Hawks drop key matchup and fall to Trail Blazers

They sent doubles at Young, trying to trap him at half court. If not doubles, they leaned on Toumani Camara, who picked up Young at full court to try to slow the Hawks pace and prevent them from beating center Donovan Clingan to the paint.

“I just think we played too slow,” Young, who finished with 29 points, 15 assists and two steals, said. “I think you gotta give them credit. They, they kind of slowed us down by picking me up full and not kind of letting us get out in transition. Anytime we did, we were able to score easy. Anytime we played fast, we were able to score easy.”

2. Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, who finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and three steals, has made a name for himself as a menace on the court as the league leader in steals. But on Tuesday, Daniels was on the receiving end of some picks with Trail Blazers wing Matisse Thybulle reading his eyes and shifting into the passing lane.

Thybulle, two-time All-Defensive team member, finished with five steals.

“That’s my guy. I actually take a lot of my game from him, the ways he is into passing lanes,” Daniels said. “I was with him for our World Cup campaign two years ago, and I was really able to pick his brain and learn a lot from him and what he does on that end of the floor, and he got me tonight. He’s so good at playing too, reading the ball, reading the eyes. He got me like two or three times tonight.”

3. With just single-digit games remaining in the season, the Hawks are running out of time to solidify their hold on home-court advantage in the Play-In Tournament. The Hawks have one of the easiest remaining schedules and they faced a Trail Blazers team that has already begun to shut down their veteran players.

“There’s no easy games in the NBA today,” Daniels said. “Even coming up against a team that has got a lot of injuries, guys step up and make plays, and they’re hard to beat. This is a really good team. They’re really well coached. They’re really big. They play fast. There’s no coming into a game that you can take the foot off the pedal. You know you need to come with the right mindset, no matter who you’re playing every game.”

The Trail Blazers rank 12th in the Western Conference and are virtually out of the postseason.

But the Hawks could not outrebound a banged-up Trail Blazers team, they struggled to take care of the ball and they had trouble executing down the stretch after pulling the game within 104-100 with 8:15 to play in the game.

4. One fan had some bad luck during the first timeout during the second quarter. In a bid to win tickets to Birthday Bash a concert featuring GloRilla and friends. The fan tried to compete in a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge, where he would race fill the squares on the board. He needed to make a layup to cover the square.

But when he ran to make the layup, he slipped on the court and fell. The fan grabbed his knee while rolling around on the ground. Paramedics on site at the arena needed to stretcher him off the court before the game could re-start.

5. The Hawks loss to the Trail Blazers essentially wiped out any chance of them reaching the sixth seed. They had just a half of a game lead on the Magic, who they face twice over the next 12 days, entering into the night.

But their hold on the seventh seed remains tenuous with the Magic winning their game against the Spurs. Now both teams are tied with Heat charging back after their last five games.

Tuesday’s loss helped the Pacers to clinch a spot in the playoffs.

Stat to know

496 - Trae Young passed Paul Millsap with his second steal of the game for the 14th-most steals in franchise history.

Quotable

“That was nasty. I just seen a replay on my phone. Hopefully he’s all right. I mean, it didn’t look good.” -- Dyson Daniels on the injured fan.

Up Next

The Hawks are back in action on Wednesday when they face the Mavericks in Dallas.