In the fifth game of their eight-game West Coast road swing, the Hawks (23-23) lost a clunker to the Nuggets, 126-102, Sunday in Denver.
Next up, the Hawks play Tuesday in Phoenix.
Below are some takeaways from the loss:
1. This was a rough performance for the Hawks, who looked tired and off-kilter in a few different ways but particularly on defense. They trailed by 10, 65-55, at halftime and the game got out of hand when Denver (28-18) started out the third quarter on a 10-2 run to make it 75-57.
Down 24 with about six minutes left, bench players came in to finish the game. The Nuggets got whatever shot they wanted and led in nearly ever category, including tallying 32 assists to the Hawks’ 18 and 55 rebounds to the Hawks’ 35.
2. Although the Hawks were playing the fifth game of a grueling eight-game West Coast road trip, interim coach Nate McMillan didn’t think fatigue was the main reason they struggled.
In addition to problems on defense, McMillan said he and the Hawks got distracted after they thought a few calls were missed in the first quarter: “I thought we got distracted by the officiating, me included. We never really established our defense. I didn’t make adjustments during the course of this game, as far as adjustments to how they were attacking us, but I thought we just got caught up in the officiating, the lack of no-calls and we can’t do that. We’ve got to focus on the game, keep your attention on the game, and I thought early in the game, we got distracted by that.”
3. Trae Young had a quiet first half (seven points) but scored eight points in about two minutes to cut the deficit to 13 midway through the third quarter.
The Hawks briefly gained a little ground in the third, but couldn’t get stops to back it up. All in all, Young was the only Hawks player generating much offense in the second half, finishing with 21 points and seven assists.
Young agreed with McMillan about the officiating, but didn’t want to get into specifics, as that can incur fines: “The refs, you’ve got to just play. We’re on the road and there’s some obvious ones that I don’t want to get into, it’s over with, the game’s over with now, we’ve just got to move on and not let the officials mess with us and what we’ve got going on.”
Credit: Joe Mahoney
Credit: Joe Mahoney
4. With little resistance from the Hawks on defense, the Nuggets dominated with 50 points in the paint to the Hawks’ 32. JaMychal Green led Denver in scoring with 20 points and Nikola Jokic finished two assists shy of a triple-double with 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
5. This is the second straight game forward De’Andre Hunter has missed due to swelling in his right knee.
Hunter had missed 23 games after undergoing a lateral meniscus debridement procedure on that knee Feb. 8, coming back to play two games on this road trip against the Clippers and Kings. But, with the increased activity, his knee has been swollen lately.
“He still has a little swelling on his knee and we were trying to get that removed before he gets on the floor again,” McMillan said before the game. “He hasn’t done anything the last three days.”
Stat of the game
17-4 (the Nuggets had 17 second-chance points to the Hawks’ four)
Star of the game
Jokic (finished two assists shy of a triple-double in just 28 minutes of play)
Quotable
“They pretty much controlled the game from start to finish.” (McMillan on the Nuggets’ dominance in the game)
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