Studs and duds from loss as injuries pile up again for the Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks 99-90 loss to the New York Knicks snaps their winning streak at seven games. It’s their first loss since falling to the Denver Nuggets over two weeks ago. It is also just the second loss at home of the season for the Hawks. It does come at the end of a stretch where they have played nine games in 15 days.

It also is a knock to their standings in a still muddled Eastern Conference that saw the top-seeded Brooklyn Nets fall to the red-hot Phoenix Suns.

The loss comes despite Trae Young having yet another monster night. He went off for 33 points and went 5-of-10 from three-point range. It is his fourth-straight game with at least 30 points and came with seven assists and four boards.

This latest stellar showing still wasn’t enough.

The loss of two key players to injuries is far worse than one game in November for the Atlanta Hawks

That’s even with John Collins contributing 16 points and nine rebounds while blocking three shots and dishing out three assists. It didn’t help that he only scored five of those points in the second half. However, that is when he recorded all of his assists and two of his blocks.

Lou Williams struggled from the floor again and teamed with Danilo Gallinari to go 3-of-17 from the floor and 1-of-8 from deep.

Atlanta shot 35.5 percent from the floor and went 9-of-37 from three. But the final result in this one will ultimately be a detail of the bigger picture issue that arose for the Hawks coming out of this game.

The good news is they’ll have three full days to recuperate

They’ll need it with Bogdan Bogdanovic and Cam Reddish both suffering injuries that will see them get MRIs. It is especially unfortunate for Reddish, who was just finding his rhythm on offense again.