The need for the Atlanta Hawks to have a second star was highlighted in the second period

The Atlanta Hawks were looking great early in the second period. Delon Wright and Danilo Gallinari were doing good things on the floor and the Hawks enjoyed an eight point lead. Then it all changed and it happened in a hurry.

The Heat put on a 26-4 run and the Hawks were on the back foot going into halftime. In a game where they were basically playing for their season this was unacceptible. The only potentially mitigating circumstance is that Young appeared to hurt his ankle early in the game. It did not stop him from playing but he was not effective

The Hawks were on the back foot from there and never really got back into the game. Now it is a win or go home in the next game on Miami’s home floor. This team is too experienced to let this advantage slip without something amazing from the Hawks.

The Atlanta Hawks are in desperate need to a second star.

Now, we need to give Clint Capela a leave pass on the game because he only just made it back for the game thanks to a hyper-extension of his knee in the second play-in game. However, John Collins, who is the Hawks highest paid player for the season, has been back a couple of games and just was not himself in this game.

In the first game of the series Young had one of the worst games of his career, scoring only eight points. He only had four assists that night as well which shows that there was not much help on the court.

In this game Young had nine points and five assists which goes to show how well the Heat can defend. However, when Collins has four fouls by the half, and when he does things like pass the ball in directly to Jimmy Butler on an inbound pass, it shows how much a second star is needed.

He was only good for 11 points, two rebounds with an assists and a block. It was De’Andre Hunter who tried to step up to help Young but was really only able to keep it going for one quarter. He had 11 points in five minutes and 13 for the rest of the game. Bogdan Bogdanovic has been huge in fourth quarters in the previous two games but was missing this game.

It would not be a surprise to see one of these players gone over the offseason. In all honesty, the Atlanta Hawks need to go all-in to get this second star becuase without this star power, they are not going to make it as deep into the playoffs as they would want.