Hawks keep adjusting, snatch a win from Nets in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- The Hawks captured another win at Summer League. They downed the Nets 83-76 after gaining control in the final five minutes of Saturday’s action.

The rookies continued to gain comfort, while some of the other members of the Hawks Summer League roster flashed their talent.

Quick stats: Kobe Johnson finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Zuby Ejiofor had 13 points and six rebounds. Kingston Flemings had nine points, seven rebounds and five assists.

-- Flemings played the rim a lot more aggressively in Saturday’s outing. Plus, the Nets looked to double- and triple-team him any time he got close to the basket. It led to a little less ball security.

He had three turnovers across his first three Summer League games. He had five turnovers in the first three quarters.

With that aggressive mindset, Flemings had a couple of nice finishes. One of those pulled the Hawks within one point at the end of the first quarter after he got his defender on his hip.

“I think all Summer League he’s done an unbelievable job of letting the game come to him,” Hawks assistant Sanjay Lumpkin said. “Tonight they were trying to up the pressure. We were getting a little sped up in the first quarter. Everyone could feel it. So in the second half, things slowed down.”

-- Ejiofor looked like the best defender in Saturday’s action and he covered so much ground on his defensive possessions.

With 7:21 to play in the third quarter, Nets’ Danny Wolf tried to post up Ejiofor after getting picked up on the wing. Ejiofor kept moving side to side with him, though, and never yielded space. Ejiofor’s defense ran out the shot clock.

The 22-year-old made some pretty big plays on the offensive end, too. He rotated to the corner at the right time for a couple of the Hawks’ 3-point attempts.

“It was a physical game tonight,” Lumpkin said. “That’s what Brooklyn did. It impacted us in the first half. Some of those situations when they are switching, they’re switching one through five, holding.

“Some of those same opportunities to hit Zuby weren’t there tonight. So tonight a big part of the game was to space his man because his man was jumping up the rest of the game for everyone else.”

-- Henri Veesar can punish the rim.

-- Johnson came off the bench and gave the Hawks the boost they needed to complete their adjustments. The Hawks guard upped the defense of Nets guard Ben Saraf, helping hold him to 1-of-5 shooting in the second half.

“I thought I did good,” Johnson said on Saturday. “I came out the game a little sloppy. I got blown by, gave up an and-one, but I felt like I learned from that.

I was able to sit down on defense and really lock in. That’s what’s most important. If I get blown by once, that’s fine. I just have to move on and be able to make the next play."