The Atlanta Hawks (37-36) lost their seventh consecutive game on Sunday afternoon as they dropped a home game to the lowly Brooklyn Nets (16-57).
The Hawks have hit rock bottom.
Sunday afternoon’s 107-92 loss to the Nets at home is as humiliating as it gets for an NBA team. The Nets improved to 6-30 on the road this season and the Hawks fell to 0-8 in games played without Paul Millsap this season.
Everything is going wrong for the Hawks right now. In addition to the Millsap injury, they were also without starters Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha, seriously compromising their depth.
But the biggest issue in this stretch is pitiful offense.
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In all seven losses during this streak, the Hawks have scored fewer than 100 points and Sunday afternoon was yet another miserable performance on the offensive end of the floor. The Hawks shot 34.7 percent from the field in this game, along with 18.5 percent from three-point range and 59.4 percent from the free-throw line.
To go along with horrendous shooting in every department, the Hawks also tallied 21 turnovers to just 16 total assists. This was an all-around horrible offensive display.
Dennis Schroder led the Hawks with 24 points and added eight assists. But he did take 24 shots to get to that total, making his offensive performance less than efficient. But he was better than every other Hawk on that end of the floor. Tim Hardaway Jr. also struggled with shooting, going 5-for-16 from the field en route to 16 points.
Taurean Prince also contributed well with 17 points, six rebounds, and three steals, as he stepped into the starting lineup. Ersan Ilyasova shot just 3-for-14 from the field but was effective on the boards in grabbing 18 rebounds. Dwight Howard also had a big double-double with 19 points and 16 rebounds. But ‘Superman’ turned the ball over five times, went 3-for-12 from the charity stripe, and had issues defensively with Brook Lopez.
But another gutting aspect for the Hawks was, yet again, the bench.
The Hawks’ bench was outscored by the Nets’ reserves 46-7 and four Atlanta reserves had plus-minuses of -13 or higher. The loss of three starters has harmed the depth of the team significantly but the Hawks must get more from their reserves.
The Nets looked like a half-decent NBA team in this game. They led by as many as 22 and never really lost control of this game. Lopez (23 points, seven rebounds) and Jeremy Lin (19 points, eight assists) led the way for former Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson’s squad. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson also chipped in with a double-double (11 points, 13 rebounds).
Spencer Dinwiddie (10 points), KJ McDaniels (11 points), Isaiah Whitehead (nine points and a NASTY block), and Trevor Booker (eight points, seven rebounds) all had plus-minuses of +12 or higher off of the bench and allowed the Nets to stay far ahead.
The Hawks are now a team that can’t shoot, take care of the ball, trust their bench, or keep the worst team in the NBA from blowing them out at home. That is about as bad as it gets. Mike Budenholzer has some work to do to get his team back on track.
Next: The Hawks Are Too Good For This Losing Streak
With better health, they should get better. But how soon? We don’t know. One thing we do know is that it doesn’t get much worse than this.