SAN FRANCISCO -- The Hawks began their night in the Bay Area sluggishly and they never quite recovered. They fell to the Warriors 120-97 on Wednesday at Chase Center.
Here are five observations:
1. The Hawks looked a step slow in almost everything in the first half. They were slow to get back in transition when the Warriors forced turnovers. They were slow to get to loose balls. Most of all, they were slow to get going offensively, scoring a season-low 22 points in the first quarter. The Warriors scored 41 points.
They didn’t fare better in the second either, scoring just 20 points to put up their worst offensive half the year. The Warriors scored 26 points.
At halftime, the Hawks trailed 67-42.
The Hawks had multiple massive scoring droughts in the first half, including a five-minute stretch where they were 1-of-9 from the field and turned the ball over four times.
“I didn’t think that we talked enough tonight,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “And sometimes that happens when you’re not making shots and it’s actually when you need each other and even more. Regardless of who’s in the game, how long they play, we can run. You can run. You can see that there’s a corner and it’s empty and you can fill it, and you can see where the ball is and you can space and doing that gives us a chance to get connected.”
2. The Hawks briefly found a jolt in the second half, going on a 19-5 run that cut a 31-point Warriors lead to 90-77 with 11:02 to play.
The Hawks’ starters just chipped away at the Warriors lead, making seven consecutive baskets before the second unit came in and forced some much-needed misses. The bench held the Warriors to 1 of 9 overall shooting, while forcing a couple of turnovers that allowed them to carve into the deficit.
They outscored the Warriors 33-23, scoring just nine points fewer than their first-half total.
“But you’re gonna have nights like that,” Snyder said. “And you try to do other things, but, I thought coming out of halftime, we came out in the third quarter and we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves, and we missed free throws, we turned it over them, we missed threes, but we came out and competed. And I was happy to see that.”
3. The Hawks need everything they could get from guard Trae Young, who gave them double-digit assists for the second straight night. Young has had a tough time knocking shots down lately, shooting 36% overall as teams commit to blitzing him and cutting off his looks at the basket.
Young scored 12 points and dished out 11 assists in 30 minutes.
The 26-year-old has been playing through a right Achilles injury, which forced him to miss the game against the Celtics last Tuesday. Young acknowledged that he would have to play with that injury throughout the season.
4. After missing Monday’s game with left lateral lower leg inflammation, Hawks forward Jalen Johnson returned to the rotation. The 22-year-old gave the Hawks a boost of energy at points throughout the night as they continue to lean on him as a playmaker.
Johnson finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
It was the first time this season that the Hawks played with a full rotation after several players managed injuries.
5. The Hawks put up one of their worst shooting nights from outside, with shots falling halfway down then popping back out. They shot 26.1% from 3-point range, their second-worst night from distance after their loss to the Celtics on Nov. 4 when they made just 19.4% of their shots from deep.
“We had a number of guys that I thought had some good shots and they didn’t go,” Snyder said. “It’s tough to you have to stay locked in and spite of that.”
Stat to know
20 -- The Hawks grabbed a season-high 65 rebounds, with 20 of them coming on the offensive glass.
Quotable
“To become a good team, there’s maturity that has to occur. Regardless of how old we are, that’s what we’re trying to do. I’ve said it from the beginning. There’s a process to that happening. We didn’t handle pressure well against Portland and we came in against Sacramento and we had a really good defensive game. Today, we struggled in the first half but we were able to lock in on some things and play better in the third quarter. Now, we gotta go to Chicago and be ready to play.” -- Quin Snyder on if how the Hawks handle hard times is a sign they need to mature.
Up next
The Hawks wrap their road trip on Friday with a stop in Chicago for an NBA Cup game at the United Center.
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