Hawks Cruise in Charlotte

By Asa Forrest

The Atlanta Hawks traveled to Charlotte to take on the Hornets on December 16th. Coming into the game, the Hornets had been struggling as of late. After a heartbreaking loss in overtime to the Detroit Pistons, they were looking to bounce back in this game. On the other side, the Hawks had also been struggling. They had lost five of their last six games, with the only win coming in overtime against the Chicago Bulls. Both teams have been having injury problems recently, missing multiple key players. 

There was a lot on the line in this game. The Hornets were sitting bottom of the Eastern Conference, and any shot of playoff basketball was beginning to fade. After a poor run of form, the Hawks were beginning to fall in the Eastern Conference as well, almost falling out of a playoff spot. The Hawks took an early lead in the first quarter on the back of Trae Young’s 14 points. In his post-game interview, Young said, “It was important for us to come out and have a fast start. Obviously, we didn’t come out the way that we wanted to last game, but this is a new game and a new chance for us to come out and play better, so I’m glad that we did.” The Hornets seemed to struggle to get anything going, and they ended the quarter down 38-24. 

The Hornets seemed to find their offense in the second quarter, especially from beyond the arc. LaMelo Ball scored 14 points in this quarter alone, tying him for the most points by a Hornet in a single quarter this season. As a team, Charlotte went 7-13 from three in the second quarter, their most in a quarter this season. The Hawks took a 75-59 point lead into halftime. 

The Hornets came out of halftime on fire, cutting the Hawks’ lead to 4. The Hawks couldn’t seem to make a shot, and the Hornets took advantage of this. Hornets’ Forward Gordon Hayward said, “The start of the third quarter was great. Guys got on the floor multiple times. We were down four, I missed a good look, an open 3. If I hit that, we’re down one, but I couldn’t convert.” They started to slow down a bit towards the end of the quarter when LaMelo Ball was subbed out, but they only trailed by 6 going into the 4th quarter. 

The third quarter magic seemed to wear off into the fourth quarter, and the Hawks began to grow their lead again. The Hornets had no stop for Trae Young and Bogdan Bogdanovic, and the game finished 125-106, with the Hawks taking a comfortable win back to Atlanta. In talking about the win, Hawks’ coach Nate McMillan said, “That's the game that we try to play every night to be solid defensively, offensively, make sure we take care of the basketball and we get movement. I thought our bench really came in and played well for us and gave us some really good minutes throughout the game tonight.”

Hawks’ Guard Bogdan Bogdanovic had a real impact on the game. He had a season-high 28 points in his first start of the season. He was 7 of 10 from deep, with 9 rebounds in the game as well. In talking about Bogdanovic, Hornets’ coach Steve Clifford said, “I think he was 4-for-5 at halftime from 3. Sometimes in this league, that happens. We started in our base defense, he crushed it. We double-teamed him, he crushed it. He does that a lot.” 

With this win, the Hawks move to 15-15 on the season, while the Hornets fall to 7-22.