The Hawks just can’t seem to get closer to a .500 record. On Saturday, they fell to the Hornets 126-119 at State Farm Arena.
The meeting could have seeding implications, with the Hawks losing what could be a tiebreaker between the two teams. The Hawks already lost the second of four meetings against the Hornets in December.
Entering Saturday’s game, the Hawks led the Hornets by 1.5 games in the Eastern Conference standings. The Hornets came into State Farm Arena on an eight-game win streak and Saturday’s win have them inching closer to overtaking the Hawks for ninth place.
Quick stats: Jalen Johnson led the Hawks scoring with 31 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Zaccharie Risacher had 18 points on 4-of-4 shooting from 3. Nickeil Alexander-Walker finished with 13 points and career-high 10 assists.
Key moment
The Hawks had some momentum in the third quarter, overcoming an 85-72 deficit to get a quick three-point lead.
But the wheels came off when new Hawks center Jock Landale tried to draw a charge off Hornets forward Grant Williams. But Williams pushed off, extending his arm then kept driving to the basket.
Williams went up for the shot, made it and drew a foul off Johnson. It sparked an 11-0 Hornets run to close out the third quarter.
Highlight play
It has not been an easy second season for Hawks’ forward Risacher. But he deployed an aggressive mindset when it came to getting to the rim.
With 8:40 to play in the second quarter, Risacher cut from the wing. Johnson found him with a pass over the top and Risacher took it to the rim. He waited out Hornets defenders, LaMelo Ball and Ryan Kalkbrenner, before making a layup under the basket.
What they said
“There’s going to be plays in games like that. We got to endure them, whatever those catalysts are, because at that point you can’t control what just happened. So how we respond to those things mentally, and they don’t become compounded, whether they send something as a team the way you grow in that area.” -- Hawks coach Quin Snyder said of the Hawks’ end to the third quarter.
“Just trying to endure the pain with my open bone or whatever I got going on and just have it be tolerable enough to play. I lost a lot of blood in the last week and I’m just grateful to keep my teeth in there and play basketball out there.” -- Onyeka Okongwu on the recovery process from the dental fracture.
“I think obviously the rebounding was a huge thing coming into the game and on the scouting report. I just think we didn’t do the best job on the glass tonight. I got to be better on the glass. But it’s also we gave a lot of open looks and I think that’s a big part of it too. Overall, I think, we played a solid game.” -- Johnson on what the difference was on Saturday night.
Up next
The Hawks face the Timberwolves on Monday at Target Center.
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