On Monday evening, Bogdan Bogdanovic and the Atlanta Hawks picked up their fifth win in six games with a resounding road victory over the Chicago Bulls, the team they will more than likely face in the NBA Play-In game later on this season. Bogdanovic made several highlight plays throughout the evening, including nailing one triple from near halfcourt toward the end of the shot clock in the third quarter, and although the Hawks weren't quite able to pass Chicago in the standings yet, they are now just a half game back of the Bulls, with a game vs the NBA-worst Detroit Pistons looming on Wednesday evening at State Farm Arena.
Still, the win did not occur without controversy. With just a few minutes left in the game, Chicago broadcast cameras caught Bogdanovic appear to get into a heated argument with Hawks head coach Quin Snyder during a timeout and tossing a water bottle to the side, which resulted in a slight delay as United Center crews tried to clean the spillage.
After the game, while Snyder didn't directly reference the altercation, he did address his relationship with Bogdanovic and made it clear that there are no issues on that front.
“Bogi was terrific. And he and I are in a great place. Better than good. Great,” said Snyder at his post game press conference, per Bally Sports: Hawks on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.
Cameras also showed Bogdanovic and Snyder appearing to shake hands just a few moments after the argument, which was made all the more bizarre by the fact that Atlanta was leading by double digits and essentially had the game in hand at the time the argument took place.
A turbulent season for the Hawks
Not much has gone right for the Hawks this season. While Trae Young and Dejounte Murray have both put up solid individual stats, their lack of chemistry in the backcourt has become increasingly difficult to ignore, leading to rampant speculation that at least one, if not both of them, will be traded away this coming offseason, barring an unthinkable deep playoff run beginning in a few weeks.
Bogdanovic has also enjoyed by far the best season of his career and would be the likely favorite for the Sixth Man of the Year award if his team wasn't so far down in the standings. Unfortunately, Bogdanovic is one of a plethora of players on the Hawks roster who profile as below average, if not downright terrible, on the defensive side of the ball, which is the main reason that Atlanta is currently in tenth place in the league's weaker conference.
As previously noted, Atlanta has heated up a bit in recent weeks, ironically occurring after Young was lost due to a finger injury for an unclear amount of time. With just two weeks to go until the Play-In round, it would be virtually impossible for the Hawks to get any higher than ninth in the Eastern Conference before the regular season concludes.
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