Bad things happen when the Atlanta Hawks are off from deep

Wednesday night saw the Atlanta Hawks (31-34) shoot 28.9 percent from beyond the arc against the Milwaukee Bucks in a 124-115 loss. They are 10th and behind the Charlotte Hornets whom they would face in a one-game showdown for another shot at the eight-seed. They’re also just 1.5 games ahead of the Washington Wizards for the final play-in tournament spot.

This was arguably the toughest single game on the NBA’s second-easiest remaining schedule.

They aren’t out of the woods, though, even with the Wizards and New York Knicks (winners of three straight) posing little more than nominal threats. There are eight games against playoff teams including one against the Hornets on top of another tilt with Wizards left.

Eight of their 17 remaining games are on the road where they have a 12-21 record.

The Atlanta Hawks over-reliance on the three-ball has cost them more than a few games this season

The Hawks rank third in the league shooting 37.2 percent from deep this season. Even on the road, they rank ninth shooting 36.1 percent. Their 38.4 percent mark at home leads the Association.  However, they have shot below 30 percent from downtown – as they did against the Bucks – 13 times now in the campaign.

Their game against the Bucks ranked among the best of those games, for what it is worth.

They went just 2-11 in those games with 10 of the 13 coming on the road. But what is most concerning is eight of them have come since the New Year and three have come in March alone; two over these last couple of losses.

Since Jan 1, the Hawks are eighth in the league shooting 36.3 percent from outside and since Mar 1 they are just 22nd connecting on just 32.8 percent of their long-distance looks.

That disparity between home and road has only grown in March with the Hawks knocking down 45.0 percent of their threes in their one home game – a 130-124 win over the Chicago Bulls – in that span while only seeing 29.4 percent of those same looks fall when away from State Farm Arena.

For the record, they are six games above .500 at 19-13 in this tumultuous campaign.

This could be a case wherein the schedule does them a solid with more home games than road left on the docket. But the Los Angeles Clippers come to town on Friday while the Hawks still have to host the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, and Brooklyn Nets.

Instead of working to their strength, the Hawks shoot more threes with 33.7 attempts from deep on the season but 35.1 long attempts per game since Jan 1 and 36.6 percent since Mar 1.

Bogdan Bogdanovic, for example, has been a closer for the Hawks and a key piece in one of the league’s most efficient lineups. He went 1-for-8 on the night from three finishing with nine points because he was 3-of-5 from elsewhere on the floor. Averaging 21.1 points in seven games before Wednesday’s loss, he also averaged 2.6 free-throw attempts.

He attempted a total of zeros shots from the charity stripe versus the Bucks.

This three-game homestand (and five out of the next six) are critical for the Hawks postseason outlook. But the fact of the matter is they have very little if any margin for error as an up-and-down season wraps up.