On Tuesday evening, the Atlanta Hawks faced their stiffest challenge in three-plus weeks. Atlanta visited the Houston Rockets for the second and final matchup between the teams this season and, after losing the first meeting in narrow fashion, the Hawks entered the game as nearly double-digit betting underdogs against the scalding-hot Rockets. Atlanta showed flashes in the game, displaying some of the team's trademark resilience, but a slow start ultimately doomed the Hawks in a 121-114 defeat.
The first quarter was something of a microcosm of the game in that it was filled with runs on both sides, albeit with a slight lean to Houston. In fact, the Hawks trailed 30-23 after 12 minutes despite a 14-0 run in the opening period, simply because Atlanta couldn't get a shot to fall outside of that narrow window. The Hawks shot 9-27 from the field and a dismal 1-11 from 3-point range in the first quarter, struggling mightily to find any sort of rhythm against a zone defense deployed by the Rockets.
Postgame, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder acknowledged Houston's zone as an obstacle, noting that, at least sometimes, NBA teams will come out of a zone if their opponents are able to exploit it. This time, the Hawks were unable to do so for long stretches, empowering Houston to continue deploying the defense, and Atlanta's perimeter shooting struggles were evident.
The Hawks still aren't consistent enough from beyond the 3-point arc
Following that ugly first quarter, the Hawks yielded a 12-0 run to the Rockets in the second quarter and trailed by as many as 25 points within the flow of the game. In the first three quarters, Atlanta shot only 9-37 from beyond the 3-point arc, making a comeback bid difficult even as the team begin to string more defensive stops together.
Then, the Hawks began to actually connect and, almost on cue, a run came. Between the end of the third quarter and the midpoint of the fourth quarter, Atlanta outscored Houston by a 29-8 overall margin, trimming a 25-point deficit down to four points. On one hand, the defense stiffened to the tune of eight points in about eight minutes for the Rockets, but Atlanta also started to make jump shots, burying 50 percent (6-12) from deep in the closing period. Still, the Hawks couldn't quite keep the barrage going, missing four consecutive three-pointers in the back half of the fourth quarter as Houston found its stride again.
To some degree, Atlanta's success (or lack thereof) in this matchup could be narrowly traced to whether the team was connecting on perimeter jump shots. That was evident in the Hawks making fewer than 25 percent of attempts in the first three quarters on the way to a 20-point deficit, especially in contrast to the 50 percent mark in the much more successful fourth quarter. Of course, that was not the entire story, but Houston seemingly dared Atlanta to make shots for the second time this season.
The Rockets have allowed 96 3-point attempts to the Hawks in two meetings, and Atlanta has two of the four highest-volume 3-point games against Houston this season. In those two games, the Hawks connected on only 26 of those 96 attempts, with the strategy clearly working and reminding Atlanta-based observers that the team is still at least slightly underwater from a shooting perspective. It did not help that five members of the team — Caris LeVert, Zaccharie Risacher, Dom Barlow, Garrison Mathews, and Mo Gueye — combined to make only 1 of 18 shots from beyond the arc.
Perimeter shooting was not the only issue in the game for the Hawks, nor would one expect that to be the case against a quality opponent. For example, the Rockets generated a whopping 20 second-chance points in the first half, bludgeoning the Hawks on the offensive glass. Atlanta also had ball security issues before halftime that helped to give Houston the cushion that it leaned on to secure the win. Still, it was hard to overlook the glaring shortcomings of Atlanta's shooting efficiency and, ironically, that was even more the case after the Hawks actually began to make shots and see improvement on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.
Individually, the Hawks had several standouts. Risacher struggled from 3-point range, but he was 8-10 inside the arc and left an impression. Dyson Daniels tied a career high with 10 assists and generated at least three steals (he finished with four) for the seventh straight game. Onyeka Okongwu produced his 10th double-double in the last 13 games, finishing with 14 points and 15 rebounds. As such, there were bright spots, but the Hawks essentially let this one get too far away in the first 32 minutes of action.
With the Orlando Magic winning on the road in Charlotte, Atlanta's Southeast Division lead is down to a half-game, though the Hawks and Magic will meet two more times to likely decide the division race (and the No. 7 seed) on the court. In the meantime, the Hawks will continue a three-game road trip with a visit to Miami on Thursday.