After leading by nine early in the third quarter, the Hawks (4-5) collapsed in a 116-98 loss to the Jazz (7-1) Thursday at State Farm Arena.
Next up, continuing a tough schedule stretch, the Hawks will embark on a four-game West Coast road trip against Phoenix, Golden State, Utah and Denver.
Below are some takeaways from the loss:
1. After a rough start on offense for both teams, Jordan Clarkson torched the Hawks in the second half and the defense was nowhere to be found, yielding 77 points. Clarkson scored 25 of his 30 points in the second half and finished as a plus-29. The Jazz shot 57.1% from 3-point range (12-for-21) in the second half, finishing at 41.5% (17-for-41) to the Hawks’ 25% overall (7-for-28). The Hawks led by nine with eight minutes to go in the third quarter, but their defensive effort dwindled and that took them out of the game.
“When we are not hitting shots, I think we carry that to the defensive end of the floor,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said. “We have to have someone out there to pull us together, OK, and talk about getting stops. We’ve been dropping our heads when the shot doesn’t fall for us and really just not guarding. ... It starts with controlling the basketball.”
2. It’s still quite early in the season, but on an extremely deep team, the challenge of playing so many guys, balancing shots and minutes for everyone, is already presenting itself. The Hawks are lacking chemistry on offense, and that’s translating to the other end of the floor, too. Given the struggles the team has faced in Wednesday’s loss to Brooklyn and Thursday’s loss to Utah, it sounds like McMillan may re-evaluate the rotation and how playing time is distributed moving forward.
“I can’t give minutes, you have to earn them,” McMillan said. “That’s what I’ll start to do more of, if you’re not giving it to this team on both ends of the floor, then we’ll rotate some guys in. ... We need a spark. We need some energy to lift us, and we need some guys that’ll go out there and defend.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
3. Even though the Hawks put up 58 points in the second half, the defensive intensity simply wasn’t there as the Jazz built up their lead, tallying 20 of their 30 assists in the final two quarters. It’s going to require a mindset shift from the Hawks, center Clint Capela (13 points, 10 rebounds, two assists) said, to buckle down on defense: “We just can’t relax. We can’t just count on our offense, because this is not what winning teams are doing. We’ve got to just change our mindset.”
4. Only two Hawks players made multiple 3′s: John Collins (13 points, two rebounds, two blocks, 3-for-4 from 3) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (eight points, five rebounds, two assists, 2-for-4 from 3). Trae Young led the Hawks with 21 points and seven assists, but went 0-for-4 from 3, and the Hawks overall went 7-for-28 from beyond the arc (25%).
5. To celebrate the World Series champ Braves, the Hawks welcomed Freddie Freeman, Joc Pederson, AJ Minter and some team executives to sit courtside at Thursday’s game. They honored the team with a video and Pederson addressed the crowd, inviting everyone to Friday’s parade. The Hawks won’t be able to attend, since they depart earlier in the day for a West Coast road trip, but supported their fellow Atlanta sports team throughout its run.
Stat of the game: 77 (the amount of points the Hawks yielded in a second-half collapse)
Star of the game: Clarkson (scored 25 of his 30 points by dominating in the second half)
Quotable: “We’ve got to figure out the rotations and who’s going to play and who’s not going to play, and who’s going to sacrifice for this team to win, you know what I’m saying?” (Young on the Hawks figuring out the rotation and minute/shot distribution)
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