The Hawks let go of the rope in the fourth quarter as the Mavericks got hot and handed the home team a 129-119 loss Monday at State Farm Arena.
Here are five observations.
1. Kyrie Irving had just five field goals in the first three quarters. In the fourth, he reminded everyone why he is one of the greatest closers of all time.
Irving went electric in the final 12 minutes. He knocked down tough shot after tough shot, scoring 11 points in the first 6 minutes of the fourth quarter, forcing the Hawks to call timeout down 115-107 with 6:04 to play. Out of the timeout, he made another 3, the fifth Mavericks’ triple of the quarter.
The eight-time All-Star accounted for 60.6% of the Mavericks’ points in the 4th quarter (16 points, 2 assists, 4 points created from assists).
“I think we had (Jaden) Hardy, (Spencer) Dinwiddie and Kyrie Irving on the floor, they’re three guys that can create a shot,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “They were making threes. They were making the midrange. Just got to tell the guys getting stops down the stretch is, everything.”
2. The Hawks have a habit of letting opposing team’s role players have a night. Monday night proved no different. With the Mavs down Luka Doncic (Right Wrist; Sprain) and Klay Thompson (Left Foot; Plantar fascia), they got a big hand from three players who averaged 10 points or fewer entering the game.
But Jaden Hardy, Naji Marshall and Spencer Dinwiddie all took advantage of the openings in the Mavericks rotation, despite an overtime loss to the Heat on Sunday night.
Hardy, whose previous season-high was 13 points, eclipsed that number with just over three minutes to play in the second quarter. Marshall scored 22 points, four points shy of his career-high from three nights ago. Dinwiddie scored 22 points, despite averaging just 4.7 points per game coming into the night.
“I don’t think any of us expect teams, to come in and feel like they might have a bad night, right now,” guard Trae Young said. “I mean, everybody’s shooting well, everybody’s scoring well right now. So it’s definitely frustrating because you see ,the scouting report, you watch film and guys aren’t playing the way they do when they come in here. So, we gotta force that, though.”
3. The Hawks did have a breakout night offensively from Bogdan Bogdanovic, who followed up his 50% shooting night in Chicago. Bogdanovic not only created looks for himself but he opened up looks for his teammates just with his ability to space the floor.
He scored a season-high 18 points, including a splashy play in his first stint where he made a behind-the-back move to create space from Hardy, his lone defender.
4. With Bogdanovic, Kobe Bufkin and De’Andre Hunter all returning to the team’s rotation over the last three to five games, the Hawks second unit is still undergoing growing pains.
“It’s been three games, so we’re sped up,” Snyder said. “We’re playing and, yeah, we had, there was an 11-0 run there. It was tough, but we bounced back from that.”
The Hawks have struggled to generate enough stops and it has spilled over into their offense that runs stagnant.
They led the Mavericks by 13 with 2:09 to play in the first quarter but that quickly evaporated. The Mavericks went on a 4:00, 17-7 run between the first and second quarters. The Mavericks eventually took a lead with 8:28 to play in the second quarter.
5. The offense picked up when Young played, with the Hawks guard having 16 assists. It’s Young’s fourth consecutive game with double-digit assists and the seventh time in nine games. He continues to lead the league in assists, coming into the night averaging 11.7 per game.
The Hawks were a minus-one with Young on the floor versus a minus-nine without him.
“It’s tough,” Young said. “We’re taking a lot of twos; we’re taking a lot of midrange shots.I hate that they played a lot of a high-school defense versus tonight - zone - and it worked That should never work: going into the zone and being able to stop us.”
Stat to know
Trae Young became the first player in the NBA this season to 200 assists after he dished his 13th assist.
Quotable
“Obviously, we could have been better too still, but 120 is a lot of points. I don’t think that was the reason why we lost tonight.” -- Trae Young on his thoughts on the offense Monday night.
Up Next
The Hawks head to Cleveland to face the 17-1 Cavaliers on Wednesday at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
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