Hawks Stunned by Suns 104-103

The Atlanta Hawks fell in dispiriting fashion on the road to the Phoenix Suns behind massive performances from Devin Booker, T.J. Warren and Marquese Chriss.

This marks a return to similar results earlier in the season when Atlanta’s play was marred by poor execution late in games and the lack of a reliable offensive conduit. This was not a pretty game, as the two teams combined for 44 fouls (with 22 each) and an immense 37 turnovers.

In the end, it came down to the Suns having more talent on the floor in the game’s waning minutes as John Collins, the Hawks’ sole truly nuclear athlete, was stranded on the bench in his warm-ups.

Despite committing a ghastly 8 turnovers for the Suns, Devin Booker proved that he can be a franchise cornerstone solely from an isolation scoring standpoint, as he shut the door on the Hawks by scoring 16 of his game-high 34 points in the 4^th quarter.

The Hawks had no answer for his herky-jerky handles, and his slick shooting stroke left the defense in shambles in the 4^th, despite shutting him completely out of the scoring column in the previous quarter.

More from Soaring Down South

Marquese Chriss also victimized the Hawks with two key monster blocks late in the 4^th quarter. Chriss absolutely housed two dunk attempts – one by Miles Plumlee and one by Taurean Prince on an out-of-timeout play – and the Hawks were never really able to recover from those rejections.

Perhaps the singular reason for the Hawks’ demise in this contest was pushing themselves into the penalty by overfouling in the first 1:02 of the 4^th quarter, which allowed the Suns to march to the free throw line for a parade of attempts at the charity stripe, specifically Booker, who notched 14 of 15 shooting at the line.

For the Hawks, there were some promising performances, but the team never truly looked like they were in full control, even though they led for about 46 minutes of this contest.

Even some of the strongest individual performances of the night were ruined by bad plays late in the 4^th quarter, none moreso than Kent Bazemore. Baze had a terrific night statistically with 20 points on an unconscious 7 of 8 shooting with 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals.

However, his stellar all-around numbers were completely overshadowed by 5 turnovers and an appalling foul on Devin Booker on a three-point attempt very late in the game that gave the Suns their first lead since early in the 3^rd quarter. Booker’s eyes were the size of dinner plates as he stepped to the line, and he knew that the Hawks were in total shock – and he was right.

Ersan Ilyasova did yeoman’s work with 21 points on 7 of 15 shooting with 9 rebounds in 33 minutes of action. Ersan didn’t really have any highlight bad plays, and for the most part, was remarkably solid.

Dennis Schröder finished with 20 points on 7 of 17 shooting with 5 assists, 5 turnovers and a -5 box plus/minus. Schröder also finished with two bonehead plays that sealed the Hawks’ fate in the 4^th quarter: getting called for an offensive foul by running right into Isaiah Canaan, and driving to the hoop for a layup (when the Hawks were down by 3) as time expired.

Taurean Prince, after a string of solid performances (just two nights ago, he had the best game of his career), had a rough night against the Suns. Prince finished with 9 points on a supremely inefficient 2 of 14 shooting from the field, including an awful 1 of 7 from downtown. Prince’s three-ball had been falling all season, but Prince’s shot was off vs. the Suns, plain and simple.

Off the bench, Marco Belinelli was scorching hot – finishing with 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting in 20 minutes – and Belinelli probably should’ve had the ball in has hands more in the game’s waning moments. His outside shooting was far more threatening than anything else the Hawks could muster, so why not give it a try?

John Collins also only played 20 minutes (partially due to foul trouble), and he finished with 6 points on 1 of 6 shooting. Collins was settling for jump shots on many possessions, which is fine (he was open), but it would be better to see him attempt a post-up or try to drive to the hoop. Despite not scoring with his usual efficiency, his offensive rebounding was still amazing, as 4 of his 5 total rebounds were on the offensive end.

Also, we know JC was on a minutes restrictions because of his injury, but he does he still need to be? It would’ve been nice to see Collins finish this game against a younger squad like Phoenix, and it would’ve been especially nice to see Collins get the call on that out-of-timeout alley-oop that was broken up. Though Prince has been fairly consistent this year, Collins could’ve gotten up and smashed that lob with ease over the smaller Chriss.

Speaking of stellar offensive rebounding, Tyler Cavanaugh only played 14 minutes but he notched 4 offensive rebounds and 7 total rebounds and was generally mixing it up with the larger, more athletic players on the Suns.

The Hawks return to action on Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers at 10:30 p.m. EST.

Home/Hawks News