Hawks suffer second straight blowout home loss, fall to Wizards

It did not get better, while the Wizards, who entered the night with a 6-31 record, found a groove behind Kyle Kuzma. The Wizards finished the first period making 55% of their overall shots.

The Hawks made just 9-of-26 by the end of the first quarter and ended the night shooting well below 40% by the time they cleared the bench.

This season, the team’s offense had been one of the positives they could hang their hat on. They rank fourth in the league in average points per game coming into the night.

But they just couldn’t get anything going, having just a smidgeon of success from the left corner, where they made 42.9% of their attempts.

2. With their rough night on the offensive end, the Hawks saw their streak of scoring 100 or more points in a game ended at 94.

The Hawks attempted 93 field goals on Saturday, with many hitting front iron, back iron or hanging on before rolling off. It seemed to keep trickling over into their next possessions despite continuously getting what coach Quin Snyder called good looks.

They generated just 21 assists despite their attempts to keep the ball from sticking to one side. Snyder even commented they passed up some wide-open looks in their attempts to find even better shots and it resulted in clock violations.

3. Not only did the Hawks struggle to knock shots down, they also struggled defensively.

Though they did a better job of protecting the paint after giving up 76 the night before in a 126-108 loss to the Pacers, the Hawks could not slow the Wizards when they got out in transition. They gave up 29 fast-break points, while the Wizards scored 25 points off of the Hawks’ 15 turnovers.

Coming into the night, the Wizards averaged 115.2 points per game and ranked 25th in the league in offensive efficiency.

But the Hawks just could not get back in time after the Wizards had secured a rebound. Roughly 44.8% of the Wizards’ live-ball rebounds led to transition plays, per Cleaning the Glass. It resulted in an average of 116.7 points per 100 transition plays.

“Now we’ve got to do a better job containing the ball, particularly, when we’re more aggressive in pick-and-roll, we’re going to be in close-out situations, and they hit a lot of those shots early and then, as the game went on, they began to drive us in closeout situations,” Snyder said.

4. After a rough outing the night before, Hawks guard Trae Young took advantage of the Wizards’ physicality. He looked to drive into the paint, earning nine trips to the free-throw line in the process. He scored a team-high 21 points and had 10 assists.

But the Wizards made Young work for every shot, with the Hawks guard making just six of his 19 attempts from the floor.

5. There’s something about facing the Hawks that gets Kuzma firing away. He scored 13 of his 29 points in the first quarter as he fired shots at will despite the Hawks’ attempts to contest his shots.

With 4:16 to play in the first, Kuzma drove into the paint even as Hawks forward Saddiq Bey moved his feet and stayed in front of him. But Kuzma kept his dribble alive before pulling up at the elbow and hitting a jumper over Bey’s contest.

He hit plenty more of them, going 10-of-20 from the floor, with six 3-pointers in the mix.

Coming into the night, Kuzma shot 48.4% from the field and 34.5% from 3.

Stat to know

30 -- The Wizards led 127-97 after a layup from Hamidou Diallo. Their 30-point lead with 33.6 left in the game is the largest they have had all season.

Quotable

“Quin is such a cerebral coach and cerebral person. He needs time, he needs people in there that are gonna listen. I mean, just give the effort that he says. And it’s a lot but it can work.” -- Trae Young on whether more practice can help the Hawks

Up next

The Hawks host Victor Wembanyama and Spurs for the annual Martin Luther King Day game at State Farm Arena on Monday.