Losses in November don’t doom your season in the NBA, but if you are fighting for playoff positioning in April, you don’t want to look back and wish you did not lose to a team that was 1-9 and on an eight game losing streak, missing an important player, and when you have the rest advantage.
Perhaps the Atlanta Hawks won’t look back on this loss to the Chicago Bulls like that if they are lucky enough to be among the top six in the Eastern Conference, but they certainly could.
It was an awful night all around for Atlanta. They got down by nine in the first quarter and trailed by as much as 18 to Chicago, and though they had a chance to win it at the buzzer, they turned the ball over on that possession and proceeded to lose in overtime. A lot to clean up for Quin Snyder and crew.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from last night’s game.
Winner: CJ McCollum
It was hard to find a winner in this game, but I thought that CJ McCollum played reasonably well and had to finish the game in the lineup due to Kingston Flemings leaving the game with an injury.
McCollum finished the game 9-for-16 from the field and 2-for-6 from three for 20 points, as well as having five rebounds and five assists. He helped settle things down at times for the Hawks and had a solid night off the bench. If Flemings is out for any period of time, he will likely be back in the starting lineup.
Loser: Nickeil Alexander-Walker
NAW has been awesome for the Hawks this season, but last night is one that he is going to want to forget.
Alexander-Walker shot 6-for-19 from the floor and 1-for-11 from three, as well as committing three turnovers and being a -14 when on the floor. It was his worst shooting night of the season and on a night when you are facing the worst defensive team in the NBA, who happened to have an outlier shooting performance themselves, this was not the right night for Alexander-Walker to shoot the ball like this.
Winner: Jalen Johnson
I am going to be generous and give Jalen Johnson a spot in the winners group, though an argument could be made that he should not be in here.
Johnson finished the game with a 27 point, 11 rebound, and 10 assist triple double and he was on a mission to get to the paint and score. He did not hit a three in this game, shot 42.6% overall, and had five turnovers, but he was a force at times in this game and that could not really be said for any other player.
Loser: Lu Dort
Unfortunately, Dort has become a regular on this list for the Hawks and he continues to play pooly. It says a lot that Quin Snyder elected to play him only 19 minutes in last night’s game.
Dort simply did not have an effect on the game one way or the other. Offensively, he shot 4-for-10 from the field, including a 1-for-3 mark from three. He finished as a -10 in his minutes, tied for second worst on the team, and while he did collect four steals, he was mostly a negative on the court.
Loser: Jock Landale
I think that Snyder needs to seriously consider giving the backup center minutes to Zuby Ejiofor. Landale finished with 12 points and six rebounds, but shot the ball poorly, struggled to defend in space, and was a -10 in his minutes, tied with Dort for the second-worst plus/minus on the team.
Landale’s inability to cover ground on defense (not fixable) and his inability to shoot the ball from deep (possibly fixable) are hurting the Hawks right now, and his minutes might need to be cut, and the Hawks ride the rookie wave with Ejiofor.
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