The Atlanta Hawks had a real chance to make things uncomfortable for the Los Angeles Lakers, but too many self-inflicted mistakes turned a competitive night into a rough finish.
Atlanta opened with an eight-point lead in the first quarter and gave itself a solid early platform. But by the end of the period, the Lakers had flipped the game, and from there they never really let go. Los Angeles eventually stretched the margin to as many as 20 points.
A big part of the story was how the Lakers changed the feel of the game defensively. Their switching 1-5 took Atlanta out of the paint and forced the Hawks into a style they don’t prefer. Atlanta is at its best when it can run and push the tempo, and once that was taken away, the offense had to work in a more half-court setting.
The Hawks also spent plenty of energy trying to slow down Luka Doncic. That part was not without some success.
Atlanta trapped him and used long, quick defenders like Lu Dort and Dyson Daniels to make life difficult, and Doncic had five first-half turnovers. With Austin Reaves out, the Hawks’ defensive approach made sense on paper.
But even with the pressure, Doncic still found a way to take over. He finished with 32 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocks, putting together a near triple-double while also making his presence felt on the defensive end.
The Hawks’ bigger problem was that they kept hurting themselves. In the first half alone, the Lakers piled up 28 points off the bench, 28 points in the paint, and 12 points off Atlanta turnovers.
The mistakes didn’t stop there. Atlanta finished with 20 turnovers, which led to 29 points off turnovers for Los Angeles, and the Lakers also added 10 second-chance points.
Another costly issue was the number of clean looks from deep that Atlanta allowed. Multiple Lakers players got rolling from three-point range, and that made the Hawks’ comeback path even steeper.
One of the few bright spots for Atlanta was McCollum, who gave the team 21 efficient points off the bench. That performance also pushed him past 17,000 career points in nearly 900 career games.
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