Hawks Lose in Season Opener to Charlotte 116-110

Atlanta returns to action on Friday against the Knicks

The 2023-2024 season tipped off for the Hawks tonight against their Southeast division rival the Charlotte Hornets. 

Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, De'Andre Hunter, Saddiq Bey, and Clint Capela were the starters for Atlanta. This lineup should not come as a surprise, as it was the starting lineup for the last preseason game against the 76ers last Friday. 

For the game tonight, Atlanta was without Wesley Matthews, who was out with a mild calf strain. Matthews is going to be reevaluated in two weeks. 

1st Quarter

The first few minutes of the game were a back-and-forth between the two teams. 

After Ball missed the first shot, Young got the first points of the season on a midrange jumper to put the Hawks up 2-0. Williams would get some easy baskets and early rebounds to put the Hornets up 4-2. 

Williams would have a great start to the first quarter. Halfway through the quarter, Williams had seven points and two rebounds and the Hawks were having trouble with him in the paint. 

The Hawks led 8-6 with 8:23 left in the quarter and that is when the Hornets went on the first run of the game. 

Hayward hit two baskets pushed the lead to 10-8 and then after Bey tied the game, Williams had an and one and he hit the free throw to make it 13-10. Back-to-back buckets from P.J. Washington and Rozier pushed the lead to 17-12 and that is when head coach Quin Snyder called his first timeout. It was a sloppy start filled with turnovers and a 0-5 start from three. 

Bogdanovic and Jalen Johnson were the first subs in the game for the Hawks and immediately out of the timeout, Hunter hit a basket to cut it to 17-14. 

It was Murray, Bogie, Johnson, Capela, and Hunter on the court for the Hawks. 

The Hawks put together a 6-0 run to take the lead 18-17 and early on, Atlanta had a rebounding advantage of 11-5. 

Johnson hit a bucket to make it 22-20 with 2:53 left in the first quarter and Charlotte hit timeout after the run from Atlanta. After the timeout, Young checked back in and he shared the floor with Okongwu, Bogie, Johnson, and Griffin. 

The Hawks closed the first quarter in style. A stolen pass led to a dunk from Bogie and then Johnson had two back-to-back highlight dunks. 

Dunk 3: Trae OFF THE BACKBOARD to Jalen 🤌 pic.twitter.com/2h30CBD8C5

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) October 25, 2023

At the end of the first quarter, the Hawks led 29-25. Atlanta was shooting 50% from the field, but was 0-6 from three. Jalen Johnson led the way with seven points and three rebounds. Tough start for Trae Young, who was 1-4 in the quarter and only had two points. 

On the other side, Charlotte shot 52.4% from the field, but were also struggling from three, going 1-5 in the opening quarter. Williams led the way for Charlotte with 7 points. Ball had one point and was 0-4 from the field. 

2nd Quarter

The second quarter started off the way the first ended. The Hawks got another dunk, this time courtesy of Okongqu, and pushed the lead to 31-25. 

The first challenge of the game came early in the quarter after Okongwu was whistled for an offensive foul, but was overturned after a smart challenge for Snyder. 

Young hit two foul shots with 10:40 left in the quarter to push the lead to 33-25. He was doing a good job of getting to the foul line and the perimeter defense for the Hawks led to an 11-2 run. 

Ball hit two free throws, Washington hit another floater, and Maledon hit a bucket to cut the lead to 35-31, and just like that, the Hornets were on a mini run and Snyder called a timeout with 8:44 left to go in the first half. Both teams were still struggling to score, shooting a combined 1-15 from three. 

With his 10th point of the game, Young scored his 9,000th career point, becoming the 8th Atlanta Hawk to do so. 

Trae Young has become the 8th Hawk in Atlanta history to score 9,000 career points 🥶 pic.twitter.com/p8QW6QaZWE

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) October 25, 2023

The defense for Atlanta was suffocating Charlotte. After a Charlotte timeout with 4:34 in the half, Johnson had 13 points and six rebounds, including a great transition bucket. 

DJ and JJ on the break ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/6Je4iWRhWi

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) October 26, 2023

The Hornets still had a run in them though. Rozier led the way, scoring seven straight points to cut the lead to 49-46 in favor of Atlanta. 

After a pair of free throws by Murray to make it 51-46, it was once again Rozier with a three-pointer to make it 51-49. Rozier saved the Hornet's offense and the Hawks's offense was going cold at the wrong time. 

After a rare missed shot from Rozier, Mark Williams hit a putback layup, and the game was suddenly tied. 

It was a sloppy end to the first half, but the Hawks led 52-51. 

Jalen Johnson led the way for the Hawks with 13 points on 5-7 shooting and six rebounds. Young and Murray combined to go 4-18 from the field in the first half and 16 points. They shot 0-5 combined from three. 

Atlanta shot 39.6 from the field in the first half and 8.3% from three. They held a slight rebounding edge over Charlotte 27-25. 

Rozier and Washington led the way for Charlotte with 13 and 12 points respectively. Charlotte shot 46.3% from the field and 28.6% from three. 

The bright spot in the first half for Atlanta was undoubtedly Johnson. He moved well on the court and was very efficient in the first half. 

3rd Quarter

The third quarter started with a duel between Ball and Capela.

Both players scored six points to start the quarter and Ball hit two three-pointers. It was 60-59 with 8:16 left in the third and Young still could not get his offense going. 

Hayward hit a mid-range shot with 7:58 to take the lead and that is when Snyder decided to use a timeout to get his team back together. 

Hunter hit a three to give the Hawks the lead and it was just their second three-pointer of the game so far, but then picked up his fourth foul. 

Young could not get his shot going, but Ball fouled him when the hornets were leading 67-63 with 5:58 to go in the third quarter. Johnson checked back in for Hunter at this point and looked to have another successful half. 

Bogdanovic checked in for Young after an offensive foul on Hayward and it was Murray, Bogi, Capela, Bey, and Johnson on the floor for the Hawks. 

 Charlotte led at a timeout 69-67 with 3:24 left to go in the third quarter. 

After a lob from Ball to Miller, Charlotte led 73-67 and had all the momentum. That is when Young likes to try and get to the line and that is what happened. Young hit the pair and it was 73-69 with two minutes to go in the third quarter. 

Ball hit his third three-pointer of the quarter to take it to 76-69, but Johnson got two points back on the other end to make it 76-71. 

Johnson would set his new career high in points (17) with his next bucket and it would be the Hornets leading heading into the 4th quarter 78-73. 

Young and Murray were a combined 4-26 going into the final quarter. Atlanta was 2-19 from three and shooting 37.1% from the field. They were going to need to be better on the offensive end if they wanted the road win. 

4th Quarter

The fourth quarter began with Johnson finding Okongwu for an and one to cut into the lead. 

Atlanta found some offense from some great passing from Young. He found Okongwu on a lob to cut it to three and then after a missed shot from the Hornets, Young found Bey for a three, the Hawks third of the game. Charlotte called a timeout with 9:07 left in the game leading 87-86. 

Bey got a steal after Charlotte got careless with the ball and the Hawks finally got the lead back after a transition bucket. Nick Richards split a pair of free throws to tie the game, but Bey kept up the attack and hit an and one to get the Hawks a three-point lead. That made it 11 points in four minutes for Bey. 

Saddiq steals and gives us the lead 🥷 pic.twitter.com/RC6hb9fPbC

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) October 26, 2023

Bogdanovic nailed a three to go up 94-90, but Miller hit a falling away three at the end of the shot clock to get it back to a one-point game. 

Murray got fouled and went to the line. He split the pair and Johnson reentered the game. Williams found Miller under the basket on the next possession and the game was tied again. 

After Johnson hit a fade-away shot to take the lead, Washington hit a three for Charlotte to retake the lead. It was another frantic back and forth between the teams and it would only continue. 

After Capela had a dunk to take the lead back again, Miller showed up and hit a shot and the rookie had eight points in the quarter. Snyder called a timeout to slow the momentum with 4:12 left and the Hawks now trailing by two. 

The Hawks opted to close with Young, Murray, Hunter, Johnson, and Capela. 

Williams had a putback dunk to extend the lead, but Young drew a foul on the other end. He hit both to cut into the lead. 

Washington got a dunk after Young tried to draw the charge, but Murray had a strong take to the basket to get two. 

The Hornets extended the lead to 109-103 with 1:30 to go and Young hit a floater to cut it to four. 

After a miss from Rozier, the Hawks had the ball down four with under a minute left, but a turnover sealed the game. The Hawks would begin to foul the Hornets, but the game was over. There were too many defensive mistakes at the end of the game, plus poor possessions on the other end. 

The Hawks lost 116-110. 

On one hand, the Hawks should not have such a poor game shooting from Murray and Young again. The Hawks were also a poor shooting team overall. They are the Hawks's two best players and it is going to be tough to win any game if those two shoot that poorly. It was a tough loss for the team, but there were plenty of things that did not go their way and they will look to get back on track against the Knicks on Friday. 

For the game, Young shot 4-19 and 1-9 from three. Murray shot 3-14 from the field and 0-3 from three. 

The Hawks shot 41.9% from the field and 17.2% from three. 

Atlanta opens their home schedule this Friday against the Knicks. 

Be sure to tune into AllHawks.com for the latest coverage

Follow Jackson on Twitter: @jacksoncaudell

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