The Atlanta Hawks beat the Utah Jazz 132-122 in a barnburner of a match, with neither team missing shots nor applying any defensive pressure. Atlanta’s offense was powered by a scorching effort from three as they were just one shy of a franchise record 25 threes. The Hawks were without Kristaps Porzingis but gained Nickeil Alexander-Walker after his two-game absence.
Four Hawks shot above 50% from deep: Onyeka Okongwu (8/14), Vit Krejci (6/8), Jalen Johnson (4/5), and Luke Kennard (4/7). These four players accounted for 22 threes, good for nearly half of Atlanta’s points. Krejci has gone nuclear during the Hawks’ west coast road trip, shooting 17/23 (73.9%) over this three-game stretch.
Johnson built upon his strong performance in Wednesday night’s victory against the Kings, dropping a hyper-efficient 31 points, 18 rebounds, 14 assists, and 7 steals on 10/19 from the field. No player in NBA history has ever reached these numbers over a single game.
Johnson showed he had the tools to be a true star last season but had a slow start to this season. As the Hawks build a humble winning streak, Johnson could parlay these strong performances into the beginning of his true breakout season – a season where he can finally claim All-Star status.
Okongwu had himself a night as well, scoring a team-high 32 points on 11/18 shooting with 11 boards, 2 steals, and 3 blocks to support. His eight threes were a career high as he is taking yet another leap as an overall player this season. The slow-footed Jusuf Nurkic was no match for Okongwu’s three point gravity and burst to beat bad closeouts.
Okongwu has quietly become one of the most effective centers in the league at exploiting slow, lumbering bigs. While tonight’s shooting performance was anomalous, the concept of big offensive performances against centers like Nurkic is nothing new to the USC product.
He has already carved up Nikola Vucevic and Domantas Sabonis in two games this season, albeit led by his inside game. If Okongwu can continue to dominate these types of bigs, the Hawks will have a major advantage in a playoff matchup against the Knicks or 76ers.
The Hawks’ hot shooting hid an overall weak performance from the squad, which struggled mightily on the glass and in transition defense. These two weaknesses have haunted the Hawks all season, and while the knockdown shooting prevented an embarrassing loss to Utah, Atlanta must address this moving forward if it wants to truly be competitive.
