3 takeaways from the Atlanta Hawks 104-93 loss to the Miami Heat
By Chris Guest
With two starters out for the game (Dennis Schröder with a sprained left ankle and Ersan Ilyasova with an apparent left knee injury), the Atlanta Hawks were already in a tough spot well before the opening tip.
Facing a likely playoff team without your offensive fulcrum was always going to be a dicey proposition, but the Hawks managed to keep it competitive in a 104-93 loss to the Miami Heat.
This was a winnable game for the Hawks, but two major points of concern that swung the game in the Miami Heat’s favor were turnovers and three-point shooting.
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As was the case last season, when the Hawks get up fewer three point attempts than their opponent, they are very likely to lose. In this case, the Hawks shot a respectable 7 of 17 from beyond the arc – good for 41.2 percent. Nice, right?
Well, the Heat more than doubled the Hawks’ three-point attempts, hoisting 37 shots and connecting on 14 of them for 37.8 percent. The real flamethrower was Wayne Ellington, who literally could not miss in the 2nd quarter by going 6 for 6 from downtown in the quarter and 6 of 8 for the game.
Both teams played sloppily throughout, which showed in the number of turnovers for both teams – the Hawks had 19 and the Heat had 20.
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Taurean Prince, who had a nice all-around game (despite a flagrant foul on Goran Dragic for a rather cheap shot to Taurean’s face) led both teams with a massive 7 turnovers.
Prince showed a lot of effort on both ends of the floor though, stuffing the stat sheet to the tune of a career-high-tying 20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists in a team-high 36 minutes – to go along with the aforementioned turnovers.
The other major bright spot for the Hawks was the number 19 pick in this year’s draft, John Collins.
He recorded his second straight double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds in a paltry 18 minutes of play (breaking even in plus/minus), and looks to be well ahead of schedule in terms of development. He still got bullied on the block occasionally by the likes of the hulking and surprisingly speedy James Johnson, but he showed grit and determination on the offensive glass with 4 offensive rebounds.
One impressive play by Collins occurred after a missed shot. Collins fought through a thicket of Heat defenders to nab the board, then got up a putback that also rimmed out, but Collins grabbed it again. He dribbled, gathered the ball, bodied Jordan Mickey under the basket and got up a strong layup.
On another play, Collins capably defended Tyler Johnson on the wing – almost looking more comfortable defending smaller players in space than defending bigs inside – and forcing Johnson to pass the ball off.
These two plays (as well as a couple of athletic dunks) showcase Collins’s skills and definitely merit the hype surrounding this young player.
Next: Atlanta Hawks basketball: a symphony of the two-man game
This was the 4th game in a 5-game road trip to start the season for the Hawks, which ends on Thursday in Chicago against the winless Bulls.