Hawks’ first exhibition showed good results, but far from perfect

The Hawks’ first exhibition matchup is in the books, and it gave some insight into what to expect this season.

They opened the night Monday with most of the same starters as last season, swapping Onyeka Okongwu for new center Kristaps Porzingis.

Okongwu and Nickeil Alexander-Walker came off the bench out of the first timeout as the Hawks’ sixth and seventh men, giving the team one of their stouter defensive units alongside Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher and Jalen Johnson.

At Media Day on Sept. 29, Hawks coach Quin Snyder stressed that the team would have to exercise patience as it figured out its best lineup combinations.

He emphasized that point again Sunday.

“I mean, for us, we’re not to the point where we’re tweaking,” Snyder said. “We’re at the point where we’re learning. So I think this is an opportunity and a good one, to be able to put different lineups on the floor, see how guys play together.

“I think that’s going to be a process for us that really begins in live competition against another team ... but it’s been going on in a different context than practice. But so I think it’s the process, and it’ll continue when the regular season starts. We’re still going to be finding out about certain guys, how they play things we’re doing.”

The Hawks, who lost to the Houston Rockets 122-113, played their key rotational players for roughly two and a half quarters, with the night ending after the first half for Young, Johnson and Porzingis.

But those limited minutes gave the Hawks some ideas of where they need to make changes.

The Hawks planned to play Okongwu and Porzingis together, and they flashed that they could be a dangerous duo in the frontcourt. But they will have to figure out how they will operate, with the two often gravitating toward the paint.

But when they found the right spacing, it opened the floor for Porzingis to whip a baseline pass to Young in the corner for a 3.

The two also found a solid connection at the end of the first, where Okongwu set a screen that drew two defenders to the top of the key. Young passed the ball to Alexander-Walker, who flipped it to a rolling Okongwu. As the Rockets closed off Okongwu’s look at the rim, he found Porzingis on a backdoor cut for a reverse layup.