Atlanta Hawks: Rapid Reactions to a Rough Night vs. Memphis

Young came into the period trying to keep the momentum he picked up in the first, visibly more comfortable shooting his style of 3’s well behind the line. He made just one in the quarter, and the Atlanta Hawks as a whole just could not keep up with the Grizz from deep. At the half, Memphis was 10/14 from downtown.

In total, things just did not go Atlanta’s way, as every call and every loose ball seemed to find a wide-open Grizzly in transition. Particularly, the refs seemed to be in Kent Bazemore and Prince’s shirts after a couple of questionable fouls on each player in the 2nd. The Grizzlies were also making tough shots against tough D.

Once again the Hawks allowed 40 points or more in the 2nd quarter, and as Lloyd Pierce said at the half, giving up 77 in a half is simply unacceptable.

Even down big at intermission, there was a few positives for the Hawks, like their 8 offensive boards as a team and Trae Young’s 16 points.

Things ceased to improve when the teams switched directions after the break, and outside a beautiful block by Prince (who was playing with 4 fouls), there wasn’t much to root for.

With just 21 points in the third, it was clear the offense has no identity when Young and Prince are on the bench, (and John Collins is injured) and the energy just wasn’t there.

First-year Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce once again used the 6’7 Alex Poythress at the 5, and that’s all you need to know about the night the Atlanta Hawks’ big men had.

Len and Plumlee seemed to be allergic to playing perimeter defense, despite the Grizzlies rostering multiple big men who can knock down threes. Things weren’t much better on offense, but each big benefited from a few pretty dribble hand-offs from Trae. Atlanta Hawks fans can only hope for the speedy recovery of John Collins and Dewayne Dedmon as they desperately need all the help they can get down low.

The Grizzlies had an evergreen 20-point lead the rest of the night.