The Hawks’ down-to-the-wire exhibition wins over the Cavaliers and Grizzlies demonstrate that there has been an early buy-in to what coach Quin Snyder is trying to build, though the victories Tuesday and Thursday looked far from perfect.
On media day, Snyder said he wants hard work, a selfless attitude and “celebrating your teammates’ successes” to characterize his team this season. The Hawks faced adversity in both games, but never stopped competing and made the necessary plays on both ends of the floor to squeeze out a pair of one-point victories.
Trent Forrest had key plays on the offensive and defensive ends in the final minute of the 108-107 win over the Cavaliers. In the 103-102 win over the Grizzlies, rookie Seth Lundy had a huge 3-pointer and the game-saving blocked shot.
“We got some dogs, and you see it was Seth making big plays and then Trent last game coming up, big down the stretch,” third-year forward Jalen Johnson said after Thursday’s game. “You got a lot of guys that can play, and that’s what makes the practices that much more intense. And I think that pushes everybody during those practices.”
Through the first two games, Snyder has seen that and has been pleased with how the team has competed – a message he has preached since the opening of training camp. But the new Hawks coach knows that the team still has plenty to address.
“I think the biggest thing, and I would say, the fact that it was down the stretch, but it really was, I think over the course of the game, I like how we competed, particularly competing on the defensive end,” Snyder said of Thursday’s game.
“We talked about the transition defense before the game, and I really saw us competing during that five-second sort of shot clock earlier in the possessions. And then we kept going and just scored. So we see some. They’re doing that you know, bringing that competitiveness and also, I saw really unselfish team to a fault sometimes, but that’s OK. We’ll figure that out.”
Some of that unselfishness led to turnovers when the Hawks looked to make the extra pass or someone would overhelp on defense. But the team feels confident that it will find the balance as it heads into the regular season.
“It’s a good mix because I think sometimes, especially during training camp we had time where we were too unselfish, which is a good thing,” Hawks forward Saddiq Bey said Tuesday. “So for us to continue to try to build the camaraderie, the chemistry, the rhythm, and that’s what these preseason games are for, to get that rhythm. So, for us it’s just to continue to get those reps in. We’ve been playing against each other most of the times. So, being able to play against somebody else, there’s obviously going to be a different challenge. But I think definitely by the end of preseason, we should be in a good space as far as the rhythm of it.”
