Atlanta Hawks: 4 Notable Storylines Following Dominant First Game

At long last, the Atlanta Hawks played their first game of the regular season. How did it go? Quite well indeed.

The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Detroit Pistons in the team’s regular season opener. Certainly, some caveats apply, as the Pistons were on the second night of a back-to-back, and they were without Blake Griffin all game and starting point guard Reggie Jackson for much of the game, but no matter what – the Hawks still looked exceedingly good.

You knew you were in for a fun game when the Hawks jumped out to a 38-32 advantage in the first quarter of the game, with Young delivering 16 of those points on his own in hilariously brilliant fashion.

The Pistons also only shot 27 percent from beyond the arc on a whopping 37 attempts, so it’s not as if they Hawks were stifling them in terms of attempts. The Hawks outshot Detroit from the field by 10 percentage points (51.2% to 41.2%) and outdueled them from downtown as well (Atlanta shot 35.5 percent from deep).

Detroit did claw back into contact heading into the second half and even held a five-point lead midway through the 3rd before the Hawks actually put the clamps on them on defense. That leads in beautifully to our first storyline from this game. Read on to explore all four.