Peachtree Hoops: Hawks blown out by Dallas in summer league finale 101-80

[Hawksquawk]

Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

The Mavericks doubled Atlanta’s third-quarter scoring output to win by 21.

In a battle between two 3-1 summer league teams, the Atlanta Hawks suffered a blowout loss at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks, 101-80.

Dallas had six players reach double figures led by Jordan Walker’s 22 points and five 3-pointers off the bench and Brandon Randolph’s 20 points on 13 shots.

On the Atlanta side, first-round pick Kobe Bufkin led the team with 18 points but was 0-6 on 3-pointers, indicative of an ice-cold shooting night: 35.4% from the field and a disappointing 16.7% from deep as a team.

The Hawks’ second-leading scorer was Tyson Etienne, who scored 14 points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench. Second-round pick Mouhamed Gueye scored seven points on six shots, and fellow second-round pick Seth Lundy only scored three points while going 0-5 on 3-pointers.

An important note: Vit Krejci only played eight minutes as he left the game in the second quarter with a left ankle sprain. He did not return.

The Hawks found early success at the rim, as they scored their first 10 points in the paint with six coming from Mfiondu Kabengele. The defense also started strong, forcing four Maverick turnovers in less than three-and-a-half minutes.

Dallas didn’t get on the board until A.J. Lawson scored at the 7:36 mark. Points remained hard to come by, as the Mavs scored only four more points over the next two minutes, and after Mouhamed Gueye knocked down a corner 3-pointer, the score became 13-6 with 4:38 left in the first.

However, the momentum would soon shift, as David Singleton fouled Dallas’ Jordan Walker on a 3-point shot. Walker would make all his free throws, and the offense showed more life to finish the last stretch outscoring the Hawks 13-10.

It also was a slightly sloppy end to the quarter for the Hawks as Seth Lundy and Tyson Etienne both threw terrible passes and a couple of points were left at the free throw line. At the end of the first, Atlanta led Dallas 23-19.

At the start of the second quarter, Etienne had the Hawks’ first five points thanks to a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer at the top of the key.

But the Mavericks carried the offensive momentum into the second, trading the first couple of baskets before going on a 10-3 run to take a 34-28 lead with 6:22 to go.

The Hawks soon cut the deficit back to two points with a pair of free throws from Brady Manek and a mid-range jumper from Kobe Bufkin, but they could never reclaim the lead as both offenses kept pace in the second quarter. At halftime, the score was 46-44 in favor of the Mavericks.

The wheels fell off for Atlanta in the third quarter as the Hawks went cold and Dallas was scorching. The barrage can be summed up with two stats: the Hawks only made seven field goals in the entire third quarter, while the Mavericks only missed four field goals in a shooting.

Dallas outscored Atlanta 36-18 in the third quarter, and the gap was as wide as 23 points before the Mavericks took an 82-62 lead into the final frame.

The fourth quarter was garbage time as both teams cleared their benches, and it was essentially a glorified pickup game before the final buzzer sounded on a Dallas win, 101-80.

With the loss, the Hawks’ final summer league record is 3-2. Gut-wrenching loss aside, Atlanta came in with a clear goal for its top young players (Bufkin and Gueye), and there were a lot of positives to take away from Las Vegas overall.

Now the attention once dedicated to Summer League will now go towards the ever-growing speculation of a Pascal Siakam trade and which player, or players, will be on the move before the regular season tips off in late October.

View the full article