The Hawks have played competitive basketball in many of their games this season. But on the second night of back-to-back games, they didn’t appear to have their usual fighting spirit, falling to the Spurs 126-98 on Friday.
The Spurs made the Hawks pay for being a step too late and less physical. They bumped them out of the way to the basket and burned them on their rapid passes to find an open man on the perimeter.
“We saw last game when we didn’t do things we needed to do, we gave up 40 points in the quarter,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “And when we did do those things, we either won the quarter, or it was competitive.”
Quick stats: Jalen Johnson had 17 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 23 points.
The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama had 26 points and 12 rebounds off the bench.
Turning point
The game became ugly quickly after the Hawks held it within two possessions for the first eight minutes. Then the Spurs’ bench sniffed out the weaknesses of the Hawks’ second unit, going on a 13-2 run at the end of the first quarter and into the second.
The Spurs never let up.
They extended that to a 20-8 run and ended up holding the Hawks to 44 points. It’s the second-fewest points the Hawks have scored in a half this season.
The Hawks are 0-3 this season when they score fewer than 50 points in a half.
Highlight play
Just like the Hawks, the Spurs played a game on Thursday night. And, like the Hawks, the Spurs also traveled for Friday’s game.
But the Spurs looked like the team with fresher legs as they rose up for dunk after dunk.
The Spurs ended making close to 55% of their overall field goals, while sinking 62.5% of their attempts in the paint.
The Hawks seemed to give little resistance, like when Spurs center Wembanyama split a pair of defenders while gliding through the air to the basket for a dunk with 2:40 to play in the second quarter.
What they said
“We weren’t able to keep them out of the paint. That’s really the biggest thing. A lot of times, the paint leaves 3s for them. That was the case at times, but they’re on the rim, and so I think defensively, we have some things that we have been committed to and know that we need to do to compete against a team and explain in a very high level.” — Snyder said of what the team learned from the blowout.
“He’s (Victor Wembanyama) obviously the best shot blocker in the league. And when you’re that tall and that long, you can affect shots in different ways to other people. So, you’re going in there, it’s kind of, trying to have eyes out. I have to start making shots, too. So he respects me more.” — Dyson Daniels on his early scoring success.
Up next
The Hawks remain at home for this week. They host the Bulls on Sunday afternoon for the first of a two-game series.
Correction
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
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