If the Atlanta Hawks are going to repeat or, more importantly, improve upon their success of last season, they are going to have to start giving more consistent effort on both ends of the floor. If their 122-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers had a familiar feel to it, it is because they just gave up the same amount of points to the Washington Wizards two nights before.
It could have been easy to write off the loss to Washington as an improved team catching them off-guard on a bad night. But this one, again on the road, might be indicative of a larger problem at hand for Atlanta.
We can harp on the starters’ ineffectiveness — they shot 36.8 percent from the floor but were 36.3 percent from deep.
However, there are going to be nights when the starters get outworked and they need support.
The Atlanta Hawks have yet to put forth a complete game this season
The Hawks bench got outscored, but only 44-42. However, most of that is thanks to Cam Reddish’s 16 points on 50 percent shooting (40 percent from deep) as he continued his hot start and Skylar Mays’ seven points late in garbage time. The rest of the top reserves combined for just 19 points on just 5-of-18 shooting.
Atlanta’s bench is 10th in points per game but 27th in field goal percentage. With Kevin Huerter, Danilo Gallinari, and Lou Williams accounting for over $28 million in cap hits, that shouldn’t be.
We’ve talked of Huerter needing to play better on the heels of his new deal and that is still true. But Gallinari accounts for $20 million of that and is still getting his legs under him. Same for Williams. When they do get going it will be a big boost. It just needs to happen soon.