Atlanta, GA- The Hawks were shorthanded yet again tonight, but were hopeful to pull the upset vs a healthy Sacramento team that was playing well coming into the game. They trailed by as many as 18 in the game, but they fought to to tie it in the fourth quarter. However, they ran out of gas and lost their fourth straight game as a result.
For three quarters, the Hawks’s defense was the same as it usually was, but they played their best defensive fourth quarter of the year, yet it was not enough. It was a combination of poor offense and fouls that sunk Atlanta’s chances late in the game. After tying the game up 109-109 with under six minutes to go, the Hawks only scored six points the rest of the way and the duo of De’Aaron Fox and DeMar DeRozan closed the game out.
The Hawks offense did ont have its best night, but they got huge contributions from Garrison Matthews off the bench, as well as Keaton Wallace. Matthews was arguably the Hawks best player tonight, scoring 23 points on 7-13 from three. Keaton Wallace had 14 points on 4-8 from three and was also solid defensively down the stretch. Wallace and Matthews both closed the game for Atlanta.
It was not the most efficient night for Trae Young, but he played well. He scored 25 points and had 12 assists on 8-21 shooting and 3-9 from three. After the game, head coach Quin Snyder had a lot of praise for Young and the game that he played tonight:
“Everybody should get their pens out and start writing about Trae Young because he’s he was poised with the officials from the very beginning of the game, he got blitzed. He trusted his teammates, he wasn’t selfish, he got off the ball early to shooters, then he started hitting Clint in the role. He managed the game, took a charge of six minutes left in the game, and if anybody doesn’t look at his performance tonight, and, and respect the mental toughness that he has to play with right now. When everything’s going through him with admiration for his competitiveness and the trust he has in his teammates, he was– the guy was unbelievable. He was unbelievable. and not diminishing other guys’ efforts, but that was a hell of a performance. And we shouldn’t lose track of that because we lost the game, okay?”
It was a so-so night for Jalen Johnson. He scored 14 points on 4-10 shooting and also had nine assists as well as five rebounds. It was not a horrible night for Johnson, but he did not affect the game in a big way.
Both Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu were solid for the Hawks tonight. Okongwu has been playing the majority of the minutes, but Capela got the bigger workload tonight and had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Okongwu had 11 points and four rebounds.
This was probably the worst game of young Zaccharie Risacher’s career. He hit the first basket of the entire game, but finished 1-9. Risacher has been able to affect the game in other ways this season, but this was not one of those nights. He was a team worst -25 when on the court and did not play in the fourth quarter. There are better nights ahead for Risacher, but this is one he will want to forget.
The Hawks finished the game shooting 45% from the field and 38% from three. It was a so-so performance overall on that end of the floor.
It was a rough night for the Hawks on defense, at least until the fourth quarter. Sacramento shot 48% from the field and 33% from three in this game. De’Aaron Fox, who was probably the best player on the court, shot 11-16 from the field and finished with 31 points. DeMar DeRozan had 27 points and eight rebounds. The Kings held a big rebounding advantage over the Hawks 51-40.
Overall, this was a game that Atlanta had a chance to steal late, but they struggled throughout, especially on defense. Being shorthanded against a good team did not help either and it resulted in a disappointing loss on Friday night. The Hawks are back in action on Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
