The Hawks knew what they wanted to do Tuesday night against the Lakers, but they waited too long to do it and ran out of time to clean up their early mess.
For the second straight game, Atlanta’s defense resembled that of a Lakers squad that came to town allowing an NBA-high 112.1 points per game.
On the way to a 67-52 halftime deficit, the Hawks allowed 61.4 percent shooting (27-of-44) over the first two quarters, exactly as they did in Saturday’s 127-94 loss to the Cavs. As in Cleveland, where they trailed 71-43 at halftime, the Hawks didn’t defend anything well.
In the first half, Los Angeles (2-9) outscored Atlanta (5-5) 26-24 in the paint, 10-3 on second-chance points and 9-6 on the fast break.
Perhaps worst of all, the Lakers made 5-of-10 3-point shots – Kobe Bryant went 3-for-5 from distance while scoring 19 first-half points on just nine shots — and L.A. looked nothing like a team that was next-to-last in the NBA with just 4.9 3-pointers made per game, and third from last in 3-point shooting (30.4 percent).
The defense was better, although not great, in the second half.
“They came out aggressive and we were too relaxed,” said Atlanta point guard Jeff Teague. “We let them dictate what they wanted to do in the first half.”
Teague was impressive over the final three quarters, when he scored all 23 of his points, but he was outscored 8-0 in that first quarter by his L.A. counterpart, Jeremy Lin, and Bryant outscored Atlanta shooting guard Kyle Korver 11-0.
With a 13-0 run to start the second half, the Hawks put a scare of sorts into L.A.
Atlanta began pushing the ball, especially Teague, and the Hawks scored 18 points in the paint in the period. The Hawks took to pressuring L.A. ball handlers more deliberately as well.
“We just didn’t have it clicking on the defensive end at all tonight: a lot of layups, a lot of dunks,” said Hawks forward Paul Millsap after scoring 29 points. “We came out more aggressive [in the second half], more focused, paid more attention to the scout[ing report]. We came out and played hard, harder.”
Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer was fairly appalled by the first half, when L.A.’s Carlos Boozer scored 18 of his 20 even as Millsap was routinely blitzing by him at the other end.
“We dug ourselves too big of a hole,” he said. “Playing from behind the entire game was difficult.”
Atlanta had a chance to tie when Pero Antic inbounded to Teague with 7.7 seconds left, and the L.A. lead at 112-109.
The Lakers swamped Teague, however, and he moved the ball quickly back to Antic. His 3-pointer drew iron with 3.9 seconds left.
The play was designed for Teague, but Antic said, “They doubled Kyle, they doubled Jeff … I was the only one open. Usually that’s the easiest shot to shoot and make, but this time it didn’t fall.”
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