Defense falters as Trae Young drops 56 points in Atlanta Hawks loss

If it seemed as though the Atlanta Hawks (16-20) had already suffered their most disappointing loss, think again. What should have been a night of celebration, albeit tempered on the road, ended up as the latest in a long line of defensive breakdowns as the season has gone on. The Hawks fell 136-131 to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Portland was without Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.

Atlanta also got an entire lineup’s worth of players back from health and safety protocols; necessary with how players like Clint Capela have struggled with conditioning when coming back.

It didn’t matter in the end, though, as they let the Blazers shoot 52.8 percent from the floor and 43.9 percent from beyond the arc.

Trae Young’s 56 points were not enough as the Atlanta Hawks couldn’t stop the Blazers

Trae Young’s new career-high came on 65.4 percent shooting and 7-of-12 threes. But that, along with his 14 assists, was just the tip of the iceberg of what made the performance notable. Per Hawks public relations, Young became one of just one of five different players to record a 55-point, 10-assist outing.

He is now one of four players to have 50-plus points and at least 14 assists in a game but the only one to have 55-plus points and 14-plus assists in a single game.

Young is also the first since Tiny Archibald in 1973 to have that line result in a loss.

Unfortunately, his counterpart – and primary defensive assignment – Anfernee Simons also had a career night, going for 43 points on just under 62 percent shooting and 9-of-16 from downtown with seven assists and three rebounds to just two turnovers.

It wasn’t just Simons as he and Ben McLemore combined for 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

The night isn’t all on Young either though as Kevin Huerter was an even more frequent target of the Blazers attack. He allowed his assignments to go 11-of-18 on him including 9-of-12 from Simons, Nasir Little, and Norman Powell for 23 points.

It was a rough welcome back from health and safety protocols.

Add Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Delon Wright to that list. Two players who are supposed to provide perimeter defense allowed their matchups to shoot 64 percent overall with TLC’s matchups going 3-for-4 from deep.

Setting records is nice. The Hawks waning record on the season is not.

They have now lost 11 of their last 16 games since their seven-game winning streak. They’ve also allowed 130-plus points in three of their last four games and five times since the beginning of December. Since Young became the first Hawks player to enter protocols, they are 2-5 and still have three games left on this road trip.

Hopefully, Bogdan Bogdanovic and John Collins stay on schedule and get back in time for Wednesday’s tilt against the Sacramento Kings.