CHICAGO — The Hawks got back three starters in Monday’s loss to the Bulls.
Although they had some good moments, the loss highlighted how much more the team needs to clean up. The offense chemistry did not seem lacking, but the Hawks could not put together enough stops to hold off the Bulls.
“What I would like take, the positive from this game, is that rebounding, letting them go on some runs, some moments of losing focus, there’s a lot of, like, room that we can clean up, a lot of, like, margin that we can clean up,” Hawks center Kristaps Porzingis said. “And I think we have to, we have to take that. We have to take that as a good lesson and move forward.”
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from the Hawks’ 128-123 loss to the Bulls on Monday at United Center.
The good: Despite the Hawks’ first eight rotational players having logged only nine minutes together before Monday’s game, the offense found a jolt.
The Hawks put up 123 points, with Porzingis (27 points), Jalen Johnson (25) and Trae Young (21) combining for 73.
“I think our offense tonight was different than it was in game one,” Young said.
“That’s the thing,” he continued. “This is technically our second game together as a full team. And so, it’s not gonna be pretty at the beginning, when you’re trying to work the kinks out and things like that, and figure out where everybody likes the ball, where everybody wants the ball. And some guys are still trying to get their conditioning up and things like that.”
They also had some good minutes from their bench, with Porzingis finding Nickeil Alexander-Walker for a 3-point shot that pulled the Hawks within 3 with under a minute to play.
The bad: Although the Hawks put up enough offense to win a game on any other night, the team’s collective defense fell short.
“Collectively, a team like this, you really have to defend them with five guys because of their ability to drive the ball,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “So we’ve got to keep grinding on it and keep playing defense, keep talking about it, keep working on it, look at the areas where we can make the most improvement.”
The Hawks have shown improvement in their transition defense, but they had too many moments where only one or two players hustled to make a stop.
The ugly: The Bulls also kept their eyes on the ball after their missed shots. They got up in the air, tapping the ball out and hustling to corral the loose ball.
The Hawks gave up 15 second-chance points, with the Bulls tapping out rebounds that rolled off the rim. The Bulls also zeroed in on long rebounds before quickly spraying the ball around the perimeter.
“Some of those bounces were long bounces,” Young said. “They shot 3’s, and they were missing, and then they were just tipping it out. And they weren’t just grabbing it over our guys. They’re tipping it out and getting those.
“And those are stuff that the smaller guards got to get, us guards got to get, and that the bigs, I mean, we got to box out. It’s a collective thing, and sometimes it bounces like that, and it’s frustrating, obviously, but we’ll be all right.”
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