Hawks Implode in 4th Quarter in Loss to Raptors

There were a few notable performances in this game for Atlanta – though it must be noted that the team’s best work occurred in the first three quarters.

John Collins shared the team lead in points with 14, and it was nice to see the offense flow through him at times.

We have been fairly adamant that Collins, who is having a tremendous rookie campaign, is a more-than-capable facilitator and could serve as an offensive focal point. In the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters, the team seemed to take that to heart as JC served as the offensive helmsman in the high post – finding open cutters to the basket and using multiple screens and dribble hand-offs to get easy looks for his teammates.

Of course, no game would be complete without a high-flying John the Baptist dunk, and he did not disappoint on that front:

Collins finished with those 14 points on 6 of 12 shooting with 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 28 minutes. He could’ve been given a block on this play, but an unforgiving Toronto scorer refused him that luxury. This was still a nice defensive play, though, as Collins continues to show strong instincts on that end:

Fellow rookie Tyler Dorsey was manhandled by Derozan in this game, as he fouled out for the first time in his young career in 24 minutes of play, but not before scoring 10 points on 4 of 13 shooting with 3 rebounds and this nice lob to Miles Plumlee (who had 9 points and 9 rebounds in this one):

Dorsey also had 3 turnovers to go along with those 6 fouls – not the young two guard’s best showing in the NBA thus far.

Dewayne Dedmon played extremely well in this spot, and though his touches were limited (due to a clear focus on the development of Collins), Dedmon made the most of them.

He did miss a huge dunk attempt, but Dedmon still finished with a double-double of 12 points on 4 of 6 shooting with 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists and 1 steal in 26 minutes of action.

Kent Bazemore held a co-share with JC for the team lead in points with 14 of his own on only 6 of 8 shooting and 5 assists. Baze was effective overall, though 4 turnovers left something to be desired on this night.

Dennis Schröder had a quiet night of 11 points on 4 of 13 shooting with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 turnovers of his own.

Schröd has a hard time contending with the size of Toronto as Valanciunas and Jakob Poeltl stymy Dennis’s signature drives to the rim with quick feet, tremendous heft and unimpeachable length.

Overall, this was a tough game for the Hawks, who played the East-leading Raptors well through the first three quarters but were let down by sloppy play in the 4^th – right as Toronto decided to play a bit more cohesively.

Next: John Collins is Having a Historically Good Season

Atlanta returns to action on Friday for a 7:00 p.m. EST tipoff on the road against the Indiana Pacers.