t defensive rebound, we couldn’t close possessions. Then in the second half we started getting stops and then securing the ball and I think that’s why we had a big third quarter and opened up the game.”
The defining stretch of this game came in the first six minutes of the second half, where Atlanta went on a 22-5 run to blow the game open. Let’s take a look at a few key plays from this third quarter run.
After a Porzingis putback to open the scoring, the Hawks push the pace off of a Nesmith miss and find the big man again for an early shot clock post score over Isaiah Jackson. Opportunities like this in transition have been rare for Porzingis this season (likely due to the pace the Hawks play at), but it was good to see him capitalize here.
On the following defensive possession, Zaccharie Risacher does a good job navigating his way around the off-ball stagger screens from Indiana and forces another miss from Nesmith.
A couple possessions later, the Hawks burn Indiana in transition again, this time off a Siakam miss. Jalen Johnson pulls off a gorgeous bounce pass to unleash Risacher for a slam to put Atlanta up by 10. A little béarnaise on that dunk from Risacher — I like it!
After Siakam and Alexander-Walker trade misses, Porzingis does a good job walling off Jarace Walker’s drive and Atlanta steps on the gas pedal once again as Alexander-Walker finds Risacher in the corner for an early shot clock triple.
After spending most of the first half in the doghouse with foul trouble, Risacher bounced back really nicely in the third quarter, scoring 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting (2-for-3 from distance) while playing solid defense on the other end.
Quin Snyder was complimentary of Risacher after the game, and preached patience and nuance when it comes to evaluating the second-year pro:
“I feel like people evaluate Zacch every game. Someone’s asking he got two points, why didn’t he get ‘x’ points and that’s just not the right way to look at his game – particularly for a 20-year-old. If he were to react to that and start pressing, I think it would be harder for him but he’s unfazed. And you saw what he came out and did in the 3rd quarter which was big for our team. The biggest thing is if he’ll defend, because he can defend multiple guys, that lets him immerse himself in the game and then the offense will come.”
After a RayJ Dennis layup (thanks to a blown switch from Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson), the Hawks go to Porzingis again for an interior score (plus the foul) to extend the lead to 14.
Jarace Walker knocked down a three on Indiana’s next possession, but the Hawks come right back and attack the interior – a major theme from this run. This time it’s Alexander-Walker’s turn to finish from close range (shooting 12-for-17 (71%) at the rim so far this season).
On Indiana’s next possession, Siakam misses a 9-foot turnaround over Risacher (the dig from Daniels here forces Siakam to reroute his path to the basket).
The Hawks come back down and earn free throws off of a Jalen Johnson drive.
After a missed three from Ben Sheppard the Hawks push the pace and attack (any guesses?) the interior, as Nickeil Alexander-Walker throws down a vicious slam over Jarace Walker to put Atlanta up by 17.
More good defense from Atlanta forces an interior miss from Ben Sheppard on the other end – and it’s telling that Indiana shot just 1-for-8 in the paint in the third quarter.
After more free throws by Jalen Johnson and consecutive misses from the Pacers, Mo Gueye caps off the run with a tough bucket over Jay Huff. Timeout Indiana. Hawks lead by 21.
Atlanta didn’t extend the lead over the final five minutes of the quarter but the damage had been done, and the 21-point lead they took into the fourth quarter proved to be unassailable. They kept the Pacers at arms length the rest of the way and when the dust settled, the Hawks claimed a conclusive 128-108 victory.
There was a spot of drama after the final buzzer sounded as Indiana’s coaching staff seemed to take issue with Keaton Wallace looking to score on Atlanta’s final possession of the game.
For me, this is much ado about nothing. First of all, it looked like Wallace was ready to dribble out the clock, however the ball pressure from Mac McClung made it difficult for him to do so after he crossed half-court. Not wanting to add an unnecessary turnover to his final numbers, Wallace opted for a more aggressive face up strategy.
Second, every point matters in the NBA Cup, so in the spirit of competition, Wallace was well within his rights to do his best to score and raise Atlanta’s points total, as this number could be important in a tiebreaker down the line.
Third, Wallace didn’t even shoot the ball so what are we even doing here? For what it’s worth, Quin Snyder was apologetic in his postgame interview, though this incident struck me as unprofessional from Rick Carlisle*.
*To be fair, I’d be grumpy too if I had to give Mac McClung 19:00 of playing time in an NBA basketball game.
In terms of takeaways from this contest, while it was a good performance in their first game of the season without Trae Young, it has to be said that this was a very banged up Pacers side. While Atlanta were only slightly favored entering the contest (-2.5 point favorites), based on the talent disparity between the two teams, a comfortable win should have been expected.
Still, a few things that stood out to me were:
- Mo Gueye continued his reign of terror on the defensive end of the floor, with Atlanta allowing just 0.89 points per possession in his 16:00 of action against Indiana. For the season, the Hawks are allowing 1.02 points per possession with Gueye on the floor – the best mark on the team amongst players who have logged at least 30 total minutes this season.
- Dyson Daniels offensive production will be under the microscope with Trae Young out and it was encouraging to see him looking aggressive on that end last night after a rough start to the season. Daniels finished with 18 points, 6 assists and 1 turnover against Indiana. Entering the game, he had shot just 10-for-32 (31.3%) from two-point range. Against Indiana, he shot 8-for-13 (61.5%) from inside the arc. Hopefully a sign of things to come.
- Atlanta locked in on the defensive glass in the second half, however rebounding still projects to be an issue for this team going forwards. Entering the contest, Atlanta ranked in the bottom-five in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage. They also ranked second to last in second-chance points conceded. I’m curious to see how they go about addressing this problem going forwards.
- While the defensive glass was a problem, this was still a dominant paint performance from Atlanta. The Hawks outscored Indiana 74-38 in points in the paint, and they now rank second in the NBA in paint-points per game. Last night, they took 45% of their field goal attempts at the rim – their highest rim frequency in any game this season.
- Despite Trae Young’s absence, the Hawks did a good job taking care of the ball last night, only turning the ball over 10 times. The Hawks rank second in turnover percentage on the season, and it will be interesting to see if they can sustain this ranking with Young on the sidelines.
All in all, this was a comfortable victory for Atlanta and an encouraging first step as they navigate their next few games (at least) without Trae Young. The Hawks are back in action on Sunday at 6 PM, taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers (3-3) on the road.
Until then!
