Atlanta Hawks: 3 Takeaways from a Narrow Loss to the Lakers
By Dallin Duffy
A Wild Fourth Quarter
After an impressive first half, the Atlanta Hawks played a very rough third quarter, which we’ll get to more later. In the fourth however, they came out with a vengeance, quickly erasing the double digit lead the Lakers had built for themselves.
As he has a couple times this season, Trae Young came alive in the final period, scoring 11 of his 20 there tonight, while dishing out a great amount of assists along the way. Unfortunately, his would-be game winner was blocked by veteran (and new Laker) Tyson Chandler.
And then Trae basically from Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/VZ7U6bJdH9
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 12, 2018
You have to give the Hawks props for their valiant effort, especially the trio of Bazemore, Prince and Young, who combined scored 64 of the teams’ 106.
Despite good ball overall, the fourth really showed how badly the Hawks miss John Collins. Because of his absence, Omari Spellman was thrust into playing key minutes down the stretch that the 21-year old probably isn’t ready for yet. He missed a three on an crucial possession and let LeBron dunk right over him for the win.
Still, it’s good to see a team continue to play hard in a hostile territory, against one of the greatest players of all time, after a rough 3rd quarter. It would have been easy to fold up after that, but they came out swinging.