Hawks have plenty of chances but fall to Blazers

The ball eventually got into the hands of Anfernee Simons and the Hawks fouled him, sending him to the line for free throws. But the 103-99 deficit didn’t deter the Hawks.

Out of the timeout, Murray hit a pullup 3 to pull the Hawks within one point with 17 seconds to play. It gave the Hawks yet another chance.

Then they had another when Deandre Ayton split a pair of free throws and they could not corral the rebound, sending Simons to the line after the scuffle. Simons, who made just one shot in his first nine minutes, ended the night with 36 points.

2. Ayton gave Simons plenty of help throughout the night though and shredded the Hawks. Early in the game he burned them on a couple of back-door cuts before heating up from midrange. Ayton, who is in the 90th percentile for accuracy in long midrange jumpers, went 2-of-3 on buckets from just inside the arc. He made all but two of his 10 attempts between six to eight feet.

Ayton had 20 points and 10 rebounds with 8:13 to play in the third and ended the night with a season-high 33 points and 19 rebounds.

“He was really good,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “He made contested mid-range shots and normally those are shots that when they’re contested, you know they’re gonna make some of them but like I said, it’s hard to account for 15-for-20 and he made contested shots.”

3. In the first 24 minutes of the game, Murray could slice and dice the Trail Blazers defense. He made all but three of his 13 baskets from the floor in the first half, hitting a mix of jumpers from long range, mid-range and point blank.

He scored 24 of his 40 points in the first half for a career-high in the first 24 minutes.

But that changed in the second half with the Blazers packing the paint and cutting off his looks at the rim. With Murray unable to get to his mid-range game and get comfortable, the Hawks’ offense started to fall apart.

Murray scored just one field goal in the third quarter but made several key shots down the stretch. But the Hawks couldn’t generate enough scoring to hold off the Blazers.

“Just playing the game the right way, trying to get great shots instead of good or bad shots, whether it’s for me or my teammates,” Murray said. “Obviously I made shots. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough. That’s something that I don’t care about. I had five turnovers. I could have played better. But just overall, just, we’ve got to stay together.”

4. Though the Hawks didn’t see the ball go in early in the second half, they strung together a run that pulled them within a couple of possessions. The Hawks had four straight 3-pointers from Hunter, Garrison Mathews and Vit Krejci that looked to kick off a run.

“You got an open shot, you’re knocking down an open shot because it allows us to rebound,” Murray said. “(It) allows us to get back.”

5. The Hawks entered the night shorthanded against the Trail Blazers with several players out with injuries. They did not have Saddiq Bey (left knee torn ACL), Kobe Bufkin (left big toe sprain), Jalen Johnson (right ankle sprain), Onyeka Okongwu (left big toe sprain) and Trae Young (left fifth finger torn ligament).

So, they once again had to get creative with the lineups and rotations. They tapped Wesley Matthews to start in the place of Bey and the veteran received a warm reception from fans at the Moda Center. Matthews played for the Trail Blazers from 2010-15.

Stat to know

975 -- Wesley Matthews played in his 975th career game, the fourth-most by an undrafted player in NBA history (behind Moses Malone 1,329, Ben Wallace 1,088, and Avery Johnson 1,054).

Quotable

“We’ve got to be better defensively and the ball has got to go in more but I thought we got clean looks.” -- Coach Quin Snyder on how to get the offense going.

Up next

The Hawks head to Utah to take on the Jazz Friday in Snyder’s return to the Delta Center.