It was a tough week for the Atlanta Hawks. It started Tuesday with a blowout loss to the Cavs and then after getting a close win over San Antonio, they could not score in crunch time against Milwaukee and the Bucks pulled away to get a win over Atlanta. The Hawks are now 9-10 going into their Wednesday night matchup with the Brooklyn Nets and they are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
When NBA.com released its power rankings today, it was not a surprise to see the Hawks fall further. They were 20th last week and now they are 21st.
NBA.com analyst John Schuhmann had this to say about the Hawks this past week:
“The Hawks have allowed 128.1 points per 100 possessions (5.9 more than any other team) in first quarters. The Bucks’ 42 on just 26 possessions (1.62 per) in the opening period on Saturday was only Atlanta’s third-worst defensive first quarter of the season.
The Hawks traded turnovers with the Spurs in the closing seconds on Thursday, but for the game, committed 11 fewer than San Antonio (10-21), tied for the second biggest differential in any game this season. For the season, the Hawks rank fifth (in the top seven for the third straight season) in turnover differential at minus-1.9 per game, having committed fewer than their opponents in 13 of their 19 games.
The win against San Antonio also came with Young scoring a season-high 45 points. He a rough night in Cleveland on Tuesday, but still has an effective field goal percentage of 57.4% over his last seven games, up from 41.2% through his first 11.The Hawks have now lost seven of their last eight games against teams that currently have winning records, with the only exception being their overtime win over the 10-9 Nets 12 days ago. The two teams will meet again on Wednesday.”
Atlanta’s defense continues to be an issue and that has only grown more apparent since the injury to forward Jalen Johnson.
Per Cleaning the Glass, Johnson ranks in the 92nd percentile in points per 100 possessions allowed when he is on the floor and the Hawks defense is 8.4 points better. He ranks even better when it comes to effective field goal percentage allowed, ranking in the 96th percentile. The Hawks are a struggling defense even with Johnson, but they are much worse without him and lose a lot of versatility.
Without Johnson, the Hawks have started Saddiq Bey in his place and the defense is much worse with Bey on the court. Bey is one of the Hawks’s worst defenders and Atlanta allows 3.7 more points when he is on the floor.
The Hawks have a lot of things to figure out if they want to get back in contention for a top spot in the Eastern Conference.
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