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RECAP: Despite Initial Efforts, Hawks Blown Out by Celtics, 123-93, While Also Suffering Trae Young Injury Scare

The Hawks did not have enough scoring ability and perimeter defense to keep pace with a premier lineup in the Celtics, especially given a rough game from Trae Young.

Rohan Raman

Feb 7, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young (11) controls the ball while Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) defends during the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Feb 7, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young (11) controls the ball while Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) defends during the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images / Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
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This was always going to be a tough game for Atlanta to win and it showed tonight. Despite a strong first quarter, the Celtics eventually shot the Hawks out of the game and took a comfortable win, 123-93.

Coming into tonight's matchup, the Hawks were without Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kobe Bufkin, DeAndre Hunter and Vit Krejci. That's four players who are capable threats from three-point range. Having that much shooting talent out is going to be a problem against teams like Boston, who can overwhelm teams with the sheer amount of three-pointers they both attempt and convert on.

The Hawks got somewhat of a break when it was announced that Jaylen Brown was ruled out. The All-Star forward and reigning Finals MVP has actually been off to a bit of a slow start. He's averaging 25.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists, but his shooting splits of 40/26.7/80.9 are shockingly poor. Still, he brings a two-way presence that is incredibly valuable to the Celtics. To combat this, the Celtics made an interesting choice to start Al Horford at the PF spot and Neemias Queta at center. Queta put up 10 points and seven rebounds, but he was largely an afterthought compared to Jayson Tatum and Derrick White.

The Hawks had no answer for Tatum as he dropped 28 points, nine rebounds and five assists. They made the interesting decision to guard him with David Roddy for a significant portion of the game and Tatum absolutely dominated that matchup. It didn't help that Trae Young looked uncharacteristically off tonight. Even before exiting with a right rib sprain in the 3rd quarter after the game was practically over, the star guard only had two points and six assists across 23 minutes of action. He was 1-10 from the field and missed all six of his three-point attempts. Derrick White and Jrue Holiday hounded Atlanta's weakened backcourt and both had strong games for Boston. White put up a 21 pt, 6 rebound, 6 assist statline on 50% shooting from the field and connecting on four threes. Holiday put up 16 points while Payton Pritchard also had a strong scoring game off the bench with 18 points.

Jalen Johnson had a strong game for the Hawks, putting up 20 points, 11 rebounds and four assists wihle connecting on two of his seven attempts from deep. It certainly wasn't as good as last night's effort against the Pelicans, but Johnson carried the bulk of the offensive load for the Hawks and did an admirable job of trying to shoulder that burden. He got some help from Onyeka Okongwu, who posted a 18 pt, 10 rebound double-double in his return from injury. However, another inefficient game from Zaccharie Risacher (15 points on 6-15 shooting) and a rough performance from Atlanta's bench practically wrapped this one up by the end of the third quarter.

Let's recap tonight's loss.

Tonight, the Hawks started Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson, and Clint Capela. Daniels got things going for Atlanta with a nice finish at the rim. Truthfully, this has been an area of growth for him and it was nice to see him getting things going early.

Off the feed from Jalen Johnson, Risacher hit a three-pointer to spark a 11-10 lead for the Hawks. Things began to look up for Atlanta, especially in the two-man game between Risacher and Johnson. That duo took turns finding each other for scores, but Johnson's feed to Risacher perfectly exemplified why the Hawks took the French wing so high. He stepped into the pass and drained the deep three to give the Hawks life.

Unfortunately, Tatum answered with a step-back three and the Celtics quickly took control of the game again. The two teams traded leads for most of the 1st before Tatum went on a run at the end of the first quarter, scoring six points in the last three minutes. Most of this was against Roddy, who was simply overmatched against the All-NBA forward as the first man off the bench for Atlanta. It was an interesting call to replace Johnson with Roddy, but the experiment did not work. Dyson Daniels also had a fairly nice quarter, racking up three assists.

The second quarter was absolutely brutal for Atlanta. They opened the frame well enough with a nice floater from Okongwu, who looked nice in his return from injury management. Keaton Wallace also took over for Trae Young in the second quarter and looked fairly comfortable running the offense. The two-way guard finished with six points, two assists and four rebounds, but the modest box score does not encapsulate how he made good decisions as the ball-handler and was able to survive on defense. He is certianly someone who earned more looks for the Hawks.

Atlanta was able to get some steam off of a Garrison Mathews block on Payton Pritchard. It was a good defensive play by the shooter and he followed it up with a beautiful fade-away jumper. Okongwu then joined the mix with an alley-oop dunk to give the Hawks a 41-38 lead and it began to look like Atlanta might be able to survive in this one. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was forced to call a timeout in order to re-organize his team.

Unfortunately, Boston never looked back after making those adjustments. They went on a 14-3 run to give themselves a nice cushion, largely fueled by three big three-pointers from Hauser, White and Holiday. White and Holiday also blocked Risacher on seperate layups at the rim, which kept the Hawks from getting back into the game. Atlanta went ice cold for pretty much the rest of the quarter and the Celtics went on a 22-5 run that basically put the Hawks down for the rest of the half. They hit 15 threes and jumped out to a 22-point lead. A large portion of that was White, who hit back-to-back threes to mark the end of the quarter and a 75-53 lead.

At halftime, Tatum already had 26 points while White had 14. Conversley, Johnson had 16 points and his next leading scorer was Okongwu with six points. That simply is not enough to cut it against the Celtics and the Hawks were emphatically reminded of that during the rest of the night.

Those two threes from White also effectively marked the end of the game. Atlanta brought Risacher, Young and Capela back in to see if Young could light a spark under the offense, but the combination of White and Holiday was too much to handle. Risacher forced a nice and-one on Derrick White early in the third to bring some life back into the offense, but it ultimately did not lead to an extended run for Atlanta. The most encouraging part of the third quarter was Onyeka Okongwu, who showed a lot of activity as a finisher around the glass. He scored on a putback layup and continually put himself in a good position to turn his tipped layup attempts into points. I think Okongwu has looked better than last year when he has played, but his injuries make a definitive statement in that area difficult.

At the end of the third quarter, Boston's barrage of three-pointers continued and they led, 103-75. Part of that discrepancy is also the Hawks going 4-24 from deep. However, the most worrying part of the quarter - and arguably the season - was when Trae Young exited the game in the 3rd due to a rib sprain. It is unclear how severe the injury is, but anything that sidelines Young for a long period of time would be terrible for the already-shorthanded Hawks.

With the game firmly in hand, Boston put in their bench unit and followed suit by pulling all starters with seven minutes left to go. Keaton Wallace had some nice plays as a defender, getting two steals on Pritchard late. However, there wasn't much more to takeaway as the Celtics rolled to a 123-93 win as the clock hit triple zeroes.

Getting blown out certainly hurts, but the Hawks' real concern should be Trae Young's health. He is absolutely indispensable to the team's offense right now and an extended absence would almost certainly mean a rough stretch of games for Atlanta is on the horizon. Their chances of getting wins against the Knicks on Wednesday and even the Pistons on Friday are significantly murkier without Young. Head coach Quin Snyder did not offer much of an update on the injury after the game, so it is unclear whether Young will be ready to go on Wednesday versus New York.

As a team, the Hawks shot 19% from three and 41.6% from the field. The Celtics shot 48.5% from the field and converted 18 of their 55 attempts from deep. That is a staggering difference in volume and it was the key in Atlanta's loss for this game.

With the loss, the Hawks drop to 3-5 on the year. They'll take on the Knicks on Wednesday, Nov. 6 before heading to Detroit on Friday, Nov. 8.

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Rohan Raman
ROHAN RAMAN

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