Hawks Pummeled By Rockets Behind Harden's 60

James Harden exploded for 60 points in just 31 minutes as the Rockets handed Atlanta its 10th consecutive loss.

The Hawks were out of sorts from the start of Saturday’s 158-111 loss to the Rockets, and James Harden did nothing to make them feel comfortable. Atlanta, who played an overtime game in Indianapolis last night, began the game with defensive breakdowns and never quite seemed to agree on how to contain Harden and the rest of Houston’s attack. The Rockets scored 1.5 points per possession, playing as close to a perfect offensive game as any team has against Atlanta this season. They shot 25-of-50 from beyond the arc and 23-of-28 at the rim while getting to the free-throw line 34 times. At no point did the Hawks look prepared to stop Houston, and Harden took full advantage.

“We tried to do what you have to do against James, which is throw a lot of bodies at him, try and put him under duress,” Lloyd Pierce said. “He just didn’t feel us.” The NBA’s leading scorer needed only 24 shot attempts to drop 60 points on Atlanta’s discombobulated defense – the fewest number of attempts any player has ever needed to reach 60. He hit eight of his 14 3-point attempts and 20 of his 23 free throws without ever fully exerting himself. Harden scored 10 points in the first six minutes of the game and by the time he settled into a rhythm, there was quite literally nothing the Hawks could do to disrupt him. He repeatedly schooled De’Andre Hunter with fakes, stepbacks, and drawn fouls.

The Hawks tried forcing the ball out of Harden’s hands by bringing an extra defender to him as soon as he crossed halfcourt, but like Trae Young did against the Pacers, Harden had answers for everything Atlanta threw at him. On the few occasions Hunter managed to successfully challenge Harden, the former MVP either drained difficult shots or found open teammates for easy buckets. He anticipated traps and gave up the ball before the Hawks could take it. If double-teams arrived too late, he simply dribbled past the extra defender and got all the way to the rim. Atlanta’s rim protection was virtually non-existent as Harden repeatedly sauntered into the lane for uncontested layups.

“They space you out. That’s what Houston does,” Pierce said. “And because of their spacing they’re able to get downhill and get to the rim.”

Despite a disastrous defensive showing, the Hawks played relatively well on offense. Their 105.7 offensive rating was better than their full-season mark and they generated efficient shots for most of the game. Even after playing 43 minutes against Indiana on Friday, Young finished with 37 points and seven assists – some of which came in the fourth quarter, when the game was well out of hand – while Len supplied 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting off the bench. Atlanta shot poorly as a team, but not enough for it to sink them entirely.

The Hawks’ offense was bogged down, in part, by their inability to get out in transition. Atlanta scored 1.7 points per possession in transition, according to Cleaning the Glass, but didn’t get many opportunities in the open court because it so often started possessions taking the ball out of the basket.

Saturday’s loss brings Atlanta to a 4-16 record on the season – tied for the worst mark in the NBA. The Hawks have now lost 10 in a row and 16 of their last 18 games. They will take on the Golden State Warriors – with whom the Hawks are tied for the worst record in the league – Monday night in Atlanta. Though Atlanta is in the midst of a dismal losing streak and its season is spiraling toward the ground, it has played well enough at moments to suggest the team could find its way out of its current rut. Saturday offered no such hope.

“I feel bad for our guys because I thought we had been playing really good basketball,” Pierce said. “You miss out on an opportunity last night, you miss out on an opportunity against Milwaukee the game before, and come here and you run into a tough situation.”