The Hawks got off on the wrong foot in Wednesday’s matchup against the Bulls. So, the seemingly little things made a bigger and, by the end of the night, a negative impact on the game.
After giving up 61 points in the first half, the Hawks were in an 11-point hole that they needed to dig out of. When they finally got over the hump of that first-half deficit, they needed to have near perfect execution to hold on to their eight-point lead.
But the Hawks did not execute the little things the right way, and they lost to the Bulls 110-108 at the buzzer.
With the score tied at 108-108 with four seconds left, DeMar DeRozen’s air-balled an attempt. It bounced off the chest of Hawks’ John Collins, who was boxing out Bulls’ Patrick Williams underneath the basket, and found Ayo Dosunmu of the Bulls, who scored with .1 seconds remaining.
In that timespan, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Dejounte Murray and Onyeka Okongwu moved into the paint to block Dosunmu’s shot, as well as help on the boards.
But that instant was enough time to cost the Hawks the game.
This was the second consecutive Hawks game that has come down to the final seconds, after beating the Magic 126-125 on Monday night. The team has played 14 games this season that have gone into “clutch time.” The NBA considers any game in clutch time when there are five or fewer minutes left in the game and the score is within five points.
The Hawks, who are now 7-7 in clutch games, led by eight with five minutes left, but a 6-0 run from the Bulls whittled that down. They almost held on to their two-point lead after DeRozen appeared to foul out after contesting a Trae Young jumper. The Bulls challenged the call and were successful. DeRozen would remain in the game.
No one knows better than the Hawks that some of these moments would not have mattered had they executed the way that is expected of them.
When asked following the game if anything needed to be said to Collins, Young said that the loss fell on all of them.
“He’s hard on himself already,” Young said. “He knows we’ve got his back. We let him know this isn’t all on him; it’s one play in the game. It’s a long game, and if we took care of business in the first couple quarters, we wouldn’t have to be there.”
Murray echoed those sentiments following practice Thursday. He also added that the Hawks needed to be better at executing the little things.
“I think it just shows we got to show effort for the whole game,” Murray said. “Whether we’re making or missing shots, the thing around here today, or in general, being the little things, you know, diving on the floor, being there for your teammate, just all them little things.
“The ball is so valuable, making sure we value the ball, you know, starting with myself. Obviously, I always preach to you guys that I don’t like turning the ball over. So whether it’s a first quarter, second, third, fourth, I just don’t like it. I know things happen. But if you ever see me like down or something, it’s because I turned the ball over. Like, I don’t get mad off making shots or missing shots, or even my teammates missing shots. It’s always about the ball being valuable. So, I think we’ll learn from it and get better at it.”
Through 31 games, the Hawks rank in the top 10 in the league when it comes to taking care of the basketball. In their 14 clutch games, they’ve averaged 1.4 points off one turnover per game.
But they’re also the fourth-worst team in opponent second-chance points (1.8), while giving up a league-high 5.7 points in the paint in clutch time. They’ve averaged six points in the paint over their past four games in clutch time.
On Thursday, the Hawks reviewed the film to revisit how they have been finishing games.
“When you’re making some mistakes, whether it’s not boxing out or not taking care of the ball, or not rebounding the basketball, it can cost you,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said. “It was a one-possession game last night. And sometimes it shouldn’t come to that. But it does, and you have to make plays down the stretch to win games, and we didn’t make the plays. We didn’t get the stops. We didn’t get the rebounds. We didn’t make the shots to win that ballgame. So it’s something that I feel we can correct. And we have to get better at that.”
Injuries have decimated the Hawks’ rotation over the past stretch of games but McMillan and his team won’t let that excuse the lack of execution.
“We’re not going to sit here and make excuses,” McMillan said. “We know what we need to do going down a stretch. Last night, we didn’t get off to a good start, but we worked our way back into the game. With less than five minutes to go, we have an eight-point lead. So we’re not going to sit here and make excuses about what was happening. We saw the things that we did last night on video, and we have to do them better. That’s what it comes down to.”
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