Atlanta Hawks: 5 Takeaways from Loss to Pacers

Rough Night for Hawks Rookies

As discussed earlier, the Atlanta Hawks rookie triumvirate did not have their best game collectively.

After a strong start for both Young and Huerter, both have cooled off considerably in recent games. Both have big-time defensive foibles, which were on full display in the second half of this game as the Hawks slowly dwindled away their lead that had been built in the second quarter.

Huerter finished with 5 points on 2 of 9 shooting, and he only hit 1 of his 4 three-point attempts. He seems less willing to take shots off the dribble than he had been previously, so that’s something to monitor going forward. He also provided this supremely slick no-look bounce pass to John Collins:

Ice Trae Young has had no problem taking deep bombs from long distance off the dribble, which has been to his detriment in recent games. Young again was unable to hit a triple in this game, going 0 of 5. He seems to be forcing the issue from outside, which is something he often did in college but had been curtailing in his early NBA career.

Omari Spellman, who has had a much more typical up-and-down start to his rookie year, did not make much of an impact in this one with 2 points in 12 minutes.

When your team’s top 3 rookies combined are almost outscored by the opposing team’s rookie single-handedly (16 vs. 12), it’s a good bet they didn’t have their best night.

But hey, it happens!