The Hawks still have a lot to figure out, and their to-do list of things to work through increases without injured guard Trae Young in the lineup.
On Sunday, the Hawks experimented with new lineup combinations that included Zaccharie Risacher at shooting guard, Jalen Johnson at small forward, alongside Mouhamed Gueye at power forward and Onyeka Okongwu at center.
“People’s roles are a little different, and (we’re) kind of shaping that together,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said after Sunday’s game. “I mentioned that I think transition is running with space and really attacking and getting in the paint there, where we can generate some looks there.
“But I think there’s a lot of things with the new group, and everybody’s in a slightly different role. We try to merge that together. We’ve just got to work at it.”
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from the Hawks’ 117-109 loss to the Cavaliers on Sunday at Rocket Arena.
The good
The Hawks know how to come back from double-figure deficits. They can string together stops and take control of a game.
On Sunday, they fell into an early 16-2 hole against the Cavaliers. But they returned with a five-minute, 14-6 run midway through the first quarter before opening the second on a 10-3 spurt.
The Hawks’ defense has saved them in two of their last four matchups and they currently rank 15th in the league in defensive rating.
“It’s just at the end of the day, it comes down to just competing, being in the right spots,” Hawks guard Luke Kennard said. “If you’re in the right spots, making the right decisions that way, it can help a lot of other things.”
The bad
All the Hawks’ solid defense, though, came undone because of turnovers.
With so many players shifted to different roles, the Hawks are back to figuring each other out. The Cavaliers jumped on that indecisiveness, forcing the Hawks into ill-advised passes that they converted into points.
The Cavaliers also just picked the Hawks’ pockets after luring them into drives.
Late in Sunday’s game, with the Hawks down by four, Nickeil Alexander-Walker tried to shake Cavaliers guard Lonzo Ball, who did not stray far from his hip. Cavs center Evan Mobley quickly picked up Alexander-Walker and drove him into a crowd. Donovan Mitchell then snatched the ball away from Alexander-Walker. Mobley scored a layup on the other end.
The Cavaliers scored 33 points off the Hawks’ 23 turnovers.
The ugly
The Hawks have trailed their opponents by double figures in each of their seven games. The Hawks have rallied back from those deficits to win just three times.
They’ve fallen behind their opponents in double-digit scoring in the first quarter in all but two games, the Magic on Oct. 24 and the Bulls on Oct. 27.
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