NEW ORLEANS -- The Hawks snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday with a 126-111 win over a Zion Williamson-less Pelicans team.
Like the Hawks, the Pelicans entered the night without several key rotational players.
Here are five observations:
1. The Hawks needed a win after dropping four consecutive games. After entering the locker room at halftime trailing, 59-58, the Hawks blew the doors open in the fourth quarter. They converted baskets on back-to-back-to-back-to-back possessions after forced steals that allowed them to get out in transition.
First, Jalen Johnson, who tied his career-high of 29 points, picked off Brandon Boston Jr. and finished with a one-handed slam that put the Hawks up by 10 points. Fifty-nine seconds later, guard Keaton Wallace had a steal and finished with a two-handed dunk. Then Larry Nance Jr. chipped away a pass from Jordan Hawkins before finishing with a layup. Hawks guard Trae Young then pushed the ball away from Brandon Ingram and found Johnson for a layup.
“I think it was pretty simple,” Johnson said. “We came in at halftime, we knew what we needed to do, and that was turn it up defensively. If we did that, shots were gonna eventually fall.”
The Hawks had 10 steals, with seven of them coming in the fourth quarter.
2. Things got spicy confrontational in the Crescent City as Nance and Dyson Daniels faced off against their former squad.
Midway through the third quarter, Nance caught a bounce pass inside from David Roddy and slammed down a one-handed dunk on the head of Daniel Theis. After the dunk as the Hawks moved to the defensive end, Nance exhaled toward the Pelicans bench. On the next offensive possession, he hit a 3 in the corner then stared them down.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Daniels got in on the action, hitting a 3 in front of the Pelicans. As he ran to the other end he sprayed the whole Pelicans bench with the imaginary pistol in the shape of a three fingers for a 3-pointer.
“I was just telling (the bench) how many points it’s worth,” Daniels said.
Nance and Daniels came to the Hawks as part of the offseason trade for Dejounte Murray.
3. The Hawks had another forward they struggled to contain, much like they had trouble stopping the Kings’ DeMar DeRozan on Friday. The Hawks could not seem to slow the Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram when he was on the floor. The only time Ingram didn’t seem to get a shot to fall was when he ran into foul trouble midway through the second quarter.
The Hawks tried matching Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher and David Roddy against Ingram with mixed results. Ingrams had 16 points by the end of the first half. Ingram ended the night with 32 points, shooting 4-of-8 from 3-point range in 29 minutes.
4. While the Pelicans received a huge lift from Ingram, the Hawks needed to everyone to show up on the offensive side of the ball. Early in the game, the Pelicans did everything they could to limit Young, holding him to 2-of-8 shooting from the floor and 0-of-4 from 3 until 7:33 remained in the third quarter.
He ended the night with 23 points, sinking 50% of his shots from 3. He also had 12 assists with the Hawks making 56.8% of their shots from the floor.
Seven of the 10 players who played in Sunday’s game finished with double figures after capitalizing on their fast play. Seventy percent of the Hawks plays began in transition, with them adding plus-7.5 points per 100 possessions off live rebounds.
“We executed better in the second half defensively, in some consecutive possessions when we got stops,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “I thought there was a point in the first half where we started doing a better job on the defensive glass.”
5. The Hawks, like the other 29 NBA teams, will play games on Monday with staggered the start times of the games, with tip-offs every 15 minutes. The league will not have any games on Tuesday due to Election Day.
Stat to know
The Hawks had a 68-point second half on a 69% field goal percentage. It was the first time since Jan. 16, 2023 that they scored 65-plus points on at least 65% overall shooting in a single half. They’re the first team to do so in the NBA this season.
Quotable
“One, we’re all competitors, and two we’re friends. So, when we’re competing against each other, you’re able to say some things to each other, just because it’s all love.” -- Larry Nance Jr. on competing against his former team.
Up Next
The Hawks return home on Monday to host the Celtics at State Farm Arena on the second night of back-to-back games.
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