Atlanta Hawks: 3 Takeaways from a Narrow Loss to the Lakers

Another Rough 3rd Quarter

Including tonight, the Hawks have been outscored 126 to 89 in the third during their past four games. Ouch.

For Whatever reason, the Hawks been coming off of the half flat on D, and cold shooting. They’ve made the games close most times, with a strong fourth, but playing lackluster ball in the third is just digging an unnecessary hole to climb out of.

Luckily, the Hawks have been killing it in the fourth, Trae Young espically seems to turn it up to a higher gear in the final period, and they almost came back tonight just like they did last week against the Knicks.

This is a new issue for the Hawks, as early in the season, it was the slow starts to the game burdening them, but as we’ve seen a couple times now in the month of November, they’ve been able to stick with their opponent or even out-play them in the first half.

The third is often the make or break period in a game, and the Hawks haven’t seem to get that memo yet. We’ll see how Lloyd Pierce and the rest of the coaching staff figures out these slow starts to the second half.