The Hawks battled the reigning NBA champion Lakers down to the final minute, but fell short in a 107-99 loss Monday at State Farm Arena.
Next up, the Hawks (10-10) will play back-to-back home games against Dallas (Wednesday) and Utah (Thursday).
Some takeaways from the loss:
1. With 11 points and five assists, Trae Young helped the Hawks outscore the Lakers, 30-25, in the third quarter, and they took a 76-75 lead into the fourth quarter.
Both Young (who faced double-teams for most of the night) and John Collins sat for the first few minutes of the fourth, though, and the Hawks quickly fell behind, 86-76, unable to score in a turnover-filled stretch. With Young, Collins and Capela on the floor together in crunch time, they battled back to make it a one-point game with 1:40 to play, off a 3-pointer by Young, but weren’t able to take the lead, committing six turnovers in the fourth.
“I thought our guys competed,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said. “It’s a stepping stone for us to really just focus on execution, game-plan and how important that is.”
2. The Hawks had two stars to contend with in LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Cam Reddish contained James well for much of the game, but he scored the Lakers’ final eight points of the night, after Young’s final 3-pointer, and had 12 points in the fourth quarter to seal the Lakers’ win.
Davis led the Lakers in scoring with 25 points, adding three blocked shots. Overall, Pierce thought Reddish did a good job on James: “I thought he did a tremendous job. He’s upset to see him hit two 3′s late after struggling all game and not really getting going from there… I thought Cam did a tremendous job of making him work the whole night.”
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
3. Young had a season-high 16 assists, and scored 25 points for a double-double. He had success getting to the free-throw line, as well, going 10-for-11 (7-15 FG, 1-4 from 3) and assisted on three straight baskets after being subbed in at the 8:52 mark in the fourth to keep the Hawks in it. He had seven turnovers, though, and took responsibility for those after the game: “We’ve got to do a better job taking care of the ball down the stretch, and it starts with me.”
4. The Hawks limited the Lakers from distance, as they went 7-for-23 from three-point range (30.4%) and didn’t make their first 3 until midway through the second quarter (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at the 6:18 mark). The Hawks had a better night from 3, at 37.9% (11-29) overall.
5. On one hand, it could be viewed as a positive that the Hawks, who are trying to transition from rebuilding to winning, could hang with the Lakers as well as they did. But that’s not how Young or John Collins took it, as both felt the Hawks could have come away with a win, with better execution down the stretch.
“It’s tough because we knew as a team, from the start, that we were going to compete with them, we were going to play an entire game, a full game with them, and we knew what it was going to come down to,” Collins said. “The small things. Execution, late-game. And it’s just frustrating to lose like that… But I guess the one thing we can take away is that we can play with anybody.”
Collins finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, and Clint Capela added 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Stat of the game
19 (the amount of turnovers the Hawks committed)
Star of the game
Anthony Davis (led the Lakers in scoring)
Quotable
“Just me as a competitor, if you lose, you lose. Obviously I know who we’re going up against, and I felt like we had a chance to win that game.” (Young on how he feels about the Hawks taking the Lakers down to the wire)
