Five observations from the Hawks’ 104-96 loss to the Raptors Thursday night:
1. Guarding the All-Stars
The Hawks tried to hound the Raptors’ starting backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha were assigned to DeRozan. Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder were assigned to Lowry. The Hawks provided a lot of help defense on the two Raptors All-Stars guards. The pair combined for 28 of the Raptors’ 52 first-half points and 49 of their 104 points.
“He’s improved,” Bazemore said. “He’s gotten so much better from last year to this year. Even from the first time we saw them early in the season, he’s gotten so much better with the ball, the offense is going with him, he’s getting in the paint, using his size to finish up around the rim. He was a tough guard for us tonight. He shot 11 for 20, which is outstanding.”
2. Turnovers
The Hawks forced the Raptors in an abnormal number of turnovers – in the first half. The Raptors entered the game averaging just 12.4 rebounds per game, tied for second in the NBA with the Mavericks behind only the Hornets (12.2). The Hawks forced the Raptors into seven first-quarter turnovers with DeRozan committing three. The Raptors nearly had their season average by halftime with 11. The Raptors would commit just four second-half turnovers to finish with 15.
“The turnovers, they were just part of it,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “You create some, sometimes you don’t. I don’t think we stopped competing or being active defensively.”
3. Coming up empty
The Raptors broke the game open in the fourth quarter. The Raptors led 95-89 with 7:28 remaining. The Hawks would miss on seven straight possessions and commit two turnovers. The Raptors pushed their lead to 12 points, 101-89, at the 3:33 mark. The 3:55 second drought was the difference.
4. Free throws
The Hawks made it a priority to stop Lowry and DeRozan from getting to the free-throw line. They failed. The two Raptors had 17 of the Raptors’ 29 attempts. Lowry was 6 of 8 and DeRozan was 7 of 9.
5. A long trip
The Hawks wouldn’t use the long road trip as an excuse but it was clear they were not as sharp in the second half after 11 days away from home. The Raptors finished the second quarter on a 7-3 run to get some separation and had a 7-0 run in the third quarter to get a comfortable margin. The closest the Hawks got was a 59-59 tie with 8:36 left in the third quarter.
“It just felt like we were a half-step slow on a lot of things,” Kyle Korver said. “We weren’t very sharp. And they are a good team. Good teams take advantage of that. It just felt like we were a step slow rotating, a step slow to the boards. It wasn’t our best game.”
