Hawks Lose at Home to Chicago 136-126 Despite Big Performances From Bogdan Bogdanovic and De'Andre Hunter

Atlanta travels to Charlotte on Wednesday for its last game before the All-Star break

The Hawks came into tonight's matchup with the Chicago Bulls trailing them by a game in the standings and needing a win to try and move up. Atlanta had won six of their last eight games and two straight coming into tonight's game. 

The Bulls are not an elite team but do some things that can pose an issue to the Hawks. They play at a very slow pace and have a good enough defense to bother guys like Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. The problem was that their best defender, Alex Caruso, was going to be missing from the lineup tonight.

That did not matter though. 

The Bulls got a career night from Ayo Dosunmu, which resulted in a season-high in points for the team, the Hawks played really bad defense all night and got off nights from their star guards Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. All of those things erased great performances off the bench from De'Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Now, the Bulls own the tiebreaker if it were to come down to that in the standings. The Hawks had been playing well coming into this game, but this felt like a Hawks performance from earlier in the season. 

Atlanta was getting backup center Bruno Fernando back, helping the bench, and ensuring that Jalen Johnson was not going to have to play the backup center minutes. Patty Mills, Wesley Matthews, and Clint Capela were still out for the Hawks. 

Young, Murray, Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu were the starters for the Hawks. 

Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Torrey Craig, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic were the first five on the floor for the Bulls tonight. 

It was a great start for the Hawks in this game. 

Atlanta lept out to an 18-11 lead early in the first quarter and the Bulls could not get anything going on offense. 

The Hawks went nine-deep with their rotation tonight and they did not include rookie Kobe Bufkin. Bufkin played close to 16 minutes against the Rockets on Saturday but did not play tonight for the Hawks. They brought Bogdan Bogdanovic, Bruno Fernando, Garrison Matthews, and De'Andre Hunter off the bench. 

The Hawks would lead 33-26 after the first quarter. 

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Atlanta looked like it was going to start pulling away from the Bulls and a lot of that was due to the play of Bogdanovic and Hunter off the bench. 

The Hawks led by as many as 13 in the second quarter but that would soon feel like a distant memory. 

Hawks forward De'Andre Hunter guards DeMar DeRozan / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Dosunmu helped lead a 17-4 run for the Bulls to take the lead going into the half. He scored 13 points in the second quarter and Chicago, which has one of the worst offenses in the NBA, outscored the Hawks 34-26 in the quarter and led 60-59. 

At the half, Atlanta was shooting 42% from the field and 32% from three. Bogdanovic and Hunter had 13 points each, but it was an uncharacteristically bad half from Young, who had six points on 1-8 shooting. 

The Bulls were shooting 54% from the field and 47% from three. Dosunmu had 17 points and DeRozan had 14. In terms of bench points, the Hawks held a big advantage 28-12. 

Chicago held firm control for the rest of the game. 

The Hawks could not garner enough stops and no matter how close they got, their defense would give up another bucket to the Bulls on the other end of the floor. 

The point-of-attack defense was all kinds of bad for the Hawks tonight. There isn't much that the Bulls do well on offense, but they were able to beat Hawks defenders to the basket with ease tonight. 

The Hawks did attempt to make one more run at the end of the game. Down 12, Atlanta went on a 6-0 run to cut the game to six points, but DeRozan hit a bucket to end the game. Chicago won 136-126 and this was the worst game that the Hawks had played in some time. 

For the game, the Hawks shot 47% from the field and 33% from three. Bogdanovic had 28 points and Hunter had 23 points. It was tough sledding for the rest of the team. 

Young had 19 points and Murray had 17, but they shot a combined 10-31 from the field and 4-18 from three. Bey and Johnson were non-factors in this game on both ends of the floor. 

Chicago shot 55% from the field and 46% from three. Dosunmu and DeRozan had 29, Vucevic had 24, and Coby White had 20. 

One thing to keep an eye on going forward will be the health of Okongwu. Quin Snyder said Okongwu was not on the floor to finish the game due to a toe injury. 

Quin Snyder said that the Hawks finished the game with a small lineup on the floor because Onyeka Okongwu injured his toe. pic.twitter.com/GpNAugoPse

— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) February 13, 2024

This was a tough loss for the Hawks. It was a poor performance on defense against one of the worst offensive teams in the league and it gives Chicago a leg up on the standings in the Play-In Race. The Hawks will have one more game before the All-Star Break, this Wednesday on the road in Charlotte. 

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