ATLANTA — With uninspired play, the Hawks fell to the Spurs, 136-121, Friday at State Farm Arena.
Next up, the Hawks will play in Boston Sunday.
Below are some takeaways from the loss:
1. This marked the first game since the Hawks’ front office elected to not make a move at Thursday’s trade deadline, and it just had a bizarre feel to it. The Hawks came out completely flat, didn’t snap to attention until the third quarter and couldn’t get stops, rendering a comeback impossible. Hawks coach Nate McMillan has stated the team wants to finish in one of the top six spots in the Eastern Conference, which means they have to finish the season quite strong, can’t look ahead to the All-Star break and can’t afford losses like this, especially games they enter as the favorite with a clean injury report. In the hunt to get back to .500 for a while now, the Hawks slip to 26-29. The lack of energy was inexplicable, even for McMillan.
“Just flat,” McMillan said. “I don’t understand where that came from. As we’ve talked about the last couple days, the position that we’re in and the urgency we need to play with, we were just flat. They outworked us, they played harder than us, they executed better than us and that happened for 48 minutes. This is a surprise.”
2. A slow start (particularly on defense) put the Hawks in a 17-point hole at one point in the first quarter, and they ended up yielding 43 points in the opening period. Despite a good run from the bench unit to start the second quarter, they still trailed by 17 at halftime. They finally picked up the energy in the third, but still trailed by 16 entering the fourth. Lately, the Hawks have had many a rough start followed by strong fourth-quarter finishes, but after they got the deficit down from 24 to 17 with 5:14 to play thanks to 3-pointers from Trae Young (18 points, 11 assists, four rebounds, five turnovers) and Kevin Huerter (14 points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals, two blocks, two turnovers), it came down to defense again. The Spurs (21-35) put together a 7-0 run that lifted a comeback out of reach.
“It’s hard to have energy when they’re making shots and they’re making runs and we’re just not making it, not making plays, so it’s definitely tough to have a lot of energy when they’re making the plays,” Young said when asked about the Hawks’ energy level.
3. This was another good game from the bench, which has thrived with Bogdan Bogdanovic, who came off the bench to lead the Hawks with 23 points, to go with five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Danilo Gallinari added 16 points and nine rebounds as a reserve, with the bench overall tallying 62 points. The plus-minus difference between Hawks starters and bench players in this game was start: Bodanovic finished as a plus-17, Gallinari plus-12, Delon Wright was a plus-16 and Onyeka Okongwu was a plus-11. For the starters, Young was a minus-30, Huerter a minus-30, Clint Capela a minus-36, John Collins a minus-30 and De’Andre Hunter a minus-41.
4. Dejounte Murray was unstoppable for the Spurs with a triple-double of 32 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds, adding four steals and finishing as a plus-33.
5. Collins exited the game midway through the third quarter and was eventually ruled out with right heel pain. He tweaked his heel, McMillan said postgame, and wasn’t able to return. Same for Wright, who tweaked his ankle and couldn’t finish the game.
— Stat of the game: 56.2% (or 18 for 32, what the Spurs shot from 3-point range, compared to the Hawks’ 32.6%, or 14 for 43)
— Star of the game: Murray (had a triple-double with 32 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds, plus four steals)
— Quotable: “We weren’t in the building, mentally. We have to figure out what’s going on, mentally. We weren’t here to start this game.” (McMillan on the Hawks giving up 43 points in the first quarter)
