LAS VEGAS -- The Hawks put up a good fight on Saturday afternoon in their NBA Cup semifinal game against the Bucks at T-Mobile Arena. Though they pushed the Bucks through 43 minutes, their silent offense in crunch time shows they still have many lessons to learn.
“Just as a team, we got a lot of room to grow,” Hawks forward Jalen Johnson said. “I’m proud of everybody. We defeated a lot of odds, coming in and making it all the way to Vegas. So, there’s nothing to hang our heads about. We just gotta keep moving in the right direction.”
The Hawks led the Bucks by one at the end of the third quarter, lost the lead quickly, but kept themselves within one to three points for much of the fourth. Then the shots stopped falling and they struggled to contain Giannis Antetokounmpo in the final five minutes.
They fell to the Bucks 110-102 after they made just 5 of 16 shots in the entire fourth quarter. They went 1 of 7 from the floor in the final five minutes.
Hawks guard Trae Young powered them for most of the game, putting up one of his most efficient shooting nights this season. It’s the fifth time this season that Young has shot 50% or better overall and his scoring kept the Hawks in the game in the first and third quarters.
“We had some good looks, and I think us being able to execute during that stretch is something we need to get better at,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “I can’t go through all seven shots. I know there were a few that were really good shots and we had to work for them. That said, I think, we know whatever that is could be on the margins there’s certain things that we need to do better. But, I think for us to put ourselves in that situation, given we didn’t really make shots during the course of the game either.”
The Hawks entered Saturday’s game as four-point underdogs despite winning seven of their last eight games, which included a win over the Bucks. But unlike their win in Milwaukee on Dec. 4, the Hawks had to face the Bucks not coming off back-to-back games and with Khris Middleton back in the rotation.
Middleton added another strong passer to the Bucks rotation. While the Hawks have made running the floor a priority in their gameplan, Middleton slipped a pass behind Johnson to find Antetokounmpo cutting to the basket for a key score.
“I mean, obviously we showed throughout this whole Cup that we belong,” Johnson said. “We can compete with the best of them. Unfortunately, today we came up short. It’s just going to give us a lot to learn from moving forward. Especially down the stretch in those last five, six minutes, I’ve definitely got to be better.”
Snyder has said all season that the Hawks have a long runway because they have so much young and inexperienced talent on the roster. He repeatedly points to the age of three starters - Zaccharie Risacher (19), Dyson Daniels (21) and Jalen Johnson (22). He has also pointed to the youth among some of their veterans in Young (26) and De’Andre Hunter (27).
So, with so much youth in the ranks, Snyder has stressed that this season will have a lot of ups and downs.
“Our growth is not going to be just linear,” Snyder said. “We’re going to have those moments, and every time we have, like tonight, you know, what can we take from it? And I think that’s really true for Zacch and Dyson and JJ. These moments, because they’re getting an opportunity at a young age to be in them there’s a lot of opportunity.”
That’s where Young, who has continued to own his role as a leader, stepped up not just in his ability to score but tried to help pick up his teammates.
“Just in the moment, you continue to uplift them and give them praise, even when they miss,” Young said. “We know the shots that certain guys got tonight, we’ve been making, and we’re going to continue to make, going forward. Some shots didn’t go tonight, and that’s what you got to do as a leader. You got to continue to uplift them no matter what the circumstances and how they go that night.”
Though the Hawks did not advance to the final, they can’t help but take pride in the path that led them to Las Vegas. That road included wins over the Celtics and the Cavaliers in the group play, as well as wins over the Lakers and the Bucks in non-Cup play.
“We’re going to learn from it,” Young said. “It’s not the end of the world. We’re going to learn from it and be better from it.”
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