The Atlanta Hawks need to reduce their fouling and be smarter

The Atlanta Hawks have been plagued with foul trouble in their last four losses. Their first loss came against the Philadelphia 76ers where Trae Young had five fouls, John Collins and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot both had four fouls.

Then in the next game, Luwawu-Cabarrot and Kevin Huerter both had five fouls in their loss to the Charlotte Hornets who were without three of their starters. The Brooklyn Nets game was not much better with Luwawu-Cabarrot having five fouls with Collins and Danilo Gallinari having four each. Luwawu-Cabarrot may be looking at home on offense at times, but he is struggling not to foul

The Houston Rockets game was one of the hardest pills to swallow. The last quarter fadeout was made worse when Gallinari fouled out. Gorgui Dieng, Collins, and Huerter all had four fouls. Given the quality of offense in the league, it makes it very difficult for their players to compete at the highest level if they are making sure they are not fouling.

The Atlanta Hawks need to be smarter with their fouls

The impact of fouls in the NBA is wide-ranging. As mentioned earlier, players have to be careful when they are high in the foul count as they have to back off due to not wanting to pick up another foul which will exclude them from the game.

This is part of the reason that the Hawks are not winning the final period. They are not able to play as hard as their opposition as too many players are at risk of collecting late fouls. They have also been getting high in the team foul count, meaning that they are giving away easy points at the free-throw line.

If the Hawks don’t have their main guys in foul trouble on a nightly basis then they are going to put themselves in a better position to take home the win more often. If they keep fouling the way that they are then there is very little hope of a turnaround in their fortunes.