The Atlanta Hawks suffered a late defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night, 118-120. Trae Young led the Hawks with 25 points and 10 assists with Onyeka Okongwu adding 20 points and 14 rebounds. For the Mavericks, Anthony Davis scored a game-high 34 points and 15 rebounds, and Klay Thompson added 17 points.
Heading into the contest on the second night of a back-to-back the Hawks were considered slight underdogs in what was anticipated to be an even affair, and the opening stint certainly reflected that as a quick seven points from Mo Gueye helped the Hawks keep even behind a 16-15 start in the Mavericks’ favor.
The Hawks began to stretch their lead in the second quarter too as Young’s 16 second quarter points (21 for the half) helped the Hawks to 72 first half points, with the Mavericks keeping hot on their heels with 67 points of their own. The Hawks officially extended their lead to double-digits in the third quarter (unbeknownst to them at the time as a Dereck Lively basket was counted; later removed to a shot clock violation), but the hosts gradually reeled that lead in, taking a lead of their own before the fourth quarter.
Entering the final period, the Hawks looked in deep water as the Mavericks took their first double-digit lead of the night at a precarious point in the game, but the Hawks rallied and brought down the lead to one points with six minutes remaining. However, having rallied to reduce the lead the Hawks hit a dry-patch offensively, and the Mavericks were able to edge the lead back to six points with 3:36 remaining. The Mavericks — with the Hawks struggling offensively — elected to take a timeout and, from here, the Hawks flipped the script.
Let’s take a look at the stretch run: how the Hawks re-took the lead and how it was lost.
The Hawks had issues slowing down Anthony Davis all game long, but coming out of the timeout Okongwu is able to provide more resistance as Davis tries to back him down, and Okongwu is able to make life uncomfortable enough for Davis to help force a miss on this possession to get the ball rolling:
Okongwu made his impact on the offensive end, receiving the ball in the pick-and-roll from Caris LeVert and gets his shot to fall despite contact from Davis, and would complete the three-point play at the free throw line:
Neither the Hawks nor Mavericks are able to convert on their next offensive trips, but the Hawks would not be kept off the board for long, as Dyson Daniels hits the open corner three off the find from Young:
The Mavericks had trapped Young for basically all of the second half — needing to make an adjustment after Young’s 21 first half points — forcing the ball out of his hands. For the most part, the Hawks did well to convert on these more open opportunities down the roster, and this play was an example of that, and a timely basket for the Hawks and Daniels to re-take the lead.
The Hawks get another stop defensively, this time as Okongwu challenges Spencer Dinwiddie’s attempt at the rim:
Okongwu, again, was able to follow this up with another basket on the other end as he gets deep position inside and hits the hook when LeVert feeds the ball inside:
Now leading by three points, the Hawks have forced the Mavericks into a timeout, and just as the Hawks got into the game with the previous timeout they found themselves on the reverse side of the coin following this timeout.
The Hawks initially get the stop as Okongwu again forces a tough shot at the rim, with Dinwiddie having to alter his shot at the rim and helping force the miss:
The Hawks, however, miss their big chance as Young takes far too long to get into any offense here and allows the clock to reach a critical point, forced to take a bad shot against Thompson, which is missed:
The Mavericks punish a bad switch — Young on Thompson — and behind the screen Klay gets half the opportunity he needs and launches and hits a three to tie the game:
The Mavericks clamp down on defense as Caleb Martin makes life difficult for Young inside, and when he does wriggle free and gets towards the rim he’s thwarted by Davis for a block:
On the resulting inbounds play, Georges Niang’s pass to Daniels puts the Aussie in a difficult position and the pass from the baseline is intercepted for the turnover:
Out of a timeout, the Mavericks get the ball to Davis, who gets downhill and gets his runner to fall to give the Hawks the lead:
Not too much the Hawks really could have done here defensively. Okongwu goes with Davis on the drive, and Davis rises into the air before Terance Mann is able to properly dig on the drive-by — it’s just a quality shot from a top-tier player.
Out of the timeout from the Hawks, the Mavericks switch Davis out to Young on the catch, with Davis doing an excellent job defensively not allowing Young to penetrate inside and contesting the three, forcing a miss and, with it, deciding the game in the Mavericks’ favor:
A tough manner in which to finish the game for the Hawks. They were considerably behind in this quarter, rallied after a timeout, looked as though they had the ascendency themselves before another timeout, and then some poor offensive trips and made shots from quality shot makers undid them right at the end — they’ll believe they should have had this one.
Postgame, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder reflected on the close nature of the margins that decided this game.
“I thought we battled,” said Snyder. “We were aggressive with our defense in the fourth quarter. It always comes down to a couple of plays. Anthony Davis hit a really tough shot fading away off of one foot. Then we didn’t get a good shot late — they switched out and that’s a tough guy to score on in Davis as well. I thought the group really competed, and we battled and were right there. It’s a tough one to lose.”
On the second night of a back-to-back, there’s no question the Hawks competed to a high level and would have deserved something from this game. In the first half, Young was brilliant — scoring 21 points on 7-of-13 from the field, but was slowed significantly in the second half as the Mavericks forced the ball out of his hands.
Young’s opportunities were limited in the second half, but in saying that the rest of the team did well with the shots that were created from Young getting off the ball in the second half. However, in saying that, Young’s late game offense wasn’t brilliant, especially that shot with just under a minute remaining.
Onyeka Okongwu played very well in this spot, with Snyder outlining Okongwu’s efforts postgame.
“Particularly when they’re playing Gafford and Lively with AD, it puts even more on O’s shoulders,” said Snyder. “He was terrific, that’s why he played a lot of minutes. He made some big buckets down the stretch, he defended, and rebounded and gave us a really good game.”
It’s a very tough matchup for Okongwu with all of the size the Mavericks possess, especially with Davis — who was always going to be very difficult to slow down in this spot. Okongwu was great down the stretch on both ends of the floor: altering shots and hitting hooks.
Elsewhere, Dyson Daniels had an efficient 17 points, while LeVert added 14 points off the bench. The Hawks had plenty of points contributions — six players in double-digits — but they just weren’t enough to overcome Davis’ 34 points, with the Mavericks also enjoying six double-digit scoring efforts.
Davis may have simply been the difference in this spot — you look at boxscore and the two sides were very evenly matched last night. Both sides hit 15 threes, took a similar number of free throws (17-to-19), very similar on turnovers, the same number of steals, but five more blocks in the Mavericks’ favor, reflective of the five blocked shots from Davis himself last night. Throw in the game-winner for good measure as well as the defensive stop to finish the game...
In a game as close as this one, Davis really was the difference in the Mavericks winning and the Hawks falling to defeat.
The Hawks (36-40) are back in action on Saturday afternoon for a home tilt against the New York Knicks (48-28).
Until next time!