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.

The Atlanta Hawks got beat inside-out

The Hornets stayed close thanks to 18 first-half points from Miles Bridges, including 12 in the first quarter, and 11 points from Montrezl Harrell. Charlotte went 30-of-47 in the paint including 25-of-37 in the restricted area, outscoring Atlanta 60-48. The Hawks let the Hornets go 17-of-25 combined in the paint, 14-of-20 in the restricted area, in the second and fourth quarters.

But the Hawks connected on just 24-of-45 of their looks inside including 20-of-34 in the restricted area. This is the 20th time the Hawks have hit 48.0 percent or worse on twos this season.

Their record is now 6-15 in those games with one of the wins coming just a couple of nights ago against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Clint Capela had a 17-point, 15-board double-double to go with one assist and one steal even knocking down all three of his attempts at the charity stripe. However, he shot just 50 percent from the floor.

Conversely, Onyeka Okongwu had 14 points on better than 87.0 percent shooting with five boards and two blocks. But he picked up three fouls less than halfway through the second quarter and would not return until there were just under four minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The Hawks hit just 6-of-17 in the paint in that stretch while the Hornets hit 9-of-13 looks.

Okongwu’s fouling has been an issue for much of the season. His 36.4 percent foul rate is the eighth-highest in the entire league among players with at least 35 appearances. He even got one in the third quarter despite playing just a little over four minutes the entire period.

When the Atlanta Hawks live by the three…

It wasn’t just in the paint, either. Atlanta hit just 3-of-19 threes in the second half including 1-for-11 in the third quarter. Young went 0-for-6 from deep for the game but the bigger issue was his inability to get into the paint with any regularity – part of the scoring discrepancy.

Bogdan Bogdanovic’s shooting slump from outside also continued with the swingman logging 12 points. But he needed 16 shots to get there and went just 2-for-8 from downtown.

To make matters worse, after shooting just 7-of-27 threes through three quarters, including a 4-fo-7 first frame, Charlotte hit 4-of-8 threes in the fourth, though, one of those was a superfluous bucket by LaMelo Ball (22 points, 11 assists) at the end of the game. The three other makes saw the score go from 97-all to 111-100 Hornets in 2:32 seconds of game time.

The Hawks are now 10-21 in games where they shoot below 36.0 percent from deep.

This would have been a lopsided affair were it not for Kevin Huerter (16 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals) and De’Andre Hunter (21 points, three rebounds, two assists) combining to go 8-of-16 from beyond the arc.

There won’t be many games like this from Young who finished with nine points on 25.0% shooting to go with a whopping 15 assists and three steals. This was the first time that he’s failed to crack double-digit points this season. It is also just the sixth time he hasn’t hit at least one three.

Likewise, Bogdanovic was just on a serious scoring run so his efficiency should soon return. But the Hawks struggles to close have coincided with his slump.

The Atlanta Hawks are falling victim to the injury bug again

Atlanta was without John Collins who was missing his third consecutive contest while dealing with a severe finger injury. The injury reportedly occurred during the loss to the Detroit Pistons and the Hawks went on the win three straight contests after falling to the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks.

But, without Collins available and with Bogdanovic struggling, the rest of the Hawks most effective lineup have been left rather toothless.

This has led to mixing and matching that continued when Danilo Gallinari went down with a bicep contusion in the second quarter. He finished with just five points on 40.0 percent shooting and hit just 1-of-3 threes before exiting.

He had three assists and two boards including this nice find to Okongwu.

Gallo — who missed the last game with a non-COVID illness — wasn’t the only one to get dinged up. Young came away with a thigh contusion that he said was “sore right now”.

He briefly left the game with 2:23 on the clock in the third and the Hawks went up 83-78 on a Lou Williams layup. By the time Young came back with about 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Hawks were down 89-85.

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot came in for Gallinari and didn’t provide much while Young’s return was a relief with the game in the balance. Now the hope is that there are no lingering effects. Especially with a huge matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on tap for Friday and time remaining to improve upon their standing in the East a little.