The Atlanta Hawks clobbered the Kings in every facet of the game on Wednesday night, ending up with the team’s widest-ever margin for victory (46 points) and their first 40-point victory since 1994.
After a few tough losses on the road over the past week, including close-run affairs in Detroit and New Orleans, the Hawks responded with expediency – outhustling, out-executing and just totally outplaying the uber-young Sacramento Kings.
The Hawks came out of the tip-off literally perfect, as they didn’t miss a shot until there was 6:31 to go in the 1st quarter; before that miss, they had gone a flawless 8 for 8 from the field, good for a 18-5 advantage to start the game.
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Much of the early damage was done by Luke Babbitt, who finished with 13 points on 5 of 7 shooting (3 of 4 from three-point land) in a swift 11 minutes. Babbitt, however, did leave the game in the 2nd with back spasms and did not return. Stay tuned as more information becomes available on the injury.
The true star of the “competitive” portion of the game was Dewayne Dedmon. The Hawks splashiest free agent signing in the offseason delivered in a big way in the 1st quarter, setting the tone for the rest of the game that the Hawks would not be denied on this night. Dedmon showed tremendous hustle and effort, fighting off many Kings rebounders to muscle his way to rebounds and paint position.
Dedmon finished with a career-high 20 points on 9 of 10 shooting from the field with 14 rebounds (5 offensive), 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. This was an all-around stellar performance from Dedmon (finishing with a +21 plus/minus), who somehow managed to do all this damage in only 23 minutes of play. Remarkable.
It must be noted here that the Kings defensive effort on this night was wafer-thin, as even the most minimal of efforts seemed like a monumental task. There was almost no opposition to drives to the basket for the Hawks, which is a major reason why so many Hawks’ players put up outlandish stat lines.
The Kings, who have now lost 11 straight games, also showed little in the way of offensive execution and upside, as number 5 overall pick De’Aaron Fox scored 2 points in 18 minutes and had a game-worst -32 net rating.
Only 2 players scored in double figures for the Kings (Zach Randolph and George Hill), which was in stark contrast to the Hawks, who had a whopping 8 of 11 active players score 10 or more points.
Speaking of gaudy stats, let’s just run through some team numbers for the Hawks (spoiler alert: these are absolutely outrageous).
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The Hawks shot an eye-popping 63.3 percent from the field, including an impressive 16 of 32 from three-point territory. The team logged season highs with 53 rebounds (including 9 offensive boards) and an unimpeachable 40 assists on those 50 made field goals (good for an astonishing 80 percent assist rate).
Compare that to the Kings, who only nabbed 18 defensive rebounds (44-18, advantage: Hawks), and only managed 19 assists (40-19, advantage: Hawks).
The stats, final score and wire-to-wire nature of this bout bear it out, this was a complete team victory for the Hawks, who must’ve been thoroughly motivated after coming close to beating some of these more highly regarded teams. In particular, the 1-point loss to the Pelicans on Monday might have galvanized this team to greater efforts on this night.
In terms of individual performances, almost every Hawks player had some nice moments.
The lone exception was Ersan Ilyasova, who returned after missing 8 straight games due to a bone bruise. Ersan scored only 1 point in 17 minutes of play, and definitely looked a little rusty after missing so many games. Even with a poor performance, Ersan finished with a +3 in plus/minus – quite indicative of the night the Hawks had.
Taurean Prince finished with a mammoth, game-high +38 plus/minus and he finished out the 4th quarter as the primary ball handler for the Hawks, spearheading some nice pick-and-rolls with John Collins.
The Prince That Was Promised stuffed to the stat sheet to an almost ridiculous degree, finishing with 14 points on 5 of 8 shooting with 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 1 block. Taurean’s defensive activity gummed up the works for the Kings, who again, showed almost no will to be out on the court playing basketball on this night.
Dennis Schröder had a bounce-back game after two straight clunkers, finishing with a game-high 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting with 8 assists and a plus/minus of +18. Schröder was blowing by every Kings defender imaginable, including a nifty play in the 3rd quarter in which he crossed over George Hill, blew by the extremely immobile Zach Randolph and finished an easy layup by adjusting it midair as a defender came over to contest.
John Collins (+22) featured heavily in the extended garbage time in the 3rd and 4th quarters, and he feasted on the lesser defenders he faced during this period, scoring 8 of his 12 points in the 4th.
ANOTHER ONE 😱 pic.twitter.com/0cQf2CdvJr
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 16, 2017
Taurean Prince and Collins had a nice two-man game working in the latter stages of this game, as Prince and Collins just kept running pick-and-rolls with Prince lobbing up a pass, and Collins finishing it with ease and panache every time.
Rounding out the double-digit scorers for the Hawks were: Isaiah Taylor (+28), who had 12 points on 4 of 6 shooting, including an encouraging 3 of 4 from downtown, Malcolm Delaney, (+13) who had 10 points and continued his impressive run as a backup two guard, and Marco Belinelli (+26), who continues to serve as the main catalyst for offensive creation when Dennis Schröder is off the floor.
This was a massive win for the Hawks, both in terms of final margin of victory (again, the largest in Hawks history) and team morale. Though the Hawks did turn the ball over an immense amount of times (19), they can build on what worked well for them in this game.
Next: Atlanta Hawks drop heartbreaker to Pelicans 106-105
Next up for the Hawks, the Boston Celtics come to Phillips Arena on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. EST tip-off. If the Hawks can continue to shoot at a high percentage and play with pace and poise, this should be a great game.