Hawks roll past Kings thanks to second-quarter surge

1. Four in a row.

It’s been quite a while since the Hawks strung together four consecutive victories. With Saturday’s win, the Hawks achieved this for the first time since the 2016-17 season. It’s also notable this streak began right after former coach Lloyd Pierce was fired, with interim coach Nate McMillan suddenly sitting with a 4-0 record.

The Hawks (18-20) got off to a sluggish start and trailed by as many as 14 points in the first quarter. Defensively, the Hawks had a hard time stopping Marvin Bagley III early on, with Bagley scoring eight of his 12 points in the opening period. In the second quarter, everything changed as the Hawks outscored the Kings (15-23) by 21 points.

In recent wins, the Hawks needed late-game rallies to pull out victories. From the second quarter on, the Hawks were in cruise control.

2. Capela dominates

Center Clint Capela entered the game averaging 14.5 points, having provided a consistent presence down low all season. But in the first half of Saturday’s win, Capela owned the paint and scored 18 of his eventual 24 points. Capella made 10 of his 12 field goal attempts, with both of his misses occurring in the first half. On one of those misses, Capela grabbed his own rebound and slammed home a putback.

On the other end of the court, Capela made things difficult for the Kings by blocking two shots and totaling eight of his 14 rebounds on defense.

“They want me at the rim to protect the rim at all times, to challenge every shot,” Capela said.

3. Young heats up in the third

Guard Trae Young finished with 28 points after scoring only nine in the first half. He didn’t take long to catch fire after the break as he sank a 25-foot 3-pointer at the 11:20 mark of the third quarter. With 6:50 to go in the period, Young drilled a 3-pointer from 29 feet away. He scored 17 points in the third quarter, helping the Hawks to build on their 11-point lead it held at the half.

“I just found open spots and got a few open looks and took advantage of it,” Young said. “It’s usually what I like to do -- early in the game to see how the defense is playing and then throughout the game, I’ll find ways to attack it and pick my spots there.”

4. Preventing a comeback

In the fourth quarter, the Kings cut the Hawks’ lead to 10, partly due to their hack-a-Capella strategy. Capella missed four of six free throws from the 5:33 to 4:54 left in the game, giving the Kings a brief window of opportunity.

After Capella’s two missed free throws with 4:54 to go in the game, the Kings were called for a moving screen, sending the ball back the other way. Following a timeout, with Capella coming out of the game, Young penetrated the defense and scored a nifty lay-in. On the Hawks’ next possession, Young delivered a pretty assist to John Collins, who dunked the ball to put the Hawks up 116-102. That proved to be enough of a cushion to put the game away.

Young’s killshot came from 36 feet away with 1:40 to go in the game.

5. Kings struggle from long range

While Young was his usual self when shooting the 3, that wasn’t the case for the opposing team. The Hawks did a good job with their perimeter defense, holding the Kings to 7-of-36 shooting from behind the 3-point line. Fox and Buddy Hield combined to go 4-of-21 from long range.

The Kings entered Saturday having connected on 36.8% of their 3-point shots for the season.

Conversely, the Hawks connected on 36.4% of their 3-point attempts.

Stat of the game

2-for-2. Averaging 18.6 minutes in his 24 previous games, Tony Snell had not taken a trip to the free-throw line. That changed against the Kings as he made his first two attempts of the season at the 6:23 mark of the fourth quarter.

Star of the game

Capella’s performance, 24 points and 14 points, proved crucial when rallying from their early 14-point deficit.

Quotable

“It’s definitely more fun when you are winning.” (Young during his post-game interview on Fox Sports Southeast.)