Hawks late rally not enough to overcome Cade Cunningham, Pistons early hot shooting

The first-time All-Star scored 29 points in the first half alone, making impossible shot after impossible shot. Cunningham torched the Hawks from all three levels, blowing by defenders to get to the rim. When the Hawks sent doubles to trap him and cut off his looks at the basket, Cunningham found his teammates with bounce passes along the baseline for easy layups or dunks at the basket.

“When you guard Cuningham with two players and someone’s cutting to the basket, you have to guard the guy in the basket and you have to rotate,” Snyder said.

Cunningham finished with a near triple-double, scoring 38 points, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing 12 assists.

2. When the Hawks returned following the first half, they deployed more energy to cutting off Cunningham, holding him to nine points in 18 minutes. They didn’t shy away from blitzing, sending three defenders at time to try and trap him on the sideline or to force the ball out of his hands faster.

Early in the third quarter, Snyder subbed in forward Georges Niang less than two minutes into the third to up the defensive size on the court and cut off Cunningham’s look at the rim. With Niang in for a quick burst, the Hawks got back-to-back stops. They forced Tim Hardaway Jr. to miss a 3, then baited Cunningham into a turnover. Both stops netted the Hawks a pair of 3s that cut their deficit to 81-79.

3. But Cunningham wasn’t the only one to go off in this high-scoring game. Guard Trae Young poured in 38 points and 13 assists.

His speed allowed him to get defenders on his back, where he pulled up to let the shots fly and drew the contact in the process.

Young’s 13 assists, though, come as the Hawks get used to their new normal following the acquisition of three new players. Despite having played with Niang for just five games, the veteran forward was the recipient of six of Young’s assists.

“As frustrating as it is losing, especially losing again to a team that’s right there with us in the standings and something that we felt we needed to win,” Young said. “We still had some new guys that, I mean, we’re trying to get accustomed to playing, how we play, being aggressive, shooting it, and understanding how I play, and things like that.”

4. Niang put up one of the best nights of this season so far, knocking down a season-high seven 3s, for a season-best 27 points.

He let it all fly, hitting catch and shoot 3s with little hesitation and within the flow of the game. With 4:12 to play in the second quarter, Niang knocked down a triple off a behind-the-back pass from Young at the top of the key.

He made his fifth 3 of the night, Niang caught an overhead pass from Onyeka Okongwu off an offensive board.

“Yeah, it’s kind of all with sacrifice and giving,” Niang said. “If another person sacrifices something so that someone else can do their job, then it allows other people to shine.”

5. Niang wasn’t the only one to inject energy into the Hawks rotation as they clawed their way back into yet another clutch game of the season. The Hawks had some strong minutes from two members of their young core in Zaccharie Risacher and Dyson Daniels.

The rookie scored 19 points and has dropped 10-plus points in six straight games.

“I played free,” Risacher said. “I played my game. And every time I step on the court, I try my best bring the energy, play all out on defense, play all out on offense.”

Meanwhile, Daniels tied his career-high in 3-pointers made, going a perfect 3-of-3 from deep.

“I think the more reps I get on court, the more I (trust) the judgment, like close outs and stuff like that, which ones I can get up, which ones I can drive, and stuff like that,” Daniels said.

Stat to know

Zaccharie Risacher has 33 games this season with 10-plus points, the most by any rookie in the Eastern Conference and second-most amongst all rookies this season.

Quotable

“We played hard, we played together. We didn’t win, but we did a lot of good things.” -- Quin Snyder on the effort against the Pistons.

Up Next

The Hawks return to action on Monday against the Heat at State Farm Arena.