Atlanta Hawks hold on for dear life in home win over Oklahoma City Thunder

Atlanta Hawks hold on for dear life in home win over Oklahoma City Thunder

On today’s show the Hawks hold on for dear life and get a victory that they badly needed on a Wednesday evening against Oklahoma City Thunder we’ll have all what transpired the near meltdown and much more coming up you are locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast

Network your team every Day Hello friends welcome to episode 1623 of the lon Hawks podcast I am your host Brad Roland coming to you deep into the night on a Wednesday evening into Thursday here in early January and Today’s Show is brought to you by the folks at game time download the game

Time app create an account you put my code locked on for $20 off your first part with game time and also I should encourage you at the top of the podcast as I always do to make us your first listen each and every day please check us out and subscribe to the podcast

Anyway where you get your podcasts places like apple and Spotify on the audio side as well as YouTube on the video side and Today’s Show will focus on what became a good win for the Hawks 141 to 138 against guess the Thunder at home on this Wednesday and as you might

Be able to tell by the sound of my voice it was not as convincing as it might have seemed at one point in time I will say of course this is the first game of 20124 for the Hawks after the calendar flipped over earlier this week it’s also

Their back-to-back wins for the Hawks for the first time in a while and they nearly blew it but on paper and I think really in practice as well this is the Hawks best win since October yes I mean that despite the fact that they almost blew this game and we’ll talk

About that I promise you a lot on this show but basically since October the Hawks have only beaten teams that they were either supposed to beat or certainly like Co flip games and yes there was some sit situational stuff here with regard to the Thunder but the

Thunder are very good and the Hawks have not beaten a team that I would describe as very very good since they beat Minnesota and Milwaukee back in October so that’s a positive spin on things obviously we’ll talk about the ending of this one but they L by 14 in the first

Quarter they were up by 17 and half time they were up by 16 points with three minutes to go and then things got very dicey supp discuss but in the end the Haw were able to hold on get the win and improve to 14- 19 on on on the season

Also five- n at home there was a lot a lot made pregame a lot made during the game of the Hawks home struggles that’s still the case but they ended up winning this one in a good spot so as we always do on the show if you’re new I’ll just

Say this now what we kind of do is go broad with with with my takeaways and observations earlier in the podcast kind of what I saw on offense on defense Etc and then in the middle of the podcast we’ll talk kind of how the game unfolded with some more uh grainy observations

I’ll say and at the end of the podcast we’ll kind of go player by player and sort of do some evaluations of how guys played in the spot look ahead a little bit to the Future so big picture in this one again a good win for the Hawks it

Was a very friendly schedule spot for Atlanta Oklahoma City played last night at home which isn’t like a cross country flight but certainly not a short flight from OKC they got into Atlanta about 4:30 in the morning reportedly and uh obviously the Hawks were well rested having not played since this weekend so

A on paper Advantage from the Hawks in that in that standpoint plus they were at home of course uh injury-wise the Thunder were at full strength in this game the Hawks were not despite having Seth Lundy back he did not play in this game um DeAndre Hunter was out still

Kobe buffkin was recalled but actually was Street close I um have an inkling that the Hawks just wanted him on the bench in this game because you cannot be on the bench if you are a player unless you are recalled from the g-league so that’s probably why he was there anyway

Lots of crazy line movement I won’t go all the way deep into the details here but the Hawks were actually favored in this game by tip off they were underdogs all day long but by tip off they were favored by one point according to our friends at FanDuel there was lots of

Attention on that because of course Oklahoma City has a much better record and all that fun stuff than Atlanta but again everything thr thrown in the mix here with the terrible schedule spot for the Thunder uh and the Hawks being I think better according to the metrics

Than their actual record led to the Hawks again being favored in this game which is kind of crazy anyway since they won I will start an offense and be positive at the at the outside of this podcast so it was pretty good on offense until the very very very end of this

Contest a 132 offensive rating against a good defensive team in the Thunder they had seven guys and double figures in this game four guys with at least 22 points including a career-high for Jaylen Johnson discuss later on in the podcast they shot it well from the floor

In this game 51% from the field and only 36% from three which is only okay but got up 39 attempts it’s pretty solid there they got to the line 33 times and made 31 of them not a huge volume in the second half but certainly for the full

Game very very good there both in attempts and in accuracy they had 30 assists which is very good in any context and only 13 turnovers and that’s a very a very strong ratio I read about this a little bit yesterday on my patreon at patreon.com BTR roll and also

Discussed a little bit on the show yesterday which by the way if you missed it still very relevant for the most part on that show mailbag questions and then a sort of a preview of this game but I talked about avoiding turnovers as kind of being a very important thing for the

Hawks because the thunder coming into the night led the league in turnover creation on defense the Hawks only had 13 that’s a very good solid number and that was kind of a key thing for me in this game also on the margins the Hawks got 19 Second Chance points and 23 pass

Bait points that’s also very good numbers there in this game they did struggle at The Rim throughout the contest only 17 of 29 so that’s going to be trouble A lot of times when you miss that many shots around the rim and there were a couple by The Bigs but it was a

Lot of a lot of the guards even just were not very good around the rim in this game uh that was a trouble spot for the Hawks but they ended up winning The Possession battle pretty Sil they actually had four more shots from the field and seven more pre attempts than

The thunder in this spot and that small win which just having more shots at The Rim certainly proved to be pivotal and what became a pretty close game it always helps to win on the margins in the NBA um defensively it was quite good actually in the first half as much as

That sounds funny now if you didn’t watch this game all you see is 138 I get it but in the first half the Hawks were good defensively like actually good they had a 104 defensive rating before halftime that’s excellent against anyone much l a very good offense in the

Thunder but in the second half the Thunder had a 158 offensive rating that is ludicrous and a 169 offensive rating in the third quarter so tail two halves on defense certainly ended up being a 129 defensive rate that’s that’s pretty bad but certainly it was uh Night and Day first half

Second half in this game the Thunder shot the ball extremely well along the way so a lot of that is a credit to them but 55% of the floor from the thunder in this game and 50% they made half of their threes in this one now part of that it’s bad

Defense I will say a lot of open shots but they shot 67% from three in the second half and you know some of that is a little bit of annoying I will say um one major part of issues I would say for the Hawks in this game was transition

Defense um in the first half pretty good second half not so good so they allowed they allowed 29 fast break points in the game that’s a lot of Fast Break points including 22 in the second half and 13 in the fourth quarter OKC had 95th percentile frequency in transition and

That means that the Thunder were able to run and they were able to run a lot um they kept running and running late and the hwks were not responding to them that I talk about a lot more in depth in a second later on in the podcast talking

About the very end of this game but that was one of the major reasons why the Hawks were able to kind of give up this lead at the end of the game is that not only were the Thunders scoring they were scoring instantly basically in the entire stretch run of this contest so

Anyway the Hawks did rebound the ball very well which certainly ended up being a pivotal towards the possession battle in this game and I would say the overall package defensively was not fantastic obviously as you might expect by the numbers but there was some pretty positive stuff along the way at times

And again the first half was really really strong and that allowed the Hawks to build a lead that by the way they never relinquished the Hawks led the entire game as crazy as that sounds and a three-point win they did they LED wire to wire in this game but uh we’ll have

Much more on the details I promise you that as we get diving into this podcast but I’ll just say this now I know there’s conflicting things here I kind of proud myself on this podcast and bringing you some nuance and sometimes things are not always pointing in the

Same direction yes this is a maddening result at the very end of the game for the Hawks but at the same time this is a good win this is a home win that they needed badly against a team that’s very good even with this loss at thund 23 and

10 this year and again this is on paper and in the standings and on the schedule their best win since October so I know it ended poorly but um I think big picture zooming out a little bit it was a good win for the Hawks and they and

They played very well for about 45 minutes in this game and we’ll touch on the last few minutes and more coming up in a second but first it worth more sponsors on today’s podcast Today’s Show is brought to you by game time you should never have to worried

About buying tickets for a big event and with game time you actually don’t have to worry about buying those tickets they have deals in the last minute deals even on tickets for football or basketball or baseball hockey concerts comedy theater and much more it’s awesome and easy to

Navigate the app at game time to find and buy tickets for any event in your area they are obsessed as well with finding ways to help you save money on tickets they have Zone deals that give you an average up to 18% and G time you

Can also see the views from the seats in the venue that you’re looking for helps you to know exactly what to expect when you get to that venue in the end and they have all in pricing which helps you to know your total upfront without any of the Hidden feeds some other places

Happen to have and you have peace of mind with game time as well and the game time guarantee means you’ll always always always get the best possible price with game time take all the guest work out of buying tickets by using the game time app right now download the app

At game time create an account use promo code lck on NBA for $20 hour off your first purchase with game time terms apply again create create that account and redeem the promo code Lots on NBA for $20 off download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price

Guaranteed this show is sponsored by better help around New Years we some being obsessed with how we can CH change ourselves instead of just expanding on what we’re already doing right in life maybe you finally organized one part of your space you actually want to tackle another part of your space or maybe

You’re using supplements every morning and now you actually want to have breakfast as well therapy can help you find the strengths in your life you can dit the extreme resolutions and help make make changes that actually stick for yourself therapy can sometimes be something that you look forward to

Something that actually makes you feel grounded or actually give you the tools to manage everything that’s going on in your life and if you’re thinking about starting therapy give better help a try right now it’s entirely online and it’s designed to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule all you have to

Do is fill out a brief questionnaire and they’ll actually match you with a licensed therapist if you want to switch thus at any point in time you can do so at any time for no additional charge and they make everything easy for you at betterhelp celebrate the progress that

You’ve made already with the folks at betterhelp and the place to go is betterhelp.com lon MBA today to get 10% off your first month with betterhelp that is betterhelp hp.com lnba one more time betterhelp betterhelp.com lockon NBA okay well dig now to how this game unfolded and it was actually very

Positive for the Hawks at the top of the game an 110 run from from Atlanta to start things off the founder missed their first six shots plus three turnovers and I didn’t score for almost four minutes did OKC at the beginning of this game I got 11 out run and the only

Lone bre one for the Hawks was a missed bunny M capella at the top and then he immediately blocked a shot on the other end of the floor to kind of make up for it so it was all good vibes at the outset they actually had Jaylen Johnson

Guard sh Alexander for the most part at the top of the game a good wrinkle there I thought from the Hawks in this spot because you know the Hawks have not asked jayen to do that a lot this year but he is the best option in the starting lineup to defend Shay and

Thunder play that like five out style where it’s actually pretty easy to kind of accommodate that so it made sense to me I thought capella did a good job as well helping on uh even when when he got ISO and switched onto him he was able to

Slide his feet which is very effective at the top of the game rotationally there was one main tweak it was Trent Forest getting the lineup for the Hawks in this one 14 minutes he was actually the first sub and basically aside from a few minutes in the second half where

Where it was Deon um Shay was guarded by Jaylen or Trent the whole game and for those of you who may not know a lot about Trent Forest offensively he is limited for sure his lack of shooting has been a question at times for sure that’s wise on a 2A contract but

Defensively I have argued and I would argue that Trent Forest is their best guard defender on the whole roster I still believe that now that’s why he was playing in this game um and I think he did a pretty good job I thought trp played very well honestly in this one

Even offensively he was actually pretty effective not a huge shooter but made all three of his shots got to the rim plus seven in his minutes Etc we’ll come back to him later on anyway the rest of rotation was bogy and aong as always and then Garrison Matthews was the ninth man

For Atlanta in this game um they had some foul issues the thunder in the bonus like four and a half minutes to go in the first quarter but other than that uh it was pretty much Good Vibes uh they did play a lineup actually in the first quarter that had Trey Trent Forest

Garrison Matthews and bogie plus a Kong wo so essentially the smallest they can possibly be four guards and a Kong wo and also defensively challenged other than Trent basically I would have liked that group better with capella because of the rebounding they got kind of beat

Up on the glass A little bit but if there was ever a time to try a super small lineup OKC is pretty easy to sort of attack attack with that because they are so small at times as well anyway locks up 14 in the end of the first

Quarter they played great at the outset then they had a 14-4 run in the middle of the second quarter to go up by 21 points and jayan Johnson had a fantastic stretch basically he had back-to-back dunks during the run and and the second one was kind of just a normal lob from

Jonay Murray but the first one was a completely insane play where he actually went behind his back to beat a Defender and then dunked on another one that’s a play that not a lot of guys can make if you’ve seen the the Highlight by now I’m

Sure you would agree with me a monster played by jayen in a lot of different ways um before that Trey threw a couple just like Preposterous passes there was one to bogy on the Baseline for three that was just an other worldly pass um Trey also had a heads up play drawing a

Charge later in the quarter because it was also an awful play I will say by Aaron Wiggins from the Thunder to kind of just bow Trey over that was all Trey could do basically was try to draw a charge but it worked good play there by

Trey and then Jaylen tried to dunk on chat hren the first time he was fouled and landed very hard and seemed like he got it took it took him a long way to get up basically I think he was maybe a tailbone just a bruise whatever but he

Got up and then shortly after he actually did dunk on home grid so Jaylen was not shy he was aggressive in the best possible way played great in the second quarter and that was a big reason why the Hawks were by 17 points at the half um they were electric getting to

The line transition play Jaylen was a two-way Force throughout that period they had four guys scoring double figures Jaylen played all but 8 Seconds in the second quarter and actually was not playing great before the Big Run offensively but he found it in that stretch was very aggressive and again

They held the Thunder to a 104 offensive rating in the first half and then the second half arrived so the third quarter Broadway speaking was a offensive Bonanza it was 44 to 40 in favor of OKC um the lead was down to 11 almost immediately uh part of that was jayen

Johnson got his fourth foul about a minute and a half into the third quarter it was a pretty soft call didn’t love it but not one to like challenge but they also Auto benched him for the rest of the quarter I did not love that I get

Taking him out at that point in time most coaches would have I’m not the biggest fan of the auto bench and jayen is a pretty low foul player this year he’s averaging about two and a half fouls for 36 minutes so he’s not a huge foul issue guy but my thing was not

Bringing him back in a little bit earlier because he sat the whole quarter that definitely hurt their their defense I thought and the Thunder scored on their first like seven possessions in in the second half I was kind of surprised also that if you were going to pull

Jaylen they had gone with Trent Forest exclusively as the shade Defender other than Jaylen in the first half but when when they took Jaylen out of the game they went to Garrison Matthews and that was kind of a you know it was obviously not not a planned sub but that left de

Jante on Shay and that was a problem in that stretch so kind of a weird situation there then there was this unbelievably long delay after a timeout in the third quarter where they were trying to figure out how many fouls Jaylen Williams had for whatever reason

But it was like a multi-e super super long delay that threw everybody off also Quinn went crazy a few minutes later because Josh giddy clearly walked and it was not called right right in front of the Hawks bench and Quinn was not very happy about that play um from there

Though they they settled in a little bit I will say there was a nice sequence in the middle of the quarter where capella had a nice block it led to a fast break actually had Garrison Matthews scoring his actually just even attempting his second two-point shot of the whole

Season he made it in transition um but the Le was down to seven actually I thought Deon struggled badly in the third quarter couple bad possessions where he had a bad turnover uh it was one where he got to the rim actually and a good drive and just probably should

Have shot it and just didn’t anyway they stabilized a little bit after that once T once T came back in it was 80 run and he hit a deep three bogy hit a three and they they got into the they got into the sort of the quarter bre I should say up

By 13 points and they already had waivered so that was actually a positive sign but the Thunder didn’t miss a single three in the third quarter and they were scored 4 44 points and the Thunder as they did the the entire half were just smartly going straight

Downhill when they got the ball and that worked very well in transition the entire second half um in the fourth I kind of fast forward a little bit through this but the Thunder got it to eight by the middle of the quarter it was a n0 run by the Thunder and then

Jayen had back toback buckets to kind of stabilize things as noted before I don’t think jonte was great in this game but he made a couple of important buckets in the middle of the quarter to go back up by I believe it was like 12 or 13 by the

Six minute Mark Deon by the way had 18 second half so he definitely found out a little bit was made some key buckets for the Hawks um they went back to the starters in full with about five and a half minutes to go and that was interesting because of a few different

Reasons so one of them is I thought Trey sat for too long in the fourth quarter Tre ended up playing only 34 minutes in this game which is not like a crazy low number but in a big game with rest on either side I think I would have liked

To see TR play more than that um I know he’s banged up a little bit right now with with the shoulder issue but uh he sat for a while and it was a little kind of teetering at that point in time also Jaylen sat in the middle of the quarter

Because he kind of had to because he had not he play he sat the whole third quarter so he kind of couldn’t play the whole fourth quarter probably and the other one was that click capella who I think played very well when he was out there in this game until the fourth

Quarter I didn’t understand playing him the whole crunchtime run because the founder went without a center the last five and a half minutes of the game you know Chad hren is a really good player for OKC already but he was not great in this game and he was very limited he he

Didn’t play the last six minutes of the game that meant were literally playing centerless and with Clint his impact is obviously going to be muted against a team that’s playing as small as OKC was and with no Center so that was uh notable to me and honestly as we talk

Touch on this a little bit more on the podcast in a second you could have gone with jayon at Center you could have gone with aong wo you could have gone with you know put Boogie Back In you could have come with Trent Forest whatever I just didn’t love that whole process

Anyway uh the Hawks foul Josh giddy with about 3 minutes to go and then they scored after that play and they were up 16 with three minutes left 16 and I swear to God I wrote this in my notes at the time nothing feels safe right now for the

Hawks and I was right I guess um so I won’t do the entire play by play but basically the Thunder got a little bit hot hit a couple of Threes got to nine with 135 to go then Jen turned it over and the Thunder got a layup and it was

Suddenly seven with 120 so that was the big kind of knock it down run it went from 16 to seven in about a minute and a half and then Lo had a shock violation on a possession where it was pretty rough uh and then the Thunder scored again get

Get it to five then Deon took a pretty difficult driving floater than that he missed and then they allowed another layup and it was a three-point game with 27 seconds to play we’ll come back to that in a second but we’ll go from there now the shock clock is 24 seconds so I

Thought the Thunder were gonna foul because usually you don’t want to play it out with that small of a differential because if if you’re smart and perfect if you’re the Hawks you could have attempted a three at the buzzer of the shot clock and maybe the Thunder have

Like a half a second left but they didn’t foul it worked for them because bogie while he got a wide open shot that he usually I should say usually often makes it was a three with about six seconds to go so he missed the shot and

The Thunder at the rebound and call time out with 3.2 to go so the Hawks kind of they didn’t play it terribly but they squandered it a little bit because if you’re going to take a three you want to do it at the buzzer and they didn’t do

That so that was one one issue obviously he missed his good look whatever uh then after the time out I thought the Hawks should foul up three now there’s that’s the debate for all time I will leave that alone for now but I would have fouled um they might have tried to foul

Honestly but they didn’t execute it sadique Bay could have maybe fouled on the inbalance pass um I thought Trent forest was excellent in this game but it was not excellent on Final possession he kind of just fell asleep I wonder allow I know my friend GL said the same thing

I wonder if Trent thought they were going to foul but either way it was a bad play by Trent he kind of got lost and gave up a cut to the corner and a three in the air that would have tied it and it was a great look it just happened

To not go in so for the first time in a while the Hawks got pretty lucky at the end of the game um and they avoid the disaster so it was wild in a lot of ways um I talked about this before when it comes to the

Way this kind of unfolded U we’ll have more on this in a second but before we get to the break I’m going to leave you with some audio SL video that I uh retained from Quinn SN actually ask Quinn after the game about the parallels between today’s game and the win in

Washington where he kind of made the point that it was different than the previous games because the Hawks were in in control and kind of just botched garbage time uh I will play the answer and the question for you in a second after this break for moners but we’ll

Have uh we’ll have that we’ll have more on the crunch time issues shall we say and then we’ll have some play by player by player stuff but first and with more friends on the show today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel sports book in the NFL regular

Season is wrapping up right now but there is still time to get on the action with FanDuel America’s number one sports book and right now if you’re a new customer you get 150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet at FanDuel that’s 150 bucks right now bonus

Bets win or lose and the F Sports app so easy to use there’s so many different ways to bet at FanDuel as well they have live s game parlays you you can also make a parlay in the parlay Hub the best way to find the popular pars that you’re

Looking for also find new find new bets in the new explore tab at FanDuel and they have all the old favorites as well point spreads money lines over unders player props game props future bets and much more the app is safe and secure as well it cover the entire range of Sports

At FanDuel that of course includes the NFL and college football as well as the NBA ml WNBA college basketball golf tennis soccer auto racing boxing MMA horse racing Etc it’s all there for you at FanDuel and they have Hawk stuff as well including all the offerings in advance

Of the game against the Pacers on Friday and now is the best possible time to sign up with the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook and the place to go is fanduel.com lockon and make your first bet a layup with FanDuel and that place one more time here is fanduel.com lockon

FanDuel official partner of the NFL all right so as I teased before the break I asked Quinn about the late game issues and the parallels with the Washington game dating back to New Year’s Eve and here’s what he had to say about all of that and he talked a little

Bit after the game in DC about how it it didn’t really it follow the same form as the previous struggles late in the game and tonight was kind of more like that where you were holding on holding on what do you kind of attribute that whole sequence to at the very end where

Obviously you got out of there with a win but it wasn’t the cleanest well I I think when you when you’re ahead and um if a team gets you on your heels um you know in JJ’s case there was a couple times he didn’t want to foul um

And if that is the case with any of us you when someone’s got their head down and they’re going full speed in transition you you can’t guard them oneon-one and we just have to you know shift to the point where they see bodies and don’t allow them to get through

Those gaps and you know when you in that in that time when you have a lead you know the offense is just in full-blown attack mode and it takes more um you know more urgency even if you score to get back there were a few times

You know we hit a shot and then they’re back and they scor you know six seven seconds and those possessions are are tough tonight we we did enough offensively um to give a cushion some of that will happen to a degree but you know we’ve got to do a better job you

Know and the the did a great job at the end of the half you know and that that mindset I think just it’s a collective Focus that you have to have admittedly not the most satisfying answer I totally understand that not a ton of like nitty-gritty stuff it’s kind

Of what you have to expect I know people want want those questions asked and I asked it and uh you know wasn’t always maybe the best framing for me but um just some details here on what transpired at the end the hawk scored two points on their last six possessions

So that was part of the problem in the fourth quarter the Hawks had a 104 off rating that’s obviously not very good 25 points scored on 37% shooting and it was Night and Day from the from the first three quarters Trad in take a shot the

Last 944 of the game OKC smartly was blitzing him and double teaming him way away from the basket and that’s the right play and there were lots of three on two like pseudo fast breaks getting downhill and the Hawks just could not score on those uh that’s one big thing

And that’s one of the reasons why I would not have played capella at the end was kind of the way they were playing again I’m not trying to put it on Clint it’s more situational because OKC was playing so small and they were doubling I think even going to Trent Forest who’s

Not like an offensive Maven but can handle the ball and make decisions um or going if you’re not going to play differently the way the Hawks were playing maybe even go to Bogey like I’m not saying that that would that would helped the defense because it wouldn’t

Have but offensively he gets guarded in a different way so I didn’t love that process we’ll just leave it there for now and then defensively the Thunder scored 16 points on their last seven possessions before the Miss three at the end which again was entirely because

They just missed it it was a open shot um the Hawks kept crashing into glass on offense which created some extra possessions but didn’t make a lot of sense to me because it was allowing the Thunder to get out and run and run and run and when you’re playing capella you

Want capella on the glass for sure but it was Jaylen and sadique that were and even Deonte that were crashing and crashing and crashing and I didn’t really understand that so just misaligned I’m not sure what the strategy was there but I think in general Capella’s utility goes down

Against a non-center lineup Deon had some mishaps sadik had some rough moments jaylen’s defense because he had five fouls and even Quinn said that in the answer um he was not trying to foul out which I understand but he was not giving any resistance at all so really

The main problem if you want to Circle one thing it wasn’t that the Hawks were letting them score because they were up so much that you you can kind of give up some layups but it was instantly I mean they were scoring in six seven seconds

And that that’s what you cannot do there but anyway rant over for now uh by the way the Thunder also shot eight of 12 from three in the second half so perfect storm in a lot of ways it’s just unfortunately that’s been a theme for a

While for the Hawks and uh we’ll kind of leave it there for now but there was some I didn’t love the game planning I didn’t love the rotations at the end of the game and they kind of just held on for your life but in the end they held

On and got the win all right player stuff before we get out of here on today’s podcast and my apologies for going a little bit longer than usual on the show uh to the bench in this one the guy who played the least was was actually Trent who was 14 minutes six

Points two rebounds two assists and a block shot made made all three of his shots was plus seven in the game I thought Trent until the last play of the game played extremely well and I know I like Trent Forest more than most probably because uh I value defense but

I think that this is the best case scenario because Trent’s offense is really limited by his three-point shooting but if he has the ball he has that little floater shot that he made three of in this game he’s a good passer good decision maker he just can’t be you

Know he’s not going to be a threat off the ball but I thought he gave them great defense in a spot where they kind of needed it against Shay and then offensively did his job so a nice St from Trent until the very end Garris Matthews less successful Five Points two

Assists for Garrison minus eight in his minutes made made two of three from the floor one of two from three I get why he played I might have tried Lundy in his spot in this game but I don’t mind it too too much um bogy had a huge first

Half and then cooled off a little bit but still had 23 points on 16 shots four assists no turnovers plus 11 for bogy in the game he gave them a lot offensively hit five threes a Kong Wu 22 minutes 11 points um that’s the line five times

Made all five seven rebounds and a steal I thought he was pretty solid in this game not like dominant but certainly played fine when he was out there um capella 25 minutes 12 points 14 rebound three blocks no turnovers I thought Clint was very good until the very end

As well um especially first the first half I thought Clint was like really awesome like breathtakingly so because it’s a bad match up for capella like there’s no way around that the Thunder play small and and they’re one big is HR who’s a great shooter for a center so

Like it’s a tough match up for capella and he played very well I thought defensively especially in the first half sque kind of had a weird game 10 points eight rebounds but actually missed nine shots he was two of eight from three one of four from two um not efficient there

The shooting’s been a little bit weird for him as I talked about a lot on this podcast last several weeks but I thought he competed um at the end he was part of the problem defensively but you know there it is Jay Johnson career high 28 points he actually just set career highs

In back-to-back games for scoring that’s hard to do as a thir player but he’s been playing he’s been playing great by the way he he did that in 29 minutes because of the foul triple um four steals as well for Jaylen seven rebounds three assists um he was nine of 14 on

Twos two of four from three he was getting downhill um he was really good in this game obviously the kind of a slow start for him weirdly but once he got going and started being more aggressive it was all positive from there and uh great to see that obviously

The flashes are there for a big game for him and that second quarter sequence oh boy a lot of fun um in the back Court uh Deonte had some moments 22 points six rebounds six assists for Deonte um six of 13 on twos is a not where you want

But two five from three got the line four times you know he saved himself a little bit with some big buckets late I don’t think that jeon played great in this game but he was okay um I would have said he was not very good until the

Last quarter or so but he made some big plays and that were certainly helpful especially because now that we know the result they had had that big lead they would have lost it so uh could to him for the second half and 18 points after halftime and then Trey uh 24 points 11

Assists for Trey in this game he was only two of nine from three made all four of his twos got the line 11 times so he’s a pretty efficient game um defensively kind of Hit and Miss from Trey in this one I thought but and again they were really aggressively doubling

Him in the fourth quarter to the point where he only took two shots in the whole quarter and no shots in the last nine minutes not really his fault it’s just the way they were being played and he was getting off the ball which is

What Quin Quin wants him to do I thought he played okay by his standards not not great not terrible fine so that’s it there’s a lot to get into on this game obviously but um I’ll say it one more time it’s a good win it’s hard to kind

Of see that in the moment especially if you’re a die hard living and dying on all the stuff and the way this game Almost got away from them at the end but they hold on to it and if all you told me coming into the night is that the

Hawks were going to win this game by three points that’s obviously a huge win against a good team and yes back toback with travel for Oklahoma City favorable spot for the Hawks they were favorite in the game at one point but they won the game they got a win at home and that’s

Hopefully that’s again I’m I’m a big fan of nuance I try to give you guys the whole picture on this podcast that is not the whole picture obviously I talked about the ups and downs and the bad execution all that stuff but they won the game so hold on to that for dear

Life as I said earlier in the podcast okay we’ll get out of here now on today’s show there’s a travel day on Thursday the Hawks play again on Friday in Ok sorry in Indiana and that’s match number two against the Pacers this year the first one was the game that I

Described as basketball on the moon because no one could get a stop the entire game both teams had 150 or more and halberton made every shot basically in the second half of that game so that’ll be a fun one it’ll be a challenging one but certainly a fun one

Also before I get out here as well there’s some bonus Audio Only content for the folks listening on Apple Spotify overcast Etc from the lot on Sports Atlanta crew that should be in your feeds right now nothing less for me whatsoever just some extra audio content

For the same price of $0 but please subscribe to the podcast anywhere you get your podcast Apple Spotify also YouTube on the video side and by the way the video channels it’s only me so if you want the extra content it’s only on the audio channels but please subscribe

Auto download like the podcast etc etc spread the word as well if you have Hawks fans friends or family in your life share the podcast with them I very much appreciate that ratings and reviews always appreciated as well five stars nice comments Etc also follow the show

On Twitter SLX Lon Hawks follow me there as well at BTR Roland I also write about the Hawks at patreon.com slbt Rollin if you want to check that out I’d appreciate that as well and without any further delay thank you for listening to the podcast it’s very late into the

Night here I’m probably rambling a little bit on this show but good wa for the Hawks and we’ll see you uh at the very latest after the game on Friday

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts episode No. 1623 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show breaks down Wednesday’s game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the Hawks playing a fantastic game for 45 minutes and threatening to give it all away in crunch time.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOHawks?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

#AtlantaHawks #NBA #traeyoung

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!

Hungryroot

Hungryroot is the easiest way to get fresh, high-quality food delivered to your door. They’ve got healthy groceries and simple recipes, all in one place. Just go to Hungryroot.com/LOCKEDON, to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies.

BetterHelp

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDONNBA today to get 10% off your first month.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNBA. Terms and conditions apply.

PrizePicks

Go to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnba and use code lockedonnba for a first deposit match up to $100!

Gametime

Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.

FanDuel

Score early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)