The Atlanta Hawks suffered a seventh consecutive loss as they fell to a 140-129 defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night at Paycom Arena. Without Trae Young and Jalen Johnson, the Hawks were led by Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s 30 points, while Onyeka Okongwu added 26 points and 14 rebounds. For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 39 points, while Chet Holmgren added 24 points.
Heading into this contest, without Young and Johnson — the team’s two leading assist-makers and two primary
scorers — there wasn’t a ton of optimism or hope for the Hawks heading on the road, having lost six straight games, to face the NBA’s defending champions.
Alexander-Walker stepped into the starting lineup alongside Vit Krejci, who the Hawks focused on creating three-point opportunities early in the first quarter (attempting five of his 10 threes in the first quarter). While Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in the first, he was all but matched by Okongwu’s 14 points, shooting 5-of-7 from the field and 2-of-3 from three in the opening frame as the Hawks kept pace with the Thunder. The Hawks bookended a strong first quarter with this incredible shot made by Alexander-Walker: a left-handed, half-court, contested heave:
Genuinely, one of the better shots you’ll see this season anywhere: off hand, contested, pushed up against the sideline, and obviously the distance. A great way to end a great quarter for the Hawks.
Heading into the game, realistically, the Hawks were extremely unlikely to win this game, but as it unfolded Atlanta found a recipe that worked in this game, providing them a chance to run with the Thunder: three-point shooting. After hitting seven threes in the first quarter, the Hawks hit another seven in the second quarter as they just committed to shooting over 50 threes in this game (reported by FanDuel Sports’ Mat Winer on the sideline during the game) and see what that takes them.
Well, it took the Hawks to a 10-point lead in the second quarter against all the odds, and it was done by committee. Keaton Wallace and Krejci both hit three threes, while Zaccharie Risacher, Okongwu, and Luke Kennard all hit two threes each in the first half.
The Thunder, however, recovered from this setback, and a 12-2 run soon tied the game again. Jalen Williams and Holmgren began to make their impact known in the second quarter; the Hawks struggling to contain Williams’ drives, such as this drive on Mo Gueye (plus the foul):
Defended by Alexander-Walker this time, Williams still manages to drive straight to the rim and his size helps finish over his defender:
Simultaneously, Holmgren’s superior size began to show, as he battles Alexander-Walker for position, and off the miss from Williams, Holmgren is able to collect the offensive rebound and score the putback:
On the pick-and-roll, Okongwu — Holmgren’s defender — has to show, and this allows Holmgren to roll to the rim, and with this lineup on the floor for the Hawks there’s just no one who’s going to able to prevent Holmgren from scoring on the alley-oop, so long as it’s well delivered, and Ajay Mitchell finds Holmgren:
After a missed three from Cason Wallace, Holmgren wrestles with Risacher and wins the offensive rebound, falls to the floor, gets up, and hits the flip shot:
Another buzzer-beater — courtesy of Dyson Daniels this time — gave the Hawks a 74-70 lead heading into halftime in a high-scoring affair. However, the Thunder came out of the locker-room with more intent, a small scoring burst for Lu Dort, offensive rebounding from Holmgren, and some made shots by Wallace, Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander quickly put the Thunder up 98-83. It was perhaps the most telling run of the night, highlighting the gulf between the two teams and what would actually happen in this game if the Hawks’ three-point shooting dried up for a stretch, as it did to begin the third quarter.
“We knew they had the capability, and that’s something they’ve done consistently is raise their level in the third quarter,” said Hawks head coach Quin Snyder of the third quarter. “We got stagnant. During that stretch we weren’t getting good shots, and we turned the ball over, all of a sudden, the lead bumped. By the same token, we found it again and sometimes that’s even harder to do. There were a lot of things in this game our guys can take forward. Some of the mistakes we made are things we can control; we helped from the strong side a couple of times late, which ended up in threes. Getting back in transition, we weren’t shifted quite as much to prevent some of those drives … those are some things we can do better.”
The Hawks found their feet again offensively, hitting another five threes in the third and dug in to reduce the Thunder’s lead back down to three points with 1:12 remaining in the third, before a three from Alex Caruso and four points for Gilgeous-Alexander in the final minute pushed the hosts’ lead back out to 10 to begin the fourth quarter. Three threes to open the fourth quarter kept the Hawks within touching distance of the Thunder, and another three from Risacher cut the lead to four points, 129-125, with 4:07 remaining, and an OKC timeout.
It was after this timeout that the Thunder delivered the hammer blow that would pull the hosts away from the determined Hawks for good. It begins with a made three from Caruso in the corner off the find from Gilgeous-Alexander:
A difficult one here for the Hawks as Risacher ends up in a bad spot, switched onto Gilgeous-Alexander. Daniels edges over, likely in an attempt to cover off the probable turnaround free throw line jumper by Shai. Caruso plays this well; waiting for the head turn by Daniels before relocating to the corner, and by the time Daniels turns his head again it’s already too late, and Shae finds Caruso who hits the three despite the Daniels contest.
A made three by Alexander-Walker resets the lead to four, but the Thunder quickly push it back to seven as the drive from Gilgeous-Alexander draws both Daniels and Okongwu, before Gilgeous-Alexander kicks it out to Williams, who drives it before kicking it back out to Holmgren who hits the three:
I don’t think the Hawks really do anything wrong here. Daniels is wrong-footed by Shae (which happens to a lot of people, no shame in that as a defender), Okongwu probably doesn’t expect Daniels to recover as well as he does and I don’t think Okongwu can be faulted for going with the drive. Alexander-Walker does well here to play the passing lane to what would be an open Wallace in the corner, defends the Williams drive as well as he can given how he has to position himself in the event Williams does swing it to Wallace. This forces Okongwu to delay closing out to Holmgren in case Williams pulls up, and even then Okongwu gets a decent contest on the much taller Holmgren. Elsewhere, Daniels does well to position himself back to Wallace, Krejci has Gilgeous-Alexander covered inside, Risacher sticks to Caruso in that corner — I think the Hawks defend this well despite the made three.
The Hawks get a good look in response, as the two-man game of Alexander-Walker and Okongwu draws three to the ball. Meanwhile, Risacher fans out to open space as Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t follow, as Okongwu delivers the ball to Risacher who misses the three:
Personally, I support those threes from Risacher; the threes where he keeps the ball high on the catch and releases straightaway. If he brings it down and back up, Wallace gets a much better contest and the result is arguably the same. But this way, it creates a more open look for Risacher, and while it’s unfortunate he misses, it’s a good shot for him and the Hawks.
A miss from the Thunder, a split pair of free throws from Alexander-Walker, followed by another pair of misses from OKC after the offensive rebound, and the Hawks have a chance to reduce the lead. Okongwu finds himself with a great matchup against Wallace in the paint, and when Okongwu fakes to let Holmgren fly by he seems to have an easy shot inside. However, Wallace gets his hand on the ball and is credited for the block as the ball flies high and into the hands of the Thunder:
At the end of that play, Krejci skies to fight for the rebound with Caruso and hits the deck, and this has a big impact on the following play as Wallace is open in the corner. The ball is swung to Wallace and as he rises, Krejci rushes into frame but can’t deter the shot and Wallace hits the three:
With the game getting close to getting beyond reach for the Hawks, Okongwu is judged to commit the offensive foul on Holmgren as he hands off to Kennard in the corner:
A bit of embellishment perhaps from Holmgren sells it, but watching this live you got the sense immediately how this was going to be called as Okongwu moves into Holmgren’s path.
A miss from Gilgeous-Alexander — who was surprisingly poor making shots in the clutch here — hands the Hawks a reprieve but it’s immediately dashed as Kennard’s pass in picked off by Caruso, who offloads it to Holmgren, whose size is unmatched in the lane as he takes off for the dunk for the game’s final basket, and to put the Hawks out of reach for good:
While the result is another loss — and now a seventh straight loss — the Hawks, similar to their last game against the Knicks, found themselves discussing another moral victory, with Snyder praising the effort of his shorthanded group against the defending champions.
“I say there’s no such thing as moral victories,” began Snyder postgame. “But with the guys that we had out, for this group to compete on the level that they did against the reigning world champions, to be down four with four minutes to play, particularly after the third quarter. We talked about how they’re really good in the third quarter, and they were, but we were resilient during that stretch. This is one of those moments regardless of the score that you feel really proud to coach a team. Right down the line, the effort we had, the competitiveness, the unselfishness; to me, those are the things that I want to see on the court, no matter what it turns out to on the score. Over time, that’s what wins.”
I don’t think it’s ideal to be, for essentially the second game in a row, preaching moral victories in the midst of a seven-game losing streak and the season unravelling somewhat, but in this case it’s more justifiable than the New York game. In the absence of Young and Johnson, the Hawks still reached 129 points, they went beyond their NBA-leading average of 31 assists with 32 on the night, they hit 25 three-pointers, they limited the Thunder to 10 offensive rebounds (helped in part by the absence of Isaiah Hartenstein) — there honestly isn’t a ton more you could have asked of the Hawks in this spot against this level of competition. On the assists front, it really was playmaking by committee: seven assists from Daniels, six from Okongwu, and five apiece from Kennard and Alexander-Walker contributed all game long.
Alexander-Walker was excellent in the second half, scoring 20 of his 30 points, shooting 11-of-24 from the field and 6-of-14 from three for the night. Alexander-Walker balanced his ability to drive and finish at the rim with his outside shooting and was key to the Hawks’ opening in the fourth quarter with two three-pointers.
Okongwu, similarly, played a very good game: 26 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, 8-of-16 from the field, 3-of-6 from three, and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. A difficult matchup for Okongwu, but at the moment every matchup is a difficult matchup on paper for Okongwu, who is asked with, essentially, playing four/five inches taller than his size — and in the context of a Holmgren matchup, even more than that. But Okongwu has been great in these last two games, and there isn’t really more you can ask of him: he’s grabbing rebounds, he’s been making plays (another six assists last night), and he’s been hitting outside shots.
With Young and Johnson out, there was an opportunity for extended minutes across the roster. Krejci started and played 4 minutes, scoring 18 points and shooting 4-of-10 from three. Krejci played well, but I worry the Hawks are trying to force some three-point looks for him that aren’t always open. Luke Kennard got a far extended run, playing 30 minutes last night and scoring 12 points, shooting 4-of-8 from the field and 3-of-6 from three.
It was good to see Kennard get actual minutes and, finally, some good looks at three. Kennard is often quickly closed down and has had limited opportunities shooting the ball (and getting onto the court), so it was a good game for Kennard to showcase his skillset, not just shooting the ball but five assists as well. Keaton Wallace was productive in the first half hitting three three-pointers, and Mo Gueye had some good defensive moments at times in his 10 minutes.
Asa Newell got an extended run of 20 minutes, scoring nine points on 3-of-8 shooting. Of course, in the midst of all these extended minutes across the roster, Risacher can still only log just over 20 minutes, playing 22 last night, scoring 12 points on 4-of-9 from the field and 4-of-8 from three — I’ve given up trying to figure out Snyder’s minutes distribution for Risacher at this stage; how does he maintain his average 20-ish minutes on a night like last night? A mystery. Elsewhere, I thought it was interesting that the entire bench unit was positive in plus/minus, while every starter — other than Alexander-Walker (minus+2) — was, at best, at least minus+17.
The story of the game was the three-point shooting, the Hawks shooting 25-of-54 from three (46.4%), outscoring the Thunder 75-36 from beyond the arc. It was a planned strategy from the beginning.
“We wanted to shoot 50 threes,” said Snyder. “They’re so good defensively. During that stretch where we struggled, we didn’t have our eyes out and we tried to challenge Holmgren and those guys at the rim. That’s just a lower percentage play. We got through that, the ball changed sides and we were able to drive again, and then we did have our eyes out. That’s what generates our threes, that, and running.”
Alexander-Walker led with six threes, but beyond that it was three by committee: Krejci and Risacher hit four threes, Okongwu, Kennard, and Wallace all hit three threes, and Newell hit two threes. The only player who didn’t hit a three who attempted one was Daniels, who was 0-of-1 from distance and, again, his one attempt didn’t look good.
I initially believed that Daniels’ struggles shooting the three early in the season could be attributed to a hand injury of some sort, but all of a sudden, it’s nearly halfway through the season and he’s shooting 12.7% from three on 1.7 attempts per game after shooting 34% on 3.1 attempts last season. It’s really bad, and the seems to be no explanation as to what has caused this struggle from three to persist this far into the season. Other than that, Daniels had a good game (13 points, six rebounds, seven assists) but the three-point dropoff is just mystifying.
From the Thunder’s perspective, Gilgeous-Alexander was excellent, scoring 39 points on an efficient 15-of-24 from the field, but was off shooting the ball in the clutch, which might have been interesting for the Hawks on another night perhaps. The Thunder essentially offset the three-point differential (75-36) with their paint points differential (70-36), to go with 16 second chance points, and 23 fastbreak points, shooting 54% from the field.
It was always going to be difficult for the Hawks to slow the Thunder down; the only chance they stood was to try outscore them, and they almost achieved it. It was a valiant effort given the circumstances, but the losing streak now sits at seven and the road ahead isn’t easy. The Hawks (15-19) are back in action on Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves (21-12) on the road.
…Until next time!
