The Atlanta Hawks allowed the second-most points this season as the Washington Wizards rolled the home team on the way to a wire-to-wire 25-point victory. The Wizards tied their season-high with 18 made three-pointers and the away team used terrific ball movement to find the open man on the way to a season-high 40 assists.
The away team used astonishing performances from vaunted Hawks crusher Markieff Morris (23 points on 9 of 12 shooting) and former Hawks great Mike Scott (19 points on 8 of 13 shooting in only 23 minutes); it must be noted that the Wiz were without their heralded All-Star point guard John Wall in this game.
This fact did not seem to trouble the Wizards, however, as backups Tim Frazier and Tomas Satoransky combined for 21 assists (14 for Frazier, 7 for Satoransky) and Frazier in particular harassed the Hawks’ ballhandlers all night.
When Atlanta’s starters play poorly, the team usually loses in convincing fashion. Such was the case on this night, as all five starters had absolutely forgettable games.
Dennis Schröder looked completely out of sorts, and he honestly looked injured or sick as he walked off the court in the 3rd quarter, completely oblivious to the fact that he had been fouled and had to shoot free throws.
This was after he had just missed two straight free throws – something he never does.
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Schröd finished with only 9 points on 3 of 12 shooting, including 0 of 5 from downtown. The “Hawks way,” a vaunted system in which passing is paramount and the ball should always find its way to the open man, only works if the primary ballhandler buys in.
On multiple occasions on this night, Schröder dominated the possession with isolation trickery or a simple pull-up three-pointer – neither of which are his strong suit. If Schröd had simply drove to the rim and kicked the ball out, better things would have almost certainly occurred for the home team.
This brings us to the only positive performer for Atlanta: Malcolm Delaney.
Though he had some hiccups early in the season as Schröder’s primary backup, Delaney has emerged as a highly effective option off the bench for the Hawks, and in fact, the Hawks seem to enjoy Delaney’s less selfish style of play than they do Schröder’s semi-frequent scoring barrages.
Delaney put in a valiant effort for the Hawks on this night, despite only offering a pedestrian stat line of 7 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block. Delaney was the only Atlanta player who had a positive box plus/minus, as he finished the game with a +2 in that category. He also found John the Baptist for this sweet alley-oop jam:
Late in the 4th quarter, when the game was totally out of hand, Delaney was the only Hawks player trying particularly hard on defense and he was sacrificing his body for the greater good – taking a charge from Tim Frazier and using a head fake to get bodyslammed by Ian Mahinmi for a foul call.
Quickly back to the starters: Kent Bazemore had a putrescent night with 3 points on 1 of 9 shooting (0 of 5 from downtown) in only 18 minutes; Taurean Prince played a team-high 31 minutes, but he logged a -29 BPM and only took 1 shot that wasn’t a three-pointer; lastly, Miles Plumlee only played 9 minutes and continues to have a devil of a time not turning the ball over almost every time he touches it.
Hopefully this 9-minute, -10 BPM masterclass of poor center play from Plumlee will convince the Hawks coaching staff to put Dewayne Dedmon or Mike Muscala back in the starting lineup.
Speaking of those two big men, both had strong games in limited minutes. Dedmon had 14 points in 22 minutes on 7 of 9 shooting with a relatively low -4 BPM. Dedmon always seems to engaged and ready to defend, it’s just that many other Hawks don’t seem to follow his lead on the less glamorous end.
Musky notched 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting with 6 rebounds in 17 minutes, but his less-than-stupendous defense does him no favors, and he finished with a -11 BPM.
Most notable off the bench for Atlanta was the play of rookie Tyler Dorsey. Though John Collins has received much of the hype this season (for good reason), Dorsey quietly had a career night against the Wizards.
Dorsey had career-highs in minutes (21), points (14), assists (4) and free throws made and attempted (6 for 7). Let’s hope that solid play kickstarts more playing time for TD, who seemed to be more game than both Bazemore and Marco Belinelli on this night.
Next: The Atlanta Hawks Dynasty: a Blueprint for Ruling the NBA in 4 Years
The Hawks play again on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. EST against the revamped Minnesota Timberwolves at Philips Arena.