How Reddish and the Hawks Can Grow From Loss to Lakers

Cam Reddish came up just short late in Atlanta's 101-96 loss to the Lakers, but the team was encouraged by how it played on Sunday.

As Cam Reddish walked slowly down the court late in Atlanta’s 101-96 loss to the Lakers, his teammates flocked toward him. Reddish had just missed a 3-pointer from the left corner that would have tied the game with nine seconds to play, and the other Hawks came to offer support and consolation. Trae Young put his arm around his much taller teammate’s shoulder and patted him on the chest as De’Andre Hunter extended an arm to slap his fellow rookie’s hand. Between Danny Green’s game-sealing free throws, Vince Carter, the 22-year NBA veteran who had set up Reddish’s jumper, walked over to the rookie to lift him up.

“I felt a lot of positive energy,” Reddish said. “They were glad I was willing to take the shot, and I always will be.” The 20-year-old does not lack for confidence, and the mere act of taking the shot was reflective of a self-assuredness that eludes some rookies when they come into the NBA. That, however, hasn’t insulated Reddish from the trials of being a rookie, which he’s experienced in full. His 3-point percentage now sits below 27 percent for the season and he has been one of the most damaging rotation players in the NBA. In Sunday’s game alone, he fumbled two easy passes, committed three turnovers, and was taken advantage of by LeBron James – all while shooting 3-of-10 from the field.

Were it not for Kevin Huerter re-aggravating his left shoulder earlier in the game, Reddish might not have been burdened with the pressure of hitting such a clutch shot. Instead, he’ll shoulder all the frustration and disappointment of coming up short in a big moment. All he can control now is how he moves on from it.

“I just told Cam Reddish that this is a moment that just got him better,” Lloyd Pierce said immediately following the game. “It’s kind of like a rite of passage. You come into the NBA, you’re looking to make these plays, and the burn of not making it is what propels you to get in the gym and look for that moment and do it with that type of intensity and that type of pressure every day.”

That part of NBA life hasn’t been difficult for Reddish, even if translating it to actual production has. The rookie is a tireless worker who spends his spare hours honing the mechanics on his jumper, his footwork, and other details he has yet to master. He wants to be a great player, and believes beyond a doubt that, eventually, he will be. But these processes come along slowly, and while encouraging flashes have become increasingly frequent, Reddish has yet to reach a point of consistent, positive production.

That the Hawks were in position for Reddish’s late miss to matter in the first place could be considered an achievement unto itself. Atlanta entered Sunday with a three-game losing streak and the third-worst net rating in the NBA; the Lakers owned the league’s second-best point differential, a six-game winning streak, and, conservatively, two of the 10 best players in the world. They trounced the Hawks in L.A. four weeks ago and have only improved since then. And yet, the Lakers could never quite put the Hawks away. When L.A. made a run, Atlanta would respond to stay within striking distance. Even as LeBron James went off for 17 points in the second quarter, the Hawks managed to keep the lead within seven points at halftime.

“They’re arguably the best team in the league, so I thought we played really well just to be there with them,” Huerter said. “We kind of took every punch, we kept coming back, and just didn’t make shots at the end.”

The drawback to being a dominant team is inspiring every opponent’s best effort, and the Hawks gave theirs against the Western Conference’s top squad. “I just think when you see who’s on their team and on their roster, you have that appropriate fear, and so it locks you in a little bit more,” Pierce said. “And I think they brought out our competitive level tonight and I was really proud of all of our guys, just the way they were competing and battling.”

The challenge for Atlanta, as it has been all season, will be sustaining that intensity level on a more consistent basis. “There’s no reason that we should play these guys [the Lakers] differently than we’re going to play the Knicks on Tuesday or the way we played Chicago last game,” Huerter said. “We’ve got to have the same energy.”

What separates the NBA’s very worst teams from the merely bad ones are nights like Atlanta had in Chicago or Los Angeles – punchless efforts that result in comically lopsided results. The mere act of showing up and playing hard, smart, and together creates a certain baseline of competence regardless of a team’s talent level. The Hawks haven’t yet established that foundation, but they have proven capable of hanging around with the NBA’s elite teams.

They’ve lost to Philadelphia and Toronto by five combined points, taken the Heat to overtime in Miami, and twice held second-half leads against the mighty Bucks. On Sunday, Atlanta held the Lakers under a point per possession for just the third time all season, and while Los Angeles inflicted much of that damage upon itself, the Hawks capitalized on enough miscues to hang around. The Lakers turned the ball over on over a fifth of their possessions, which the Hawks translated into 19 fast-break points. That represented a significant lift in a game without much production in the halfcourt. James’ second-quarter eruption notwithstanding, the Lakers never found a consistent offensive rhythm. LeBron and Anthony Davis had 32 and 27 points, respectively, but Atlanta kept L.A.’s role players in check.

The Lakers controlled the interior, taking over 40 percent of their shots at the rim and converting nearly 72 percent of them. They blocked nine shots and claimed 57 percent of the game’s total rebounds – two major advantages in the game. Davis routinely swallowed entire possessions whole by deterring shots at the basket or smothering ball-handlers on the perimeter. But Atlanta forced just enough turnovers and carved out just enough of an advantage from 3-point range to counterbalance that interior dominance.

At times, their offense ran more smoothly than the fourth-most efficient attack in the league. The Hawks created 10 corner 3s and took 45 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. Particularly in the second half, they used dribble penetration and Young’s pick-and-roll orchestration to collapse the Laker defense and generate good looks along the perimeter. “When you have a team that covers the paint the way they do you have to get a lot of paint-to-great opportunities,” Pierce said, “and really the last three or four possessions summed that up.”

Reddish’s late miss was one of those opportunities. Even in hindsight, it’s hard to second-guess the process of the shot, even if the result was disappointing and the shooter is unreliable. Down three points with 15 seconds to play, the Lakers denied Atlanta’s initial look for Young, so Carter attacked the vacated lane and found a wide-open Reddish right in front of the Lakers’ bench. He missed, but Reddish will, and should, be ready to fire every time he gets that shot until, eventually, one goes down. “Obviously it didn’t go my way,” he said, “but I’ll be ready for the next one.”