The good, the bad, the ugly: Hawks lay an egg in season opener vs. Raptors
The debut of the Hawks’ new roster fell flat in the team’s season opener.
The Hawks have a lot to clean up.
They lost 138-118 to the Raptors on Wednesday at State Farm Arena. It’s the largest margin of victory in a season opener in Raptors’ history.
Of course, the Hawks expected there would be some getting used to one another, with several new faces on the roster. Although the offense found some spark, the Hawks did not execute the principles they knew they needed to on the defensive end.
“Communication is a big thing, especially in transition defense,” Hawks forward Jalen Johnson said. “You got to talk. You got to pick up the ball. You got to create a wall. So those are just things we didn’t do tonight. Obviously, we know what to do. We just have to be better for Orlando.”
Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from Wednesday’s action at State Farm Arena.
The good: The Hawks didn’t have a ton of good things to point to in their season opener. They had efficient nights by Johnson, Zaccharie Risacher and Onyeka Okongwu.
Kristaps Porzingis and Trae Young took advantage of trips to the free-throw line.
But collectively, the Hawks made too many mistakes that they’ll have to learn from, and quickly.
“A lot of it is on us, stuff that we can fix, which is a good thing,” Young said. “So, to answer your question (from earlier), there is one positive. I think that the only positive is that the mistakes that we made, a lot of it’s on us, and so we can make sure we get this right before it’s all over.”
The bad: The Hawks struggled with transition defense during the exhibition games, averaging 16.3 fast-break points per game (22).
Their transition defense appeared nonexistent Wednesday, giving up 34 fast-break points, the most across the first two days of the season.
The Raptors bullied the Hawks early in the matchup, getting into their bodies, sending doubles at their ball handlers and guiding them into traps where they could pick their pockets.
After turnovers or a missed bucket, the Hawks lacked urgency to get back and defend, often leaving one man on an island to try to stop the run.
“So, a lot of things go into transition defense, but I think the biggest thing is just the urgency mentally to get back and protect the rim and then stop the ball,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “You need more than one guy to stop the ball. That was the space they were seeing.”
The ugly: With the Hawks slow to get back in transition, it opened the paint for the Raptors to get easy shots at the basket.
The Hawks gave up 86 points in the paint (a Raptors season-opening franchise record) Wednesday. That’s 16 more than the next closest-ranked teams and the most points in the paint in the first two days of games.
“In the half court, we have to do a better job of staying in front of them even in those situations,” Snyder said. “Brandon Ingram’s a really tough one-on-one matchup. But that’s the point. It can’t be a one-on-one matchup. We’ve got to shift and let him see bodies and that team defense. I’ve seen our guys do it. The focus just has to be there and has to be there on a deeper level.”
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