Hawks Lose to Nets Despite Schröder’s Career Night

In a game that featured 13 ties and 12 lead changes, the Atlanta Hawks dropped a tight one to the Brooklyn Nets 110-105 despite Dennis Schröder putting in the performance of the season for the Hawks with a career-high 34 points.

Despite that gaudy point total, Schröder was outplayed by the Nets’ point guard counterpart Spencer Dinwiddie down the stretch, as his efforts were instrumental in defeating the Hawks at home.

Statistically, the home team generally performed better than the final result would indicate, but a few critical plays late downed the Hawks on this night.

The headliner for Atlanta, as has been the case for much of this season, was the play of Dennis Schröder. DS17 stuffed the stat sheet to an incredible degree: 34 points on 14 of 26 shooting (53.8%, 3 of 5 from deep), 3 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals in 31 minutes.

Schröder was everything for the Hawks on offense, and he was drilling three-pointers, nailing floaters and pushing in floaters at every opportunity. He was also hyperactive on defense – as the 3 steals would indicate – scurrying around screens and bouncing off defenders to try and harass Nets’ ballhandlers.

Dennis worked so hard throughout this game on both ends that his supreme effort might’ve waned in the game’s final moments, as Dinwiddie was able to drill a three-pointer, hit a tough, tough layup for an and-1 in which he missed the free throw but was somehow, miraculously, able to nab his own offensive board for two more free throws. Wild.

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Dewayne Dedmon, in his third game back from injury, was a transformative player for the Hawks on this night, and his box score showed it. Dedmon looked terrific, and though he fouled out in only 22 minutes of action, his effort and contributions on both ends were huge.

Dedmon finished with a near double-double of 11 points and 9 rebounds, and was a game-high +18 in box plus/minus, which was pretty representative of his impact on this game. Dedmon was affecting shots at the rim, setting savage screens, and generally being in the right place at the right time for the Hawks, and his presence simply made the Hawks better.

Though the Dedmon/John Collins combination looked a little shaky at first, the two play well together and make the Hawks a much stronger rebounding team when they’re both out there.

Speaking of the Hawks’ promising rookie, John Collins only had 5 points on 2 of 4 shooting, but he did lead all players with 10 total rebounds (8 defensive, 2 offensive) and had a block and a +5 BPM in only 14 minutes of action.

Again, it would be nice to see Collins play more than Miles Plumlee, who played 18 minutes and notched 8 points and a team-low -14 BPM. Plumlee can have his moments, but the moments are just not as good as plays like this from JC:

https://twitter.com/HawksOnFSSE/status/951983529654599680

There is no reason to play Collins more minutes than Plumlee, especially as the Hawks’ frontcourt was quite crowded on this night with Dedmon, Collins, Plumlee, Ersan Ilyasova and Mike Muscala all getting minutes.

Tyler Dorsey also played significant rotation minutes in this game and actually matched John Collins’ minutes load – definitely the first time that has happened this year.

Dorsey, as has been stated, is a very good perimeter shooter, and he showcased that skill by going 3 of 5 from downtown for 9 points. The Atlanta crowd seemed to be responding to Dorsey’s visibly apparent sweet shooting stroke, and a rumbling crescendo occurred whenever he got up a shot.

Hopefully this string of games with Dorsey as a solid part of the rotation will continue, as he is a real shooting threat from all over the court.

This was a tough loss for the Hawks, but in the long run, this only means the Nets have distanced themselves even further from interfering with the Hawks’ draft lottery odds, which, at this point, are paramount in Atlanta’s future plans.

Next: Atlanta Hawks Team Storylines at the Halfway Point

The Hawks return to action on Monday for an early 3:00 p.m. EST start against the ever-threatening San Antonio Spurs.