The Atlanta Hawks concluded their regular season series with the Indiana Pacers with a disappointing 129-124 loss at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday night.
Jalen Johnson notched 33-point, 12-rebound, and 10-assist triple-double, his eighth of the season ahead of what is expected to be his first All-Star nod later today. Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 21 points for the Hawks. For the Pacers, three players scored 23 or more points, led by Andrew Nembhard’s 26 points with Pascal Siakam adding 25 points.
The Hawks welcomed back Johnson to the starting lineup after missing the Houston game with left calf tightness, while Zaccharie Risacher made his long-awaited return to the lineup having last played on January 7th due to a left knee, bone contusion. Kristaps Porzingis (left Achilles tendinitis) and Onyeka Okongwu (dental fracture) remain out, while Vit Krejci was a game-day scratch with a left ankle sprain. In place of the absent Okongwu, Mo Gueye started at center.
Both teams started this game with momentum, both teams finding their opportunities at the rim/in the paint, particularly Jalen Johnson, who scored 10 first quarter points. Nembhard starred for Indiana in the first, scoring 15 points behind three three-pointers in a first quarter narrowly swinging in the Hawks’ favor.
The visitors, briefly, took a nine-point lead early in the second quarter — a lead that was, quickly, erased by the Pacers, who scored 45 points in the second quarter in another half where the Hawks concede 80 points.
The Hawks made inroads in the narrow Indiana lead in the third quarter, with CJ McCollum and Alexander-Walker scoring eight points in the third, where neither team shot the ball well from three and the high-level scoring — up to that point — slowed down. Heading into the fourth quarter, both teams found themselves in a clutch-game situation, so, let’s go through the plays down the stretch.
The Hawks never led in the fourth quarter; it was a game they were ultimately chasing down the stretch, though, a Dyson Daniels floater brought the Hawks to within one point — 114-115 — with 5:12 remaining. The Pacers extend this back to four points with this Aaron Nesmith three-pointer, leading to a Hawks timeout with just over four minutes left:
While I think Johnson could have hustled a little harder around the Jay Huff screen to prevent the penetration, it’s Corey Kispert who wanders a little farther than he needs to from Nesmith, and it’s not as though he’s rotating to the corner to cover Daniels’ man, with Daniels having to rotate and deter a shot at the rim.
Kispert is subbed out of the game at this timeout, and Johnson brings the Hawks back within one point as Johnson successfully hits the jumpshot after backing down Nembhard, drawing the ‘and-1’ on the play and dispatching the free throw:
The Pacers reply with an ‘and-’1 of their own, as Huff slips the screen, gets deep, and finishes with the reverse layup against Gueye, plus the foul:
A few things to say about this play. The Pacers ran this Nembhard-Huff screening action a lot in the fourth and, for the most part, I thought Alexander-Walker applied excellent pressure on the ball on these actions, and Gueye also did a good job of moving his feet to reciprocate the pressure Alexander-Walker exerted.
However, this play was one where Huff was able to get the slip ahead of Gueye. McCollum does a good job to read the play, rotate, and hold up Huff as well as you could ask for (almost getting his hand on the ball for the steal), and Gueye is able to get Huff back in front of him. However, Huff is in too deep at this point, and if anyone is finishing with a reverse finish it’s Jay Huff, taking the contact on the way.
Johnson tried to attack Nembhard, again, in the post, but is unable to make the same headway on the back down, and Johnson tries to rise over Nembhard again with the jumper, but this time it’s missed:
I wonder if Johnson was expecting Nembhard to make contact again for a foul call on the jumpshot here. Nembhard, wisely, keeps his hands out of the cookie jar this time — his body clearly positioned to avoid any contact on the jumper again.
Alexander-Walker’s defense creates a steal out-front, and he leads the one-man break where he’s fouled at the rim, where he would go on to miss his first free throw in seven games as he splits the pair to bring the Hawks within three points — 118-121 — with 2:51 remaining:
The Pacers extend their lead as Nesmith drives from the corner on Johnson, carves space on the drive with the contact, and finishes at the rim:
Not ideal from Johnson defensively, particularly the way Nesmith just bodied him out of the way to create the opening at the rim.
The Hawks’ hole suddenly becomes alarming, as a turnover from McCollum leads to an immediate Siakam basket in transition, putting the Pacers up by seven points with 2:17 remaining:
It’s just a bad pass from McCollum; it’s behind Gueye on the roll, and even if it wasn’t, the ball is at his feet — he was never reaching it.
Jalen Johnson comes up with two big plays to give the Hawks a chance. First, he hits the three-point at the end of the clock before taking a charge, to give the Hawks a chance to bring the lead back down to a one possession game. The Hawks work a quick shot with the Johnson-Alexander-Walker pick-and-roll, but the three from Alexander-Walker is missed:
This clip has the Pacers’ commentary, but one of the funnier moments last night was from the Hawks’ broadcast, with Brian Oliver outlining that the Hawks do not need to go for a three at this point, and, as he says, this he trails off, as Alexander-Walker hoists the three at this exact moment and misses. Difficult to describe, but pretty funny to watch!
Unfortunate miss: it’s not the worst shot in the world and Alexander-Walker can hit those… It’s one of those plays that looks a lot worse because it missed, especially with 16 seconds left on the clock.
A turnover from Nembhard gives the Hawks another chance to bring the lead down to one-possession — and now with under a minute remaining — but the Hawks miss another chance, as Johnson’s turn and drive toward the rim is deterred by Huff on the contest:
This play speaks to a larger theme of the second half which we’ll discuss later, but a lot of it has to do with Jay Huff, who does well to alter the shot at the rim. Critically, in the immediate aftermath, Daniels claims the offensive rebound on the ground and successfully calls the timeout, giving the Hawks another, crucial chance to reduce the Pacers’ lead.
Out of the timeout, McCollum is finally able to bring the Hawks within two points, successfully connecting on a fadeaway jumper in the paint:
The Pacers don’t call for a timeout, but this upcoming possession is the most important of the game. If Indiana scores, they extend the lead to two possessions (up four-plus points) with the shot clock off and force Atlanta to play the foul/free throw game. If the Pacers miss, the Hawks have a chance to tie or take the lead with the shot clock off.
In the middle of the paint, Siakam backs down Alexander-Walker, with Johnson arriving late to apply pressure. Siakam rises up to take the free throw line jumper, sinking it, giving the Pacers the crucial four-point lead:
It’s a good make from Siakam, but for neither Johnson nor Alexander-Walker to get a hand up to contest this shot will be of disappointment for the Hawks.
The Hawks charge immediately with Johnson, who gets near the rim and kicks the ball out to Gueye in the corner, who misses the three. Alexander-Walker gets in the mix for the offensive rebound and is fouled, resulting in free throws:
Hindsight is always a wonderful thing, and I think in this instance, the Hawks may have been served with Gueye kicking the ball to the more open, and reliable from three, option in McCollum. Alexander-Walker splits the free throws, bringing the lead down to three points.
The Pacers, however, hand the Hawks a gift: the in-bounder after the timeout, TJ McConnell, travels before the ball is inbounded, handing the Hawks possession with seven seconds remaining and a chance to tie the game with a three. All of a sudden, however, those missed Alexander-Walker free throws down the stretch become very costly…
However, just as the Hawks received a chance on the inbounds pass they also spurned this gifted chance, as Johnson turns the ball over on the attempted pass to Alexander-Walker, returning the ball to the Pacers where they would ice the game at the free throw line:
A tough one for Johnson and Alexander-Walker combined here, and ultimately just not a turnover you can accept in a situation like this. To get a bad shot is one thing — to not get anything is the worst outcome of all.
The Pacers seal victory, leaving the Hawks to reflect on what may have been. In the case of Hawks head coach Quin Snyder, he was left to reflect on a style of play that he was not pleased with, believing the Hawks didn’t play to the way that brings them success: driving, finding perimeter shooters, and sharing the ball. Snyder was particularly unhappy with the Hawks’ 25 assists and just 28 three-point attempts, both considerably below their season averages. Snyder would go on to mention Onyeka Okongwu specifically as the most unselfish player on the team, and while Snyder said he wasn’t ‘lamenting’ Okongwu’s absence, he is clearly perturbed by his absence and what Okongwu provides the Hawks and his fellow teammates.
“We weren’t committed to taking good shots, we weren’t committed to passing the ball,” said Snyder postgame. “We had people open. It shows in our assist totals, and it shows in the fact we got 28 threes. When we play well, we’re getting in the lane and kicking the ball out. When we play well, we’re running and we’re spacing, offensively. On the defensive end we lose focus. What you see is we play a certain way, we get a lead — or close a lead — and then we play a different way, we look like a different team during stretches. We cut it to one, it’s back to 10. We know, we just have to execute it. Often times, the other team has something to do with that.
“I’m not lamenting Onyeka not being here but he’s the most selfless ball-mover on our team. He sets an example for everybody, because when they give it to him, they know it’s going to come back to them. We’re comfortable because he’s going to make a play for someone else, and everybody has to have that mindset. You have to make a simple pass and trust in your teammates. When you do that, we don’t shoot 28 threes. We shoot 40 threes. When we do that, we don’t have 25 assists, we have 35 assists. It’s something that we believe in, I don’t think there’s any lack of buy-in. There just has to be execution in those things. It’s harder to execute in that way because it requires everybody on the same page, everybody committed to a certain way of playing. But that’s who we need to be. When we’re like that and play that way, we’re efficient. When we’re not, the game looks like it did tonight.”
Snyder was probably wanting to make a more public indictment of how the Hawks played last night, but I don’t actually think the Hawks not shooting threes or getting into the paint and finding shooters was their issue last night. In fact, the Hawks’ greatest contribution to this game was the fact they were getting to the rim and finishing there; not getting to the rim and finding shooters.
In the first quarter alone, the Hawks scored 24 points in the paint and scored another 20 points in the paint in the second quarter; scoring 44 points in the paint in the first half alone. And it wasn’t a situation where it was just Jalen Johnson scoring, for example, 18 points in the paint (though, he did lead the way) — it was everybody. Johnson scored 10 paint points, Alexander-Walker, Gueye, Luke Kennard, Daniels, McCollum all scored six paint points each: everyone was contributing and excelling in the first half in the paint/at the rim:
11 three-point attempts is obviously a low volume of threes, but with the shots the Hawks did get they, mostly made. The Hawks shot just under 55% from the field in the first half for 73 points — offense was not their issue. Defensively, that’s another conversation, but I don’t agree with Snyder when he talks about the issues he saw offensively if he’s referring, in any way, to the first half.
The second half saw the Hawks score only 20 points in the paint, seeing a far lower volume and shooting percentage in the paint and at the rim:
If the message at halftime was to shoot more threes, it was the wrong message. It completely took away the good things the Hawks were doing offensively in the first half, and you could see the Hawks settle for those jump shots more in the third quarter.
In the first half, Johnson is absolutely taking this drive into the chest of Johnny Furphy (as he did in the first half), but instead he settles for a three which is missed:
I would have liked to have seen Johnson continue to play as he had in the first half: getting into the paint and finishing, taking it to the chest of defenders who weren’t able to deal with him in the first half (scoring 21 of his 22 points in the first half), and especially to begin the third when Huff wasn’t on the floor.
While the likes of Siakam, Nembhard, Nesmith…they all scored 2o or more points in this game (extremely efficiently in the case of Nesmith and Siakam, who shot 80% and 73% respectively).
The most influential player for the Pacers in this game, I thought, was Jay Huff, and he’s a big key as to the reversal of paint scoring fortune the Hawks experienced in the second half (in addition to the coaching staff likely wanting more threes). Huff checked back into the game off the bench with 6:39 remaining in the third quarter — he did not check back out of this game until 42 seconds remained in the fourth quarter.
What Huff provided the Pacers was a clear deterrent in the paint and at the rim, one which the Hawks were wary of. Coming off the screen, McCollum knows that Huff is backpedaling and that any attempt to drive and finish inside would be futile, and he instead backs the ball out and misses a three:
If Huff isn’t there, I think McCollum likely takes this ball to the rim, similar to this next play where McCollum gets deeper into the paint as he gets downhill, and with Huff looming McCollum kicks it out to the perimeter and the three from Gueye is missed:
When Christian Koloko was on the floor, it allowed Huff to sit a lot more in the paint; when Gueye was on the floor there were times where Huff wouldn’t be centered in the paint, at least somewhat respecting the three-point threat of Gueye. Had Okongwu been available the same would be said.
With Koloko there, Huff doesn’t really need to concern himself, and he can drop deep like he does on this possession. McCollum is unable to get into the paint for a high percentage look, and has to settle for a jumpshot just outside the paint:
It’s an example of instances where the Hawks’ attempts inside the paint were so much more limited in the second half.
On the pick-and-roll with Gueye, Alexander-Walker gets separation, but he can’t take the drive to the rim with Huff looming, and Alexander-Walker elects to lean back into the jumper which is missed:
Alexander-Walker’s apprehension is understandable, as in the third quarter — one of the first plays Huff was involved in when he checked in — he was blocked emphatically by Huff:
Johnson, too, was impacted by Huff’s presence at times. While Johnson was able to exploit mismatches and score some paint points in the second half, he struggled to operate in the same manner as the first half, and when he tried to take it to Huff, he faced a similar outcome:
Something that the Hawks may have possibly seen more success in going to with Huff on the floor was the Dyson Daniels floater — the one instance Daniels whipped it out over Huff in the second half, he hit it (and the only shot he took/made in the second half):
By the time this shot was hit, it was already hitting the stretch run in the fourth, and I can’t help but wonder if the Hawks had gone to this sooner maybe they could have found some paint success with Daniels’ floater…
Going back to Snyder’s comments… I think the Hawks going away from some of their paint scoring and emphasizing more threes (not that those went down with much success; shooting 5-of-17 in the second half, 11-of-28 from three for the game) combined with Huff’s presence limiting the Hawks’ attempts/percentages in the paint/at the rim was I think, ultimately, the Hawks’ undoing in the second half. The clutch plays…The Hawks were chasing the game for all of the fourth quarter, they struggled to get stops, the Pacers made some plays, but I think the two plays the Hawks would like a do-over would be replacing the Gueye three with a McCollum, and the Johnson turnover on the inbounds pass.
Looking at the Hawks’ individual games, Johnson led the way with 33 points on 12-of-29 from the field, 3-of-6 from three, and 6-of-8 from the line. Quite a high volume for Johnson last night, barely scraping above 40% shooting from the field. Production-wise, it looks good: a 33-point triple-double, but you’d like to see more efficiency from the field. After scoring 21 points in the first half and coming out for the second half, with no Huff on the floor, I would have liked to see Johnson pick up where he left off and attacking the rim. Defensively, some questionable moments for Johnson in the fourth, which is always disappointing as the potential is there to be a plus-defender.
Speaking of defense, Alexander-Walker was excellent defensively in the second half in particular, but struggled to shoot with great efficiency, scoring 21 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field. CJ McCollum scored a strong 18 points off the bench on 8-of-15 from the field — many of his misses in the second half were in those situations with Huff that we looked at. Mo Gueye was active last night, scoring 15 points, including 7-of-9 from the free throw line. Gueye was running the floor well, on both ends of the floor. It was a productive, and mostly positive game from Gueye — the late miss from three was unfortunate, but I think it takes away the focus on what he did do well, particularly in the pick-and-roll defense along with Alexander-Walker.
Zaccharie Risacher had a quiet return to action, scoring seven points on 3-of-5 five shooting from the field in — you guessed it — 21 minutes. While Risacher is working with a minutes restriction, he basically just played the amount of minutes he would have normally played: right in that 18-to-22-minute zone.
Quin Snyder was pleased with what Risacher did while he was on the floor, and emphasized that Risacher’s stat-line does not reflect his qualities as a player.
“He ran, he did the things we talked about before the game,” said Snyder of Risacher. “I liked that he was aggressive shooting the ball when he was open. His timing and his reads will get better, where he can drive in and keep his eyes out, keep his feet and find other people. He’s capable of doing that and has done that. The feel for those situations offensively is something — when you don’t play for a while — that’s more challenging. I thought he really came out in early in the game, I liked his aggressiveness defensively, I liked the way he guarded the ball, I like the way he rebounded. I think the key thing with Zacch, and everyone is that we can’t judge Zacch based on his stat-line. That’s not the way that Zacch improves, because he’s capable of doing a lot of things. Tonight, he looked good shooting the ball, but he also looked good making an impact in other areas that help his team win.”
I can’t say I share the same enthusiasm as Snyder, but good to have Risacher back nevertheless after a long absence. Hopefully, Risacher’s season will be able to kick on and end the season strong, because his absence at the upcoming Rising Stars game doesn’t reflect well of the perception of his contributions from the league.
All in all, a disappointing loss for the Hawks. The Pacers have played better of late, and in late-game situations, but the Hawks would have been expected to win in this spot against a team whose season has long been lost. The Hawks are without some key contributors themselves, particularly Okongwu. Gueye played well, but Okongwu is still sorely missed.
The Hawks (24-26) will hope that Okongwu will be close to returning by the time they are in action next on Tuesday, when they take on the Miami Heat (26-24) at Kaseya Center in Miami. A key matchup, not just as division rivals, but in close contest with the Heat for seeding, with a top-6 seed still within the realms of possibility.
Until next time!
Nikola Jokic
Luka Doncic
Julian Champagnie
