4 observations after Atlanta Hawks lose on the road in Charlotte

The Atlanta Hawks (34-35) had a chance to get above .500 and put some distance between them and the Charlotte Hornets, whom they were facing, for the nine-seed but fell 116-106. Coming in on a three-game win streak, they ran into a buzzsaw Hornets offense that was key to a two-game streak of its own where they averaged 138 points.

In that regard, holding them to 116 points on the night is a bit of a moral victory. But that wasn’t enough to overcome an offense that shot just 36.4 percent in the second half.

What’s worse is they could have gotten to within a game of the Brooklyn Nets who fell to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday as well. The Hawks will face off against the Nets in a little over two weeks.

But they will surely fall to them too if they continue with the things they did against Charlotte.

The Atlanta Hawks offense fell off of a cliff in the second half vs CHO

The Hawks had a 67-62 lead at halftime and were doing well offensively. They were shooting 49.0 percent from the floor and canned 10-of-18 threes. Trae Young struggled to just two points on 0-of-5 shooting from the floor scoring via free throws. But he did have 10 assists to go with a pair of rebounds and a steal at the break.

He also had four of his six turnovers but, at that point, they had held Charlotte to just 5-of-15 triples to maintain their lead. They got outscored 54-39 in the second half, including scoring just 18 points on 28.0 percent shooting in the third quarter.