Hawks Lose Hideous Game to Bulls 113-97

The Atlanta Hawks came in the winners of 7 of their last 10 at home, but the Chicago Bulls came out with gusto and verve, jumping out to leads of 11-3 and 20-7 in short order in the 1^st quarter.

As has been the case all season, the play of Atlanta’s starters is indicative of team performance. On this night, the Bulls’ starters outscored the Hawks’ starters 68-45 – representative of the general gut-punch the Bulls gave the Hawks at home. Chicago never trailed in this game, winning wire-to-wire in similar fashion to the trouncing they put on Atlanta earlier in the season.

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A major reason for the Hawks’ downfall on this night was the lack of perimeter shooting, as well as an overreliance on that outside shot. Atlanta were only 11 of 48 from downtown (22.9%) during this game, but most of those came during the Hawks’ typical garbage time dominance.

During the “competitive” portion of this game, the Hawks shot only 4 of 39 from the perimeter, amounting to a truly pathetic 10.3 percent clip.

This was an odd choice for the Hawks, who are usually far more balanced in terms of their offensive attack, and 48 three-point attempts marked the most this season for the team.

Individually, there was very little to write home about for the Hawks on this night.

Defensively, the Hawks were getting bullied by the sheer size of many of the Bulls – especially rookie Lauri Markkanen and Robin Lopez, who combined for 39 points on a combined 17 of 29 shooting.

On the more glamorous end, Dennis Schröder led the Hawks with 18 points on 7 of 17 shooting with 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. He was a -15 box plus/minus in 31 minutes.

Kent Bazemore, after hitting the game-winner at Philips Arena on Wednesday night, returned to Earth with a rather anonymous performance of 9 points on 2 of 9 shooting with 4 rebounds, 4 bad turnovers and a -15 BPM.

There was little to talk about from the starters, so let’s move to the bench.

Dewayne Dedmon continues to stake his claim to the “most important Hawk” conversation, as his overall intensity helped the lift the Hawks out of the cavernous abyss they had fallen into without him on the floor.

Dedmon, who is clearly still on a minutes restriction (and might also be on the trading block), notched a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds in only 22 minutes of action and was only a -5 BPM in a game the Hawks trailed by as many as 22.

Possible Verizon Slam Dunk Contest participant John Collins only notched 4 points on 1 of 5 shooting in this game, but he did contribute in other areas by logging 9 rebounds (6 DREBS, 3 OREBS), 4 nice assists, 1 block and 1 steal in his 23 minutes.

John the Baptist was also responsible for one of the lone highlight plays for the Hawks in this game as he committed some rookie-on-rookie crime and savagely erased a Lauri Markkanen shot at the rim:

As is seemingly always the case, the Hawks’ garbage time unit absolutely killed it – this time spearheaded by two-way point guard Josh Magette.

Magette was perfect from the floor and free throw line, scoring 8 points on 2 made three-pointers and 2 free throws. He also notched 1 assist and had a team-high +9 BPM in only 4 minutes of action.

Luke Babbitt was exhumed from the depths of bench purgatory and was put on display as a possible trade option for the Hawks going forward. Babbitt matched Magette’s +9 BPM with 2 made triples on only 2 attempts in 4 minutes played.

Next: 3 Realistic Trades the Atlanta Hawks Could Make

The Atlanta Hawks are home again on Monday night for a 7:30 p.m. EST tip-off against the Utah Jazz.