Atlanta Hawks enter NBA All-Star break with blowout road loss to Charlotte Hornets

Atlanta Hawks enter NBA All-Star break with blowout road loss to Charlotte Hornets

On today’s show the Hawks enter the All-Star break with a really ugly loss in Charlotte we touch on all how it sort of unfolded what it tells about the future and also how the Hawks stack up at the end of the quote unquote first half of the season and we’ll get into

All that and more right now 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 1653 of the lon Hawks podcast I am your host Brad Roland coming to you on this Wednesday evening into Thursday here in mid-February and I want to encourage you at the top of the podcast as I always do to make us your first listen each and

Every day check us out and please subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcast places like apple and Spotify as well as YouTube all on the video side we’ve been very bus busy on this platform if you’re a new listener welcome aboard and I encourage you to go

Back in the archive listen to all kinds of stuff we’ll have much more in the future as well unfortunately though if you are a Hawks fan a pretty ugly result to end the quote unquote first half of the Season obviously it’s not really the first half the Hawks have played about

2third of their games at this point but the allstar break is now here and the Hawks Clos it with back-to-back losses including a really really ugly one tonight on this Wednesday while Monday’s game they didn’t play very well talk about that extensively on this podcast it wasn’t

Quite as calamitous as it was this evening the Hawks lost to a pretty bad Hornets team and now the Hornets have won three games in a row now but they enter this game with the worst net rating in the NBA AKA point point differential uh and this was this is

Probably the M out of the entire night the Hornets had not won a game by double digits this season this was game 54 for Charlotte they had zero double digit wins and tonight they beat the Hawks by 23 points so pretty ugly stuff there the

Hawks are now by the way 4 and 12 in the last 16 games in Charlotte kind of a house of horrors for the Hawks in a lot of ways it’s been a little bit better in recent years but still the when 0 and2 this year in Charlotte the the horns had

12 wins and two of them are against the Hawks so sorry 13 wins and two of them against the Hawks this year and it wasn’t awful at the outset actually L this game at the end of the first quarter but they never led the in the

Entire second half they were in the game most of the way they were down by actually eight points with about seven minutes to go and then basically rolled over from there it was all Hornet sou the stretch a 20 to3 run by Charlotte to put the game fully away the Hawks lost

This game by Sor lost second half I should say by 17 points and it actually felt worse than that um it was really ugly I don’t want to sort of gloss over that it was really gross in this game and while I’m about to talk about the

Injury issues that the Hawks had in this game and the roster challenges they had that is context is not an excuse the Hawks played terribly in this game I want to make sure that’s very very clear because I’m I’m definitely want to give you the entire picture as I always do on

The podcast but I have to just get point across here like the Hawks no roster challenges were responsible for what transpired in this game the Hawks just played terribly on really both ends of the floor it was the offense in the second half it was a

Defense in both halves and uh in the end a 23-point loss to the Charlotte Hornets in which the Hawks scored 99 points the Hawks recently had that that streak snapped where they scored 100 points in a you know every game for a very long time and again Charlotte entered this

Game with the NBA’s worst net rating and the NBA’s worst defensive rating and the Hawks couldn’t score in the second half they couldn’t stop in the entire game so to that context both teams had some injury issues in this game Charlotte by the way did not have L ball or Mark

Williams so where the Hawks had some stuff too Charlotte didn’t have two of their top four or five players in this game including their face of the branch Dr Guy and lamelo also their Primary Center in Mark Williams and yes the Hawks did not have either of their top

Two centers in this game click capella has been out for a while on kongu missed this game as well they let they left the HW with only one Active Center and three guys who are forward sized by the way a Kong wo it was announced on Tuesday by

The Hawks he’ll be reevaluated in s to 10 days after he was died up with a big toes sprain after the game on Monday so hopefully he is in line to return post Allstar break that’s not a guarantee that he’s able to play right out of the

Gate there capella by the way is expected to return to practice after the break so he could be as sort of available as soon as the Hosk get back so we’ll see who returns first between those guys but all that said no capella no Kongo size issues were certainly

Prevalent in this game the Hawks were favored according to our friends at FanDuel sports book by six and a half points and yes it was on the road people were asking me why the Hawks were favored by that much I don’t want to overstate it because I’m not trying to

Get anybody mad at me and Charlotte but the Hornets are really bad like they’ve been better recently certainly true but again worst net rating in the league and even with this win they’re 13- 41 this is a bad basketball team who was missing their two of their top four players five

Players so it’s a bad loss and as I sort of alluded to before it was a two-way collapse there if you sort of break it in break it up into first half offense first half defense there’s four kind of halves in this game thew actually played reasonable basketball in one of those

Four the offense of the first half was reasonably solid it wasn’t great it was reasonable the offense in the second half was horrible and the defense really the entire game was quite poor so there you go we’ll go to the defense first uh this this is the end of the floor the

Hawks have been having issues with all year along the Hawks are in the bottom five defense with in the league for a reason they really bad and yes without Capel and kongu you would project them to be worse but charotte do great on offense either so a 125 defensive rating

In the game for the Hawks and it was well above 130 until garbage time so I think this 125 is probably Kinder than it actually should have been in this game the Hornets shot 40% from three and 56% on twos in this game and honestly the most generous thing I could say

About the Hawks in this entire game is that they did have some really bad and unlucky shooting variants along the way that does not explain the difference again the Hawks played terribly in this game but would have been a little bit closer had the Hawks shot the ball

Better the Hornets and Hawks took about the same amount of Threes in this game and Charlotte made six more of them so that is a notable difference and could have swung things and Quint Snider did say post postgame he kind of talked about the fact that yeah it would been

Nice to shoot better but then he also pivoted to the fact that it was an effort problem it was an execution problem all that stuff like it was a calamitous performance across the board um def defensively in transition it was a mess they allowed 21 fast break points

And almost a point and a half per possession in transition in this game that was only one of the problems but it was certainly a major one they didn’t get killed on the glass or at the free throw line even without the size on the interior because Charlotte was playing

Pretty small too but this is not a good offensive te they were playing against it was not competitive at times like obviously the center stuff hurts but even when you adjust for that it was not good defensively and that’s been a theme all year long um even with the Hornets

Kind of taking the foot off the gas on the stretch they allowed 122 and it probably should have been much higher than that in terms of points in this game then you get to the offense so you could argue that the office was more disappointing on the whole because the

Numbers say that based on what the Hawks usually do and their personnel available so the Hawks had a 101 offensive rating in this game that is their fourth worst of the season and this was game 55 for the Hawks so their fourth worst offensive rating of the season that’s

Only in a vacuum then you throw in the fact that Charlotte is the worst defensive team in the league this season and you could argue pretty reasonably this might have been their worst offensive performance of the year it I’m not saying it definitely was but it certainly was in the running for their

Worst offensive game of the season in the second half they had an 86 offensive rating in the fourth quarter they had a 73 offensive rating on the way to 19 fourth quarter points they basically scored three points in the final sixish minutes until some meaningless free throws by Bruto Fernando at the very

Last minute of this game and they shot the ball terribly that’s certainly part of the story here 40% from the field in the game 24% from three in the game game after halftime they were 36% from the field and four of 22 from three with 11

Turnovers one more time I want to say that just even slower 36% from the field 422 from three and 11 turnovers in the second half that is horrific in the fourth quarter they were 6 20 from the floor one of 12 from three with six giveaways so that is really bad speaks

For itself and if you watch this game uh I wish I could show you the highlights right now on this podcast but uh it was really gross um they had 23 assists 16 turnovers in the game that’s a terrible ratio then get the line a ton and they

Got absolutely nothing when it comes when it comes to pushing the ball in transition in this game so I’m I noted before the Hornets did really well trying to push the ball and score in transition in this game the Hawks scored two fast break points so it was 21-2 in

Favor of Charlotte and this may not mean anything to you unless you’re an absolute sicko but the Hawks had 7.2% frequency in transition in this game and that’s just to make it very clear is a third percentile outcome so third percentile is obviously awful and uh that was kind of indicating that the

Hawks were not pushing the ball they were not playing fast they were playing lethargic it was gross um the only bright spot offensively was that they were pretty good on the glass and yeah they got some good stuff from DeAndre Hunter and Jon Johnson the forwards were

Not the problem in this game the Hawks only had three available forwards as they have most of the year in Jaylen Bay and Hunter and they were fine everybody else not great forward forwards were okay and uh but look it wasn’t just this but Trey Young Jay Murray as we’ll get

Into later on in the struggled mightily for the second straight game and the Hawks are going to have trouble offensively when Trey and Deon are both bad and they were once again in this game both bad that’s two games in a row they shot the ball poorly played play

Poorly and that’s going to be put in the Hawks in a bad spot and unlike Monday when bogie kind of went off at times that didn’t happen in this game yeah they got some big knights from Hunter and Johnson but that was kind of it and

No like super outlier games to kind of sort of overcome the issues that they had from Trey and deante so after a 31 41 point for first quarter the Hawks never cracked 25 points G in the second third or fourth and for this team they just cannot live that way and I don’t

Want to keep blabbering the point we’ll get into kind of more of the detail on the back and forth in a second but um just to say it one more time this is one of the worst performances of the year for the Hawks and St talked about this

After the game he kind of mentioned it as a possibility like what whether he was kind of thinking out loud about whether the Hawks like packed it in before the break one game too early it does happen like it’s not an excuse it shouldn’t happen but um because it was

So proximate you know the 123 Cancun Trope kind of get th thrown out there this looked like a team that was not ready to close this game they played okay in the first quarter they put okay in the first half for the most part they were still down they weren’t they

Weren’t playing terribly the second half was truly a Wonder so I’ll leave it there for now we’ll have more of the details coming up in a second on my observations and then at the end of the podcast my player analysis but first it work from our sponsors on the

Show today’s show is brought to you by hungry roots and the days are fishing getting longer and while there may be a little bit more daylight in your life do you feel like there isn’t enough time in the day and with Hunger Roots customers can save5 five hours per week without

The stress of meal planning and grocery shopping hunger also gives you the savings of money by eating out less and avoiding that expensive takeout you might settle for and it reduces food waste by 30% hunger is your partner for Healthy Living it’s e easiest way to get fresh high quality groceries and simple

Healthy recipes deliver to your door you can take a fun short quiz and it’ll get to know your personal health goals what you like to eat the appliances you use and much more and to build a personalized cart for you with all your needs in the grocery realm for the week

And give you recipes that you’re looking for to put those groceries to good use they also have those recipes and groceries based on your personal tastes each order though is fully customizable they have fresh produce and high Quality Meats and Seafood Pantry Staples healthy snacks sweets ready to eat meals and

Much more and everything from hung Ro Falls a simple standard it has to taste good be quick to make and contain whole trusted ingredients you can save hours planning shopping and cooking and hunger delivers the food right to you that you will love and right now hunger root is

Offering h l on Hawks listeners 40% off off your first delivery and free veggies for life hungryroot.com lockon is the place to go to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies one more time that is hungryroot.com lockon don’t forget to use that code and that

Link so then know we sent you to them hungryroot.com lockon all right to the actual game Flow in this one and obviously it wasn’t pretty so we’ll kind of fly through it a little bit more than we might normally it was kind of sloggy on both sides out

Of in this one your team got it going jayen Johnson had the kind of the first mini hot streak he actually had three the first four buckets for the Hawks in this game getting to the rim and the one thing the Hawks did fairly well in the

First half was get to the rim especially Jaylen the lack of Rim protection for Charlotte was kind of evident in this game and the Hawks were doing a pretty good job um sort of exposing that in the early going um but still the Hornets had

The first run of the night a 13-2 run to go actually up by 11 points part of that was three-point shooting which was happening first and really all night long in favor of Charlotte now the rest of the first score though was the Hawks best stretch of the game by a wide

Margin a 19-6 run by Atlanta they made their last two threes won by Hunter on the last possession of the first quarter actually set up by a great pass by Trey young that was swung by bogey to Hunter for the jumper and the Hawks were up at

The end of the first quarter after not playing very well I was like all right they they sort of dodged the bullet they’ll probably wake up from here not they’re winning uh that didn’t happen spoiler alert uh rotationally eight guys played for the Hawks in the competitive

Portion of the game uh they did bring in cree and buffkin in the very very end in garbage time but this is an eight rotation I didn’t love that I’ll talk about it more probably later on as well but just because I I don’t do that now I

Made it a point to say on Twitter today I’ve said it before I don’t yell and scream about it I don’t think it’s like the crazy crazy thing that’s ever happened but I personally would have made it a point to play Kobe buffkin on Monday and on Wednesday after the way he

Played in the game on Saturday against Houston now I’m not saying he was the greatest player of all time in that game but defensively he helped them and just to give him some confidence like you know they’re obviously playing for this year on some level but given they’re 24

And 31 right now um you know it would have been a nice thing for me to have KOB buckin play um in this game especially you know that when they have 10 guys available only eight of them played and this is not like an indictment of Garis Matthews I think

People Hawks fans were mad about Garris Matthews playing over Kobe buffkin I get that Garis is not a great player but by the way the Hawks were plus five and Garris is minutes in this game um not not that it was on him but I I think

It’s just possible for the Hawks to carve out some time for K buff in every game especially when he’s up it’s one thing it’s actually easier for me to understand if Kobe is in the G league if for him not to play which I’m I think it’s probably obvious for for some Hawks

Fans that just don’t want him to be in the G League at all if he’s playing 35 minutes A Night in the g- league I get that because that’s actually good for his development him being on the bench with the Hawks the last four days he’s

Been with the team since Saturday um and not playing I don’t want that I don’t quite understand so anyway I’ll stop with that for now it was Hunter bogy and Garrison Off the Bench they did kind of have a little bit more forward depth which allowed them to kind of play

Jaylen along with either hunter or Bay or both um but still without their primary centers in this game it was a some challenges along the way um rotationally in the second quarter I guess again the Hawks were up U it was basically a free R of the whim for for

Jayen at times which is nice but the Hawks give up an 80 run to the Hornets early in the second quarter and eight points come on three possessions to kind of give the lead back um I will say if there was one kind of historic thing in

This game we should at least mention Trey Young snap that run by making a three and that three actually broke the Hawks franchise record for career three-pointers now Trey young is 25 years old pretty impressive to have a career record for a non expansion franchise at the age of 25 of course you

Have to acknowledge that the game has changed a lot so three-point field goals were not like in Vogue as much or even close to as much earlier so like guys like Joe Johnson um might have been taking more of them in the Modern Age and even before that of course of course

Um but M Block had the record before Trey is going to if he sticks around Atlanta which we we’ll talk about I’m sure later on this week and into next week all the rumors around that or at least Rumblings around that but we’ll leave it for now I’ll just say that like

While Tre wasn’t very good in this game having the franchise record for three-pointers in a in a career at 25 is not a small thing anyway HW on by six at halftime it wasn’t like a Calamity at all defensively it was not good at all

But you know they got they got a little bit loose did Brandon Miller and Trey Mann who were really good in this game for Charlotte but just a lot of break downs execution problems before you get to the r protection stuff and they had a well over 130 defensive rating in the

First half the offense was pretty good at least decent enough to be within six now after halftime I gave you the numbers earlier but uh I’ll just kind of fly through this a little bit it was a 9-2 run by the Hornets out of the gate

In the second quarter the Hawks open the second quarter with one of nine shooting and two points in about four and a half minutes that set the tone for the rest of the half um they got the lead they got the lead down to like six or seven

At different different points and then the Hornets broke BR broke it open with a 90 run to go up by 16 points they got smoked overall in the third quarter 35 to 25 Trey had his worst quarter of of the night he was awful he actually he

Was 05 from the floor with three turnovers he was not alone by any means but he was notably bad by his standards in that third quarter and no one was good to be honest and uh it wasn’t over I will say the Hawks were down 17 with

10 minutes to go they actually had their nice um run at that point in time they got a 70 run to get back in touch they got I think six stops in a row at one point in the fourth quarter and here’s the money number the Hawks

Were down eight with 640 to go now they had already done a lot of work to get to eight so like it’s harder when you’re down 17 to get it to eight and then keep going on the run I will give them a little bit of uh Clarity on that because

You know you you have to use a lot of energy to make a run to cut to cut into the lead but so they’re in the game they’re down eight points with six and a half minutes ago we’ve seen in the NBA that can be that that leag can go in a

Second they were right back in the game I’m like all right they’re alive and then it was truly awful from that point forward I don’t know if their legs gave out or what happened or you know variant any of that stuff could have been in play but from being down eight

Points with seven minutes too they give up a 20-3 run until garbage Time free throws by br br Fernando uh so it was 20 to five overall but honestly those two points at the end mean absolutely nothing it was a 2 to3 run over about six full minutes they scored three

Points in six minutes and were trying for most of that time they they pulled they pulled everybody with like two minutes ago so if you want to be generous you could say four and a half minutes but three points four and a half minutes is bad enough the stretch that

Kind of put the game away in my mind was right after it got to eight they collapsed defensively allowed penetration kick out open three that was made then they missed a quarter three it was actually a decent look and then they give up a layup and on the floor and

Went from8 to 13 and again it’s not over there but it kept being over and over and over again and the numbers I’ll just read them one more time to you in the second half the Hawks had I can’t believe I’m saying this against Charlotte’s defense this is so bad an 86

Offensive rating and a 73 offensive rating in the fourth quarter and if you’re not big to more advanced stats the Hawks scored 44 points in the second half and 19 points in the fourth quarter against the League’s worst defensive team tough scene all right I’ll leave it

There for now on the game full we’ll touch on the player evaluation stuff at the end of the podcast and there is a lot to get to also not not that much to get to on this podcast but for now we’ll leave it there and we’ll get to the rest

Of the show but first a work from our sponsors on the podcast Today’s Show is brought to you by eBay motors and passion drive and Patience are what bring home the winning Trophy and that’s also what bring keeps your ride or die alive with eBay Motors they have everything they looking for to

Maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance they have superchargers and roof racks and LED headlights and exhaust kits and much more whether in speed or power or style even Motors has you covered across the board they have over 122 million parts for your number

One Rider or die and you’ll always find exactly what you’re looking for at eBay motors and with eBay guaranteed fit your R your ride is perfect and your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time each and every time the first time all of that or your money is coming back to

You because with eBay Motors you’re burning rubber and crucially you’re not burning cash with all the parts that you need the prices that you’re looking for it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win that you’re looking for as well keep your ride or

Die alive right now at eBay motors.com one more time the place to go is ebaymotors.com eBay guaranteed fits available to only us customers eligible item’s only exclusion supply all right and to the player by player breakdowns buffin and C got for the last two minutes I will say VI Cree was

Called up yesterday this is actually his first NBA stint of the whole season so I’m not sure what to make of that but there you go he came up on on Tuesday played garbage time nothing else he is back on the floor uh buffkin looked fine

In his minutes but it was two minutes garbage time there you go Garrison Matthews played 16 minutes plus five best on the team which is kind of funny 03 from the floor 03 from three had a steal I don’t think Garrison was bad it would be helpful if he took more shots

Than three shots in 16 minutes and also if he made any shots but um you know the plus minus is too kind to him here but also I don’t think he was like notably bad in this game again I would have liked to see buffin play but it could

Have been in addition to Garrison there’s no point I’m sorry there’s no problem in playing nine guys the Quinn seems to like to play eight most of the time and there you go um bogey 12 points in 29 minutes he had two threes he had five turnovers four assists five

Rebounds uh bogie was scorching hot on Monday he was not particularly good in this game he made some shots but turnovers were to was were a lot to deal with and also his defense was really bad I thought so certainly below average game from bogy Off the Bench if there

Was a guy who played probably the best it was of their uh at least compared to their Baseline it was probably Hunter if it wasn’t Hunter it was Jaylen Johnson so we’ll talk about Hunter now he L the team with 21 points in this game got to the line seven times that’s actually

Been a really really encouraging sign since hun came back is getting to the line a lot and that means he’s he’s aggressively attacking the rim always been kind of a weakness of DeAndre that he looks the part but doesn’t always use his physicality he’s been better at

Doing that um I think that um you know him play 28 minutes is just fine I don’t know if they’re going to have him starting post All-Star break but I think he’ll he’s ramping up now to the point where he’s playing enough minutes where he could start again we’ll keep an eye

On that but I thought he looked good in this game um hit two threes was four B on twoos which is just fine and uh was efficient and certainly was one of their better guys in the spot Bruto Fernando six points in a career-high tying 12

Rebounds for Bruno in this game at 26 minutes had five fouls he wasn’t particularly good uh he was better on than he was on Monday I thought Monday he was like pretty rough I talked about that a lot on the show um he was obviously in a big role tonight he had

Foul trouble couldn’t really afford that but like either way they were going play more than 28 is minutes probably in the game they kind of had to play Jon a lot at Center but I thought Bruno was not disastrous like he was not good but he

Was better than he was on Monday and I think you know obviously he’s overstretched in this role anytime you’re building a team and you have three centers and the two of them who who are obviously the best guys are both out it is tough seding in the NBA but um

You know part of that’s roster construction questions too like the Hawks did not build a roster that makes a ton of sense sort of um being lopsided like they’re they’re they’re really small at different spots and uh SN talked about that vocally at times I’m not sure if that’s like a message to

Front office or what but anyway Bruno was uh better than he was on Monday I’ll leave it there uh sadik bay was finish 14 points four rebounds uh defensively he was kind of an adventure in this one like a lot of guys were he actually was

A game worst minus 28 along with Deon they were bothus 28 in this game um you know Sadi was not the problem he probably should be better than this and has been better than this but he was not like the guy that was the issue uh on

The bright side jayen Johnson 19 points 12 rebounds two blocks made 38 minutes in a game in which they were blown getting blown out but he had to play center he had play power forward I thought jayen was pretty good defensively you know I’ve brought up a

Few times now I think people are starting to notice it a little bit more he’s not been great the last couple of weeks I don’t know if that’s because of the increased workload or the rookie wall I know Kevin shinar talked to him a little bit in a good interview and he

Kind of noted that he’s maybe got some some leg some tighter legs not a surprise like he’s playing a lot of minutes for the first time in his career so that’s not it’s not an excuse I thought he was good in this game but he

Was 05 from three got actually was so he was good good around the rim 12 rebounds didn’t have an assist that’s kind of strange for Jaylen to have zero assists in the game but I thought he was pretty decent he was kind of the only guy along

With the H that was but there you go and then so TR de jante uh alluded to it earlier but the last two games so Monday and Wednesday and the two losses in which the Hawks were favored in both games trer Jon combined to shoot 19 of

58 from the field which is sub 33% from three sorry from the field and then there were seven of 33 from three point range in those two games so that is obviously awful there’s more to life and more to basketball than shooting efficiency so there are other ways to

Make it make an impact but they can’t really survive with trer jante doing that uh to get and tonight they were combined 9 to 27 from the floor and 315 from three so it was basically Sim like the volume was a little bit lower tonight than it was on

Monday combined but they were both equally you know not good again shooting the basketball um I thought deante was really bad in this game like notably awful uh throughout again when I say that I’m adjusting for his Baseline and his Baseline is a really good player so

Like him his Baseline and Garris Matthew Bas line are not the same but DJ was minus 28 he was 5 515 from the floor one of seven from from three-point range did have seven rebounds four assists three turnovers had had a block and a steel but uh defensively really rough

Offensively like his plus minus like the non-re minutes were really really really bad in this game in fact the Hawks actually won the treade minutes uh we not didn’t win them but like they were minus eight without Trey um and everybody else it is what it is but uh

So the the no Trey Jon was just not his best like nobody was but he was bad Trey had 12 assists so that’s a positive but other than that he was not good either uh there’s no way around that um he had a better stretch in the first half than

Deon did any point or that most guys did but his third quarter was really rough in this game ended up with 12 points on 12 shooting possessions not what you want um only two of four on twos but two of eight from three the passing was

There he had a couple of really really impressive passes but that’s kind of it so look at the end of the day offensively it was a Calamity defensively it was really rough and uh not the way you want to over you you want to enter break so it could be sort

Of too much made of the way you end the quote unquote first half of the season and you know the positivity or the negativity if they had won these two games would it have been that everything’s fixed no but um it’s not great to go into the break the way they

Did they’re now 24 and 31 this season uh that is not where anybody wanted to be and while the Hawks have had some injury issues I’ll be the first to acknowledge that um they have not had outlier bad injury luck this season in fact the only guy

In their top you know eight nine guys who has played less than 40 games is DeAndre Hunter Jaylen missed up some time he he’s only played 4 to1 games this year but like you know Trey’s played most of the time so is Deon so is

Bogie so has B so has a kongu um capella has missed some time now but he was healthy before that so like they haven’t had you know there was a year a couple years ago they were battered by injuries I talked about it a lot this year they

Can’t really have make that excuse so it’s just it’s been a rough one um we’ll see how they sort of reset from here um just only a few days ago there was I could feel the optimism even around the team like Quinn was in a better mood

They’re winning some games the fans were happier they’ve been playing better basketball even their losses to the Clippers and the Celtics were pretty good like they they played pretty well in those games and then to end this run this way some of the Vibes are going to

Be rough going into the break obviously it’s important to know that like teams really do get away now for about a week um the Hawks have a longer break than some of them do um because the Hawks don’t some there are some games tomorrow on the 15th and then there’s some games

On Thursday the 22nd um the Hawks don’t play tomorrow or that first Thursday so they have eight full days now they will make everybody come back to practice a time or two before then so they’re not off until they play a game again but this is a real break guys will get away

From each other they’ll go hopefully rest and other than Trey Tre is the only one that’s inv invol involved at allar weekend so everybody else should be basically off for four five six days and we’ll see how that all looks injury-wise with Clinton Ona um but yeah a nice full

Break the Hawks are currently by the way the 10 seed in the East so even as poorly as they played this year and they have played poorly they have wildly in my opinion underachieved this year they are still currently in the postseason now notice how I said postseason not

Playoffs the playoffs are the top eight they would be an underdog to do that right now because as the Ten you got to win twice on the road in the play un we’re still a while from that but they are still two and a half games ahead of

The nets for the for the 10 seed and I think the Nets are not very good so I Still project the Hawks to be in the top 10 um these two losses definitely hurt their chances to get into that 78 range or I thought they might end up by the

End of this thing but we’ll have more on that in the future I promise you but uh unfortunately tonight was a rough one to end to end the first little stretch here and we’ll have much more coming up now as a programming notes I will not have a

Show every day during the break um I have to take a break too I’m also traveling and uh all that stuff but I will have content between now and when the Hawks return to the court so please please please go ahead and subscribe to the podcast that’s how you will know the

Best way to find when when the show is going to be coming is if you subscribe to the show Apple Spotify overcast also on YouTube likes and ratings and reviews and subscriptions and follows and alerts and all of those things Auto downloads all that is the best way to find the

Podcast and to go aad and support the show also spread the word for us tell a friend or your family members about the podcast that’d be huge helping us to grow the product and I do appreciate it we are again more than 1,600 episodes into this show I’ve been doing it since

2016 it’ll keep going we’re still firing away also we have bonus content if you’re an audio only listener on the on the feed from the folks at locked on Sports Atlanta so you have not only me but even more stuff that’s coming to you for the price of $0 so stay tuned for

All that thank you for listening I do appreciate that enjoy the rest of your Valentine’s Day enjoy your All-Star break I will be back at some point in the near future stay tuned and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts episode No. 1653 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show breaks down Wednesday’s game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Charlotte Hornets, including a gross overall showing, poor defense throughout, ugly offense in the second half, center injuries, and much more.

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!

Nissan

Our friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUV’s with the capabilities to take your adventure to the next level. Take the Nissan Rogue, Nissan Pathfinder, or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure. Shop NissanUSA.com.

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.

eBay Motors

For parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.

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.

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

Make Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your best bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more 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)