Atlanta Hawks: 6 Takeaways from Narrow Loss to Knicks

The Atlanta Hawks came close to a stirring 4th quarter comeback but ultimately failed to close the deal – falling to the New York Knicks 112-107.

The Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks opened the season up in New York on October 17, and now the two teams have squared off twice in less than a month.

Both times, the Knicks won, but Wednesday night’s game against New York was far more entertaining than the tilt in NYC. In the long run, this was probably a good loss for the Hawks to pick up, as the Knicks will likely be in direct competition with them in the NBA lottery come next offseason. Silver linings, everybody.

Still though, there’s the actual game to contend with, which featured some typically sloppy play from both sides and absolute avalanche of fouls in the second half. By avalanche I mean that both teams in this one had 30 fouls each – that’s 60 fouls, folks! As I said, an extremely sloppy, messy game took place in the second half, but that didn’t make it any less watchable.

Read on to explore six takeaways from this most recent Atlanta Hawks loss, starting with…

Tim Hardaway Jr. Revenge Game (Part 2)

Much like the first game of the season for these two teams, Tim Hardaway Jr. erupted down the stretch and ended up scoring a whopping 34 points. Most of that damage was done in the 4th quarter, and more specifically, at the foul line.

Hardaway poured in an astonishing, comically high 20 attempts at the charity stripe, hitting 16 of them. Though he was quite cold from distance (2 of 11, yeesh), THJ was once again pretty amped to put on a show against his most recent team, and his natural scoring ability shone through.

Down the end of this one, it seemed that the Knicks had little in the way of an offensive system, as the plan was pretty much: “Give it to Timmy and hope he scores or gets fouled.” For the most part, it worked as Hardaway ended the night with a game-high +20 in box plus/minus and he had added 3 assists and 3 steals.

Strong All-Around Effort for Bembry

With underrated rookie Kevin Huerter out for personal reasons, DeAndre’ Bembry got the nod as the team’s starting small forward, and he responded with a strong game despite not putting up stunning counting stats. Bembry finished with a well-rounded stat line of 7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists and 1 steal in a team-high 32 minutes. After a lost season for Bembry last year, it’s good to see him cement himself as indispensable for these Atlanta Hawks, and we hope he sticks around for the foreseeable future as a rock-solid role player and three-and-D archetype off the bench for the Hawks. He also added a nifty one-on-one block on THJ to his resume, so there’s that.

Trae Young Status Report

Our scintillating rookie, Trae Young, had to contend with two jumbo point guards opposite him on this night. Though Young is off to a historically good start, Frank Ntilikina smothered Ice Trae with his length, height and speed and Emmanuel Mudiay used his heft and bulk to push Trae Young around all night. Young suffered through his worst night of his young career, though he still managed 15 points (6 of 19 shooting) and 8 assists in 30 minutes of action. Young continues to struggle from deep, though his one make (out of 7 tries) was pretty special:

Ice Trae will get better, and he is still a rookie, so these nights will happen.

Another Cold Night From Three

Against the Knicks, the Atlanta Hawks continued an alarming trend of shooting quite poorly from beyond the three-point line. After a putrescent showing against the Hornets (6 of 30), the Hawks did improve… marginally. The Hawks shot 11 of 38 (28.9 percent) from distance against the Knicks, which did not help their efforts in the comeback department come winning time. As I evinced, this was a solid tanking game for Atlanta, but if the triples don’t fall for the young guys, that’s not a great sign.

Omari Spellman’s Best Game as a Pro

Speaking of the young guys, Omari Spellman had the best game of his young career in his third career start against the Knicks. Previously, Spellman had recorded a cool 17 points against the Cavaliers for his career-high. In this one, Spellman was all over the court, putting his fingerprints all over this game in 28 impactful minutes as the team’s starting power forward. Spellman’s final stat line was quite well-rounded, showcasing his overall impact for the Atlanta Hawks at the four spot: 18 points (new career-high), 10 rebounds (first double-double), 4 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal. Excellent stuff from the 30th overall pick, as the Atlanta Hawks and coach Lloyd Pierce see what they have in the “big fella” (as Hawks commentator Bob Rathbun would say).

Air Plumlee!

Miles Plumlee, who had been buried on the bench for much of the season for the Atlanta Hawks, was exhumed by Lloyd Pierce when both Alex Len and Dewayne Dedmon were mired in foul trouble.

Lo and behold, Plumlee helped spark the Atlanta Hawks turnaround in the 4th quarter. He was a team-high +10 in BPM in only 11 minutes played. In that time, he piled up 8 points and 5 rebounds (4 OREBS), the loudest of which came on this mammoth putback smash on Enes Kanter’s dome:

Holy smokes that’s a good jam. Plumlee seemed to relish the opportunity to go against Kanter, who is a well-known irritant on-court. Plumlee responded by literally flipping him on his head in a sweet, wrestling-inspired move leading to a jump ball:

After a tough season last year, Plumlee looks to be in pretty terrific shape this year for the Hawks, and he provided a much-needed spark off the bench for a team that looked pretty listless up until his entrance into the game.

It’s good to see Plumlee play well, as we’ll have one more year of Miles on the Hawks next season as he continues on the 4-year/$50 million deal he signed in 2016 with the Bucks.

That’s all for this game! The Atlanta Hawks play next on Friday against the Detroit Pistons at home. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. EST. Stay tuned to Soaring Down South for all your Atlanta Hawks news and updates.