Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker lead Atlanta Hawks to double-OT win over Philadelphia 76ers

Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker lead Atlanta Hawks to double-OT win over Philadelphia 76ers

On today’s show, the Hawks go to Philadelphia and get a win. But it was not just any win. It was a double overtime victory. And the Hawks gave it away. At least they try to give it away in regulation. They actually took it back on a little bit of a gift in the first overtime from Tyrese Maxi. And the second overtime was a pull away for Atlanta and a memorable night at the office from Jaylen Johnson, the Alexander Walker, and much more. We’ll get into all what transpire, what to take away from this one, and more. And it’s coming up right now. You are Locked on Hawks, your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello friends, welcome to episode 2113 of the LTO on Hawks podcast, part of the Loton Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. I am your host, Brad Roland, coming to you on a Sunday evening into Monday. And today’s show is by folks sports book. And right now, if you’re a new customer, you bet just $5 at FanDuel. If your first bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com right now to get started. We’ll be diving in today to what became a 142 to 134 double overtime thriller for the Hawks of Philadelphia. This game had all the twists and turns you can possibly imagine. For example, no one led in this game by more than nine points on either side at any point in the game. It was tight. It was back and forth. The Hawks were um in control at times. The Sixers had a big run in the third quarter. The Hawks had a big run in the fourth quarter. Then Atlanta completely imploded to nearly lose the game in regulation. And honestly, they should have won this game regulation. That that’s very that that should be said out loud. And then in the first overtime, they actually got a gift from Tyrese Maxi who missed a pair of free throws that were shocking to everyone who witnessed them. And then the Hawks took control in the second overtime. Jaylen Johnson was remarkable in this one as Alexander Walker. Those two guys combined for 75 points for the Hawks in this game and the end result was their fourth win in the last five. Yes, the one loss was bad to Washington. I understand. But the Hawks are still playing quite well. They’re 13-8 on the season. Here’s a stat for you. The Hawks are now five games over 100 for the first time since the end of the 202021 season, which is the year that they went to the conference finals. That year they finished 41 and 31 and that was the last time they were this high above 500. at this point. Obviously, there’s a lot of context I like to give you on the show, but certainly the vibes are very positive. It is remarkable that only a few days ago, everyone was really mad about that Washington game, but since then, a good win on Friday and a great win tonight, even if it took a lot of heroics and 58 minutes of basketball to actually pull it off. So, because of there’s so much back and forth of the game flow in this one because of double overtime and all the uh uh basically hysterics that happened at times, I will be a little bit shorter on my big bold broad takeaways in this one. But the Hawks really won this game defensively. I would say they end up this one with like a 105 defensive rating in the game. Yes, Philadelphia did not shoot off in three-point range. They were 10 of 44. Some of that’s defense, but some of that’s just bad shooting. That certainly helped the Hawks that the Sixers couldn’t make a three in this game. But aside from fouling too much, the Hawks did really, really well defensively kind of across the board. They had one of their best defensive rebounding games of the entire season. Philadelphia only grabbed about 20% of their own misses on the glass. That’s a very very good sign for the Hawks. And you know, they gave it 30 free throw attempts in the first three quarters. That was a problem for Atlanta for three quarters. And then they only allowed eight in the final quarter. and then but another another full quarter basically with the two overtime periods. So they stopped fouling when they did that. That was very important to slow things down. They also forced 18 turnovers that led to 20 points for Philadelphia in this game. They only allowed 58 points in the paint which is a perfectly acceptable number in a double overtime game. And aside from Tyrese Maxi getting to his spots, did a very good job on basically everyone else. Joel Embiid returned and it was kind of an odd fashion in this one. He actually didn’t really help Philadelphia much at all other than to slow them down. But Paul George was pretty much ineffective in this game. Hawks did a pretty good job with Jerry McCain, for example. And um yeah, it was a very very strong defensive performance on the whole. And there have been some hiccups defensively like the profile of this team particularly without Trey Young and Porzingis as they have been the last couple of games and with you know without Trey for longer than that is definitely more defense first. in this game that basically played out exactly the what you would have wanted or or would have projected to happen. Even though the Hawks end up with 142 points, that was greatly aided by a fast pace and also the 10 extra minutes. Atlanta only had about a 113 offensive rating in this game, which isn’t terrible, but certainly is not remarkable in any way. It’s just that the Hawks ground this one out with their defense throughout and they made enough big plays and then lean on the two high-end scores that they had in this game in Jon and Aquille to uh key the offense in this one. Um on that end of the floor, it was definitely a mixed bag. Obviously, the Jaylen Johnson careerhigh 41 points um was a big, you know, X factor in this game as was Tequil making six threes and scoring at will basically last couple of games. But aside from those from those two guys, it was kind of a mixed bag and not really the best kind of mixed bag for Atlanta. They had 23 turnovers in this game. That’s even too many, especially for um a regulation game. Obviously, this this is 10 or minutes, but still, even with that context, that’s too many turnovers. They turn them all over if you want to go percentage on about 18% of their possessions in this game. That is far too many. But it wasn’t the disastrous kind. Um the fact that they allowed less than a point per possession off those turnovers was certainly helpful in mitigating them. They didn’t shoot the ball well in this game for three-point range. It’s kind of funny because throughout this one, I was pointing in my notes to like, hey, the Hawks can’t make a three and they couldn’t. Like, they had a really a really tough start in this one for three-point range. And they ended up going 15 to 45, which isn’t good, but they actually made five more threes than the Sixers and shot considerably better than the Sixers for three-point range. So, it’s hard to blame that for the offensive inconsistency. Um, later in the game, the Hawks were not quite as effective going to the rim as they were earlier in the night. They ended up with 60 points in the paint, which is totally fine, but they were on track to have many more than that until they slowed down late. They got to the line 41 times in this game. Certainly, that is uh aided by the end of uh the game, kind of taking forever and some intentional fouls, etc. That was still their second most attempts of the entire season after they had 42 against Orlando and a win in November about three weeks ago at this point. So, you know, long story short, was this a good offensive game for the Hawks? probably not on the whole, but given the two standout performances, the 36 assists, which certainly is indicative of the Hawks moving the ball very, very well, they were effective inside the ark for the most part in this game. They had one of their better offensive rebounding games of the whole season. Actually, they um ended up grabbing 14 offensive rebounds, which is actually about 35% of their misses in this one. That was very, very effective on the whole. And then they also got 44% of their shots were right at the rim. They didn’t really make them at a high level like accuracy wise, but generally speaking, a shot at the rim, even on a quote unquote bad night at the rim efficiency wise, is still like 60% or higher. So, if you get there, that’s a generally positive thing that also allows you to spray the ball out with your shooters that leads to more assists. Even though, you know, basically everyone of their four most prominent offensive players, um, at least in this game, you know, Daniels, Alexander Walker, Aongu, and Johnson all had four turnovers or more in this game. So there was some mis there were some mishaps along the way but in the end they took care of the ball. They got the ball to the rim enough when it mattered and then the free throw rate, the offensive rebounds, the extra possessions and the Hawks were able to kind of neutralize that and let the shooting kind of sing because even though they didn’t shoot great shoot it great in this game, they did shoot it well compared to Philadelphia and I will certainly credit the Hawks defense for that. So there is so much more to get to from this game. my more game for you know game flow play playbyplay kind of things observations along the way but big picture again a couple things here four wins in five nights stand out standout games from Jaylen and Aquille Jaylen Johnson had you know again career best numbers from a scoring perspective Alexander Walker has been absolutely dialed in and for me I said this a little bit before I’ll say it again now and probably again later on this podcast he has been and I even said this back in the summer like this is a very possible thing that would happen has been for me the best player who changed teams this summer in free agency. Like it’s pretty clear to me he now has three 30 point games in the last six games and before that had never had 30 points in his career. So he’s a different player this year. He’s averaging 20 points a game, all that stuff. But we’ll stop here and say yes, the Hawks could have won this one a lot easier. They also could have lost this one in first overtime. So, you know, uneven to say the least, but in the end, an emerging victory against a quality opponent on the road, and you never have to apologize for that in the NBA when you steal one of those away from your home building. All right, we’ll get into more and we trust me, there is plenty more from this game. We’ll get into all that and more in just one moment. This episode is brought to you by Prize Fix. The holiday season is one of the best times for sports that you could possibly have. bowl games, big basketball matchups, playoff pushes, it’s all happening at the same time. And while we’re all making choices every single day, one of the most fun places to make the right call is Prize Pix. Price way to get on Daily Fantasy right now. You pick more or less on at least two player projections, lock in your lineups, and you are in the game with Prize Pix. It’s simple, it’s fast, it’s available in 45 states. 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It’s harder to do that in a reasonable amount of time with double overtime, but I will try my best. Um, a long time ago, the defense for the Hawks actually scuffled a lot early early in this game. They had allowed 11 points on their first six possessions defensively. Like it was kind of a mess. Turn them over three times at the beginning of the game. Um, I will say the Hawks were still up by a point after eight minutes despite they were they had five turnovers and they were 05 from three to begin the game, but they defensive defensively picked it up a lot and they got to the rim pretty much at will in that first quarter. Joel Embiid who came back in this game um was certainly I think a help to the Hawks and that might sound funny if you didn’t watch the game and Joel Embiid is a for former MVP obviously he’s not exactly in his normal state like at least a couple years ago state um athletically he was um lumbering we’ll say and a lot of uh weaknesses for the hog for the defense because of Joel Embiid coming back by the way a mini rant here that I will do quickly because this game took so long but Embiid played for the first game first time in three weeks today um I normally would not mention that except for the fact the Sixers rules pulled him out like said he was out last night and then somehow he went from out last night to being back in and playing in this game. And if you’re a listener of the podcast for a long time, you’ll know that I’ve done this rant before. And I would do it the same way if the Hawks were doing this, too. This is not a Hawks thing, a partisan thing at all. I don’t really do that on this podcast, but the league just shouldn’t allow teams to do this. Like once a player is listed as out, they should be out. It’s pretty clear like there’s a reason why the doubtful designation exists. If there is a chance that a player can come back and play in that game, he should list it as doubtful, not out. Doubtful. Once a guy’s out, they should be out. That should be it. And that is not what happened here. But anyway, just a little bit of of a process thing, but certainly just frustrating on many accounts. Anyway, um Porzingis was out again for the Hawks along with Trey Young. So, Kong Woo started. Mo Gay was the first sub, then Vit and Canard. Katon Wallace came in with V and Canard. My favorite lineup made an appearance in this game. It did not go very well yet again. Um and Asa Null actually played literally one minute in the first quarter and that was it and that was it for Asa. So it was mostly nine guys that played. Knocks were down by four the end of the first quarter after they went 0 of9 from three. I mentioned before the Hawks had the better shooting game in this game. They started this game 0 of9 from three. So from their point from that point four they were 15 of 36 which is quite good. And I would say tip of the cap to them they were able to kind of withstand that poor shooting early on with 20 points in the paint in the first quarter. They were 11 of 13 on twos and then defensively it was largely pretty good after the opening minutes. Moay had a really good first half offensively. He had 11 points in 10 minutes. Was feeling it too like play with a lot of confidence. He made the Hawks first three of the game after those nine misses. He had an awesome follow-up dunk. Um he was so good in that first half that he actually carried the uh dreaded Wallace Crannard lineup to a plus one in the first quarter uh first quarter and a half I should say. It didn’t go well later on, but um that first stint was a credit to Mo keeping him afloat. Um Luke Canard, by the way, left this game in the first half, came back in, but was with illness. He left the game and I think he just looked like he was sick. Honestly, he just looked terrible is one of those games that I’ve seen him play with the Hawks. I will assume because of that, at least some of that was because he was not healthy and not feeling well in this game. Keep that in mind for later on. Um it’s back and forth the entire first half. No one by more than six the whole half. The Hawks were down by one point at the halftime break despite four of 20 from three. So again, four of 20 in the first half, 11 of 25 in the second half. That really helped. Um, but they did a good job taking care of the ball after the first couple minutes of this game. And then the fourth quarter got a little bit loose again, but Jaylen had 16 points in the first half, etc. So the third quarter, it was basically the same thing. Back and forth, back and forth. Hawks did take the lead briefly in the third quarter. And then Philadelphia had their biggest run of the night, an 110 run late in the third to go up by nine. The Hawks didn’t score a point for four and a half minutes in the third quarter. They had nine straight possessions that did not score and in the middle of that run they went inexplicably to the Wallace Cadar lineup and that did not help in the slightest. I gave the numbers online today but I’ll say them out loud at least briefly here. It’s not that I don’t like any of these players individually. It’s that the lineup construction of those three guys playing together. If you’re new to the podcast or just finding the podcast today, for example, I’ve been ranting for a few weeks about this. That trio does not work both process-wise, logic-wise or results-wise. For example, all the all the combinations of those two guys playing together are better when they’re not joined by the third person. Katon and Vit, Katon and Canard, Vit and Canard, all those guys are better individually and paired together than they are when they’re all playing together. Even Katon Wallace who has the who has the team’s worst onoff metrics and is probably the worst guy who plays regularly for the Hawks individually. Number one, Keaton was good in this game, but number two, when he was at his worst in this game is what he when he was playing with Luke and V. it doesn’t work. Uh I don’t understand why they’re doing it. It happened again today. I will not rant anymore about that. Just want to say that out loud because you know basically somebody asked me about Vit and Canard and why they’re playing so much together. And I said, well, if you take a if you look at the minutes when those guys play without Katon, they have a positive net rating. It’s just those two guys with Katon that doesn’t work. There you go. My that’s my one piece on this podcast. Um they finally got Nikil back into the game late in the third and he was awesome in this game overall, but also he led directly to an 80 run when he came back in the game. That was probably a little bit convenient, but uh it helps my narrative for sure after that lineup was uh leaking oil, we’ll say. But the Hawks were down by six at the end of the third quarter. And they they played terribly late in the third. They had five turnovers in that quarter. They got to the line, sorry, Philadelphia Philadelphia got to the line 15 times in the third quarter. That was a problem. Um but in keeping with the back and forth nature of this entire game, the Hawks came out and scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter. Keep he had a really good stretch for him. I would say Keton WS was awesome in that fourth quarter. I also got back toback steals and layups. They basically just flipped the game on its head. And that was an impressive st that honestly was going to lead the podcast until the game went to overtime. It was still a huge stretch though. The Hawks lose this game if not for that that first five minutes or so of the fourth quarter where they were awesome. Philadelphia had six turnovers through three quarters in this game and then had five in three minutes. So, the Hawks just swarm them completely. They didn’t score for four and a half minutes and they stopped fouling. It was all the positives and the defense was just really soaring for the Hawks in that stretch. But Atlanta was not able to run run away and hide as you might imagine. For the purposes of this game going to overtime, I’ll fast forward a little bit here to the Hawks leading by four points with three minutes to go in the game. Both teams just could not score at the end of at the end of regulation. In fact, no one scored for like two and a half minutes because both teams couldn’t make a layup, couldn’t make a three. Paul George missed a shot that probably should have made the game a lot closer. Um, Jaylen got a rebound that I thought was gonna end the game, honestly. And I have in my notes right here to emphasize because it’s true. Having a guy like Jaylen Johnson, who I’ve been saying since the summer, since last year, is an elite rebounder. It’s the thing that Jaylen, especially right now when Jaylen’s passing and scoring get a lot of attention, which they should to be very clear, but Jaylen’s rebounding is huge as a weapon. To have your power forward be able to rebound like a center like Jaylen does and also grab and go and push and push the ball in transition is a small it’s not a small factor at all. And that was huge. He made both free throws go by six points. And after Quinton Grimes misses another three, Jung gets a rebound. The Hawks go up by eight points with a minute to go. This game should have been over. should have been over 100%. This is the one negative part of the game for the Hawks. They imploded. Like this game should have been over. Um they gave gave up a three right away. Then Dyson and Jaylen both missed free throws. Only one of two, but they missed two. Uh in fact, the Hawks were 13 of 16 at the line in the fourth quarter, but two of those three misses came in the final minute. And but even even after all that, they’re up by five. Fully has the ball. Old friend Don Barlo scores, draws a foul, which is a terrible foul to commit there. up by five and then he goes to the line, misses the free throw with the Hawks up by three and Atlanta gives up gives up an offensive rebound, a kick out to Tyrese Maxi for a 29 foot three with a tie. So within 40 seconds, the Hawks go from up by eight to a tie game in regulation. Then the Hawks could have still won the game. Dyson kind of fumbles the ball, still gets by Embiid kind of on the baseline and then misses kind of an awkward flip shot and they go to overtime. So, like the final 50 seconds was just a disaster for the Hawks. And if they had lost the game in first overtime, which they probably should have, quote unquote, um this would have been what I went with because it was like, man, they can’t you can’t lose that game. Up by eight in the final minute. You can’t lose that game. And the Hawks tried to, but then they were not they were given the game back in the first overtime. So, I’ll fly through this a little bit. Both teams had to use their own challenges in the first overtime. Both were one. the officiating. Um, I am not one who complains a lot about officiating on purpose. I think it makes you seem, especially if you’re in my position as someone covering the team, going the locker room, trying to be impartial, makes you seem like you’re whining, and I don’t really do that. Um, I do make notes on the officiating sometimes. Tonight, I thought it was a very, very poorly officiated game. And I’m not saying that was only against the Hawks, but there were some times when the Hawks had some uh tough moments um for the officiating this game. Philadelphia got to the line a ton early on the game. All those things reg it was not my f favorite fishing crew. In fact, my favorite um um my guy Glenn Willis who has been on the podcast many many times front of the show was insensitively officiating and I will recommend following Glenn always but especially for his officiating talk. He’s very dialed in on the officials. He knows who’s good, who’s not, for example. And uh he was with he was right there with melting down by the officials in this game. Um anyway, they knew they the two challenges were won on both sides that was neutral in the end. Although both calls were wrong on the on the court. Um so fast forward a little bit here. The Hawks get a rebound with 14 seconds to go. Down by two. Um sorry, Nikil gets fouled but a non-shooting foul. So the Hawks call timeout down for down by two in the final 20 seconds of the game. Quinn call time out to shut something up. Jenn has a great drive to the left side of the rim. He just misses it. Like it’s a good shot. It’s going to happen. It’s good process. Just sometimes the ball doesn’t go in. And it looked like for all the world like the Hawks were going to lose the game because even by the way the play before that Joel Embiid had a terrible possession. I have no idea what he was what he was dreaming trying to do. Took a bad shot to leave the door open for the Hawks down by two. That was a nice bailout for for Atlanta. Jaylen just misses a shot and he makes a lot. It was fine. I mean it it is what it is. But they foul Tyrese Maxi who’s the wrong guy to foul. And Atlanta’s down by two with 4.6 seconds to go. If Maxi makes both, the game is probably over. And for some context, Maxi was 14 to 15 in the game at that point. And he came into the night shooting 87% for his career and 88% for the season. And he missed both, you know. So again, regulation, the Hawks imploded in first overtime. Really, the Sixers imploded. And Tyrese Maxi, who was really good in this game, had 44 points for that 22nd period at the free throw line. He missed both. Like if he makes one, Atlanta has to has has to hit a three to tie. If he makes both, the game is over for all intents and purposes. Instead, he misses both. Leaves the door wide open. And the Hawks to this time, Jaylen Johnson gets downhill. He gets fouled this time. Goes to the line. And Jaylen, to his credit, he’s not an elite figure shooter. He’s a pretty good one. But he gets to the goes to the line. Call the mix both. And that sets the game double overtime. So if you’re scoring at home, regulation Hawks try to give it away. Philadelphia in first overtime try to give it away second overtime re new game again in the extra period now both teams were short-handed in the in the double overtime reach thought out for the Hawks that led be crazy to play a lot in the second overtime and then on Philly’s side both Embiid and Paul George hit their administrations and I got to say while the Hawks won this game I thought that was actually going to be bad news for the Hawks because I thought Embiid and George were both like pretty clearly negatives for the Sixers in this game but they also didn’t have a ton of wing depth in particular with George being out regardless. Um the big swings in the double overtime period was were the threes. So the Hawks get three threes. One by Nquille on a second chance shot to give the Hawks the lead and then two by Jayon Johnson a minute apart in the middle of the overtime to go from a tie game to up three to up six. And after the way the regulation went nothing felt safe whatsoever but this time there were no disasters down the end. the lead um stayed I believe uh yeah it got it got to four at one point with like a minute 15 to go. Um but Dyson scored to kind of silence that little run with with under a minute left and then that was the end of that. So yeah, I mean I could go on forever and ever on this. I have even twice as many notes as this, but that that’s what happened in the end. Like there were some really high highs like Alexander Walker which we’ll get to in a second was plus 19 in a double overtime game. He was awesome in this one. Jaylen carried a big load, hit the two biggest shots of the game in the in the double overtime period. Got to the line, made the make the big free throws in the first over first overtime period. All that. So, uh, but you know, one more time with emphasis, getting a win like this, even if it could have teetered both sides, is so big for a young team. The Hawks are still a young team. They are. They’re the third youngest team in the league, as Quinn Snider is fond of saying. And to do this on the road without Trey, without Porzingis, like Shorthand and the sisters were basically full strength in this game for for example, all that thrown in the mix. A fun one at the office. Now, there is more to get to, including, by the way, um a ton of playerbyplayer evaluation stuff and a Trey Young update that dropped over the weekend. A jam-packed show, and there’s more to come in just one moment. And Sunday is move fast. One big play is something feels different for you. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game. Instead, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you also place B bets together at as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment, it’s all there for you at FanDuel. And live betting is the absolute best when the game is going on, when it starts to shift, perhaps a receiver gets hot, a quarterback gets hot, a defense gets gets tight at the wrong time or momentum starts to flip after a turnover. All those things allow you to have FanDuel jump in the moment right at the same time. They have live They have live point spreads and money lines that adjust instantly for you. They have live player props that update as guys heat up in the middle of the game. You also bet next touchdown scores, drive results, totals, and so much more. Keep you locked into every single snap, every drive, every possibility. And as always, they have you covered across the sports betting space from NBA to college football, college basketball, MMA, boxing, soccer, golf, tennis, auto racing, and much, much more at FanDuel. Plus, they have all the pregame lines you’re looking for. Point spreads, totals, money lines, player props, etc. So, you want to be right in the middle of the of the action this season. Visit fanduel.com. That’s fanduel.com right now. Place your NFL live bets all season long. That’s fuel.com. Place your live bets on the NFL and all the other sports all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. All right, before I dive into the playerby player evaluations from this game, as I’ve discussed many times on the show recently, Saturday was the four-week mark for Trey Young’s re-evaluation. And right on time, actually, the Hawks, they actually did deliver a formal update on Trey, although it was not exactly clear-cut or definitive on Young’s return. The statement says that Trey quote continues to make good progress through his rehab and will be reevaluated in approximately two weeks. So, not shocking here. The Hawks tend to give reevaluation timelines on on like two week or four-week increments on long-term injuries. This is also a reminder of why I always say that reevaluation does not mean return. people kept ignoring that and assumed Trey would be back anytime sometime soon. He could have been, but it was not it was not a guarantee at all and nor is it going to happen at this point in time. So, two more weeks from Saturday would be at least six more games, including today. Um, and frankly, the game on December 14th would which would be the next game after that would be kind of an odd time to come back because the Hawks have three days off after that before another game on December 18th. So, at the time of the injury, I shared on the show that historically, according to Jeff Sts, the average time of return for a grade two MCL sprain is about six weeks. And that makes that that means about 20 games on average. Now, the Hawks never said grade two. Keep that in mind. That was just the general projection that I had been hearing. So, each injury is different. So, if it’s six weeks, if it’s eight weeks, that wouldn’t be out of the norm at all. It’s not a delay at this point. I’ve heard good things about Trey’s rehab, but in the meantime, he’s not going to come back for another two weeks at least, could be longer. And uh obviously this game is a good example of this, but the Hawks have done a good job mitigating the absence. I am not going to ride the wave of online discourse about are they better without No, they’re not better without Trey in my opinion, but they have done a good job dating back to the summer as we talked about on the show. All summer long, they’ve done a good job building this roster out with more depth and more talent. And part of the why that’s good is to mitigate injuries and they’ve done that very very well so far. So that’s where I’ll leave it for today. That was too big of a too big of a news item to not um have on the next episode. So here we go with that at this point in time. All right, back to the player stuff from this game. Um nine guys played real minutes. I know ASA played literally 30 seconds in the game in the first in the first half. Um Luke Canard had a rough one. 15 minutes, two points, five assists. Did five assists. Move the ball well, but miss miss a whole of his shots. Defensively was pretty rough. I think he was pretty clearly sick and not did not have a lot of juice. And given his physical limitations, if he’s not feeling it, it can get pretty ugly. And it was pretty ugly in this game for a week. Um Keem Wallace played well, I thought, especially when he was when he was finally separated from the Cray lineups. He gave good meds, especially in the fourth quarter. Um had eight points, two assists, plus seven in the game, hit two threes, including one big one in the fourth. Good defensive activity. Katon um you know, has been kind of a um I don’t know, it’s been rough to discuss Katon because like I like Katon. It’s not his fault, but I thought he was uh it was good to have him shine in that spot in the fourth quarter. U and that was important for the Hawks. Bes was just okay. Five points, five rebounds, did have an assist, two turnover, sorry, two, one turnover, and two steals. Did was actually plus 13. He ended up closing the game because Ray fouled out of the game. I thought V was just okay. Didn’t really do a ton, but I thought he was actually better defensively tonight than he has been on the general baseline. So, that was good to see from V using his physicality a little bit better in this game. Moay was good, especially in the first half. 13 points, four rebounds, two steals. I think defensively he was huge in kind of that huge run in the fourth quarter, imposing his will. I think defensively Mo is just like scary when it’s all going well in the in the best possible way. So Mo is very good. I like to see him play even more than he is. Generally speaking, to the starters, Rish was the one who did not play a ton of minutes because he thought it out. I think it would have been like 35ish if he didn’t foul it out. end up with 30 minutes in this game. 12 points for Zack. I thought he played very very well defensively, like really really active. Got a couple of I I thought inaccurate foul calls along the way to put it kindly, but I thought he gave him good effort, good defense. Um had one a big dunk on um actually late late in the game on a when the Hawks were kind of teetering offensively on a run out. His work in transition has always been huge for this team. like he runs and runs and runs some more and I think he seems to be actually better than people think he is at this point in time. There you go. A Congo actually had kind of a quiet game as a shooter. Was 07 from three after he’s been redot lately. I like that he kept taking him. That’s a good thing. 10 points, 13 rebounds, six sorry, six assists. Um and a steal for Anka plus nine. I thought he played totally fine. Just didn’t shoot well. Like it’s going to happen sometimes. I thought he was good. Uh generally speaking, uh Dyson Daniel 17 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, two steals. had some uh similar, you know, didn’t want to shoot issues. He I will say on the positive side, he took 14 shots. That’s actually good. Um I wanted to be even more aggressive. There were too many times where he was kind of caught in between and not aggressive enough. Um take more threes, be more aggressive going to the rim, but when it was good, it was good. The the eight assists were popping. Defensively, he was quite good in this game, I thought. And uh you know, was not a huge negative, even though he was had some rough offensive moments at times. Jaylen Johnson. I’ll save for the end. So, I’ll go to Nika Walker first, but Nquille was also just tremendous here. 34 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, um, plus 19. He was six of 11 on twos, six of 11 on threes as well at the line six times. Like, the drive game has been massive. I wrote about him a couple weeks ago at fansited about just his uptick in drives that’s been holding steady, which is a great thing. Um, the shooting is obviously really effective as well. Defensively, he’s flying around. Like, he’s been so so good. I don’t think he’s gonna average 20 points a game. I could be wrong. Maybe he will. He’s been doing it for a while now, but man, these flashes from him have been just huge. I mean, it’s not only been him filling in for Trey, but the fact that you can have a guy in Nquille that can play 45 minutes in in a game like this and look the part and he’s your third guard coming into the season. Like, yeah, that’s a huge luxury. And what I described him um as when the Hawks signed him was this like very overqualified like six, seventh man who’s really a starter. Like, he’s a starter. like every very obviously they just happen to have seven starters. That’s just where the Hawks are, but he has been playing so so well and it was huge in this game. And then Jaylen Johnson, 41 points, a careerhigh by a lot for Jaylen. Also careerhigh and at the line with 17 makes and 22 attempts. Both career highs there. 14 rebounds, seven assists, six turnovers. That’s that’s fine. As I always say about guys like Trey and other guys who are lead ball handlers, the guys who lead the league in turnovers are the guys who have the ball the most. And Jaylen’s usage right now is a star level usage. And I think if you gave him that usage all the time, he would probably be a guy who was near the top of the league turnovers. That’s going to happen. But his he’s been really really good here. Couple huge like star moments at the end of the game, the two big threes, got to the rim. Even the shot he missed at the end of regulation. Um sorry, at the end of the first overtime like was a good look. Just a good, you know, good physical driver. That combination of size, athleticism, creativity, skill, like he’s got it. Like the star jump has happened for Jaylen Johnson. It is happening as we speak. Um, we got to the point with Jaylen Johnson right now and I found this kind of funny but also in a good way. I mentioned on the last show that Jaylen is playing like an all-star and someone got mad at me for not saying all NBA instead of allstar. That’s all you need to know about Jaylen Johnson right now. And by the way, yeah, like he’s playing at an allNBA level the last few weeks. Like that’s not even up for debate. I I just my response was basically let’s go one thing at a time with Jaylen. Like yeah, all-star would be the next step. AllNBA doesn’t happen until April. So we we have a little bit of time on that one, but he’s averaging like, you know, 24 23 10 and seven something like that for the season. Like yeah, he’s on that track. He’s playing great and uh you know, he was obviously the standout in this one. Again, 41 points for Jaylen Johnson and only on 31 shooting possessions. Like he was very efficient as well. Hit the four threes and uh yeah, he’s cooking. So there you go. I can go on. I won’t. It’s been a long show already, but this is a great win for the Hawks. Full stop. Unfortunately for Atlanta, they have a tough draw tomorrow. So even in my notes before this game started, I had written down the go to Detroit on Monday and it’s a tough schedule spot in big letters on my on my notes because the Pistons played in Miami on Saturday. So they were off today and they’re back at home now. And then the Hawks played 10 minutes tonight. It’s a late flight. All those things. Now it’s not unwinable. The Pistons have been not playing quite as well recently after their scalding hot start. They have cooled off a little bit. I believe they’ve actually lost uh two of their last three. They beat Miami, but still their uh advantage Detroit in this game, I would say. Um somebody asked me like, could the Hawks sit some guys tomorrow? It wouldn’t be a bad idea. I think you know players like Jaylen, Aneka, Nquille, even Dyson have been playing like massive workloads given the situation with Porzingis given that Trey is out all those things. On paper like a lot of teams, not every team, but a lot of teams might give them like a punt night off tomorrow in Detroit. The Hawks have not shown that willingness at all this season. They have in the past. Last year there was a couple games where like Quinn saw the writing on the wall whether with the training staff or whatever and kind of pulled the plug on some games. Um that could happen tomorrow. I’m not saying it’s going to um we don’t know about Porzingis as well. Like he’s been sitting back to backs but today he was listed as illness not rest. So I don’t know if he’s actually going to be available tomorrow. If he could play tomorrow like it would give them license. It’ be a lot easier to sit on Yaka for example if if for if was playing tomorrow. We don’t know but at the moment it’s a tough spot. It’s winnable. It’s a tough spot, but to bring it full circle, it’s a lot easier and a lot lot lot easier to be feeling good about everything that’s going on tomorrow when you won the game tonight. If they had blown the lead in regulation, lost this game, the vibes would have been tough, but they won it and that gives you some freedom tomorrow. And maybe you go in and you’re just playing loose and you beat Detroit. And that that’s very possible as well. But for now, the Hawks are 13-8. They’re playing really well and a great win on the road in Philadelphia on a Sunday evening. That’s all I have on today’s show everybody. I will come back at some point and add something I missed. Like for example, the Hawks now have their schedules filled up once again with NBA Cup fill-in games. By the way, they’re playing the Pistons and Sixers, which is kind of funny. Um, but that’ll be uh covered later on in the podcast. But please subscribe to Lon Hawks anywhere you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc. I very much appreciate you following the show. Comments, ratings, reviews, all that stuff is very much appreciated. Follow the show on Twitterx. A lot on Hawks. Follow me there at BT Roland. Follow me on Blue Sky at BT Roland. And also for the non-podcast coverage of the Hawks that I do is at patreon.combt Roland. All right everybody, enjoy the final show of November. We’re heading into a new month and the Hawks are playing really well. So we’ll please stick around. I appreciate everybody supporting the show as always and we’ll see you all next time.

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2113 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, breaking down Sunday’s game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Philadelphia 76ers. Topics include huge nights from Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta’s near-meltdown at the end of regulation, Tyrese Maxey’s gift at the end of the first overtime, quality overall defense, and much more.

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