Handing out grades for the Atlanta Hawks’ Friday match up with the Oklahoma City Thunder
Looking to keep things rolling after Wednesday’s comeback win over Los Angeles, the Atlanta Hawks traveled to Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder on Friday.
They got a big boost with the return of Trae Young, who was announced as an All-Star starter since he last played.
The Thunder got off to a quick 10-2 start, an lead the Hawks were chipping away at all night. Some nice transition work kept things close, and they went into the 2nd quarter trailing by just three.
Trae to John.
— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) January 25, 2020
This pass is so good it should count for 2 assists. pic.twitter.com/ve8N5NMyLs
They couldn’t carry that late quarter momentum however, and OKC was able to grow a double-digit lead in the 2nd period. John Collins had himself a great quarter, seemingly keeping the Hawks in the game single-handily.
The Hawks were pretty good offensively in the 3rd quarter, but just couldn’t get a stop on the other side of the court. At one points, the Thunder made nine successive field goal attempts to grow the lead from four to fourteen. The Hawks were still withing striking range going into the final quarter, but the lead extended instead.
A Jeff Teague lay in cut the deficit to just two late in the third, but the Thunder went on a huge run after that. The lead went from 15, to 20, to 25, and even 30 pretty quickly for OKC. They outscored the Hawks 74 to 53 in the 2nd half en route to the 140-111 final.
It drops the Hawks’ record to 11-35, while the Thunder keep pace in the Western Conference playoff picture.
Atlanta returns home for their next match, facing the Wizards on Sunday.
Before we jump ahead to that game, we got some player grades from Friday’s.