The Hawks will get a quick chance to respond to Saturday’s loss in Houston, but the road setup doesn’t make the assignment any easier. Atlanta faces the Rockets again Monday night, and this time the game comes at Houston instead of State Farm Arena, with the Hawks trying to hand the Rockets their first blemish of the season.
Atlanta’s injury report for Game 4 is short. Mouhamed Gueye, who is dealing with a left foot fracture, remains out, and Henri Veesaar is also unavailable after tearing his right ACL.
Gueye has not yet returned from the summer injury, and there still isn’t a timetable for his comeback. Veesaar, meanwhile, remains out for the season and will continue to appear on Atlanta’s injury reports.
Houston has its own availability questions. Steven Adams is out, while Marcus Smart is questionable. Both were sidelined on Saturday night as well.
If Atlanta wants a different result, the biggest fix is obvious: the shot making from deep has to improve. The Hawks opened the game 5-for-27 from three, and that cold start helped sink them against a Rockets team that’s a difficult matchup for them.
After the game, Quin Snyder pointed to the challenge of creating good looks against Houston’s size and length, while also acknowledging the possessions Atlanta has to sharpen up.
"You know, it's hard. We know how important the defensive boards are for us to get out and go.
And the best way to attack them in space, they're so big and they're spread out. When you get in the half court, it's harder.
So you have to take those shots. We can look at them and see how contested they were.
But a lot of times, that's the best shot you're going to get in the possession. When we got on the offensive glass, We were able to get another one.
Those are shots that we can rebound. I think we knew the defensive class.
I thought early, especially. Sheppard and Bogi's threes, those were some breakdowns we've got to clean up.
Those guys are really good shooters. We know that.
Someone might have a hot night, but we've got to limit their attempts. We're more solid there in rebound.
I think the offense becomes easier. But I thought we got some good stuff at the rim, too.
We just weren't able to finish. As I said, we can play better.
We'll look at the film and see the things that we didn't do well and try to correct them and continue to improve. But, again, I think the fact that we didn't let up and to get to a point where we got a chance to make it a game, I thought we executed well down the stretch as well."
Houston’s size, length, and athleticism make it one of the toughest teams Atlanta can draw, and while the Hawks weren’t awful on Saturday, they still have a lot to clean up if they want to leave with a win.
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