The Tank Is On: Hawks Lose vs. Pacers 116-93

Speaking of the Hawks, there wasn’t much to write home about on this night, as there were very few moments of promise in a game Atlanta trailed from tip to horn.

John Collins, fresh off an eye-opening performance at the Rising Stars game, finished 1 point and 1 rebound shy of a double-double with 9 and 9. Promisingly, Collins played 30 minutes in this game, which was his highest minutes load since November 22^nd. JC also had this brutal block that led to a nice DeAndre’ Bembry dunk on the other end:

Collins was wide open rumbling down the lane on pick-and-rolls and for lobs on numerous occasions, but with players that are unwilling to get the ball to him, JC cannot thrive.

John the Baptist started in place of Ersan Ilyasova, who is in the process of being bought out by the Hawks, since they have no real reason to keep a player of his caliber around.

Elsewhere among the starters, Kent Bazemore had 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 turnovers in 28 minutes and Dennis Schröder had 9 points on 3 of 12 shooting with 4 turnovers and 4 fouls in 27 minutes.

The Hawks’ starting backcourt just did not have it on this night, as they were having a hard time controlling the ball as well as finding open teammates; combining for 7 turnovers versus 4 assists is not a recipe for success.

Taurean Prince had 14 points on a team-high 14 shooting possessions, and he added 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists. However, he led Atlanta with a whopping 6 turnovers, had 5 fouls in 27 minutes and was a -20 in BPM.

Prince looks as if he’ll be given free rein in the latter half of this season so that GM Travis Schlenk knows what he has in Prince. It will be interesting to see if Prince can elevate his play from an uneven performance like this one.

DeAndre’ Bembry finished with 8 points and 6 rebounds in 25 minutes, which were his most since December 6^th. For his part, Bembry looked to be one of the Hawks who seemed ready for this game, as his energy and effort was on par with much of his work from last season when he served as a top-shelf, low-usage bench sparkplug.

Rookie Tyler Dorsey, who looks to be a big part of the rest of this season for the Hawks, had 11 points on 4 of 10 shooting (including 3 of 8 from deep) with 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal.

Dorsey was fine, but it would be nice to see him be more assertive with his shot from deep and from midrange, where he has shown proficiency in the past.

Miles Plumlee, who had started to fall out of the rotation before the All-Star break, returned in a big way with some huge plays in the first half including a sweet dunk through traffic:

https://twitter.com/ATLHawks/status/967196383647186944

As well as a powerhouse two-handed block on a Thaddeus Young dunk attempt:

Mike Muscala’s three-point shot was off on this night, as he was unable to hit on his 4 attempts and finished with 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in 24 minutes. Musky did, however, participate in a hilarious play in which Thaddeus Young practically gift-wrapped him a dunk by politely bouncing the inbounds pass right into his open hands. Thanks Thad!

Last but not least, Isaiah Taylor was in full-on attack mode on this night and seemed to be one of the few Hawks who wasn’t a little rusty after such a long break.

Taylor played extremely well in his 22 minutes of action, notching a career-high 17 points on a supremely efficient 7 of 10 shooting. Taylor also added 6 assists and 2 steals in what was a very productive stretch down the end of this game.

The Hawks return home for a Monday game against the Los Angeles Lakers at 7:30 p.m. EST.