The Atlanta Hawks ended 2025 with a victory, ending a losing streak of seven straight games as they took a comfortable 126-102 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves at State Farm Arena on Wednesday afternoon. While Trae Young (right quad contusion) missed a second consecutive game, Jalen Johnson returned to the starting lineup and led the Hawks with 34 points to go with 10 rebounds, while Onyeka Okongwu added 17 points. For the Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards scored 30 points, while Julius Randle added 19 points.
The Hawks, perhaps unsurprisingly given their current form, were considered underdogs heading into their final game of 2025 against a Timberwolves side who currently sit sixth in the Western Conference, knocking on the door of a top-4 seed. The first quarter was a fairly even affair, with the Hawks maintaining a narrow advantage.
A strong opening quarter from Anthony Edwards (14 points) kept the Wolves close, but the Hawks quickly blew the doors off the Timberwolves’ challenge in what proved to be a decisive second quarter which the Hawks won 37-23. The Hawks found their momentum, took advantage of some poor Minnesota offense, and got out in transition and quickly racked up the points to take a lead as high as 22 points in the second quarter.
With the Hawks’ lead teetering close to double-digits, a three-pointer from Kristaps Porzingis in the corner after a good screen from Dyson Daniels gets the run started:
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We’ll chat much more about Porzingis later but, for now, he plays a key role in this second quarter run, and we’ll see him again shortly.
After a missed shot from Bones Hyland (a settled three-point shot above the break), the Hawks put up another three, courtesy of Luke Kennard off of the hand-off from Daniels:
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A good flash-through from Porzingis here — who teams will know looks to get to the block for a face-up jumpshot — and he takes two defenders away from the action, and Daniels finds Kennard, who never needs a ton of space from beyond the arc.
The Wolves, again, settle for a contested jumpshot behind the arc, this time it’s Naz Reid who elects to take this jumpshot with Asa Newell in close proximity to put up a good contest:
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Turnovers did not help the Minnesota cause in the first half, committing 11 in total, and even this turnover was less costly than most as it’s a dead-ball turnover as the pass from Hyland sails through the hands of Jaden McDaniels and out of bounds:
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The Hawks continue their run as the ball is swung, then driven inside by Kennard, who does a good job to draw two defenders — and, critically, Rudy Gobert — before finding Daniels at the rim for the easy basket:
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Daniels is again involved as he blocks the layup attempt from Hyland, the rebound is taken by Newell who finds Zaccharie Risacher, who in turn finds the streaking Porzingis, who finishes with the dunk to give the Hawks a 17 point lead, leading to a Wolves timeout:
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Let’s discuss Kristaps Porzingis in a little more detail now, as he scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half, 10 of which came in the second quarter (some of which we’ve obviously seen already). Porzingis made his return to the court for the first time since December 5th, and while he was a little slow out of the gate missing his first few shots, it didn’t take long for Porzingis to offer a glimpse of what the Hawks have missed in his absence and the offensive dynamics he brings.
Of course, Porzingis brings back his extended range shooting the three-pointer, allowing the Hawks to drop the ball to him deep and Porzingis just rises into a long three-pointer:
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Porzingis is able to make a play for himself on this possession as he takes the ball from the high-post and deceives the defense with the threat of a hand-off to Johnson, instead taking the ball inside on the drive for the dunk:
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This was a well executed play as Kennard gives Porzingis the indication to cut while Kennard occupies Gobert and Hyland, allowing Porzingis to cut, Johnson to deliver an alley-oop, and Porzingis to finish with the layup:
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It was encouraging to see how well Johnson and Porzingis could play off of each other despite the amount of time it has been since the two last played together. Porzingis was asked about playing off of Johnson postgame — as was Johnson about Porzingis — and both commented on how easy it was to play together.
“It’s super easy to play with Jalen,” said Porzingis of Johnson. “He’s a super underrated passer, and the way he can get out in transition; (there’s) not that many players like him. Just playing off of each other, understanding where he likes to get the ball and how he likes to attack, and vice versa. This guy is really good, he’s really, really good. Tonight again, 15-of-22 field goals, that’s efficiency. He’s been hooping.”
“It’s always easy playing with KP,” said Johnson of playing with Porzingis. “He’s a big that can do so much on the court on both sides of the floor. It was great having him back tonight, I know he was excited to be back. It brings a different dynamic to our group that I think everybody is looking forward to having.”
Porzingis finished with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from three in 17 minutes, and felt good postgame about his return.
“I feel good honestly,” opened Porzingis postgame.“Knowing I would have a pretty low minute restriction, I went out there, played, and played free. I tried to add whatever I could for the team.”
Porzingis knew ahead of the game he would be limited in his time, and having had prior experience of coming back from injury on a minutes restriction, he wanted to show aggression on the floor and get to his shots right away.
“Knowing I would have limited minutes, I want to go out there be aggressive and not work my way back slowly,” said Porzingis. “I’ve been in these situations, and I want to step in and be myself, and that’s what I did. First few didn’t fall but you never want to lose confidence, keep shooting, and it started to fall.”
Hawks head coach Quin Snyder praised Porzingis for staying with the team while he was out and cited it as one of the reasons why his return went as smoothly as it did, in addition to praising Porzingis’ defensive movement on pick-and-rolls.
“He’s been really wanting to help, and he stayed connected to the team, which I think is a real credit to him and one of the reasons it was seamless, in a sense,” said Snyder of Porzingis. “What he gives us on the offensive side of the ball, both with his range for spacing — we talked about guys getting into the paint, he impacts that, like O has too stretching the floor. I thought he was really good defensively, jumping out and showing on Edwards and getting back. You could tell he made a real commitment to that. It’s good to have him back and I know he’s excited to be back, and he had a real impact tonight.”
Porzingis’ availability is always difficult to rely on, but when he’s on the court he’s been a huge asset for the Hawks and opens up an avenue that no other player on the team can access with his size and shooting ability. The Hawks can only hope he can remain on the floor as much as possible, but Wednesday afternoon was a feel-good moment for everyone to see Porzingis back and having the impact he had in the first half.
Another player who I thought had a strong impact was Luke Kennard. Kennard scored 15 points on 6-of-12 from the field, 2-of-5 from three, and had five assists on the game in 26 minutes off the bench. Kennard, again, showed that his impact extends beyond just shooting the three-pointer (though, that is always helpful).
Kennard is an intelligent player and is a willing screener, which we looked at briefly in a clip above looking at Porzingis getting to the rim, and Kennard sets another screen for Porzingis here on this play, putting Naz Reid behind the play and forcing McDaniels to have to go with Porzingis, allowing Kennard an open look for three himself:
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Kennard demonstrates his comfort handling the ball and comes off the screen from Daniels and steps in a mid-range jumpshot:
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We’ve looked at some Kennard assists already (to Porzingis and Daniels), and he delivers another assist here in transition to Jalen Johnson for the alley-oop, and the basket that prompts a Minnesota timeout from which they would wave the white flag on the game:
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I didn’t enjoy seeing Kennard get a DNP-CD against the Knicks last week — and I liked the reasoning from Snyder even less when asked about it postgame, citing Trae Young’s reintegration into the rotation — and Kennard has seen extended time on the court in two games where Young has been absent, so I’m a bit skeptical of Kennard’s role when Young returns.
Kennard is someone who should be playing minutes on this team; he can obviously shoot the ball from the perimeter, he can hit jump shots inside the arc, he’s a good passer (and the Hawks always benefit from any bench production when it comes to this facet), and he’s a smart, heads up type of player.
Kennard is certainly hoping for more production from himself heading into to 2026.
“I know these last 30 or so games, I’ve had some good moments, good games, but nowhere near what I can be and what I expect from myself,” said Kennard postgame. “My teammates and coaches have been on me to be aggressive and shoot the ball when I can. For me, it’s just having a different mindset every single day. It’s the new year, and it’s something I’m definitely going into the new year with. Hopefully, for myself, I can do more. I think that’s helped me with the last couple of games, and my teammates building confidence in me more.”
Meanwhile, as for the rest of the game and how it unfolded, the Wolves made a run in the third quarter — aided by some sloppy Atlanta offense — to cut the lead down to 14 points, but the hosts stabilized and pushed the lead back out to 25 points by the end of the third quarter. It didn’t take the Hawks long to run the visitors out of the building, pushing the lead to 29 points before the Wolves waved the white flag with 7:52 remaining. The Hawks took a lead as high as 34 points, and after an immensely difficult December that has seen them struggle desperately for a victory, this game turned into a very comfortable rout.
After postgame discussions after the Miami game between the players —
a meeting that Nickeil Alexander-Walker discussed after the New York loss last week — the Hawks have been very encouraged by their performances against the Knicks and the Thunder, despite the final scoreline of those games not going in the Hawks’ favor.
“Absolutely,” said Kennard when asked if there were positives to be taken in the last two games despite the losses“Just the things we’ve continued to talk about. Defensively we have struggled, giving up a lot of points, but we’ve been in some of these games against some really good teams. With the Knicks we were right there, the Thunder we were there the whole game until the very end. It builds some confidence in the group. We have worked on the things and talked about the things we needed to do defensively. Today, from start to finish, we executed very well.”
“They’re meaningful,” added Kennard of player meetings. “I’ve been in the league nine years and been a part of some of those. It depends on what group you have. I think this group, we can talk to each other, be very personal and look each other in the eye. Nothing negative about it, we all accept communication with one another, and it really benefitted us. We did a great job today communicating on the floor, timeouts, we were connected. I think we can definitely build off of that.”
The Hawks have been content from the perspective they’ve been playing in the right way, and that sentiment certainly carried over into this game and had the outcome to support it. Snyder outlined what some of those elements were postgame after the Hawks finally got back in the winning column.
“When we formulaically play in a way that fits us— there’s a lot of ways to play but for our team, I mentioned before, we weren’t rewarded for that,” said Snyder postgame. “You’re playing OKC on the road without a few guys but we played that way. When I say that, it begins with— we defend, defensive rebounding we get a chance to get out play out in the open floor. If we don’t foul, that’s really important because we’re playing against a really good half-court defense. We take care of the ball and move the ball, make the right play and play for each other. If we can do that, we’ll be a solid team, we can be really competitive. But when we don’t the reverse is true. Our margin is not great, and that’s OK, but we just have to know that’s what it is and embrace that. Seeing us do those things is what I liked about the game and I also liked that we did get rewarded for it, so it’s affirming.”
It’s been three games since that disappointing Miami loss, and the Hawks’ level of play in those three games has been significantly better and Snyder was pleased that the Hawks had the result to support that feeling. Whatever was brought up after the Miami game, for now at least, there’s no denying that the Hawks have played significantly better since then. Time will tell if it’s just a splash in the pond, but the urgency and energy was there from start-to-finish on Wednesday in a wire-to-wire victory.
“It was great, it was refreshing, I felt it was a complete game from everybody,” said Jalen Johnson postgame. “The durability from all of us to do it for 48 minutes was huge for us. It’s a step in the right direction, it’s one game and this is something we can continue to build off. Have to focus on New York now.”
“I felt like we played with a bit more juice, that’s how it felt tonight” added Kristaps Porzingis. “Getting up and down, playing with joy. That’s a big part of it already, just creating that energy that we need to win games. Of course, the season is up and down, you have stretches where you’re this, that, and the other. Tonight was a good step out of that moment that we’ve had a bit, so we look forward to building on top of this win.”
One aspect where the Hawks really pressed to their advantage was points in the paint, outscoring the Wolves 64-36 in paint points. Snyder credited the Hawks’ spacing in aiding the Hawks’ ability to score in the paint.
“Us getting in the paint, it doesn’t necessarily mean we have to get all the way to the rim,” said Snyder. “I think we can — and if it’s there that’s what we want — but when it’s not there, having our eyes out. Our spacing is so important for that. It’s not just points in the paint, for us, it’s breaking the paint that can give us an advantage offensively.”
Snyder is referencing putting pressure on the rim to be able to spray the ball out, and he wouldn’t have had the stats immediately available to him postgame when speaking to the media but ironically, in this case, the Hawks’ paint scoring success actually was because the Hawks got all the way to the rim, shooting over 70% at the rim last night to contribute to those 64 paint points:
Jalen Johnson contributed 20 paint points on his own, and now seems like a good time to bring in Johnson into the discussion and his impact on the game last night. Johnson scored a game-high 34 points on 15-of-22 shooting from the field, 3-of-6 from three, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block.
Two things the Wolves did often yesterday: miss shots or turn the ball over. Both of these scenarios create opportunities for the Hawks and Johnson. A bad pass from Randle gives the ball to Daniels to push in transition, and when Johnson gets a head of steam heading into the paint there’s little that’s going to prevent a basket once Daniels delivers the ball to Johnson:
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In the open court, Johnson threads the needle to the streaking Daniels, but the Wolves converge well to prevent a basket at the rim. Daniels spins and finds Vit Krejci, who Reid rotates to quickly, allowing a free lane for Johnson to cut into. Krejci finds him, and Johnson drives inside to finish at the rim:
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Other than Rudy Gobert — and even then, it depends on if he’s literally sat in front of the rim on a drive — there’s just no one who could stop Johnson, and it sure wasn’t going to be Julius Randle, who Johnson attacked all game.
Johnson drives into the chest of Randle, knocking him back, and Johnson hangs and hits the runner:
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That play highlights one of Johnson’s best qualities offensively when he’s got it going: he just hangs in the air beautifully.
In the second half, Johnson goes straight at Randle again, gets into his chest, carving the space Johnson needs to hang and hit again:
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Johnson also had the jumpshot falling for him last night, both in the paint as he takes Gobert off the dribble and hits the jumpshot:
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From three-point range where Johnson shot 3-of-6, and he had the 13 to 15-foot jumpshot falling last night. Johnson was in a class of his own, but what impressed Quin Snyder more was Johnson’s defensive effort, which Snyder has called to make more of a habit.
“His unselfishness, his decision-making, his ball-handling in transition, there’s a lot of things that he does offensively but what he did defensively tonight is as significant, or more, than what he’s given us offensively,” said Snyder of Johnson. “I don’t take it for granted, offensively, but I think his (defensive) focus was as good as it’s been. Particularly with a matchup in Randle that is not an easy matchup. All those details, he’s embracing them. The more important that he continues to make those things, the more they can become his habits.”
There was something else that looked clear to me when watching Johnson play yesterday, and having watched Johnson play both with Young and when he was sidelined previously. Johnson and Young obviously have to share the floor together, and the process of those two bringing out the best in each other is still an ongoing, learning process.
Young has previously discussed how he had to try fit into what the Hawks discovered when he was sidelined with injury and has talked about how he needs to find Johnson in his spots. Johnson, in turn, has mentioned during Young’s absence how the Hawks are looking forward to having him back, and was pleased to have him back on the court.
Both players have stretches where one is on the court, and one is on the bench, allowing them to not have to defer too much to each other and take a more central focus offensively with the other off the floor. I can’t recall Johnson playing with the energy (and I don’t mean effort) he played with last night when Young has been on the floor in this stretch since Young’s return from injury.
It just looked as though Johnson played with a freedom of knowing he would be able to get any shot he wanted and run the team as he wanted to. It could just be my imagination, so take this with a pinch of salt, but that’s what it felt like watching the game last night: Johnson just seemed as though he had a different energy on the court last night. Whether that was down to the freedom he had without Young, or just his confidence in a matchup where he excelled, I don’t know where the truth lies for certain.
While we’re on the subject, and it’s a good point in even relation to my own thoughts above re: Johnson and Young, correlation does not necessarily equal causation: just because Young was out did not automatically equate to the Hawks winning this game. Prior to this blowout, when you look at the on/off numbers for Young he’s played since his return, the
Hawks have had their worst net rating when Young has been off the floor. In saying that, Young’s absence certainly helps the defense (
and the numbers would support that).
At the same time, Minnesota’s supporting cast was so poor offensively yesterday that even with Young’s likely defense the Hawks would have still comfortably won this game; Edwards and Randle were the only players to score in double-digits outside of garbage time. Whether the Hawks are better with/without Young is its own discussion — and a difficult one — but in the context of last night, correlation may not equal causation. And for the sake of transparency, I’d point that statement at my own discussion above with regards Johnson’s game — maybe it’s because Young was out, maybe it wasn’t.
Anyways, back to this game. Snyder praised Jalen Johnson’s defense, and he praised the Hawks’ defense as a whole. The Hawks held the Wolves to just 39% through three quarters and, had this game unfolded without the nearly eight minutes of garbage time, the Wolves would not have cracked 100 points — always the hallmark of a good night defensively. Snyder believed that the Hawks’ transition defense was instrumental to their success.
“It started from an urgency to get back in transition,” said Snyder of the defense. “Edwards is so good attacking in space, no one guy can guard him. It’s been a big point of emphasis just us just shifting and being less man-conscious in the half-court and isolation situations. We didn’t do that a couple of times in post-ups but the same idea where we’ve got to defend with all five guys, it’s not any one guy. That said, there’s always a moment where somebody needs to guard the ball because we can’t over-help. We were more disciplined both in our shifts to give help and then drifting out to shooters. We’ve just got to keep doing it so it can become who we are, not as opposed as to what we did on a given night.”
There was one play where this was exemplified in the second quarter. While it ends in a foul after the Okongwu slap on the arm (which, you can tell, he instantly regretted), the way in which the Hawks were moving, switching, rotating on this defensive possession spoke to a commitment to defense and the shifting Snyder discussed:
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As Snyder alluded to, and herein lies the challenge for the Hawks: how do they sustain this type of defensive execution and energy on a consistent basis that this is not just a one-game occurrence? Kristaps Porzingis believes that the Hawks’ shot selection on the offensive end can contribute to setting their defense getting back.
“That’s what we strive for, because offensively we will score and we are a pretty efficient scoring team,” said Porzingis of sustaining defense. “It’s probably a mix of many things, but one thing that could help us is getting shots that we want, not forcing too much stuff. When you get shots you want you’re more prepared to get back and more prepared to set your defense. We have to keep gaining experience as a team, that’s going to help us.”
Porzingis was asked quite a pointed question that essentially asking why the Hawks weren’t able to perform what the coaches wanted defensively of them, and Porzingis spoke to the psychological element of NBA defense from a player’s perspective.
“Some of it is effort — you know how players are, we can get in our own head a bit like, ‘Ah, this didn’t go my way’, and you lose half a second,” said Porzingis of why the Hawks haven’t been able to execute defensively. “It’s the NBA, someone makes a shot, and it can be like an avalanche, and you can’t get yourself set on defense. We have a slump like that. It’s not that we don’t want to play defense or play this kind of basketball, but it happens like that. Being more collected offensively, and taking the right shots offensively, doing the right thing offensively … it translates to the defense. We got stops, we got running, we took the shots we want, and we were able to get back, set our defense and play pretty good defensive.”
The Hawks’ defense was good, make no mistake about it, but it would be remiss not to discuss how poor the Wolves were. Settled jump shots, turnovers, and an overall lack of offensive help for Anthony Edwards who scored an efficient 30 points (10-of-18 shooting). They looked flat from the beginning.
“We looked slow everywhere,” said Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch. “…They were beating us to every ball, beating us all over the floor. All credit to them. They’re on a tough losing streak and they took it to us.”
The Hawks were excellent on the offensive glass; they hustled, fought for rebounds and loose ball all night and that was encouraging to see. The Hawks secured 16 offensive rebounds, contributing to 17 second chance points. 38 assists on the night (the Hawks’ third-highest of the season), 16 made threes, and just eight turnovers all put a ribbon on what was the best way for the Hawks to end 2025 and start the new year off of that losing streak.
“Nobody wants to lose that many games in a row,” said Johnson of ending the streak. “To be able to close out on a day like this, New Year’s Eve, going into the new year with a fresh start, a dub, that’s huge for everybody.”
“It’s like that sometimes,” added Porzingis of the losing streak, having asked how the losing streak was. “We probably lost a couple that we should have won. There’s streaks in a season like that. No need to overreact, and I think we didn’t. The coaching staff did a good job of focusing on the daily work and not focusing on that result. Tonight was a good reward for us (after) going through a little slump as a team, good bounce-back game for us.”
“It’s been tough, it’s not been easy, but we have a really close group which is the biggest thing,” said Luke Kennard. “I think today was one of our best talking games, we communicated very well and that’s something we can build off of. To win by a bigger margin builds confidence in a group, and some things that we have worked on and talked about we did a good job of executing. Obviously we can be better and hopefully we can take it on the road and see what we can do.”
As well executed and encouraging as this win and performance were for the Hawks, there’s still a lot of work to do and tough games coming up. The Hawks (16-19) head to Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Knicks (23-10) on Friday night. The Knicks return to New York after dropping a close game in San Antonio, and Friday’s contest is the first night of a back-to-back for both teams.
Until next time, and Happy New Year!
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