Hornets threaten but Hawks hold firm, improve to 2-0

On Friday night, Young put up an efficient 34 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out 10 assists.

Young pulled up and hit 3s in transition. He drove into the paint and hit floaters, some of them coming off one leg. He also didn’t shy away from contact when he dribbled down low to try and draw defenders away from the perimeter. When he couldn’t find space to find teammates outside, he looked to the basket and drew the foul.

The Hawks needed all of Young’s efforts as the Hornets got physical with him and his team.

“I think those things show maturity,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “It’s really important to him as a player, and it shows the connectedness that, he’s going to get dirty too, and we all have to get dirty, that’s how you win.”

2. The Hawks gave up 42 points to the Hornets in the second quarter. Hornets guard LaMelo Ball took advantage, scoring 10 points in the final three minutes of the quarter, knocking down a pair of free throws, hitting a dunk in transition then making a pair of 3s.

Ball scored 18 of his 34 points in the second quarter, which pulled the Hornets within 62-58 of the Hawks by the end of the first half.

3. Ball and the Hornets’ explosive second quarter further cemented how important Dyson Daniels is to the Hawks rotation. When Daniels subbed out of the game in the second quarter, the Hawks had allowed the Hornets to score just 22 points in 14 minutes.

“He’s impactful,” Snyder said. “Obviously, we all see that. When you watch his play, you see the impact he has. And it really, our team, became a little deflated. I thought when he came out and I thought Vit (Krejci) did a really good job.”

When Daniels served as Ball’s primary defender, he helped to hold him to just 10 points before he picked up his fifth foul with 8:09 to play in the game.

With limited playing time, Daniels poured in a career-high 18 points on 8-of-10 overall shooting and gave the Hawks a couple of timely 3s in a one-minute span to keep the Hornets at bay early in the third quarter.

4. Though the Hawks forced the Hornets into the tough shots, they failed to complete those plays. They allowed the Hornets to score 24 second-chance points off of 22 offensive rebounds. The Hawks sometimes gave up three offensive boards in a row.

Hornets center Nick Richards ended the night with 12 points and 13 rebounds, six of which came off the offensive boards.

“They were tipping the ball out a lot, and they still got too many offensive rebounds, and that was a focus point going into this game, because the last game goes that way,” Young said.

But guards Seth Curry, Vasa Micic and Tre Mann, who are among some of the Hornets’ shorter players, each grabbed three offensive rebounds.

5. The Hawks extended the contract of Jalen Johnson on Monday. Defenses have looked to guard him differently, committing double teams to slow him down when he tries to attack the basket in transition. They’ve also made sure their defenders took up space to cut off his looks and forced him to make the extra pass.

Johnson scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds on Wednesday night. He followed up the opener with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals.

Stat to know

11-9: In back-to-back games, the Hawks had 11 or more steals and 9 or more blocks. It’s the first time since Jan. 16, 1986 to Jan. 18, 1986.

Quotable

“I mean, if you ain’t know it by now, I’m one of the smartest players in this league. I know when guys have one or five fouls. I know a lot of things going on on the court.” -- Young on drawing Ball’s sixth foul.

Up next

The Hawks head to Oklahoma City for the second time in 10 days to face the Thunder on Sunday evening at the PayCom Center.