Atlanta Hawks: Rapid Reaction to Chippy Loss vs. Pistons

A quick recap of an Atlanta Hawks defeat at the hands of the Detroit Pistons.

The Detroit Pistons came into State Farm Arena and avenged their defeat at home to the Atlanta Hawks by delivering an extremely entertaining 125-122 loss to the home team.

This was an extremely tight, trash talk-filled game in which Pistons star Blake Griffin was summarily ejected and multiple players got into the faces of one another. Trae Young and Bruce Brown were jawing, Vince Carter and Reggie Jackson seemed to take umbrage with what the other was saying – plenty of intrigue.

The game itself lived up to the tense atmosphere. Up by 5 with under two minutes to go, the Hawks were unable to score again, and the Pistons took a 3-point lead after a double-pump long-range bomb from new Piston Thon Maker. The Hawks would get two three-pointers up: one eminently deep dart from Ice Trae and a fallaway prayer by Vince – both missed and the game was over.

Despite that, this was an important game in terms of growth for some of the young players on the Atlanta Hawks – specifically Trae Young. Young was extremely involved in every facet of this contest for the Atlanta Hawks.

Young got into with Bruce Brown, who seemed to relish the opportunity to get under Trae’s skin at every opportunity. In the end, Young roasted Brown for 30 points and 10 assists and forced Brown into 5 fouls.

Ice Trae played a team-high 36 minutes in this contest, even being left in for critical defensive possessions.

This was definitely a learning experience for Trae, and there will likely be plenty more for the remainder of this season as he continues to improve (and impress with his otherworldly passing) on a night to night basis.

The Atlanta Hawks have no time to dwell on this game, as they play tomorrow in a back-to-back against the Phoenix Suns. Tip-off is 7:00 p.m. EST.