As the Atlanta Hawks wrap up their four-game road trip, they find themselves among the dregs of the NBA. They’re 4-9, have lost six straight games, and six of their last nine. Currently, they sit 13th in the East and it will be close to two weeks since their last win if they manage to get their first game back in State Farm Arena.
Their draw? The reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks. They coming off of a loss and may or may not have the services of Giannis Antetokounmpo who missed their loss to the Boston Celtics with an ankle injury.
It’s the first rematch of the two teams from last year’s Eastern Conference Finals.
Before they can even consider that, they need to figure out what went wrong in their 105-96 loss to the Denver Nuggets
The Atlanta Hawks misfired from deep again as they finished a winless road trip
There were several stat lines that wound up looking decent enough for the Hawks. Trae Young finished with 30 points, nine assists, and five rebounds. John Collins had an unexpected bounceback after the Nuggets decided to stick Aaron Gordon on Young instead. He finished with 26 points, nine boards, and two blocks.
Clint Capela had a 14-point, 13-board double-double while Bogdan Bogdanovic had 10 points off of the bench.
That is the extent of the positives as Atlanta shot 40.9 percent from the floor and went 5-of-28 from beyond the arc. This as Denver shot 44.4 percent overall and 10-of-35 from deep, good for 28.6 percent.
Denver got a 22-point, 19-board, 10-assist triple-double out of Nikola Jokic in his first game back from a brief suspension. Aaron Gordon had 23 points, four rebounds, four assists, three blocks, and two steals. They also got 43 points on 62.5 percent shooting from the trio of Jeff Green, P.J. Dozier, and Bones Hyland.
For Atlanta, they got 16 points from all other scorers combined.
The last time they shot below 41 percent from the floor and 20 percent from three was a 100-86 loss to the Detroit Pistons last April.
Outside of Young, who was 5-of-6 from deep, the Hawks starters were 1-of-13 from three. Bogdanovic and sixth-man Kevin Huerter both went 0-for-5. Huerter and Hunter each went 1-for-6 from the floor.
Atlanta is 12th in three-point efficiency and 19th in overall field goal percentage while Milwaukee is 11th and 20th, respectively.
This is a tough spot to be in serious need of a win.
But it’s where the Hawks find themselves after their lackluster start. The Hawks did take two of their three meetings in the regular season before they fell in the ECF.