The Hawks were barely in Monday night’s game against the Jazz, struggling like the devil to slow Utah from scoring and only rarely finding any mojo on offense in a 120-95 loss that baffled head coach Mike Budenholzer.
Utah ended the game for all intents and purposes with a 37-point third-quarter.
Here are five observations from the game:
# The ball was sticking, big time. Atlanta had 16 assists, approaching the season-low 11 they had in a 95-68 loss at Utah on Nov. 25. All that isolation ball, and futility, seemed to carry over to the defensive end of the floor via frustration.
“It’s hard to see something like that coming,” said forward Paul Millsap, a former Utah player. “It could be a mixture of both; us, them. They shot the ball well, and made the right plays. They just capitalized on everything we did.”
As forward Kent Bazemore said, “Until we move the ball every night like we’re supposed to, were going to keep getting smacked. We don’t have the luxury of having one or two guys carry the load every night. It has to be a collective effort. I don’t know how many times it’s going to have to happen before we figure it out.”
# Utah dug too deep a hole for the Hawks to climb out of. Ascendant forward Gordon Hayward score 15 of his game-high 30 points in the first quarter, and the Jazz built a 40-23 lead when he passed to Dante Exum for a layup with 6:29 to go in the second period.
Atlanta pulled within 54-50 by halftime, but spent a lot of energy doing it, slightly short-staffed by the left groin injury that kept defender Thabo Sefolosha out of action. Budenholzer’s kind of tired of a certain habit.
“Getting down 17 in the second quarter … when it happens enough times, you have to look at yourself honestly, and figure out how to keep from starting slowly,” said head coach Mike Budenholzer. “I don’t know. It’s happened enough.”
# The Hawks battled, but ran out of juice. Dennis Schroder’s 15-foot jumper closed Atlanta’s deficit to 65-62 in the third quarter, but Utah went on a 26-9 run from there to seize the game.
As the Jazz made a staggering 16-of-20 shots in the period, including all three of their 3-pointers, they had 10 assists. “Like coach said, it was one of our best games moving the ball and hitting shots, and getting to the paint, too,” said Utah center Rudy Gobert, who had 14 points and six rebounds.
# Atlanta frequently looked like it had no idea what the Jazz were trying to do, not only as the Jazz kept getting un-contested or scarcely-contested shots as their preferred passing lanes were so frequently uncluttered by the Hawks.
Millsap suggested that might have had something to do with insufficient preparation. He said, as did Budenholzer and the few other Hawks players who were available for interviews after the game, that the defense has to be better, period, and it starts with work ahead of time.
“Effort, being more aware of the scout[ing report],” Millsap said. “Understanding what they’re doing and just being aware. The scout’s not always going to be right. Teams do adjust on the fly. We have to adjust as players on the court.”
# Atlanta was thrashed on the boards, 44-30. Dwight Howard and Millsap each had eight rebounds but seven other players – Kris Humphries was the only player in uniform to not see action – combined for 14 in a combined 183 minutes and 31 seconds.
“They kind of played the same way the first time we played them,” reserve point guard Malcolm Delaney said, invoking the November meeting between the teams where the Jazz out-rebounded the Hawks 55-40. “We just didn’t match their aggression at the start and they got into an early rhythm.”
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