Hawks fall to Wizards in new coach Quin Snyder’s debut

On Tuesday they found their tenuous eight-point lead whittle to 109-108 with 3:43 remaining after former Hawks guard Delon Wright scored a putback layup. New Hawks coach Quin Snyder called timeout and added some spacing, while keeping some size, to the floor.

He rolled with guards Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, as well as De’Andre Hunter and Saddiq Bey in the place of John Collins and Clint Capela. The move opened things up to allow Young to drive and draw a foul.

The Wizards though managed to go ahead though after pair of free throws from Daniel Gafford, a transition dunk from Kyle Kuzma and another set of free throws from Gafford. Then Bradley Beal, who scored 37 points by the end of the night, knocked down a midrange jumper to put the Wizards up 117-113 with 35.3 seconds.

Despite a 3 from Young out of the team’s penultimate timeout, Beal would patiently work his way to his spot and hit a jumper from midrange in traffic to put the Wizards up 119-116 with 8.9 seconds to play. It sealed the game when both of Young’s 3-pointer attempts didn’t fall.

“Beal obviously got going,” Snyder said. “They were trying to put him in a couple of positions where they had an advantage. We adjusted the pick-and-roll coverage a little bit to try to address that. He made some tough shots, down the stretch. Obviously, the ball didn’t go in for us.”

2. Young, who scored 31 points, for his part played a strong game on both ends of the floor as he electrified the Hawks despite whistles forcing the team out of rhythm. He scored 16 of his points in the third quarter as the Wizards turned up the physicality to get the Hawks off balance.

The Hawks needed Young’s offensive push as whistles stymied the possibility for other players to find their own rhythm. Young made six of his eight attempts in the third quarter which allowed the Hawks to still outscore the Wizards 34-33.

It was the 24-year-old’s first time trying out the new partnership with Snyder, who is still getting to know the team. Snyder leaned on Young heavily as the floor general and throughout the night checked in with Young, as well as Murray to understand their thought process.

3. Though Young’s strong quarter helped to temporarily stave the Wizards off, the whistles throughout did upend some of the momentum the Hawks built going into halftime.

In the third, a number of calls drew the ire of Snyder, the bench and the fans.

With 3:08 left in the third, Onyeka Okongwu went up to block a layup from Beal, getting nothing but the ball in the process. Officials, though, called Okongwu for a foul and Snyder and the Hawks challenged it to try to avoid the third-year center picking up his fourth foul. Snyder won the challenge.

Eleven seconds later though, officials called Okongwu for an offensive foul as he tussled to get free from the grasp of Taj Gibson. Then Okongwu picked up his fifth foul just 15 seconds later as Beal tried to get around him on a drive to the basket.

Even through that, Snyder praised the team for not letting the officiating affect their attempts to regain control of the game.

4. The Hawks have come to rely on Bey quite a bit in his early tenure with the team. He has already made two starts in the five games he’s played with the Hawks and the team turned to him down the stretch on Tuesday.

With Bey knocking down four of his eight attempts from 3, the Hawks looked to use his hot hand for not only scoring but to potentially open things up for others.

He scored 12 points and had six rebounds in 27 minutes. In his five games with the Hawks, he has averaged 10.2 points and has hit 56% of his 3-pointers.

5. Snyder said the close game will accelerate the team’s adjustment period in having a new coach. He said they will continue to build on that as they move through these next games.

Stat to know

500 -- Saddiq Bey of the Hawks has made 500 career 3-pointers. Per Elias Sports Bureau, he is the 10th-fastest player to hit the 500-triple mark (209 games played) in NBA history. He also surpassed the 3,000 career-points mark.

Quotable

“It’s been really good, recently we’ve been getting a lot of good looks. Guys have been really scoring the ball. I think recently, it has been a lot of us. So we just got to continue to do that and getting each other involved.” -- Trae Young on Tuesday’s ball movement.

Up next

The Hawks wrap up their four-game homestand on Friday at 7:30 p.m. when they host the Trail Blazers at State Farm Arena.