ATLANTA – The Atlanta Hawks have shown resilience throughout the entire season, and it’s given the good results and bad results. Over the past few games, they’ve resulted in the latter, and their recent loss came against the Detroit Pistons. It was a game that came down to the wire with the Hawks battling in the fourth quarter to come back, but it wasn’t enough in the end to get the win.
Despite the loss, the Hawks are still trying to find positives through this stretch of games, especially when the result of winning isn’t coming to fruition.
“We got some good, young guys that are playing well,” Young said after the game. “It’s hard to go out there and not focus on winning and losing as a competitor with how much work we put in. It’s definitely hard when you don’t see the result as what you want it to be, but you have to focus on the bright side of things.
“Dyson played really well again, being aggressive. Zacch hit some big shots for us. One day, those threes that he’s making will be more crucial for us on an even more winning team. It’s hard to process that type of mentality, but we’ve been doing it all year, and it’s worked. We just gotta keep doing it.”
Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, and others kept the Hawks in the game throughout the evening, but Cade Cunningham was too much to deal with, finishing with 38 points, 12 assists, and seven assists. Nonetheless, it wasn’t Cunningham who hurt the Hawks down the stretch of the game, but Malik Beasley and Dennis Schroder came up big for the Pistons when they needed it.
Hawks’ fourth-quarter comeback not enough to defeat Pistons
Cade Cunningham had 29 of his 38 points in the first half, and it was almost as if nothing could be done to stop him. Coming out of halftime, the Hawks decided to double and throw different coverages at him, which led to him only scoring nine points the rest of the way.
“Cade was getting where he wanted to,” Trae Young said. “If he was coming off the screen he was throwing it to somebody and they were getting catch and shoot threes or throwing it to the big. We weren’t making the person he was throwing to to make another pass. That’s what we did in the second half; we were getting it out of his hand early and forcing other guys to play.”
Though Cunningham cooled down in the second half, the Hawks still had to gain ground to make it a game down the stretch. Georges Niang was big for the Hawks as he finished with 27 points shooting 7-for-14 from three, but there were still some times during the game when the chemistry seemed off with the new acquisitions on the team.
“As frustrating as it is, especially losing a game to a team that’s right there with us in the standings, we still have some news guys that we’re trying to get accustomed to playing how we play, being aggressive, shooting it, and understanding how I play. But we’ll get it right,” Young said.
The Hawks still have a few games coming up that can help them climb in the standings, and the next two games are against the Miami Heat, who are just one game ahead of them in the Eastern Conference.
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