The Atlanta Hawks were back in action on Saturday night, taking on the sputtering New Orleans Pelicans (losers of eight straight entering last night’s contest) on the road with an opportunity to not only improve their regular season record, but their draft position as well*.
*Reminder, Atlanta has control over New Orleans 2026 first-round draft pick
The Hawks were without Trae Young (MCL sprain), Keaton Wallace (personal reasons) and Onyeka Okongwu – who sat this one out due to left ankle inflammation.
Dejounte Murray (torn achilles), Jordan Poole (quadricep strain), Zion Williamson (left hamstring strain), Herb Jones (back spasms), and Karlo Matkovic (right calf strain) were all out for New Orleans.
Atlanta shook off some cold first quarter shooting to come away with a comfortable 115-98 victory. Kristaps Porzingis poured in a season-high 29 points on 17 shots, schooling whoever the Pelicans tried guarding him with (though rookie forward Micah Peavy took the brunt of the damage*). Jalen Johnson finished one assist shy of a triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.
Vit Krejci, aka ‘Pistol Vit’, kept up his red-hot shooting streak* – going for 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Dyson Daniels guarded Pelicans first-round pick Derik Queen for the majority of the contest, and finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists against his former team.
*More on Vit below!
Queen finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists for New Orleans. Former Hawk Saddiq Bey added 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
Summary
A sloppy first quarter on both ends of the floor saw Atlanta trailing 25-21 after the first 12 minutes, and New Orleans led by seven early in the second quarter before Jalen Johnson took over.
A three from Jose Alvarado put the Pelicans up 32-25 with 9:21 left in the period, then Johnson scored or assisted on 16 of Atlanta’s next 23 points as part of a 27-8 run over the next eight minutes to put them in the driver’s seat the rest of the way.
Let’s take a closer look at this stretch from Johnson.
After a jumper by Porzingis got the party started, Johnson cans a corner three off the drive and dish from Luke Kennard. Poor defense from New Orleans here as nobody closes out to the corner shooter until it’s too late.
On the next possession, Johnson meets Jordan Hawkins at the rim for a denial, then takes it coast to coast for a two-handed jam*. A quintessential Jalen Johnson play.
*Question: Are we going to see Johnson pull out an in-game free throw line slam at some point? The hangtime on this slam was pretty nuts.
A few possessions later, Atlanta comes up with a stop then Johnson takes it the other way and draws a shooting foul on Queen in transition. He sinks both free throws – giving him nine straight points for the Hawks, getting them back in the ball game.
After a bucket from Queen, both teams trade misses before Johnson completes an outrageous full court pass to Risacher, who (all in one motion) catches it and throws a lob to Porzingis who hammers home the slam to complete the highlight. A lovely play, all started by Johnson’s hit-ahead pass.
Queen turns the ball over on the Pelicans next possession and subsequently commits a transition take-foul. Then, on the next play, Johnson finds ‘KP’ in the corner for a practice three to put the Hawks up six. Nice job from Alexander-Walker to flip the screen, Johnson beats Fears, engages the help defender, then kicks it to Porzingis.
A few plays later, with the margin still at six, Johnson completes another highlight play in transition – this time finding Porzingis himself for an alley-oop.
After a miss from New Orleans, Johnson comes down, gets the switch onto Queen, drawing him out of the paint while Porzingis posts up on rookie guard Jeremiah Fears. Johnson sees this all the way, dumps the ball down to ‘KP’ in the post and Fears can’t do anything but foul the big man, resulting in free throws for Atlanta (New Orleans is in the bonus).
Just a dominant stretch from Johnson and the Hawks – who also locked in defensively over this stretch – to seize control of the game. New Orleans turned the ball over six times in the second quarter directly leading to 14 points for the Hawks.
“It’s big for us,” said Snyder of the team’s defense after the game, “We’re able to run off our defense when we get stops.”
Atlanta led by 10 at the half and had the momentum at the beginning of the third quarter, but couldn’t pull away until Vit Krejci caught fire at the end of the period.
Krejci checked in midway through the third and scored his first points of the night off this pretty feed from Alexander-Walker.
A few possessions later, he benefits off some nice ball movement in the half-court, kicked off by a Dyson Daniels drive. Nailing a three from the opposite wing.
After a turnover from Daniels on Atlanta’s next possession, Vit wastes no time on the following possession, hitting a three from the top of the key just seconds into the shot clock.
Then to close the quarter, Daniels sets up Vit again, who hits his fourth three in a row – then lets the bench know about it* as the buzzer sounds.
*Vit with a little motion is a scary sight for the rest of the league.
Atlanta led by 18 going into the final frame and never let the lead slip below 15 the rest of the way. Vit added three more triples in the fourth, and the Hawks emptied their bench in the final minutes. After some tomfoolery by Derik Queen in the final seconds, Atlanta went home with a 17-point win.
A few observations on last night’s victory.
Frontcourt Dominates
This was Kristaps Porzingis’ highest scoring outing of the season (29 points on 17 shots) and watching back his buckets, looking at who was guarding him, it’s really no surprise he looked so comfortable.
Early in the second, Porzingis (7’2”, 240 pounds) has Micah Peavy (6’7”, 215 pounds) guarding him in the post. He backs him down and powers through him for an easy bucket.
A few plays later, Peavy finds himself in a similar situation, and is powerless to stop ‘KP’ once again.
Early in the third, Atlanta pushes the pace off a Pelicans make. Porzingis is matched up on Trey Murphy III (6’8”, 205 pounds) on the interior and it’s an easy slam for the big man.
In the fourth, the Pelicans leave Peavy on an island against Porzingis (perhaps rookie hazing?), and the result is unsurprising.
The Pelicans present an extreme example given their lack of size, but this is just a taste of what Porzingis – one of the most efficient post scorers in the NBA over the past few seasons – can do when presented with a mismatch. New Orleans had no answers for him last night.
Another player who (as always) deserves praise for their performance was Jalen Johnson. Johnson did most of his scoring in the first half – with 15 of his 18 points coming in the first two quarters – then played the role of a distributor in the second half, racking up six out of his nine assists in the second half.
As a scorer, Johnson shot 2-for-4 from beyond the arc last night and is now shooting 41% from three through his first 14 games of the season (3.2 attempts per game) – a big-time improvement after converting just 32.3% of his threes over his first four seasons in the league. Whether or not he can sustain this efficiency going forwards is to be determined, but one encouraging sign is that he’s raised his free throw percentage to 81% this season after shooting just 71% at the stripe over his first four seasons.
Still, the part of Johnson’s game that popped for me last night was his transition playmaking. All of Johnson’s assists last night resulted in either a dunk or a three, with six of them coming against an un-set defense.
In the first quarter, he drives baseline early in the shot-clock then kicks to Kennard for a corner three. Credit to both Gueye and Kennard for filling their lanes in transition.
In the third, he hits Risacher for an alley-oop on the fastbreak.
In the fourth, the Hawks have a five-on-four advantage and Johnson connects with Porzingis for an easy two.
Johnson’s unselfishness is, in my opinion, his very best quality on the offensive end and while he does need to reign in the turnovers, I’ve really enjoyed watching him come into his own as a playmaker over the past few games (8.9 assists per game over his last seven games).
Turnover Margin a Crucial Difference
While Porzingis and Johnson were certainly catalysts for Atlanta’s win last night, one key difference between the two sides last night was seen in the turnover and points-off-turnovers margin. New Orleans turned the ball over 18 times, directly leading to 25 points for the Hawks. Meanwhile Atlanta turned the ball over just seven times, leading to only nine points for New Orleans. Those numbers are slightly inflated by Derik Queen’s steal and slam at the death too.
While the Pelicans were missing some key players, they actually ranked 12th in defensive turnover rate entering last night’s matchup, making Atlanta’s ball security all the more impressive. Their seven turnovers last night was their second-lowest total in a game this season, and the lowest since Trae Young has been out of the lineup.
“That’s been something that’s really been a point of emphasis, and something we’ve done poorly. It makes it difficult to defend when you turn the ball over, so it was good to see our guys collectively improve in that area,” said Snyder postgame.
On the other end, the Hawks came into the game ranked fourth in defensive turnover rate, and they continued to wreak havoc on that end last night. While the Hawks only came up with six steals and primarily used the defensive glass to spark their transition attacks, they were extremely disruptive, making it hard for the Pelicans to get into a rhythm offensively.
Vit Czech!
How could I sign off without saying a few words about the player who is currently leading the NBA in three-point shooting percentage* at 50% (!) for the season on 5.7 attempts per game. Krejci hit seven threes last night – the third time this season he’s made at least six threes in a game. He is one of six players** to have hit six or more threes on at least three different occasions this season.
*min. 5 attempts per game
**Joining ‘Pistol Vit’ on this list: Miles Bridges, Steph Curry, James Harden, Lauri Markkanen, Tyrese Maxey and Donovan Mitchell.
He is shooting 29-for-48 (60.4%) from three over his last seven outings, something that’s only been accomplished by 11 other players in NBA history (including current teammate Luke Kennard!).
Just absurd stuff from a player whose contract isn’t even guaranteed for next season.
Many of you will remember that Krejci was an extremely timid shooter when he first arrived in Atlanta back in 2022. He first made a name for himself with an absurd razzle-dazzle assist (honestly one of my favorite plays ever), and he was profiled as a pass-first playmaker rather than a play finisher.
The growth we’ve seen from then until now has been absolutely breathtaking. The confidence he’s playing with at the moment is truly a joy to behold.
What’s next?
Quick turnaround for Atlanta, who play the Charlotte Hornets at 6 PM today on their home floor. Both teams are on the second leg of a back-to-back, though Charlotte played at 1 PM yesterday giving them a few extra hours of rest.
The Hornets haven’t done many things well this season (19th in offense, 24th in defense), but they will present a test on the glass – ranking in the top five on both ends of the floor. The Hawks have notably struggled in the rebounding department this season, ranking in the bottom five on both ends, making this an area to watch in tonight’s matchup.
Stay tuned!
