Three Takeaways From Atlanta's Loss to Golden State
The Hawks wrapped up their two-game West Coast trip last night and after competing for one half against the Golden State Warriors, the offense fell apart and Golden State was able to pull away and win big.
Atlanta has now lost three in a row, the last two without star point guard Trae Young. The Hawks are still in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, but they are only holding that spot by a half-game.
After another loss, what are the key takeaways for the Hawks?
1. The offense collapsed in the second half
Atlanta was trailing 69-68 going into the half and while Golden State was shooting the ball well, the Hawks were keeping pace with them. Jalen Johnson was approaching a triple-double, Patty Mills had 11 points in the first half, and both Saddiq Bey and Bogdan Bogdanovic had strong halves.
That changed in the second half though.
Golden State did not slow down and still shot the ball well, but the Hawks offense just went in the gutter, and that allowed the Warriors to pull away for a big victory.
The Hawks were outscored 65-44 in the second half and shot 34% from the field and 17% from three. Golden State shot 59% from the field and 46% from three in the second half. When you have a big discrepancy like that, you are almost certainly going to lose.
2. Atlanta still did not get enough from their bench
Hawks guard Patty Mills vs the Warriors
The Hawks had only 12 available players for last night's game vs the Warriors and I might be too hard on their bench. The reality is though, Golden State's bench outscored the Hawks bench 61-22 and over half of Atlanta's points came from one player.
Patty Mills had an upstart first half that kept the Hawks in the game vs the Warriors, scoring 11 points, flying around on defense and getting steals, and knocking down open shots. In the second half, he only scored two points and while you can't expect Mills to score 20 points every time he hits the floor, the rest of the Hawks bench has to give the team more.
Onyeka Okongwu scored only six points, Garrison Matthews had a rough night, scoring three points on 1-7 shooting and being a team worse -23 when on the floor, and Trent Forrest scored zero points.
When the Hawks are fully healthy, they would have the ability to bring Bogdanovic and Bey off the bench, which would help. But until they get Young and De'Andre Hunter back, guys like Mills, Matthews and Okongwu are going to have to give more to the team or Atlanta is going to continue to lose.
3. Points off Turnovers Made a Huge Difference
The Hawks only had one more turnover than the Warriors (11 to 10), but a big difference in this game was that the Warriors scored 22 points off the Hawks's 11 turnovers, and Atlanta only scored nine. When you combine that discrepancy with all of the other issues that the Hawks had last night in Golden State, that is a losing recipe.
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