Peachtree Hoops: Hawks lose steam in second half in potentially decisive tiebreaker loss

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Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

The Hawks fall in the season series 3-1 to a team who is now closing in for the final Play-In spot.

The Atlanta Hawks dropped their second straight game against the Brooklyn Nets after suffering a 114-102 defeat at Barclays Center on Saturday afternoon.

Saddiq Bey led the Hawks with 23 points with Dejounte Murray adding 20 points. For the Nets, Mikal Bridges scored a game-high 38 points with Cam Johnson adding 23 to the Brooklyn cause.

This was an important game for the Atlanta Hawks heading into this contest. Having just lost against the Nets on Thursday, another defeat to the same team would bring them to within two games of the final Play-In spot with All-Star guard Trae Young still sidelined for a number of weeks still to come. The visitors, however, began this game strongly, and a 7-2 start quickly turned into a double-digit lead as the Nets struggled on the offensive end shooting 25.9% from the field in the first quarter.

A strong second quarter from Bey (10 points on 4-of-5 shooting) wasn’t enough to prevent the Nets from closing the gap, primarily thanks to their perimeter shooting waking up in the second quarter, shooting 8-for-8 from three as they outscored the Hawks 39-34.

For a few of these threes the Hawks were a bit lax in their defense. Kobe Bufkin made the mistake of allowing Johnson a moment of space to fire up a three:

Bufkin was again caught in a tough spot, this time in transition when Bridges pushes the ball up the court, and he can use his size and the momentum of the back-pedaling Bufkin to his advantage and pulls up for three:

Again, the Hawks lose track of where Johnson is at the three-point line, and the Nets seize the opportunity to free him up with the screen, and Johnson hits the corner three:

The Hawks would have obviously known Johnson’s perimeter threat, and to allow easy baskets from behind the arc isn’t an acceptable outcome for the Hawks’ defense.

The second quarter produced some difficult Bufkin moments defensively as we’ve seen and the same was the case for Bruno Fernando on both ends at times. His screening didn’t always free up space for the ball-handler (though he did have a good roll or two in pick-an-rolls), and defensively he was exposed for leaving his feet and committing fouls. It just wasn’t the best of second quarters for the second unit.

The third quarter was again decisive in this affair as the Nets began the second half with a 10-2 run to give them their first since the very early exchanges, and one they would not drop. It was fueled by Bridges, who scored 10 points in the third quarter, but eight of these came in the first six minutes. And these were crucial minutes for the Nets in this game.

The Nets made sure to take advantage of the Bridges-Bey matchup/pick-and-roll switch and often got the switches they desired, putting Bridges in an advantageous situation.

Here, Bridges gets his switch onto Clint Capela and leans back to hit the mid-range jumpshot to evade Capela’s contest:

Most of Bridges’ damage was done at the rim in the third, and after the Hawks miss multiple chances to score at the rim the ball ends in the hands of Bridges — who uses his superior speed and stride to beat the chasing Atlanta defense down the floor and score in transition:

On the perimeter switch with Capela this time, Bridges easily drives by him. And with Capela being out on the perimeter, there is no rim protection present for the Hawks, making Bridges’ job finishing at the rim a lot easier:

After a blocked shot for Bogdan Bogdanovic, the ball ends in Bridges’ hands, and he lulls Murray with the drive. Those long strides take him into the paint with ease and he finishes at the rim:

A couple of transition opportunities for Bridges, who contributed to 15 Brooklyn fastbreak points. The Hawks scored zero fastbreak points.

Bridges finished with 38 points on 14-of-26 shooting from the field, 5-of-10 from three, and 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Whether Hawks head coach Quin Snyder should have started De’Andre Hunter for this matchup (especially in the second half) I think is absolutely a fair question. I understand he’s wanted to be cautious with Hunter, and he’s been a good addition to that bench unit, but he is ultimately the best wing defender on this team (a team which struggles defensively) and Hunter being on the bench as Bridges cooks like this seems a bit off. In saying that, according the NBA.com matchup stats, Bridges shot 3-of-4 when guarded by Hunter, but this is an improvement of shooting 4-of-4 when guarded by Bey? Small margins, I suppose...

In the third quarter it was the Hawks’ turn to shoot 25%, scoring just 18 points to the Nets’ 30 points, giving them a double-digit lead heading into the fourth quarter. The final frame was slightly better from an offensive perspective for the Hawks but never enough, eight points was the closest the Hawks were able to bring it to in the fourth.

When Bridges picked up a technical foul for voicing his displeasure to the officials about an offensive foul, the Hawks had the chance to bring the gap to 11 points with 5:10 to go. And maybe, just maybe, the frustration creeping in could allow the Hawks a route back in this game if they hit the free throw and score on their ensuing possession. Instead, Hunter misses the technical free throw, and the Hawks turn the ball over leading to a Bridges basket:

The Hawks, again, cough the ball up after strong Brooklyn defensive pressure:

And then Dennis Schröder hits the three to put the Hawks up by 17 points, with an 18th point added after Murray earns himself a technical foul, which Johnson dispatches:

That was pretty much your lot for this game, and how it quickly escaped from the Hawks, ending in a 40 point second half on 31% shooting from the field and just 1-of-12 shooting fro three.

Quin Snyder believed that the Nets’ physicality and ball pressure made the Hawks’ life difficult offensively but also wanted to see his side move the ball from side to side a little more yesterday.

“I think they took their physicality up a notch,” said Snyder postgame. “That made it harder for us to break the paint and really fight for the rim. It’s not a switching defense, per se, it’s a team that has size and athleticism throughout their lineup. With Smith (Jr.) and Dennis (Schröder), their ball pressure makes it hard to enter. We have to be better, more committed to actions that move them, to get side to side and create some easy openings. When you don’t score, you’re playing defense in transition, and that becomes difficult and cross-matched, and they have shooters too.”

When asked about counteracting physicality ahead of Tuesday’s game against the New York Knicks, Saddiq Bey also referenced the ball not being able to move from side to side and on a number of occasions referenced ‘following the scouting report.’

“Continue to do what’s in the scouting report,” said Bey. “Offensively, got to get the ball to the second side a little more, flow a little bit better. Just get more continuity, if we get stagnant that’s when the defense shifts and makes it harder to score. For us, continue to do what coach wants us to do, scouting report wise.”

Bey would make reference to this again when asked how the Hawks break out when the offense stagnates and stops moving side to side.

“When they have four to five guys of 6’-8” and above that start the game, they have a lot of length and switch everything,” said Bey. “For us, it’s about how to wreck that. Coach did a great job of giving us gameplan to kind of wreck that, we just got to execute it better. We know what to do for the next game.”

It was interesting that in not just one, but two different answers, Bey referenced that the Hawks’ didn’t quite execute the gameplan or follow the scouting report (allowing Cam Johnson a number of open threes is one of the things that likely falls into that).

If you’re not getting defensive stops it cuts off your transition/three-point game, and Snyder made mention to this in a game where the Hawks scored zero transition points and shot 11-of-34 from three for 32%.

“You want the ball to hit the paint and play with our eyes out,” said Snyder. “I think those shots, collectively, end up being easier shots from a psychological standpoint. When you’re not getting stops, one of the ways you’re generating threes is coming from transition. Shooting threes, usually those are generated whether it’s stops on the defensive end or someone beating their man and kicking the ball out, probably a combination of both. We missed some open ones but trying to generate even more open ones.”

What Snyder is describing is basically what allowed Mikal Bridges to thrive, not just all night but in this season series too. Averaging 21 points per game this season, in the four games against Atlanta, Bridges averaged 32 points per game on 53% shooting from the field and 44% from three on seven attempts — and that includes a career-high 45 points earlier this season and a 15-point outing when the Nets cruised to victory on Thursday.

“He was out on the wing attacking the rim a lot and he’s going to have success in those situations,” said Snyder of Bridges. “When he does drive he does have the ability to stretch out and get to the rim. He scores at three levels. I thought we did a good job in the first half early on when there was a big emphasis on taking away those threes or making sure they were contested and we had some good possessions with multiple efforts on the defensive end. Again, offensively when you struggle to score it’s hard to defend in transition and you’ve got to do it. I don’t think it was poor, but if you have that many transition opportunities it’s difficult to set your defense things are tough.”

Bridges has been a nightmare for the Hawks to deal with, and they can be glad that this matchup with him is in the rearview mirror, the Nets finishing 3-1 for the series and that may matter come April as these two duke it out for the final play-in spot.

Looking through the Hawks performances last night, Saddiq Bey had a good night shooting the ball, 23 points on 8-of-14 from the field. He also displayed strong moments in his drives, getting to the free throw line on five occasions. Murray was solid, 20 points on 8-of-19 shooting to go with 11 assists but 2-of-8 from three hurt his percentages/output quite a bit. Hunter had a solid 15 off the bench, but I still think the question needs to be asked if that needs to be from the starting lineup — maybe more so from a defensive point of view. There were difficult nights for Jalen Johnson (3-of-12 shooting) and Bogdanovic (4-of-13 shooting).

The miscellaneous stats were where things went against the Hawks’ favor: zero fastbreak to Brooklyn’s 15, 18-7 in points off of turnovers despite the Hawks only committing 11 turnovers on the game they were punished for the mistakes they did make coughing the ball up, especially in the fourth quarter. Three-point shooting was also to Brooklyn’s advantage yesterday, shooting 15-of-32 (47%) to Atlanta’s 11-of-34 (32%), led by Bridges’ five threes with four from Johnson — helping almost equal the Hawks’ total threes on their own.

This game was a test for the Hawks. Missing Young obviously puts the Hawks at a disadvantage, as does Onyeka Okongwu, but this is still a matchup you’d think the Hawks have a fair chance of winning and two games in a row they’ve fallen a bit short. Had they been able to dispatch the Nets in these two games, we could have basically booked the Hawks into the Play-In tournament right now. Now? The picture becomes a lot murkier. Atlanta now has the tenth-most difficult schedule remaining, while the Nets have the fourth-easiest schedule remaining tailing by just two games and with momentum — and the tiebreaker — on their side.

The road ahead for the Hawks is difficult, and their already dicey season is getting close to hanging on by a thread. With games against the Knicks and Cavaliers in their immediate future to come, if they can win even one of those games it will be a huge boost.

A crucial road-and-road has come and gone, and not in the Atlanta Hawks’ favor. And while it is disappointing, it is not season-defining. Not yet.

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The Hawks (26-34) are back in action on Tuesday night against the New York Knicks (35-25) at Madison Square Garden, who are in a titanic duel for playoff seeding with 1.5 games separating the fourth spot (the Knicks currently occupy) to the 8-seed.

Until next time...

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