Atlanta Hawks: Surprising Positives from Loss to Wizards

Though the Atlanta Hawks came away without a win, there were a few positive takeaways from last night’s game against the Washington Wizards.

The Atlanta Hawks fell by a final margin of 114 to 98, but the game was tied up with just under 7 minutes to go. Cue a puzzling collapse.

The Wizards outscored Atlanta by a whopping 20-4 margin to end the game, and Trae Young was pulled with 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter.

Fellow rookie Kevin Huerter, on the other hand, was dead on his feet as he poured in a career-high 44 minutes in this one. Though the rotations were a bit disjointed due to a flurry of early fouls called on the Atlanta Hawks in the first quarter, Young only playing 27 minute versus Huerter only sitting for 4 seems like an oversight.

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Despite a dispiriting close to this contest, there were plenty of positives to take away, starting with the play of Alex Len, who dominated a much smaller Washington front line – without Ian Mahinmi playing a single minute.

Len had one of his best overall games, as he was the beneficiary of a multitude of pinpoint Trae Young passes and he was a beast on the boards and as a rim protector. Len finished with a studly stat line of 24 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks in 27 minutes.

In the same vein, John Collins had yet another tremendous game – something that is pretty much the norm at this point for the second-year big man. In this tilt, JC notched his new career-high with 4 made three-pointers, besting his previous high of 3.

Though he missed the magical roundness of a double-double, Collins finished with 21 points on 8 of 14 shooting with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Great stuff from a player that should be making the All-Star team this season.

Even though he was thoroughly gassed by the end of the game, Huerter still notched 12 points in his 44 minutes as well as 5 assists. Beyond that, his defensive activity only netted him a single counting stat (1 block), but he was covering a lot of ground out there and guarding a variety of different positions. Oh yeah, he also had yet another highlight reel dunk:

Promising stuff from Red Pepper (it seems this nickname is not taking off like I wanted, but I’m stubborn so I will continue to use it).

The Atlanta Hawks play next on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks at 8:30 p.m. EST.