After falling just short against a scorching Charlotte Hornets side on Thursday, the Atlanta Hawks were blown out on their home floor on Friday night, looking lifeless in a 126-98 defeat to Victor Wembanyama
and the San Antonio Spurs. The 28-point margin of defeat was Atlanta’s worst loss of the season.
Atlanta were without both Trae Young (right knee injury management) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness) for the contest while San Antonio were essentially at full strength. Victor Wembanyama was on a minutes restriction, coming off the bench for the third straight game as he plays himself back into full form after missing four weeks with a calf strain.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker led the Hawks in scoring with 23 points and also dished out 4 assists. Jalen Johnson finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists. Dyson Daniels and Zaccharie Risacher chipped in with 11 points apiece.
Victor Wembanyama led the way for San Antonio, finishing with 26 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks in just 21 minutes of action. Stephon Castle added 17 points and 7 assists. Devin Vassell finished with 18 points and 7 boards.
How It Happened
San Antonio took control of the game early on and didn’t look back, jumping out to a 32-19 lead by the end of the first quarter. Vassell (11 points) and Castle (10 points) were instrumental for the Spurs in the opening, combining to score 21 points in the first period. Atlanta shot the ball miserably in the opening frame, with 15 out of their 23 field-goal attempts coming from beyond the arc, converting just three of them.
San Antonio continued the onslaught in the second, outscoring Atlanta by 11 to take a dominant 68-44 lead into the break. Turnovers really hurt the Hawks in this phase of the game, as they committed 7 of their 17 turnovers in the game in the second quarter, directly leading to 11 points for the Spurs.
“I didn’t think we started the game out really [well]. We weren’t running with a purpose. We weren’t running with space.” said Snyder in the post-game press conference.
“If you’re not initiating the possession with force, they’re dictating, and that aggression offensively is everything.” Snyder continued. “It’s a very physical group, particularly on the perimeter, and they also have rim protection, you know, I thought we have to break the paint. We have to get in the lane. You may not be able to get all the way to the rim but when we don’t do that, whether it’s a turnover or shots that aren’t the best shots…”
“Our execution, it will never be flawless. But whether it’s spacing, passing quickly, one extra dribble, running but not running hard enough, spacing but not getting all the way to the corner, all those details against a team that’s as talented as they, and are playing as well as they are, you’re going to struggle if you don’t do all those things.
While the Hawks did show the ability to drive the ball on a couple of occasions early on, there were many possessions where, as Snyder described, Atlanta weren’t able to penetrate the defense which led to undesirable outcomes.
This is one example of a good possession. Johnson drives on Wembanyama, looking to score. After Wemby stifles the drive, Johnson kicks it out to Daniels, who takes it right at Castle to the rim for a score.
Here are a few not so good possessions. Below, Harper applies ball pressure on Alexander-Walker, forcing him to give the ball up to Okongwu early in the shot-clock. Okongwu looks to go into a hand-off with Krejci, but Castle sees it all the way, forcing the turnover before finishing the play off on the other end.
On this possession, the Hawks have a 5-on-4 advantage with Wembanyama trailing the play, but instead of attacking the paint, Krejci fires up a contested early shot-clock three and it’s an empty possession.
Here, Johnson gets his drive cut off so he kicks it out to Asa Newell. Newell drives before Daniels is able to clear the lane (not that Daniels is much of a threat from beyond the arc these days) and commits a turnover with Wembanyama lurking.
Out of the halftime break, a mini-run from the Hawks cut the deficit to 18, however any hope of a comeback was dashed as soon as Wembanyama checked back into the game with 8:35 to go in the period. San Antonio outscored Atlanta 28-16 over the rest of the quarter, with Wembanyama scoring 9 points and blocking two shots over this span.
The Spurs led by 30 going into the fourth quarter.
After failing to make a dent in San Antonio’s lead in the first few minutes of the fourth, Snyder waved the white flag with about 8:00 to go, emptying the bench with the remainder of the contest amounting to little more than garbage time.
When the buzzer sounded, Atlanta trudged off the floor having to stomach a disappointing 126-98 defeat.
“They’re playing at a very high level and our margin for error is really small, so we have to embrace a gameplan urgently and completely. We weren’t able to keep them out of the paint – that was really the biggest thing. A lot of the time the paint means threes for them but they’re on the rim [too] and so I think defensively, we have some things that we have been committed to, and know that we need to do to compete against a team that’s playing at a very high level.” said Snyder after the game.
San Antonio scored 60 points in the paint – tied for the sixth-most paint-points allowed by Atlanta this season – while Atlanta managed just 50 on the night. The Hawks shot just 16-for-30 (53.3%) in the restricted area (well below their average on the season) and were also outscored from the perimeter, shooting just 10-for-40 (25%) from three while the Spurs shot 13-for-36 (36.1%).
Simply put, not a recipe for success.
The Hawks also scored just 13 fastbreak points, tied for their seventh-lowest total in a game this season. The last time they played San Antonio (with Wembanyama sidelined), Atlanta scored just 6 fastbreak points in a 136-125 defeat, their fewest in a game this season, so perhaps the Spurs have figured something out in this regard*. My hunch is that it has a lot to do with the ball pressure their guards (Castle and Harper in particular) are able to exert over the length of court.
*Atlanta rank fifth in the league in fastbreak points per game (17.6)
All that aside, perhaps the biggest (no pun intended) reason Atlanta lost so definitively was due to the jaw-dropping performance from Victor Wembanyama. In just 21 minutes off the bench, Wembanyama scored 26 points on 15 shots (4-for-7 at the free-throw stripe), grabbed 12 rebounds, dished out 3 assists and blocked 2 shots, finishing with a team-best +29 ‘plus-minus’ in the 28-point win.
I mean… what are you even supposed to do?
Keep in mind, this was only Wembanyama’s third game since returning from a four-week absence and he was on a minutes restriction, so we didn’t even see him at the peak of his powers.
The good news?
Atlanta won’t have to worry about solving that puzzle for quite some time as they won’t play the Spurs again until next season (unless they meet in the Finals, which… I wouldn’t bet on).
What’s Next?
The Hawks are home for the holidays as last night’s contest was the first of a five-game homestand. Their next game is against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday at 3:30 PM EST.
With last night’s defeat, Atlanta have now lost six out of their last eight games and will look to get back to winning ways against Chicago.
