ORLANDO, Fla. — The Hawks could not take care of business Tuesday night when they faced the Magic at the Kia Center. Now they must reset and turn their attention to Friday in their bid to extend their season into the NBA playoffs.
They still don’t know who they will host on Friday night at State Farm Arena for the second play-in game. But the Hawks have quite a few things they’ll want to avoid from Tuesday’s game to evade postseason elimination. Hawks coach Quin Snyder has talked about the team approaching each matchup one game at a time, but the team understands it cannot completely flush the errors from Tuesday night.
“As far as game-plan situations, yeah, I think, from a tactical standpoint, you look at those games and you learn from them, and you make some decisions based on that, and sometimes they’re the right decisions and they work (or), hey don’t work,” Snyder said before Tuesday’s game. “Sometimes, maybe you feel like it’s the wrong decision, and it, quote, unquote, works. So, I think the biggest thing is, whatever the game plan is, you know that your team understands it, you buy into it, and your focus goes to execution and development of a plan is something that you know takes place based on your experience.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Hawks worked hard to limit Magic forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. They had success with that, holding the two to a combined 30 points on 10-of-28 overall shooting.
But where the Hawks struggled was in holding the Magic’s role players to tough shots and limiting their opportunities to put points on the board. The Hawks put an emphasis on crashing the defensive glass to generate stops that they would eventually be able to convert on.
The Magic, who have garnered a reputation for their physicality, did everything in their power to stop that. Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. outmuscled the Hawks on the boards, grabbing five of the Magic’s 12 offensive boards. The Magic scored 25 points off their offensive rebounds.
Carter and the rest of the Magic also did not shy away from quick pushes that often disrupted their drives to the basket and forced their shots offline.
That opened space for the Magic’s backcourt to quickly regain possession and push the pace.
But Magic backcourt reserves Cole Anthony and Anthony Black torched the Hawks, particularly in the fourth quarter. They combined for 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting that the Hawks seemed to have little answer for.
With the Magic clicking on offense and facing the pressure of playing through a lot of contact, the Hawks simply fell apart. They reached a breaking point, leading to the ejection of guard Trae Young with under five minutes to play in the game, and finished by making only four field goals in the final 12 minutes.
Credit: John Raoux/AP
Credit: John Raoux/AP
“I think there were a lot of plays throughout the game obviously. … They are a very physical team, and I have had two teammates hurt this year in one game against them,” Young said of his frustration Tuesday that led to his ejection. “I am not going to call them dirty players or anything like that. …
“I think they have a bunch of talented players, but there are a lot of plays and moments that guys want to try to be more physical to the point where it is not necessary basketball at that point. I think that is where the frustration got and sometimes I take my frustrations out on the refs, not just for me but it’s for my teammates. I’ve seen Dyson Daniels going, and he may not be a household name yet, but he deserves the same kind of respect as some of these other guys. If you see the foul, you should call the foul. That is pretty much all it was for me. Nothing more, nothing less.”
But the Hawks know they simply cannot fall apart with their season now on the line.
“Obviously it is one game,” Young said. “… I am not letting people think about what I am feeling and things like that. Obviously, I (said) I was sticking up for this squad. I am not going to let the refs frustrate me like that in our next game. I know we got to win or go home next, so I am going to be ready. … We have to go home and take care of business.”
On Friday night, the Hawks will play the winner of Wednesday night’s game between the Bulls and the Heat. While the game plan could change from a tactical standpoint depending on which opponent they play, the Hawks have benchmarks they want to aim for on every game.
The Hawks always want to run the floor and they want to approach 3-point shooting aggressively. The Hawks attempted only 21 3-pointers, well below the 40-attempt metric set by the coaching staff. But Snyder named a few things he wants the Hawks to take with them moving forward.
“I think for some of our younger guys, this was a new experience,” Snyder said after the game. “You could feel that at the outset of the game, whether it was the physicality or some of the game pressure. And so I think that’s a learning experience that hopefully we take with us the next game, dealing with adversity on the road, that’s another situation, regardless of home or away.
“A lot of the things that go into competition that maybe aren’t as focused on a specific coverage or a game plan or tactical, there’s a level that we need to continue to find. We have to find that collectively. I thought one of the things that was good tonight is some of our veteran guys that had been in those situations, I thought, were able to give some of the other guys a lift that didn’t always translate to baskets or success, but you can feel a cohesion from our team, and without that, you’re not going to win. I’m confident we’ll carry that into the next game and do some things better that we need to do to win.”
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