The Atlanta Hawks soared to their fourth win in a row on Thursday night, beating the Utah Jazz 132-122 to bring their record to 8-5 on the season.
After turning the ball over twice and missing a free throw
on Atlanta’s first three possessions of the game, Jalen Johnson exploded for the game of his life, going off for a 31 points*, 18 rebounds*, 14 assists*, and seven steals* – becoming the first player in NBA history to reach those statistical benchmarks in a game.
*Career-highs across the board!
With Kristaps Porzingis sitting out on the second night of a back-to-back, Onyeka Okongwu was outstanding as well on a night where the Hawks needed every bit of his effort. He finished with a career-high 32 points along with 11 rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Shooting just 2-for-12 from three in the four games leading up this one, Okongwu shot 8-for-14 last night, setting career-highs in both three-point makes and attempts.
Also of note, Vit Krejci continued his incredible run of form, going 6-for-8 from three-point range en route to another 20-point outing. Over the last three games, Krejci has shot 17-for-23 (74%) from the perimeter*. Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 16 points and five assists. Luke Kennard chipped in with 12 points (four threes).
*Sidebar, what’s everyone’s favorite ‘Vit’s going off’ phrase? ‘Vit going Krejci’ and ‘Heat Czech’ are two strong options, but the suggestion box is open.
Lauri Markkanen has been excellent for Utah to start the season, ranking seventh in the NBA in points per game (29.3). He was a handful for Atlanta’s defense in this one, finishing with 40 points and seven rebounds on 15-for-25 shooting (6-for-12 from three).
The Jazz, who entered the night ranked dead-last in offensive turnover percentage, did themselves no favors in that regard – coughing it up 24 times, directly leading to 34 points for Atlanta. The Hawks’ 18 steals tonight were a season high for them.
Summary
Atlanta shot the lights out in the first half, posting a 145.5 offensive rating, buoyed by a ridiculous 15-for-25 conversion rate from beyond the arc. Their 15 first-half threes tied a franchise-record for three-point makes in a half.
Still, poor transition defense from Atlanta combined with some accurate shooting from the Jazz (65.2% first half True Shooting) kept this one relatively close, and the Hawks led by just 13 at the break despite scoring 80 points in the first 24 minutes. Foul trouble was a worry for Atlanta at halftime, as both Onyeka Okongwu and Dyson Daniels were stuck with three fouls.
The beginning of the third quarter was all Utah, who went on a 16-5 run from the 10:51 to the 7:28 marks of the period to get themselves back in the contest*. After Utah briefly took hold of the lead, the two sides went into the fourth all square at 103.
*Aided by Okongwu picking up his fourth foul with 8:59 left in the quarter. He returned at the 4:02 mark with Atlanta trailing 97-94.
For the Hawks in the third period, turnovers, defensive rebounding and transition defense – familiar shortcomings – were all problem areas. Atlanta turned the ball over five times, leading to 12 Utah points. They allowed Utah to snag four offensive rebounds (off of just 10 missed shots), leading to 6 second chance points. Too often, they failed to stop the Jazz from getting into the paint, making life difficult on the defensive end.
The fourth quarter was competitive, and Keyonte George made it a one-point game with 5:57 left to play.
From there however, Atlanta stepped it up on the defensive side of the ball. The next three Utah possessions resulted in three turnovers, all of which led to points for Atlanta on the other end.
Here Nurkic tries to rifle in a pass to Markkanen, but Dyson Daniels is there for the break up.
On Utah’s next possession, Jalen Johnson is all over this Markkanen skip pass.
Next, Keyonte George gets caught in two minds and pretty much gives the ball to Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Alexander-Walker would go on to knock down both free throws.
This stretch of turnovers proved to be too much to overcome for Utah, and the Hawks would go on to clinch the victory, 132-122.
Here’s some more on last night’s win.
Jalen, Onyeka, take a bow
It’s still setting in for me just how good Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu were last night.
Said head coach Quin Snyder after the game, “Can’t say enough about Jalen and Onyeka. I remember being in Indiana last year and coach Lang was working with him [Okongwu], trying to show him the spots where he was going to get threes. I just have this picture of him taking the shots, working and working and working. Obviously tonight, we needed him and he really came through. Same thing with JJ.”
As I mentioned at the top of the article, Okongwu set career highs in points (32), three-point makes (eight) and three-point attempts (14) last night. Prior to last night, he had never even attempted more than seven threes in a game, just to put into perspective just how much of an outlier this shooting performance was.
Okongwu also did an excellent job defending while dealing with foul trouble in the second half, with Atlanta allowing just 0.90 points per possession (an excellent mark) in his 19 minutes on the floor in the third and fourth quarters.
As for Jalen, well, sometimes the stat line speaks for itself. The 23 year-old set career-highs in points, rebounds, assists and steals and became the first player ever in the history of the NBA to rack up 31 points, 18 rebounds, 14 assists and seven steals in a game. Just absurd stuff.
“He [Jalen] is taking what the defense gives him. There’s been times, for any young player one of the hardest things to do is you’re having a good night scoring and all of a sudden, they start collapsing on you and having the poise to find the open man. That’s something, feeling the game like that, reading the game that’s something that’s tough to do.”
“You can put the team on your back in a lot of ways, sometimes it’s driving in the lane and kicking it out for a three, maybe one of the biggest plays he had all night was in rotation, where he got a steal. So, there’s a lot of things he did tonight that helped us win.”
Johnson’s 31 points came on 10-for-19 shooting, including a season-high four three-point makes. Entering last night’s contest, he was shooting just 27% from the perimeter and averaging less than one three-point make per game. If the three-ball starts to fall consistently, he’s going to become even more of a nightmare for opposing defenses. Johnson is already shooting 79.4% at the rim – the 2nd best mark* amongst the 15 players who have taken at least 60 attempts at the rim.
*Wemby is at 76.1%. Giannis is at 75.5% (on more than double the number of attempts).
“Tonight, one of the best things he [Jalen] did was he didn’t hesitate on his shot, wasn’t thinking about anything. I think that’s a huge thing for him. Just reading what the game is giving him before he gets the ball. He’s capable of doing that and you saw that tonight,” said Snyder.
Another number that stood out for Jalen tonight was his rebounding. Obviously 18 rebounds is a big number, but it’s notable that 16 of these came on the defensive end of the floor. Johnson’s defensive rebounding percentage in this game was 34%* (a season-high for him) – meaning that he grabbed one out of every three Utah misses while he was on the court. Given Atlanta’s defensive rebounding struggles this season, it was nice seeing Johnson take matters into his own hands last night.
Three-Point Downpour
As a team, Atlanta made 24 threes last night, the most threes in a game by any team in the NBA this season. Onyeka Okongwu led the way with eight makes. Vit Krejci knocked down six. Jalen Johnson and Luke Kennard made four apiece. Alexander-Walker and Risacher each hit one.
The majority of these makes came as a result of Atlanta attacking in transition.
Here Jalen Johnson gets into the paint early in the shot-clock, then sprays a pass to the corner for a Risacher three.
Later on in the first, Jalen is in attack mode in transition once again. He finds Vit in the corner, then relocates to the wing, gets it back and drains the catch-and-shoot three.
At the start of the second quarter, Vit goes to work from beyond the arc early in the shot-clock.
In the third, Jalen finds ‘OO’ trailing the play for a three from the top of the key.
Of course, not all of their threes came in transition.
This was a nice action run late in the first quarter, capitalizing on Nurkic’s lack of mobility. Kennard comes around the screen from Okongwu, his man takes too long to get around it, and Kennard drains the triple.
In the fourth, Johnson makes a great play to snag the offensive rebound off the ‘NAW’ free-throw miss. Kennard gets the ball on the kick-out and makes a quick pass over to Okongwu, who cans the three.
Here, the Hawks go after Nurkic again and Okongwu is wide open on the pop for his eighth three of the night.
The Hawks have shot 38% or better from three in each of their past four games, and they rank second in the league in three-point percentage (43.8%) during this four-game win streak (40 three-point attempts per game) – a drastic improvement from their first nine games of the year when they shot just 33.2% from three (32 three-point attempts per game).
While I do believe some of the improvement from beyond the arc comes down to the Hawks naturally growing more comfortable playing at a quicker pace, as well as the uptick in transition opportunities afforded to them by their improved defense since Trae Young’s injury, I don’t think it’s a bold take to suggest that this team probably won’t shoot as well over a 10-15 game span.
Onyeka Okongwu made eight threes last night – more threes than he had ever attempted in a game prior to then. Vit Krejci is shooting 74% from three on 7.7 attempts per game over the last three games. Luke Kennard has been more aggressive. Jalen Johnson’s shot is coming around. What happens when they have an off-night? How much of this is real?
To say it plainly, while they’ve shot the lights out recently, it’s still unclear whether the current iteration of this team is an average, above average, or below average three-point shooting team. We will find out in time.
What’s next?
With last night’s win, the Hawks are now 3-0 on their current Western Conference road trip and they’ll have a chance to sweep the trip against Phoenix on Sunday (8 PM EST) before returning home to face Detroit on Tuesday.
Can they make it five in a row? Let’s hope Johnson, Okongwu, Krejci and co. can keep the momentum rolling.
