DETROIT -- After giving up 40 points to the Pistons in the opening quarter, the Hawks corrected some of their defensive mistakes. But the first-half hole proved too much and they fell 122-121 at Little Caesars Arena Friday night.
Here are five observations:
1. Where would the Hawks be without Dyson Daniels?
The 21-year-old played relentless defense, especially while handling the primary defensive assignment of guarding Cade Cunningham. Daniels impacted play-after-play, swatting away at dribbles, poking balls loose and just generally being disruptive.
With 22.9 to play, Daniels picked up Cunningham at half court before slipping under a screen set by Isaiah Stewart. He recovered and got back in front of Cunningham and contested the shot that hit front iron and into Jalen Johnson’s hands. The tight defense eventually turned into free throws from Trae Young.
“I mean, that’s what I do, just active hands, getting deflections, trying to make it tough,” Daniels said.
On the play right before that, Daniels hit a 3 that cut the game to 120-119 and gave the Hawks a chance.
Daniels leads the league in deflections but ended the night with a career-high seven steals, along with 18 points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
2. Though Daniels made Cunningham take tough shots, the Pistons’ fourth-year guard ended the night with his third straight triple-double. Cunningham took advantage of minutes when Daniels went to the bench and hunted for matchups where he could blow by defenders and get to the rim.
Cunningham scored 22 points, making just one 3-pointer. He played through the Hawks’ physicality and came up big to stop the Hawks’ push in the final minutes of the game.
Out of a timeout, he drove to the basket and got by Daniels and hit the go-ahead shot off the glass. On the other end, he stopped Onyeka Okongwu’s game-winning dunk attempt to ice the contest for the Pistons.
“I don’t know that we could have done anything more on Cunningham with a sweeping left-hand hook,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “It’s a hell of a shot.”
Cunningham grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 13 assists to go along with one block and one steal.
3. The Hawks had a terrible first half. They could not hit a shot. They could not defend, allowing the Pistons to make over 60% of their overall baskets and drop 40 points in the first quarter.
Though the Pistons’ shooting seemed to cool off in the second quarter, the Hawks’ offense briefly picked up before sputtering out. The Hawks had a chance to cut a 24-point Pistons lead to 11 after going on a 15-5 run.
But they gave up a 3 to Tobias Harris. Then Harris blocked Young’s jumper. They turned the ball over out of bounds, gave up another 3, this time to Malik Beasley. Then Clint Capela missed a hook. The Hawks had another turnover, missed a floater, missed a layup, before giving up another 3 to Harris that put the Pistons up by 20.
4. But the Hawks got a boost from Young in the second quarter to spark their comeback. Then Johnson kept their rally steady in the third. The two, who have picked up the ‘peanut butter and jelly’ nickname, combined for 55 of the team’s points. Young had 35 and Johnson 20.
They really leaned on Young, as the Hawks struggled to generate offense without him. The Hawks were a plus-14 with him on the court and a minus-15 without him in seven minutes.
The Hawks played Young for 41 minutes, despite having to turn around and play again on Saturday.
5. The Hawks had a perfect night from one of their bigs when they subbed in Larry Nance Jr. to find more favorable matchups. Nance ended the night making all five of his shots from the floor and three of his 3-point attempts. He finished with 13 points.
The Pistons clamped the Hawks’ looks in the pick-and-roll in the first half and they opted for a different approach when they returned from the locker room.
“But I felt like tonight, particularly because they were blitzing Larry in the pocket, some of the spacing would be helpful to us, and he made some big plays, particularly, the second half,” Snyder said. “But he gave us the lift.”
Stat to know
7 -- Dyson Daniels’ seven steals are the most in a game in the NBA this season and the most for the franchise since Feb. 26, 2010 by Josh Smith had seven versus the Mavericks.
Quotable
“They jumped us. We knew they were gonna be physical, but they got us in that first quarter, the first half. So we need to be better there. But we fought back. We knew we had to. We had no choice.” -- Daniels said of the slow start.
Up next
The Hawks play the Bulls on the second night of back-to-back games on Saturday at State Farm Arena.
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