The Atlanta Hawks were unable to sweep their Sunday-Monday back-to-back, falling to a narrow 99-98 defeat the Eastern Conference leading Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on Monday night.
Jalen Johnson led the Hawks with 29 points and 13 rebounds, Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 26 points. For the Pistons, Jalen Duren scored 21 and 11 rebounds, and Cade Cunningham added 18 points.
The Hawks were considered significant underdogs heading into this contest, and for good reason. Atlanta is on the second night of a back-to-back, played a double overtime game, and had to travel from Philadelphia to Detroit. The Pistons, meanwhile, managed to recover somewhat themselves from their travel schedule over the weekend, but were more rested, last in action on Saturday.
The game unfolded similar to an early 2010’s game in terms of its low scoring, with both teams playing a combination of tired and sloppy basketball: Atlanta shooting 6-of-20 from three in the first half and Detroit committing 13 turnovers in the first half.
Onyeka Okongwu produced a great first half scoring 18 points, helping carry the load offensively as Johnson and Alexander-Walker saw slow starts to this game (combining for just 12 points between them in the first half).
After an encouraging start to the third quarter behind an 8-0 run, the Hawks found themselves pegged back by the hosts, first, by a 12-2 run to take — up to this point — the largest lead for either side in the game at six points into the fourth quarter. Detroit extended this lead to its largest of the game, seven points, and on the precipice of being opened out to double-digits, at which point you begin to question — with the back-to-back and travel — if that’s something you can overcome.
Enter, Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Alexander-Walker begins a stretch of eight straight points, beginning with a miscommunication from the Pistons amidst a crowd of Hawks, and Johnson finds Alexander-Walker for three:
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Alexander-Walker attacks Ron Holland off the dribble on this next play, hitting a tough, stepback jumpshot over the outstretched defense:
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To tie the game, Johnson’s initial drive inside is checked by Tobias Harris, and Alexander-Walker comes over to set a screen for Johnson. While no switch is instigated, the exchange buys Alexander-Walker enough space to pull up from three after the pass from Johnson, and the game is now tied:
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The Pistons would form a breakaway again — fueled by the Hawks — in order to take a 95-89 lead.
Both of these opportunities come off of Atlanta turnovers, first, from Johnson as he drives inside and Caris LeVert strips the ball away and streaks ahead in transition where he finishes at the rim:
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Alexander-Walker loses the ball on the drive, collected by LeVert, and Cunningham is fouled by Johnson with the Pistons in the bonus:
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Cunningham dispatches both free throws to give the Pistons a six point lead with 2:37 remaining, but the Hawks had another run in them, and would claw back to tie the game.
Johnson and Alexander-Walker, again, combine for big threes as Johnson hits the first three on the hit-ahead in transition to slice the gap in half:
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Johnson then swings the ball to the weakside corner to find Alexander-Walker, and he drains the three to tie the game:
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A couple of occasions the Hawks looked a little on the ropes, but this group, again, finds a way to respond when they would have a right to hang their heads and play the tired card. Now, the game is tied with 1:12 remaining, and both sides have to produce plays in order to emerge victorious.
The Pistons provide an immediate response, as Cunningham hits a tough jumper at the free throw line over Daniels to re-take the lead:
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Full credit to Cunningham here, that is a tough shot to make. The Hawks defended this possession well, defending the screening action from Isaiah Stewart well (Johnson shows well on the ball and returns back to Stewart) before Cunningham makes his move, shadowed by Daniels, and contests the shot. It’s just a well made basket at a big moment in the game.
Following a Pistons foul, the Hawks are unable to make a reply out of the out-of-bounds play, as Daniels inbounds to Keaton Wallace and makes a great cut, receives the ball, finds Okongwu in the corner for the three, but it’s missed:
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I didn’t like a couple of things from this play, including Okongwu taking this shot when he seemed surprised — and unprepared — to receive the ball, then comes the contest on top of that, and it’s a shot the Pistons are more than happy to accept at this stage of the game.
It’s not that Okongwu should be making the pass to an open teammate off the ball (there was none), but there’s still 10 seconds to work another opportunity. I also can’t say I was a huge fan of the lineup featuring Wallace at this stage of the game. Zaccharie Risacher didn’t have the best game, and teams have been very wary of Vit Krejci recently and not allowing him a ton of opportunities, but I’d still have one of those two guys in the game at this point.
Time is now not on the Hawks’ side, but there’s still a five second offset between shot and game clock. Hawks head coach Quin Snyder, however, wants his side to commit the foul on Cunningham — he’s clearly motioning for that from the touchline. Johnson’s attempted reach is not called as Cunningham spins away and heads to the rim, where another reach from Daniels is not called, and Cunningham finishes amidst the crowd to give the Pistons a four point lead with 17 seconds remaining, and an Atlanta timeout is called:
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Cunningham scoring the basket here I actually don’t think is the main issue here; it’s the decision to want the foul from Snyder that I think is problematic.
What was the upside to wanting to foul in this spot? It’s not as though they’re sending someone like Duren to line. Cunningham is the player the Hawks tried to foul. Cunningham is an 84% free throw shooter in his career; he’s probably making both of these free throws if Daniels or Johnson is called for the foul.
And then what? You’re in the exact same position than what actually happens when Cunningham scores anyways — down four points and behind by two possessions with no shot clock . Five seconds between shot and game clock is more than enough to work with, especially if you only need a two to tie if you get the stop.
I know the Hawks have had issues rebounding all game long — and that must surely play a part in the decision to foul with so much time on the clock — but I’d rather take the chance on fighting for the rebound and be down two points than chase the game at four. It just seemed an odd decision given who was involved at the time.
Alexander-Walker misses the now-needed three out of the timeout, and the Pistons now have the chance to ice the game at the line. LeVert misses both free throws, and while the Hawks do eventually hit a three through Alexander-Walker, with under two seconds remaining, the Pistons call timeout, advance the ball, throw it into the backcourt and try to kill the small remaining time left on the clock to seal the victory, but the officials call the foul, sending Daniss Jenkins to the line, who also misses both free throws and the Hawks get the timeout with 0.1 seconds remaining.
With 0.1, there’s only time to throw the ball at the rim and hope someone can tip it in. The Hawks give this an attempt with Johnson, who is almost able to guide the ball in but it’s not enough:
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Perhaps another odd call here by Snyder to not have Mo Gueye, standing at 6’11”, be the one to try tip this one in. Alas, Johnson and his athleticism were the choice, it didn’t work, and the game is over.
Postgame, Snyder credited his side for their mental toughness and performance on the second night of a back-to-back against the conference-leading Piston, crediting the performance of Jalen Johnson in particular after a difficult first half.
“One of the things that’s hard to work on is your mental toughness,” opened Snyder postgame. “Not that we’re talking about last night, but tonight to come out against a team that is doing what Detroit is doing this year, leading our conference, and for our guys to play through what was a really physical game… Jalen in particular, to have the first half he had. He just had great poise on the bench, there wasn’t any part of him that was frustrated. We didn’t get discouraged. That was what we take from this game. Obviously you want to win, that’s a given. A few things we could’ve done better here, and there but the mental toughness of our group is encouraging, especially a very young team.”
The Hawks themselves were fully aware of their situation and knew they could have easily mailed this game in, but stuck with it and fought until the last possession.
“Our ability to stay together through adversity, that’s the main thing,” added Johnson. “We could have gave in tonight on the second night of a back-to-back coming off of Philly. We could have hung our hats on that game and gave in tonight, but we didn’t. We gave everything we got tonight, so I’m proud of competing tonight.”
After not making a field goal in the first half and scoring four points and just one assist, Johnson finished with 29 points on 9-of-17 from the field, 4-of-8 from three, 7-of-8 from the free throw line and seven assists. Johnson believed that his first half had not been aggressive enough, and stepped up his aggression in the second half (scoring 13 points in the third quarter alone).
“I wasn’t aggressive enough in the first half,” said Johnson. “The second half I tried to be more aggressive and assert myself on the offensive end.”
Alexander-Walker, similarly, stepped up in a big way in the second half, scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter alone, finishing with 26 points on 10-of-19 from the field and 6-of-10 from three. However, Alexander-Walker was quite critical of his performance, citing his three rebounds as detrimental to the team.
“As much as we fought to make it a game, we put ourselves in a position to have to fight,” said Alexander-Walker. “That starts with me. Towards the end I had a blocked shot, missed shot. Maybe I could have drove, heat check type thing — I wish I had that back — and rebound … I can’t have leave the game with three rebounds, that’s unacceptable for me. Everybody’s fighting so well but it hurts that I feel I could’ve done better to help.”
The rebounding issues were tough to escape last night as the Pistons out-rebounded the Hawks 60-34, including 18 offensive rebounds leading to 19 second chance points.
“The defensive glass is the thing that hurt us the most,” said Snyder. “We’ve got to continue to grind on that. We’re going to be at a disadvantage, and everybody’s got to rebound. Whether we’ve got to tip it to each other or get on the floor, it doesn’t matter what it looks like, we’ve just got to kill possessions with the ball.”
Normally, such a disparity in rebounds, paired with offensive rebounds, can create a giant offset in field goal attempts, where the team with significantly more rebounds/offensive rebounds attempting perhaps 10-plus more shots, but not in this case. The field goal attempts were very even amongst the two sides, with the Hawks actually attempting three more shots (89-86). Still, Duren was a constant thorn throughout, and Stewart’s physicality off the bench was similarly present.
Duren is a difficult matchup for Onyeka Okongwu on both ends of the ball, but Okongwu was excellent offensively in the first half scoring 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting, and showing a fine touch on his hook shots.
“The way he attacks and the touch he has is unique,” said Snyder of Okongwu. “In spite of the fact he’s shooting threes, he’s not just a three-point shooter, he’s a playmaker too. They were making it hard in hand-offs, blowing stuff up. His ability to put the ball on the floor becomes really important.”
However, in the second half he failed to have a similar impact. He became more limited to the three-point line, shooting 0-of-4 in the second half from three, and 1-of-7 overall as he finished with 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting to go with six rebounds, four assists, and three blocks.
It was still a good game overall, but between Johnson and Alexander-Walker waking up in the second half, there was always going to be a bit of regression of opportunities for Okongwu compared to the first half.
Johnson and Alexander-Walker representing a two-headed snake for the Hawks on offense has been great to watch, but they do need help. Okongwu and Dyson Daniels are usually dependable at providing this help (though, a difficult night shooting for Daniels, 5-of-14, but still scored 10 points), but — without Kristaps Porzingis — the Hawks actually need Risacher to contribute, which he has done recently but production is still a bit inconsistent at the moment.
Last night, Risacher scored four points on 2-of-7 shooting and 0-of-3 from three in just 21 minutes. The minutes distribution for Risacher has been odd at times as well — only two games this season has he played 30 or more minutes.
Outside of Risacher, the Hawks need more from their bench, which was outscored 37-9 last night. Wallace is not a high volume scorer, Mo Gueye can be up and down, Krejci has been defended tightly of late, and I’ve been disappointed by the lack of plays drawn to Luke Kennard a bit more open. He’s obviously an elite shooter but hasn’t had a ton of opportunities to get open looks.
A game of fine margins — between the bench, rebounding, odd coaching decisions — and one the Hawks had enough within to win on the night, but came just short. The Hawks (13-9) return to Atlanta where they await the Los Angeles Clippers (5-16) on Wednesday night, who are on the second game of a five game road trip having begun the trip with a loss in Miami.
Until next time!
Zacch and-1 jam 
