Atlanta Hawks: Player grades in blowout loss to the Utah Jazz

The Atlanta Hawks played the Utah Jazz in their first game in four days.  Player grades provide insight into the blowout loss.

The Atlanta Hawks came out in the first and did not seem switched on. Conversely, the Utah Jazz came out hot, especially from deep, and opened up a 14 point lead. The Hawks came roaring back mid-quarter to only be down by four before the Jazz finished the quarter strong, leading by 10 at the first break,

The Hawks played better in the second period but were still unable to make stops. The Jazz simply finished the half stronger, taking a 15 point lead into the long break on the back Donovan Mitchell scoring 20, Rudy Gobert scoring 12 points to go with eight rebounds, and Mike Conley hitting for 10 points for the half.

The Utah Jazz were hurt in the second half by the 3-ball, again:

The second half started with a 7-0 run for the Hawks with Young collecting points at the line and dishing the ball well. The Hawks again came back to get within four before Mitchell stroked two long 3-points shots and Bogdanovic made two wide-open corner 3-balls. The Hawks made a second run to be within eight with a minute to go before the Jazz finished strongly again.

The Jazz then continued their run into the fourth period and opened up a 30 point lead thanks to some careless Hawks turnovers. The Hawks would get a little respectability back to the scoreline, eventually going down by 24 points. One positive was the play of their rookie Onyeka Okungwu who played his first NBA minutes tonight