Shorthanded Atlanta Hawks open West Coast trip with loss to Portland Trail Blazers

Shorthanded Atlanta Hawks open West Coast trip with loss to Portland Trail Blazers

On today’s show the Hawks lose a close game in Portland to begin their five-game West Coast trip we’ll get into all of what transpired and more and all that is 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 1674 of Lon Hawks podcast I your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Wednesday evening I guess really it’s Thursday morning as I’m recording this podcast now and Today’s Show is brought to by the folks at prize Pi the easiest most exciting way to play daily fantasy

Sports the place to go is prize.com lockon NBA and use code locked on NBA when you get there for a first time deposit match up to $100 also I should encourage you at the top of the podcast to make us your first listen each and every day please

Subscribe to this podcast anywhere you get your podcast places like apple and Spotify and YouTube and it’s been very busy on this show this week already this is the fifth episode and it’s only Thursday morning basically as I’m recording this podcast so Ben Fifer did a two-part episode with me recently on

The NBA draft emergency coverage of the S Bay injury earlier this week as well as a breakdown of Sunday’s game and much more to come in the future but with all that out of the way the Hawks lose their second straight game um on the road in

This one on this on this Wednesday 106 to 102 at the hands of Port Trailblazers up in Portland uh this is the first game of a five-game trip for the Hawks to the West Coast and on paper it was the easiest game that the Hawks will play at

Least the worst and at Le the worst opponent injury-wise that you would imagine on this trip and I would say it was extremely similar in a lot of ways to what happened on Friday in Memphis I know that a lot of hawks fans probably missed this game because it was so late

At night I get that um sort of an equally injury riddled opponent the Blazers were without a ton of guys in this game a big scoring night from Murray like like it was on one on on Friday against Memphis but this time around things broke the other direction

Portland made some shots I will credit them they played pretty good on offense for the second half of this game in particular Murray cooled off a little bit and didn’t get a whole lot of help offensively in this game so we’ll get into all what transpired here but um you

Know not not a disastrous loss I’ll just leave with that right now because essentially this is a game in March in which both teams are just absolutely buried with injuries and it’s not a satisfying thing I can already hear it now about the excuses and all that stuff

And you know generally speaking when the Hawks lose I will get accused of being too high on what happened and when they win I’ll be accused of being too little what happened but no matter what here I would have said this I said actually said it during the game when the game

Was still in doubt that I would I would encourage people not to not to take too much of this game either direction just because the Hawks are so banged up right now number one and also you know first game of a long you you know six- hour flight to Portland yesterday um all

Kinds of injuries and an ugly game to be sure and that was another way it was similar to that game on Friday against Memphis when I talked about how ugly that game was the Hawks won so I got some push back on that but in a loss I’d

Say the same thing the this was this was not a great basketball game there there were two teams here who at as constructed right now with the available Talent are not very good and the offensive performances on both sides we’re not very impressive in this game

But anyway the reason for that at least one of the reasons for that was the injury situation so coming into the night you already know if you’re a hawks F listen in this podcast that the Hawks are without Trey young anaka kongu Kobe buffkin plus sadique Bay of course for

The season as we discussed earlier earlier this week um also Seth Lundy and AJ Griffin are out in College Park uh it’s all kinds of injuries right now for the Hawks Jaylen Johnson was upgraded to doubtful for this game he has been out for the last couple G with the ankle

Injury a small step forward I will say on the positive direction jaylen’s on the trip he wasn’t listed his out so that’s maybe he could return um as soon as Friday we’ll see on that but he wasn’t available in this game and then finally LD donovich was on the injury

Report with illness and he played this game was not his best and you never know how much of that is a triple to him being sick but certainly probably didn’t help matter so if you’re scoring at home that is the Hawks being without four of their top seven or eight guys coming

Into the season including their best player and then another guy another one of their top seven8 guys and bogie was not 100% in this game plus their first round pick backup point guard KB buffkin that’s a a hard spot to be in no matter what against any opponent and I’ll say

That first and foremost then on Portland side Jeremy Grant who is arguably their best player didn’t play in this one he was a late scratch he was questionable coming in malcol Brogden was out shanon sharp was out Rob Williams was out um but you know and William was about went

Out for a long time but Grant brogen and sharp are three of Portland’s top five players so they weren’t healthy either in fact as crazy it all sounds because what I just said about the Hawks being so injured they were actually favored according to our friends at FanDuel by

Four and a half points in this game on the road with all those injuries and that kind of tells you because Portland is 19 6 this year that’s a bad team on top of being injury R so the Hawks aren’t playing great basketball this year but they are better than the

Blazers by about 10 games in the standings but um all that said it was supposed to be a close game it was a close game it didn’t go the right go the right direction and I’ll say this the offense was not particularly good for the Hawks and that was probably the

Number one culprit Beyond just the circumstances for this loss they had a 105 offensive rating in the game including 102 in the second half um if you were not familiar with that that’s well below average it’s fact that’s like worse than the league level offense um

They made only half actually sub 50% of their two-point attempts in this game they shot the ball okay from three um 36% on decent volume but not really doing anything inside The Arc in this game only 19 assists is a very low number not a lot of ball movement I

Thought in this game was pretty stagnant offensively also had 15 turnovers so what you don’t want to have happen is 19 assists and 15 turnovers and Portland’s only strength really on paper on defense is creating turnovers they’re actually quite good at that Tel is one of the

Best in the league get that um so that’s some of this I’ll say that but you don’t want to do that anytime and also they had um 18 points off turnovers that those led to so that’s kind of damaging and only 18 free throw attempts so that’s a bad number in any circumstances

But Portland was bottom five in the league coming in and free throw prevention and in general the Hawks just put very little heat on the rim offensively the entire game and that’s a familiar story you know the two guys on this roster who I would say put the most

Heat on the rim are Trey young and Jaylen Johnson and they’re not available right now so that’s part of it for sure but this is a team in Portland that’s not very good defensively and the Hawks were not able to get to the rim the entire game only 23% of their shots came

At The Rim that is a tenth percentile number so not enough at the rim no free throw attempts and uh even with decent three-point shooting it wasn’t quite enough we’ll come back to D jante later on he obviously made everything in the first half he was lights out he cooled

Off considerably after halftime I believe it’s was five of 16 from the floor in in the second half still had 40 points so like it’s hard to quibble with that some level and it’s hard for the Hawks to survive right now with bogy and Hunter combining to shoot seven of 27

From the field that’s two of their top four players right now with the way they are constructed alongside Deonte and Clint and uh yeah they can’t really survive that even with the jante scoring the way he did and shooting the way he did in the first half they need a little

Bit more help and other than Garrison Matthews who made a couple threes Off the Bench um in fact the bench was pretty good in this game the plus minus story is actually quite interesting in this one de Jon was a game worst minus 13 whereas the bench was all in the

Positives other than Dylan Windler who played five minutes in his debut but uh you know balancing out they needed more from bogie any more from Hunter um you know all that said it it just wasn’t good enough on offense in this game uh to the defense a 109 defensive rating is

Pretty good in a vacuum that’s pretty good now it was 120 in the second half and that is not good uh so that’s a little bit where the game got away from them in fact the first quarter the Hawks held the W to 17 points which which

We’ll come back to later on in the podcast and from that point forward Portland scored at a elite level basically the rest of the game and part of that was shot making you know I will credit the Blazers now delre Aiden had a great game shooting wise around the rim

And also in that kind of short mid-range floa range Anthony Sims went went pretty crazy in the second half Delano Bon a couple big shots in the second half so it was like they were um you know it it wasn’t like Portland played badly but still um it was not great defensively

After the first quarter Portland is the worst to Point shooting team in the league this year and they shot about six percentage points better than the Hawks did inside the arc again a little bit unlucky probably because Aton was unconscious on those Flo range shots but

Still um that’s not a great stat um if you knew the Hawks would win the three-point battle coming in with the available personality the Hawks had and the Blazers had I would have guessed that if the Hawks won three-point battle they were gonna win this game um and

They and they and they did win three three battle in this game by a little bit not they didn’t dominate it but still they won it and still lost because the two-point battle did not go their Direction you did free throw battle um assists went in Portland’s Direction etc

Etc etc they did Force 18 turnovers that’s a very good number but it also allowed 21 fast break points so you know just it’s kind similar story to the really the whole stretch now post All-Star break without Trey um and now without Jaylen and without sadik etc etc

Is that the Hawks have been pretty respectable defensively for large SWS of these games tonight it was a little bit wobbly but even the whole number if all you say is a 109 defensive ra that’s all you can really ask for even against a bad team in Portland it’s that the

Offense just is not good enough and that is Personnel based it’s not anybody’s individual fault that that’s happening um but if you take off if you take away not only Trey but Jaylen and Ana and now now sadique the personel just not very good on offense it’s the reality of

Situation that’s why I’m saying not to overreact in any real Direction on this because the team the hulks are playing right now roster wise is not a team that would be competing for a playoff side it it’s just not You could argue maybe they’re not as bad as like the Pistons

But like this is a bad basketball team the team that was available tonight if you if you took these 10 guys only and played them for the whole season you wouldn’t win very many very many games and that’s where the Hawks are right now

I I I don’t mean that in a negative way it’s just that’s how most teams are if you take away the best player and then another three or four of your top seven or eight guys like you’re gonna You’re Gonna Lose and that’s what happens a

Little bit here on this one so we’ll get into more of this game in a second when it comes to how the game unfolded throughout including some back and forth crunch time but first from our sponsors on the podcast today today’s show is brought to you by

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Pick more pick less it’s that easy with prize picks all right and to the first half of this game Wes Matthews got the start in this one his second of the Season uh he played in Portland for five years I’m not sure that was why he started but

Certainly probably didn’t hurt things um Only Reason by the way to keep Hunter out of the lineup would be to keep his minutes down people ask that question a lot um both during and before the game um Hunter played 33 minutes um he could have started playing those minutes but

Still I think that’s the only reason why to do that he’s obviously their best forward available is DeAndre Hunter and they treated him that way as far as the way the game actually flowed but they started beat cree and West Matthews together it was pretty ugly at the

Outset it was two to two after about three minutes of action the Hawks though did take the lead and actually controlled this game so I kind of buried the lead a little bit the Hawks are up by as many as 16 points in the first

Half and they were not able to hold on that lead um in this one but they had a 90 run mid quarter uh D had had seven points in a row at one point capella had seven boards and two seals in the first six minutes Portland did respond

Rotationally it was kind of what you expect although there was the debut of Dylan Windler but it was basically a ninan group for Atlanta including Bruno Hunter Garrison Matthews and Trent Forest Off the Bench um then bogie was playing whenever Murray Sat by the way I’ll just say this now Jon Murray played

The entire second half of his game you don’t often see that um but the were obviously pressing pressing the gas pedal and for every time that someone asked me if the Hawks were tanking I might just use this as an example if the Hawks were tanking they would not have

Played to Jon Murray the entire second half of a game in March um the Hawks did score at the end of the first quarter six points in a row help Portland to 17 points in the first quarter obvious caveat there about the Portland’s available talent but the Hawks were even

While not playing that well on offense as a team they were up by seven and again up as many as 16 points with a 1 15 overall run at the end of the first quarter and the of the second quarter Portland had 11 consecutive possessions where they didn’t score about six

Straight minutes without a bucket or of any kind for Portland r a nice block at The Rim it was a combination of good defense I want to credit the Hawks and also some poor offense from Portland but 15 run up 16 and at that point the Hawks

Are a pretty big favorite to win now it’s early in the game but still that’s a pretty sizable margin against a pretty bad opponent that’s actually when wiler came in the game um for the only time that he played about five minutes or so

Um I was sure I’m not sure he was going to play maybe he would have but the Hawks being up comfortably maybe led to that on some level Portland though cut on to eight pretty quickly and the Blazers could not make a jump shot the

Begin the game now the rest of the game they made a bunch of jump shots but in the first I don’t know 20 minutes or so of this game Portland was one of 15 on jump shots from 15 feet or longer so basically long twos and threes combined

They were one of 15 including one of 12 on threes from that point forward they were nine of 20 sorry nine of 18 on threes so from like the last two and a half quarters they were really good from three-point range and that kind of swung things at least partially in their

Direction and look the reason why the Hawks were winning in the first quarter really the first half basically there was two reasons number one is what I just said Portland did not shoot the ball well at all in the first half but dejonte was just on fire he really was

He started this game 10 of 13 from the field in the first half and nine of the 10 makes were jump shots so you make nine Jumpers in a half that is not something that usually happens to anyone uh usually if you’re G to score at that

Level you’re going to be getting into the rim a lot no he h nine jumpers in the first half and you know a lot of tough shots but he’s capable of making those shots he had 24 24 points only guy on the Hawks roster with more than six

Points in the first half and the Hawks were winning um but only up by five despite leading by 16 points because Portland got it going a little bit at the end they scored 30 points in the second quarter and Portland as I mentioned before didn’t score the first

Like three plus minutes of the quarter so the rest of that quarter and into the third was pretty rough defensively um and the Blazers took the lead by the middle of the third quarter so a 13-6 run by the Blazers the one stretch was kind of this is kind of the Delano

Banton stretch of Portland and then after assignment got hot from there um it’s a little bit stable by the Hawks in the middle of the quarter but then there was an 110 run by Portland to go up by nine points Murray after being red hot in that first half bogged down I think

He missed six of his first seven shots and third quarter and was trying to do a little bit too much I thought offensively as a as a scorer and then I will say the Hawks got hot from three from there they actually made four consecutive threes in the fourth quart

Sorry in the third quarter when nothing else was really going on two from Garrison Matthews one f one from Cree one from Hunter but they couldn’t really stop the Blazers during that run either so the impact was kind of lessened about those three-point shots here’s a crazy

Stat for you the Hawks hit six threes in the third quarter which is that’s a ton you know sometimes you you’ll see a team make seven or eight in a quarter but six is a lot of Threes in a quarter and the Hawks did that in the third and lost the

Quarter by 12 points not by two points by 12 points the combination of those two things shouldn’t happen but they happened because Portland was making shots and the Hawks were only two of eight on twos in the third quarter with five turnovers so shot W from three that

Was kind of all they did well in the third quarter there was a nice gift by the Blazers giving Murray three shot foul at the beginning of the fourth quarter get get him going going a little bit again because he had been struggling so badly and he play better in the

Fourth quarter for sure it was back and forth uh Garrison drew a couple charges that was good to see uh they had a nice Cut and finish from Hunter in the half court um they went into a mid Court out down by five points there was a big

Swing in the middle of the quarter when dejonte was fouled on a three would would have been three shots but Portland challenged it they won it and it became an offensive foul which swung things back in Portland’s Direction um Deon did hit a three in next possession so that

Kind of mitigated the jamage a little bit and again he played the entire second half um but near nether team kind kind of score in the fourth quarter for a while it felt like it was 9592 Portland for a long time in the fourth quarter um but with like three minutes to

Go I’ll say this the Blazers made a bunch of young inexperienced mistakes and the Hawks didn’t quite take advantage of them but they certainly had some more opportunities than they maybe should have um V walked to the front of the rim on an inbalance pass for free

Throws Chris Murr who I do like is a rookie from Portland he was brutal in the second half of this game just mental mistakes breakdowns all over the place he was really bad I like him a lot but he had six turnovers and that was uh

Almost feels low um but Simon hit a couple big shots I’ll say that but so does Jon you know he missed a shot that he kind of likes with 14 sorry three minutes to go um bogie then drove and found capella on a lob to get the Hawks

Back within four or so with two minutes to go capella then fou eight on a shot it was close but it was definitely a foul I thought eighton made both put the Hawks down by six again Murray then missed a three but capella got the rebound put it back

And uh got back to four then the after mentioned Chris Murray threw the ball away with about 90 seconds to go and boy got a steal on that led to Deonte in transition getting a layup and the Hawks are back within two about 80 Seconds to

Go um they got a stop actually on Simons and then had the ball down two but then Murray missed they got the rebound but the bogy got blocked with about 40 seconds to go on the clock and I’ll say this matis tyel made that made that

Block he’s one of the best shot blocking perimeter guys in the whole league so that’s part of this but bogie also probably should have passed it so it was a combination of a great play by by tall and also a little bit of a quick trigger

For bogie but in the end Simons kills the whole shot clock smartly for a younger guy it was a nice play by him and then managed to beat Murray off the dribble get all the way to the rim and draw a foul so he makes both and the

Hawks are down by four with about 23 seconds to go out of a timeout though Deonte hits a three on a pull up in the middle of the floor that was a great job by him um I don’t know where de R was going but um also a big shot from from

Jon to get back within one with 17 seconds to go so now it’s a fresh game again you’re back in it they had to foul of course and they foulon eighton makes the first and then misses the second one but unfortunately this is the play that probably people will

Remember if they watch the game um two-point game misses the free throw Portland gets the rebound going all the way to the Baseline basically not even Baseline the sideline um they put in Bruno for the rebound it was unlucky on the long bounce but Bruno and Hunter

Kind of combined to not get the rebound on the right side of the floor and then capella took too long to foul every assignments who then made both and it was over so a couple things here I got a few questions about this like why Bruno

Was in the game number one it was Bruno and Clint it wasn’t like he put Bruno in for Clint they had Bruno one side Clint on the other side and that’s a very normal thing for a coach to do because the Hawks were to call timeout either

Way so the Hawks best case scenario there Aton misses both there’s only like five SEC there’s only like 10 seconds to go a time about what gonna happen there no matter what so that’s why br’s in the game he’s a good rebounder but you know the Hawks

Had a timeout they usually also we usually have Bay or Johnson as the third guy in there this time around it was Hunter because they kind of had to do that Hunter isn’t a great rebounder to say the least so I don’t even I’m not blaming anybody individually but the two

Guys who were on that side were Hunter and Bruno it was a little bit of unlucky balance but that’s what happened also I don’t know what Clint was doing when they when they needed to foul but I’ll just say this even if he did foul like two seconds earlier three seconds

Earlier they would have been down four points with like seven seconds to go so it would have been better if he F earlier I’m not saying otherwise but also they would have lost the game probably anyway so not a hugely impactful thing at the end but you know

It was back and forth by the time this game got to the end the Hawks were down the whole way they they trailed for the Lion Share of the fourth quarter um the missed opportunities were before that so they were up by 16 in the second quarter

At one point um that lead was gone by the middle of the third quarter but they were it was a close back and forth game they didn’t execute super well um opportunities were there for sure but the Hawks only scored you know 50 points in the second half which is that’s not

Awful but certainly not terribly impressive and um the starting lineup in general was not productive in this game other than Deonte um and even then the Hawks lost those minutes so we’ll leave it there for now we’ll talk about the individual player stuff in a second but

Um one more time I would just stress like this is not a game to panic over it’s a frustrating game if you stay up late to watch it I totally understand that but this is kind of the zombie Hawks against the zombie Blazers and uh

You know it’s March what do you want to do okay okay more to come in a second but first it work from our partners on today’s podcast Today’s Show is brought to you by Robin Hood did you know that even if you have 401k for retirement you can

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To us customers in good standing Robin Hood Financial LLC member is a register broker dealer all right to the individual player stuff in this contest uh 10 guys appeared in fact all 10 active players took the floor for the Hawks in this game U Dylan wiler made his Hawks debut

Played five minutes wasn’t very good to be honest um didn’t score one rebound didn’t take a shot minus eight looked a little bit um little bit lost a little bit not not I don’t want to overstate it but he was not great um and that kind of

Tells you like I I even said before the game like he was be the 10th guy of 10 um and I wasn’t sure if he’d play I thought he might he did but uh that was only the one St and there you go Trent forth put 11 minutes six points four

Assists I thought Trent played reallyy well actually there were plus two in his minutes he played literally about a minute and a half with Deon in the second half and that was kind of it but I thought Trent did a good job again in this game offensively like he ran the

Offense it wasn’t like he was special on that end on the floor but did have four assists and like was moving the ball and etc etc um Garrison two hit two big threes got to the line twice did a four foul was including I think he draw I

Think he tried to draw like four charges and was two for four on those four charges but um you know he did Garrison things in this game and was plus four um Bruno was plus two in his minutes six points seven rebounds had a steal on a

Block obviously the Miss rebound at the end will get attention but I thought he was fine generally speaking Off the Bench Hunter didn’t shoot it well only three of six on on twos but actually one of six on threes one rebound is not great in 33 minutes for DeAndre was

Offensive rebound as well uh 11 11 points he’ll be better I don’t know about the minutes I mean I talked a little bit on the show earlier this week um if he’s available to play 33 minutes I think he he probably should start but um I don’t really worry about that too

Much he was goingon to play enough and uh basically my assertion before the game when it was revealed that they were going to start vet and and West was basically like the Hawks are going to find a way to get Hunter as many minutes as the as the training staff will allow

Him to play and uh that was pretty much the case in this game so I wouldn’t worry too much about that who starts as the start he’s going to play a lot of minutes he’s there only four right now hopefully Jaylen Johnson will return as soon as Friday um to the starters in

This game uh interesting kind of mixed bag here West Matthews three points one of seven from the floor one of four from three he wasn’t very good I I love Wes he he he did commun he did communicate and play well defensively but shooting

Was a little bit rough to be sure and at this point I think we all know he’s not really a starter at this point um 14 minutes he kind of got the Keith Bogan treatment the first half second half like only one St in both halves kind of

Treatment and he was fine but the shooting was rough um V Cree two a four from the floor had seven points two assists two rebounds a steal and a block I thought V was fine he is super low usage which isn’t really helping things but I get why they’re

Starting him there aren’t a lot of great options obviously when Jaylen comes back they’ll have some decisions to make there but um you know I think V’s been playing fine he isn’t Dynamic but he’s been playing fine um Clint had 13 points 14 rebounds two steals two turnovers

Four fouls minus eight um got to the line five times actually missed four or five that was kind of a rough one for Clint but actually was six9 from the floor in this game I thought he was pretty good he wasn’t great but he was pretty good um bogie struggled I

Mentioned before the uh illness he was two of nine on threes one of six on twos eight points eight did have eight assists to leave the team comfortably three steals plus five I me I me I mention this again on uh on I think it was Monday show or Sunday show bogi’s plus

Minus is is outrageous and it’s not a coincidence like sometimes maybe it feels like that it feels that way but bogie was the only starter of tonight that was in the pl in the positive is because the bench units which he was basically the the bridge to played well

And then deante so it’s kind of a weird setup here um my friend and uh from hawks.com uh Kevin chard kind of tweeted this out and I think it was it was probably um appropriate and I think accurate and he said I’m I’m gonna quote Kevin here it’s probably not a popular

Statement to say that not all 40 balls are created equally but not all 40 balls are created equally and that’s probably good to apply to Deon tonight on one hand in the first half he was the only person making shots and that was similar to what happens in Memphis um he made a

Bunch of jumpers in the second half he was five of 16 he was not particularly good after halftime really at all and he did bog down the offense a little bit now granted he’s the only guy on the team that can really score right now in the current setup so that’s not really

On him but I think you know if you just if you if you’re waking up on Thursday morning and you’re picturing Deon having 40 points that means he must have played incredibly well he shot well um was you know 40 points on 32 shooting possessions it’s pretty good um only

Three assists five turnovers minus 13 game worse I don’t think that really is on him but like it’s really hard to talk about because I I can already see right now especially on YouTube um the pro deante people who think I hate him will be mad that I’m even bringing up the

Context and it’s my job to bring up the context I don’t think he played incredibly well like people that don’t cover the Hawks um I would say neutral part this is this was a late game so kind of got more national attention we’re mentioning like Portland’s game

Plan in this game was pretty obviously to kind of let de Jon cook a little bit and it worked for them like obviously Deon made a bunch of shots in the first half and that they were losing but once he kind of cooled off it was not the

Greatest so uh it’s it’s hard to talk about because like you know he was nine of 16 on twos that’s fine six 13 on threes that’s Obviously good um but it was everything else so I don’t really know what to say about it it was it was an interesting performance he was the

Only guy that scored more than 13 points for the Hawks so I understand for a lot people that that would be all that really is said and I I totally get it it wasn’t like he played poorly but it was just an interesting game it was very

Much like the Memphis game except for in this game he cooled off in Memphis game he really he really didn’t cool off the whole game he still had 40 points like and by the way the last three games against Portland he just owns Portland he had 40 against them last year and 41

Against them last year in two games so three straight 40-point games for Murray against Portland and I think he’s only had like five 40 40o games in his career or six like he’s not had that many 4 point games and three of them are against Portland so I don’t know what to

Make of that but in the end uh he wasn’t the he wasn’t really the problem but it was uh it was nobody else really helped him again I I said the number earlier but I’ll say it again bogy and Hunter seven of 27 from the field and 315 from

Three the current Hawks can’t really withstand that so process-wise it wasn’t the greatest all the way across the board for the Hawks the shot quality was not my favorite but um that’s just kind of the way they have to play right now they’re they’re going to play

With this personnel and they have been this entire stretch they’re going to play these lower scoring uglier games and they’ll win some of them and they’ll lose some of them and that’s kind of the way they have to play also this is more of a sidebar but the entire league right

Now is in this scoring environment that’s like way way way way down from previous there there there have been games like in the 70s and 80s in recent days which is absolutely wild so the Hawks are kind of with that Trend the way they’ve been playing recently but um

Yeah I I’ll leave it there for now but you know this is a game where I I just I just wouldn’t necessarily overreact to it in any direction on any player on any lineup they’re super banged up right now and it’s not negative to say that this

This group as it is constructed just isn’t very good but it’s the reality like if Jay’s not back and they have the same exact team on Friday in Utah the Jazz are not anything special by any means but Utah this year is 19 and 13 at

Home and the Hawks are going to be underdogs in that game if Jay doesn’t play um that’s just the reality now can they can they win it sure they can but that’s just it’s it’s an interesting challenge by the way that is their next game um Jazz are not good again overall

They lost to the Hawks a couple weeks ago at home sorry at home in Atlanta but they’ve been quite good at home historically that’s a tough place to play um on the other hand the Hawks did just beat them so we’ll see how that game goes but the biggest thing right

Now is jaylen’s availability because everybody else we kind of know what’s going on with at least right now Trey and Ona are not going to play on this trip Kobe is still on the walk boot so it’s really just keeping all eyes on Jaylen um and uh you know he he by the

Way jaylen’s very good he isn’t going to be the Elixir for everything so once he once he comes back especially first couple games maybe he’s not 100% on the ankle he helps a ton but he isn’t gonna suddenly turn them into a title Contender overall with the current

Roster setup they have so I don’t I don’t mean to be Grim but that’s kind of the way things are right now and uh it’s very very late it is 1 something3 something in the morning as rep of this podcast so uh forgive me for any rants

That I might have done on this show but uh hopefully that gives you a good picture if you miss this game um I will be I’ll be covering all the West Coast games there’s five in a row here that all start at 9:30 pm eastern Time or

Later and I know that some fans just can’t do that and I I don’t blame you at all early mornings are also something I have to do in my day job so I don’t blame you but um if you are missing anything a great place to catch up is on

This podcast so tell a friend about the show and all that fun stuff please subscribe rate review uh Apple podcast Spotify YouTube pocketcasts Amazon music all those places you can find the podcast also follow us on Twitter Lon Hawks follow me there as well at BTR

Roll I right by the Hawks on a regular basis at patreon.com BTR Rollin as well thanks for listening everybody hopefully there’ll be better times in the future for the Hawks and hopefully healthier times more than anything else to uh improve the uh the entertainment aspect the aesthetic aspect because it’s

Obviously a little bit gross right now but um in the end a 16102 loss and uh a full breakdown on the show thanks for listening everybody and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts episode No. 1674 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show breaks down Wednesday’s game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Portland Trail Blazers, including another injury-riddled contest on both sides, 40 points for Dejounte Murray, struggles from Bogdan Bogdanovic, a close-fought fourth quarter, a blown 16-point lead, and much more.

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