After winning the first two games convincingly after Trae Young’s injury announcement, the Hawks have fallen hard in the last two games vs the Brooklyn Nets.
While it was not a blowout like Thursday’s game, there were a lot of the same problems for the Hawks in this game. The offense had a hard time getting anything going, especially with three-point shooting, and the three-point defense was subpar. Atlanta heads into Tuesday’s matchup with the Knicks with no momentum and it feels like things might only get worse from here.
So what are the key takeaways from yesterday’s loss?
1. The Hawks missed a giant opportunity in these two games
The Hawks have been in the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference for what feels like forever and they entered these two games vs Brooklyn with a four game lead on the Nets.
That lead is down to two after losing both of these games. Not only that, but the Hawks lost the season series to the Nets, giving Brooklyn the tiebreaker.
If the Hawks had won both of those games, they would have had a six game lead on the Nets and the season series, more or less putting Brooklyn out of reach for the spot. Even just a split would have kept the lead at four games. The schedule is about to get very tough for the Hawks and the Nets have a real chance at grabbing the last play-in tournament spot.
2. The Nets held the advantage in three-point shooting
It was not as big of an advantage as Thursday night, but Brooklyn still had a much better night shooting the three ball than Atlanta. The Hawks were 11-34, while the Nets were 15-32. Offense in general has been a problem for the Hawks while Young has been out, especially shooting the three. They are not getting as many good looks as when Young plays.
3. Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson had big nights and won the game for Brooklyn
Cam Johnson had a big game vs Atlanta on Thursday and he followed it up with a 23 point effort on Sunday, shooting 4-7 from three. It was not the biggest performance of the day for the Nets though. Mikal Bridges had big games vs the Hawks this year before Saturday’s 38-point explosion and he continued his dominance against Atlanta yesterday. Bridges was 14-26 from the field and 5-10 from three and was the best player on the floor by a wide margin.
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