Hawks down a wing
Chris Paul in Miami, Bulls trivia, Rony Seikaly tees off
The Hawks turned in a particularly inept performance on Thursday night, competing for brief stretches but mostly blowing it in Brooklyn, 124-97. The Nets, as a result, are three games in back of the Hawks for the East’s final Play-In spot.
Net forward Cameron Johnson opened the win scoring 11 of Brooklyn’s first 14, finishing with 29, the Nets were up by 18 after nine minutes. Dejounte Murray ended with 28 points, six boards and five dimes but turnstiled defensively, Dejounte couldn’t blame Trae Young (out for at least a month after left hand surgery) for that effort.
Atlanta produces the league’s worst defense. Remarkable status for a club attempting to win, while Washington and Portland and Detroit try so hard to be so bad.
BKN (23-36) and ATL (26-33) square again on Saturday in Brooklyn, the sorta two-game series I’d prefer the NBA make its entire schedule out of. No flying. Only simmering, miniseries resentment. The teams already played twice in Atlanta, evenly, Hawks winning in a 147-145 overtime duel on Nov. 22, Brooklyn prevailed 114-113 two weeks later. The Hawks aim for a tiebreaker over Brooklyn on Saturday, easing the Nets four games out of the playoff picture.
A presumed win leaves the Hawks 5-4 without Young in 2023-24. Hardly a hallmark, but a catalogue boasting victories over Utah, Orlando, the full-strength Miami Heat and, uh, the Nets and Pistons. And that’s presuming Saturday’s victory, no sure thing after the way we watched the Hawks treat Dennis Schröder and Lonnie Walker IV, defense just short of asking the Nets to miss shots to be helpful.
Maybe the Hawks have a plan, unleashed on draft night, dragging Clint Capela’s final year ($22.3 million in 2023-24) into the five-team deal they’ve planned to trade Trae. DeAndre Hunter (three-years, ~$70 million) goes too, sell high on Bogie (16.9 points per game but 4-13 against Brooklyn, his third consecutive starting assignment) before he falls off, Atlanta already spotted the next four stars they plan to trade into cap space with, they’ll do it without draft picks, they will.
Maybe the next month will tell us something, Jalen Johnson was an All-Star in wins over Orlando and Utah (combining 43 points, 23 rebounds, 17 assists) but we gots to see something more.
Like holding off a pair of nine-win teams to securely achieve the 29th-best defense in the NBA.
I need gas money to drive to Cleveland for an NBA game, you need basketball blogs back in your life:
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