Friday night was a source of frustrations aplenty for the Atlanta Hawks. Not only did they suffer a close 123-121 loss against the Toronto Raptors, one sequence in the first half pushed head coach Quin Snyder's buttons to the point of ejection. In the second quarter, Jakob Poeltl set a bone-crunching screen on Trae Young that looked like an offensive foul. The officials, however, swallowed their whistle. This then triggered Snyder to the point where the Hawks head coach racked up two technical fouls in rapid succession.

However, Snyder may have been valid in his anger. In fact, the referees wasted no time in proving the Hawks head coach right in his belief that Poeltl should have been called for an offensive foul. In the referees' Pool Report following the Hawks' defeat against the Raptors, crew chief Karl Lane admitted that there was illegal contact from Poeltl to Young on the screen.

“During the time on the court, we felt that Jakob Poeltl got to a legal guarding position, but when we looked at it at halftime, we did notice that it was illegal leg-to-leg contact and there should have been a foul called,” Lane told reporters, via Kevin Keneely of University of Georgia.

Nonetheless, Karl Lane was firm in his stance that the Hawks head coach warranted an ejection with his reaction to the errant non-call.

“He continued to charge toward the official and continued to use profane language,” Lane answered in response to the question of why Quin Snyder received an early trip to the locker room.

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This season has simply been full of frustrations for the Hawks; after putting up a good account of themselves in their first-round exit against the Boston Celtics in the 2023 NBA playoffs, which led many to believe that they'll be in the running for a top-six finish in the Eastern Conference, they have fallen way short of expectations.

Thus, it becomes doubly infuriating when the seemingly small things during a ballgame, such as a missed offensive foul call, don't go their way. Alas, the Hawks have to remain composed in the face of adversity.