Peachtree Hoops: Hawks stave off Flynn’s 50 behind Jalen Johnson’s first career triple-double in win over Pistons

[Hawksquawk]

Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images

Johnson was instrumental in guiding the Hawks to victory.

The Atlanta Hawks made it six wins from their last seven games as they topped the Detroit Pistons 121-113 at State Farm Arena on Wednesday night.

Jalen Johnson led the Hawks with his first career triple-double with 28 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists in his return to the starting lineup. De’Andre Hunter added 26 points to the Atlanta cause on a very efficient 11-of-16 shooting. For the Pistons, Malachi Flynn was the story of the game as he went off for 50 points. Jalen Duren also added 11 points for the visitors.

With Cade Cunningham a scratch from this contest, the Hawks were heavily favored heading into this contest, and in the first half they looked like that team favored to win by a double-digit margin. Not so much in the first quarter, but once the three-ball began to drop in the second quarter, it opened the margin before the Hawks’ shooting regressed and the Pistons made a run to bring the gap to nine points at the half. The Hawks shot 5-of-20 in the first half from three.

In the second half, the Hawks’ lead grew to its largest of 22 points as they finally appeared to opened the game, but Flynn’s 14 third quarter points helped keep the Pistons lingering in this contest, trailing by 12 points entering the final frame. Flynn again not only kept the Pistons in the picture but almost dragged the visitors right back into contention — his 19 fourth quarter points bringing the Pistons to within five points.

When the Pistons got close, however, the Hawks made plays when it counted, led by Johnson’s 11 fourth quarter points. When the Hawks needed to edge the lead either back to double-digits or out of arm’s reach.

To restore the Hawks’ double-digit lead, Johnson cleans up the miss from Bogdan Bogdanovic:

He would restore a double-digit lead again with under four minutes to go as Johnson connects on the pick-and-pop with Dejounte Murray:

When the Hawks needed a bucket, they got one from Johnson, again restoring the Hawks’ double-digit lead as he spins and hits on the mismatch inside:

Johnson again links up with Murray on the pick-and-roll and hits the leaning jumpshot to put the Hawks back up by 10 points:

The Hawks endured a scare after this basket, a basket that really should have sealed the deal, with Flynn making another three to take his tally to 48 and then a lax moment from Murray in getting off the ball when he was doubled led to another Flynn basket to take his tally to 50:

Murray did plenty of good things last night, but this was not one of them. He had so much time to get the ball to Johnson, and had this occurred a little earlier in the game it would’ve given the Pistons life. As such, the Pistons had to foul with the clock against them and the Hawks sealed the deal at the free throw line to take what probably should have been a slightly more comfortable victory than it was...and likely would have been had Malachi Flynn not enjoyed a career-night.

“Early on we mixed up some coverages in pick-and-roll with him,” said Hawks head coach Quin Snyder of Flynn. “He was making 15-foot contested mid-range shots. I thought he got to the foul line and that got him going too. We tried to get more aggressive on him after he really got it going. We were trying to impact him a bit. He still made plays but we made it a little less comfortable for him. He played great, tip your hat to some of the plays he made. I thought there were other ones that maybe we could have impacted more but nobody overlooked him. He had a hell of a game and the ball was in his hands a lot. He made plays.”

Snyder was critical of the Hawks’ lapse in focus towards the end of the game, Murray’s turnover being the play Snyder cited.

“We lost focus at the end of the game,” said Snyder. “I don’t think we were looking ahead to anything, I think we were a little tired towards the end of the game. That’s a time where you have to be really sharp and crisp, especially if they’re going to foul. We can’t turn the ball over late and give them layups.”

On the balance of play however, Snyder was pleased with the efficiency of the Hawks’ offense last night, scoring 121 points on 55% shooting from the field to go with 36 assists.

“I thought when we got the lead we were really efficient offensively moving the ball, guys playing really well together,” said Snyder. “We had some breakdowns, Flynn passed the ball, ran to the corner. Couple of times we didn’t get hands up on guys, we got cracked on a pick-and-roll and they made some shots too. Some of that wasn’t our breakdowns, it was a combination of breakdowns and Detroit making plays.”

11 of those assists came from Dejounte Murray and a career-high 11 came from Jalen Johnson in his first career triple-double: 28 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists and four steals in the victory.

“Tonight was a stellar game,” said Snyder of Johnson. “He just let the game come to him. There were a number of times he was just finding people and when you do that and then all of a sudden when the game was on the line he had that pick-and-pop where he banged the three, he got the ball to the dots and went up strong and made a shot, he made a couple of free throws — a lot of really good things that he did. He took what the defense gave him. He’s a basketball player he can do all those things, he can shoot, pass, handle. When he’s not predetermined about what he’s going to do—there were so many little things he did that won’t even show up. Sometimes when someone plays that way you enjoy the fact they’re then rewarded on a stat sheet after the game too because he played a really, really impressive game.”

Quin Snyder doesn’t often hand out superlatives like ‘stellar’ but felt prompted to do so when discussing Johnson’s contributions last night. He would be correct, of course — Johnson was fantastic, especially passing the ball.

Here, Johnson could easily take the shot himself from the outside but makes the extra pass to find Hunter in the corner for three:

In the second half, Johnson could attack inside against Marcus Sasser but fires the ball out to Bogdanovic for three:

But what was most impressive about Johnson’s 11 assists were how many came in transition.

When Johnson grabs a rebound he can just go with it and he can make plays, as he does here as he finds Hunter with the outlet pass for the assist:

Not having to go find your guard to get the ball off you after a rebound is enormously helpful, because it can lead to plays like this where Johnson can find a streaking Murray for an alley-oop:

For the assist that got Johnson his triple-double, it was a beautifully executed cross-court chest pass to Garrison Mathews for three:

For his final assist, Johnson grabs a rebound and finds Clint Capela on the run to lead to a Pistons timeout:

The Hawks only scored 13 fastbreak points, and I have to imagine Johnson was responsible for basically all of them.

This has been said ad nauseam and I’ll say it again: in a season filled with disappointment so far, Jalen Johnson has, by a considerable margin, been the most encouraging and enjoyable aspect of the Atlanta Hawks’ 2023-24 season.

Johnson wasn’t the only Hawk who enjoyed a good game. Hunter scored a very efficient 26 points, and some of his drives were really impressive and he had a fantastic turnaround shot in front of the Hawks bench in the second half. His shotmaking was strong, as was Murray’s who scored 24 points on 10-of-21 from the field to go with those 11 assists.

Clint Capela’s efforts last night, if you look at social media, were underrated — he was fantastic last night. Capela scored 11 points to go with 16 rebounds, and what I thought was reflective of Capela’s efforts last night was he was a plus-30 on the night. It’s not to say he had a better game than Johnson, for instance, but it was good to see that the boxscore reflected Capela’s efforts.

All in all — and if everyone is being honest — there’s little use in getting too hyped up over an April victory over the 13-62 Pistons. The Hawks took care of business and survived an unlikely 50-point bomb from Malachi Flynn.

If you’re looking for takeaways, I’d boil it down simply to these: Jalen Johnson is awesome, Hunter has been great, and Capela was great and has played at a high level for a number of weeks now.

In terms of the larger picture, the Hawks clinched their spot for the Play-In last night and in a couple a few games will be confirmed to be facing the Chicago Bulls. Whether they are hosting or visiting the Bulls is still to be decided but, right now, the momentum is certainly with the Atlanta Hawks.

---

The Hawks (36-40) are back in action tonight in Dallas to face the Mavericks (45-30), who are double-digit favorites entering the contest having last played on Tuesday.

Until next time...

View the full article