Succinctly, here’s what Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said the team must do to jump-start the offense, which in the past three games has dipped significantly from its red-hot start to the season: “Make shots.”
Indeed, though the Hawks have had some trouble doing so during their losing streak.
“We didn’t make shots,” Pierce continued. “We didn’t get to the free-throw line at the rate we would like to, as we have been. It’s a make-or-miss league, and we’ve got to make shots, that gets yourself going. We’ve got to get more stops. I didn’t think (Charlotte) hurt us offensively in terms of an explosive number game, but you’ve got to get stops and make it hard for them to score, and we’ve got to make shots on our end.
“That’s the simple way of doing it. I can be as detailed as I want to be with each guy and each coverage and each play, but in terms of just the make-or-miss side, we’ve got to do a better job like we did the early part of the season of making shots. It gets our rhythm (going).”
The Hawks (4-4) started the season 4-1 and averaged 125.8 points through their first five games, which made them the highest-scoring offense in the NBA, edging out even the Bucks. Since then, they’ve lost three in a row and are averaging 97.7 points per game over that span. In a 96-91 loss to Cleveland on Saturday, a 113-108 loss to New York on Monday and a 102-94 loss to Charlotte on Wednesday, the Hawks are particularly struggling from distance, combining to shoot 28% from 3-point range (they shot 40.8% from 3, on average, through their first five games).
All statistics from eight games into the 2020-21 season obviously are gleaned from a small sample size, but there are two reasons why this three-game slide has been particularly rough, the first of which being that the Hawks both returned and added in free agency quite a bit of offensive firepower that just hasn’t been firing on all cylinders. Second, as a team hoping to reach the postseason, losing three consecutive games to the Cavaliers, Knicks and Hornets, all of which are teams not likely to make the playoffs, isn’t ideal.
They’ll have the opportunity to right the ship 7 p.m. Saturday in Charlotte, as they face the Hornets again.
“I think we’ve just got to continue to get better on both (offense and defense),” said Trae Young, highlighting that the Hawks added nine new players and are still adapting. “It’s not just offense, it’s both sides. We’ve got to continue to get better, learn each other, obviously continue to get guys healthy is the main thing, and we’ll be fine.”
Even good offensive teams can go through slumps, but the Hawks’ schedule only gets more difficult from here on out (they have yet to face a team that had a winning record last season). They’re also missing quite a few bodies, an issue they faced for most of last season, though they specifically added depth in the offseason to fortify the roster so that absences wouldn’t be felt so dramatically.
For Pierce, it comes down to creating easier scoring opportunities when 3-point shots aren’t falling.
“We have to find a way to get some easy baskets out in transition and at the free-throw line and in the offensive rebounds,” Pierce said. “But it’s all going to be the same. Keep them from scoring, and we have to score better and more efficient, and when we’re not shooting it extremely well, how can we create some easy baskets.”
Third-year wing Kevin Huerter has pointed out the Hawks are taking too many quick shots and not making defenses work more, and after the loss to Knicks, second-year wing De’Andre Hunter said the Hawks were racking up empty possessions late in games: “I think we had a lot of empty possessions, either with bad ball movement or turnovers and things like that, so that kind of got them back in the game,” Hunter said. “I feel like they got a lot of offensive rebounds as well, so that definitely hurt us.”
The odd structure of this season (a condensed 72-game schedule, changes to how teams travel, more rules and regulations to adhere to because of COVID-19) means far fewer true practice days. Friday was one of those days, and it may have come at the right time. The Hawks got to play live and with ample contact.
Talking about the Hawks’ recent struggles, the NBA season doesn’t always go as expected, per Pierce, but there’s a little bit of growth in all the ups and downs.
After all, who would have guessed that the Raptors would have started the season 1-6 while the Knicks are 5-3, that the Suns would be leading the league in defense and that the Nets, without their two stars in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, would recently beat the top team in the 76ers?
“One of the things, I think, you look at a team like (Brooklyn), their growth is they’re trying to find some rotational guys and trying to stick with it (for) when their main guys come back, and we’re doing the same,” Pierce said, pointing out how losing Danilo Gallinari until at least Jan. 16 and Rajon Rondo until at least Jan. 11 to injuries has taken a toll.
“We’re missing a really steadying voice on the court in Gallinari, and so we’re trying to find some other guys that will play different parts. Because when he’s back, he’s a guy, Rondo is kind of our vocal and intellectual leader, Gallo is a guy that I can already tell will settle us because he can get to the free-throw line. And sometimes you don’t need a big basket, sometimes you need to just slow the game down. And a free throw slows the game down.
“Until then, you look at the rest of our guys and you’re trying to figure out, where can we best use them and how can we best use them and position them and how can they gain some relationships in the interim so that they’re a little bit better. I think all our guys are comfortable playing with both Rondo and Gallo, they’re trying to learn how to play with each other, and that’s what we’re seeing right now, and I think we’re seeing that across the league.”
The Hawks also have been without Kris Dunn (right ankle surgery), Onyeka Okongwu (inflammation, sesamoid bone, left foot) and Tony Snell (inflammation, cuboid bone, right foot).
