Hawks’ woes on defense send them plummeting in NBA standings

The Hawks have not executed a winning defense.

After beginning the season as a top-10 defense in the NBA, the Hawks have dramatically slid to the bottom of the league in December.

The Hawks are 2-8 in their past 10 games and have lost four consecutive, including to two teams below a .500 record. Over the past four games, the Hawks have lost to the Hornets, Spurs and Bulls twice, giving up 120-plus points in each of them.

But the Hawks’ defensive woes started before that stretch. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Hawks have had the league’s worst defense over the past two weeks. In the six games played in that span, the Hawks have gone 1-5 and have allowed an average of 126.8 points per 100 possessions played.

“I think we just got a simple answer: just play a little harder. You know?” Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said. “I know guys care. I know what we’re capable of doing. We just have to do it consistently. We showed it (Tuesday night). You look here: 30-point quarter, 37, 34. When the game really distanced itself, we held them to a 25 point quarter. So, like, that’s what we’re capable of doing, and we have to find a way to consistently do that.”

At the Hawks’ defensive best, their defense fueled their offense, allowing them to generate points off the fast break.

Through the Hawks’ five-game win streak in November, the Hawks had 19 or more fast-break points in each of them. In fact, the Hawks are 15-6 when they generate 15 or more fast-break points in a game. In two of the Hawks’ past four games, opponents held them to fewer than 15.

But the Hawks have not consistently locked down opponents, especially when opponents have lured them into a half-court game. The Hawks have gotten into the habit of overhelping, allowing opponents to get the ball around the perimeter to the open man.

The Hawks’ half-court defense hasn’t been their undoing. It’s the allowance of second-chance opportunities because they fail to kill the play with defensive rebounding.

This season, the Hawks have allowed 26.1 points per 100 missed field-goal attempts or reboundable free throws, the second-worst in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass. They’ve allowed 21.2 plays per 100 missed field-goal attempts, the fourth-worst in the NBA.

So as the Hawks move forward, the team will look to get back to some of the things that led to their success earlier in the season: running the floor.

“There’s going to be high-scoring games when you have two teams (that play fast),” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “That’s why I mentioned that we didn’t run. It was a different quarter for us offensively. So we need to be better, but we were better than we were (Sunday) night. That’s not a consolation.