Atlanta Hawks studs and duds as defense, three-ball fail at home

Atlanta Hawks dud as three-ball fails at home: It can be hard to single out one player in losses like this

Things don’t seem to be close to the tipping point of last season where there were locker room meetings and, ultimately, a head coach was fired. But we are far from the “Kumbaya” feeling of last season. In situations like these, and particularly after this game, it seems appropriate that many on the team share this section.

We’ve already talked of Young’s shot selection and turnovers. But Monte Morris lit him up to the tune of 15 (of his 21) points on over 71 percent shooting.

Kevin Huerter and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot combined for 12 points, five rebounds, and six assists. But they shot 28.5 percent from the floor and went 2of-8 from outside. They also combined to allow 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting overall and 5-of-8 threes.

Huerter is averaging just 6.3 points on 28.6 shooting and has hit just two of his last 15 attempts from distance.

Second-year guard Bones Hyland led the Nuggets in scoring with 24 points. He scored 10 of those points on Huerter and Cam Reddish, going 4-of-5 from the floor and 2-of-2 from beyond the arc in their coverage.

Luwawu-Cabarraot has looked like a backup outside of two games.

The bigs were just as much of a mixed bag as John Collins had 20 points, 10 boards, two assists, and two steals while Clint Capela dropped 15 points, 11 boards, and three blocks. It was Collins’ eighth double-double of the season and Capela’s 18th. The latter is the fifth-most in the NBA.

However, both of their primary matchups in Jeff Green and Nikola Jokic had 20 points and shot over 60 percent from the floor in getting there.

The Hawks next play on Sunday when they’ll host the Cleveland Cavaliers who just sent stud rookie big man Evan Mobley into health and safety protocols.