Joker pulls off a heist! Hawks lose thriller in Atlanta

The Atlanta Hawks suffered their third consecutive defeat on Friday night, losing to the Denver Nuggets 134-133 in a game that came down to the final seconds.

As has been the case for the past few weeks, the Hawks were without Trae Young (MCL sprain) for this one, however they were happy to welcome both Jalen Johnson (one game missed) and Kristaps Porzingis (four games missed) back into the rotation after being without the pair for Wednesday’s loss against the Clippers.

Denver, meanwhile, were without Aaron Gordon (right hamstring strain), Christian Braun (right ankle sprain) and Julian Strawther (lower back injury management).

Atlanta got off to a roaring start, posting a blistering 72.5% true shooting percentage in the first half and 73-54 lead into the break. The fairytale was over at halftime though. Denver opened the third quarter on a 19-4 run (in a little over three minutes) to get themselves back in the ball game.

The Hawks held them at bay through the rest of the third, however a 26-6 run to start the fourth quarter gave Denver a lead they would not relinquish. Despite a valiant effort from Atlanta over the final five minutes, the Nuggets came away with a one-point win.

Jalen Johnson recorded a first-half triple-double*, and finished with 21 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists (three turnovers). Nickeil Alexander-Walker poured in 30 points to go with five rebounds – his third time going for 30+ in the last five games. Kristaps Porzingis was playing on a minutes restriction and came off the bench for just the second time in his career, but he looked great in his return to action, finishing with 25 points on 13 shots in just 20 minutes. Dyson Daniels finished with 15 points and eight assists.

*Becoming just the fifth player to post a first-half triple-double in the play-by-play era (since 1997-98).

For Denver, Nikola Jokic maintained his superhuman form this season, racking up 40 points (13-for-26 from the floor, 13-for-15 at the line), nine rebounds and eight assists (two turnovers). Jamal Murray finished with 23 points and 12 assists.

Recap

A red-hot shooting start gave the Hawks a 41-23 lead at the end of the first quarter. Atlanta shot 8-for-12 from beyond the arc (16-for-21 overall), with six different Hawks hitting threes in the opening frame. Meanwhile little went right for the Nuggets, who shot just 10-for-30 from the field and 3-for-12 from distance. A 10-0 advantage in second-chance points for Denver helped mask a miserable first quarter for them.

The second quarter was far more even, though the two sides went about getting their points in different ways. Atlanta continued to shoot well from deep (5-for-12 from three in the second) and got a lot of their baskets early in the shot clock by pushing the pace in transition.

On the other end, Denver shot just 1-for-5 from three but dominated on the interior – earning 15 free-throw attempts (12-for-15 from the line in the second), and shooting 8-for-11 from inside the restricted area in the second quarter. Neither team was able to make much of an impact on the scoring margin however, and the Hawks went into the break with a 19-point lead.

The third quarter is where things began to go awry for the Hawks. Denver blitzed them out of the break, going on a 19-4 run within the first 3:11 minutes, completely flipping the momentum of the game. Let’s take a look at some of the key plays from this stretch.

Here, Okongwu is way off on the floater attempt. Peyton Watson corrals the rebound and Denver wastes no time heading the other way. Jokic gets into a favorable position against Okongwu down low and banks home the finish plus the foul to cut Atlanta’s lead to 14.

On the next possession, Daniels gets his drive stuffed by Jokic. The Nuggets race down the floor once again and Cam Johnson nails a three from the wing to cut the lead to 11. Timeout Atlanta.

A few plays after the timeout, Okongwu clanks a three off the top of the backboard leading to yet another fastbreak opportunity for Denver*. This time Murray shoulders Jalen Johnson out of the way and finishes at the basket to make it a 9-point game.

*The Nuggets had a 10-2 advantage in fastbreak points in the third quarter

Facing a set defense off the made basket, Johnson misses an 11-footer on the next possession. Typically a willing passer, Johnson fails to spot Daniels cut in time, and also misses an open Risacher on the wing before firing up a tough two.

The next time down for Denver, Jokic draws the attention of multiple defenders in the post, then whips a cross-court pass to Watson. Watson beats Risacher’s closeout, engages Dyson Daniels then kicks to the opposite wing for a Murray triple. This is good basketball from Denver but the Hawks are guilty of letting them get into their groove offensively.

Off the Murray three, Alexander-Walker races down the floor and tries to draw a foul on an early shot clock drive, but the ref swallows his whistle and the Nuggets are off to the races once again for an easy bucket forcing Quin Snyder to call another timeout. Four-point game.

Atlanta picked it up after the second timeout of the quarter, and they kept the Nuggets at arms length for the rest of the period. Daniels, Alexander-Walker and Porzingis came up with some big baskets to get the offense back on track, and a three from Vit Krejci extended Atlanta’s lead to nine heading into the final frame.

Unfortunately, Denver had another run brewing for the start of the fourth quarter. After going just 8-for-25 from beyond the arc through the first three quarters, the Nuggets caught fire in the fourth, hitting their first seven three-point attempts of the period as part of a 26-6 run, putting them ahead 120-109 with 6:00 left in regulation.

The two teams traded jabs over the next few minutes before back-to-back threes from Porzingis and Alexander-Walker gave Atlanta some life.

After a Nuggets timeout, Nikola Jokic barrels his way down the lane for a score over Porzingis to push Denver’s lead back up to seven.

A drive and score from Jalen Johnson on Atlanta’s next possession made it a five-point game. Then on the following Nuggets possession, Johnson jumps Murray’s pass to Jokic and takes it the other way for a slam to make it a one possession game.

Denver give the ball to Jokic on their next possession, and he takes it all the way to the hole for two. I would have liked to see the Hawks give Porzingis a little bit of help here as opposed to leaving him one-on-one but in reality, there are no right answers when it comes to defending Jokic, only ‘less wrong’ ones. It’s difficult to be too exasperated when the 7-footer pulls out the euro-step reverse lay-in in crunch time.

After an Alexander-Walker three on the other end to cut it to two (great movement from NAW to create space for the shot), Jokic strikes again, methodically working his way to the cup for a 3-foot hook.

A step-back 17-footer from Jalen Johnson cut the deficit back down to two. Then a miss from Cam Johnson gave the Hawks a golden opportunity to tie the ball game with less than 30 seconds to play

Atlanta run a Jalen Johnson/Kristaps Porzingis pick-and-roll, forcing Denver to switch a small onto Porzingis, then Johnson floats in a pass to the Latvian big-man. I thought the placement on the pass from Johnson was alright, but Porzingis makes the mistake of bringing the ball down and Murray strips him in the blink of an eye, forcing Atlanta to play the foul game.

After two free-throws from Jokic, Alexander-Walker gets fouled on the next Hawks possession and knocks down the subsequent free-throws with 16 seconds to go. After the free-throw make, Atlanta waste little time fouling and send Jokic to the line. He miraculously went 1-for-2, giving the Hawks a chance to tie the game with a three on their final possession.

Atlanta tried to run something for Porzingis out of the timeout, but Denver played it well, forcing Atlanta to make something out of a busted play. The ball ended up in Alexander-Walker hands, and after getting his initial three-point attempt blocked, he grabbed the rebound and drove hard to the hoop and curiously opted to go for the lay-in rather than kick it out to an open shooter.

As you can see in the clip below, with the Hawks down three, Alexander-Walker has Porzingis on the wing (though Cam Johnson is shading over towards him), and Vit Krejci and Luke Kennard open in both corners, yet still opts to go for the two – a really curious call especially with both teams out of timeouts.

After the make, Nikola Jokic wastes no time grabbing the ball out of the net, fires it down the floor to Jamal Murray who runs the clock out and the Nuggets escape with the victory.

“They’re the best offensive team in the league. That said, giving up 40 in the third and the fourth, it’s going to be tough to win that way.” said Snyder after the game. “We didn’t fight them as much as we needed to defensively. We didn’t execute.”

“This one hurts – the way it happened. It needs to be affirming for us when we play the way that we want to play, when we get out and run and guard, we’re a pretty good team. When we don’t, it can go the other direction on us,” Snyder added.

Two more quick observations on last night’s game.

Notable disparity in Fastbreak Points, Points off Turnovers

Two closely related areas that really hurt the Hawks in this one were Denver’s advantage in fastbreak points and points off turnovers. The nba.com/stats website defines ‘fastbreak points’ as points scored within the first six seconds of the shot-clock, and Denver outscored Atlanta 26-18 in this area last night. The 26 fastbreak points Atlanta conceded was the third most they’ve allowed in a game this season.

Many of these early shot clock looks that Denver generated were sparked by Hawks turnovers. Atlanta coughed it up 14 times – directly leading to 22 points off turnovers for the Nuggets. While the turnover disparity wasn’t too wide (Denver turned it over 12 times themselves), Atlanta failed to turn these mishaps into points on the other end, scoring just 10 points off turnovers on the evening – tying their lowest total of the season.

On the season, the Hawks are 2-6 when being outscored by their opponents in points off turnovers and 1-10 when being outscored in fastbreak points.

Porzingis Impresses in Return

For just the second time in his 10-year NBA career, Kristaps Porzingis came off the bench in his return to action from a four-game absence. Quin Snyder noted before the game that he would be on a minutes restriction, and the big-man played just 20 minutes against Denver, but boy did he make his presence felt when he was on the floor.

KP scored 25 points on just 13 shots, with Atlanta outscoring Denver by 11 points during his time on the floor – the best plus/minus on the team last night. Porzingis looked comfortable from beyond the arc, going 4-for-7 from three-point range.

He also looked like his usual self operating out of the post – shooting 5-for-6 from inside the arc.

It was great to have Porzingis back out on the floor, and it was certainly eye-opening seeing him have so much success off the bench. Snyder notably left the door open in terms of what the starting lineup is going to look like going forward, saying after the game:

‘I think those things are fluid for us. Injuries have dictated a lot of our lineups and matchup and we’ll just keep evaluating that and do what we think is the best thing for the team. I’ve said before that one of the good things about this group is that it’s a really selfless group, and those guys play for each other.”

What’s next?

Quick turnaround for the Hawks, who are in D.C. to take on the Washington Wizards tonight before getting a mini-break as they don’t play again until Friday. Atlanta will be looking to get back to winning ways after dropping three straight, though they will be aware that there’s no such thing as an ‘easy game’ in the NBA after their last time out against Washington that ended in a lopsided 132-113 loss.

Tip-off for that one is at 7 PM EST on FanDuel Sports Network. Until next time!

Joker pulls off a heist! Hawks lose thriller in Atlanta

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