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ATLANTA – Nikola Jokic has been hard to stop this season and the Atlanta Hawks got a taste of it, breaking their six-game win streak and losing 141-111. After coming off of a game where he finished with 56 points, 16 rebounds, and eight assists, Jokic came back the very next day and finished with 48 points, 14 rebounds, and eight assists. From the opening to seconds to where he hit a three-pointer to the end of the game, Jokic dominated and the Hawks didn't have an answer.
“To me, it starts with [Jokic] is the best player in the world, but you can’t get back cut on an out-of-bounds [play],” head coach Quin Snyder said after the game. “We didn’t have the urgency we needed on the defensive end. Offensively, we got some really good looks, so some of that, you want to say we need to hit more shots. I think we took some contested shots at the rim, and we could’ve got better ones.”
The Hawks did get some good shots throughout the game, but they weren't falling. They started the first quarter 0-from-8 from three and missed some easy layups at the rim as well. Wherever there was a mistake, or the Nuggets were in the halfcourt, Jokic found a way to hurt them almost every time.
“It’s hard to contain a guy like that,” Dyson Daniels said. “You have to either give up a big game to him or give up a big game to their other guys. We just throw double and triple teams at him. I think we had the right game plan tonight we just didn’t execute. Jokic killed us. A guy like that, it’s tough. It’s not really one thing you can do to slow him down. It’s just more about being solid, taking away that roll and pocket pass, and trying to make it tough on him. Tonight, we were sloppy and didn’t take much away, so they got whatever they wanted.”
The Hawks found some life in the second half and went on a 16-2 run to cut their 30-point deficit down to 16, but the Nuggets put their foot on the pedal and grew back their lead.
Hawks' six-game losing streak broken by Nuggets
The Hawks came into the game without Jalen Johnson and Bogdan Bogdanovic, two of their key players who helped them through their winning streak and are important to the overall team's success. Their absence showed as the offense found it hard to generate points consistently throughout the game unless Trae Young was on the court.
“When you don’t have all your guys in the lineup, it’s back to where we were last time before our winning streak,” Young said. “Tough to find a rhythm, that didn’t give us an excuse for losing. We still should’ve went out there and played better. When you step out there you should feel like you have a chance to win. We still had a chance to do that tonight, but I don’t think that’s going to carry over the next game.”
Young couldn't get it going in the beginning, going into halftime with only one point, but he started to get more aggressive in the second half.
[Russell Westbrook] was face-guarding me the whole time, he didn’t really leave me,” Young said. “When I came off of screens Jokic was sometimes up, sometimes be in drop. I really wasn’t seeing anything differently. It’s just one of them games. We’re going to scratch this, learn from some of the mistakes we did, and move on. We’ll be alright.”
The hope is that the Hawks can get back to full health in their next game, as they face the New York Knicks in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup. This team has shown over the past two weeks what they can do when everyone is available, and in a game like that, it'll be important to have everyone on deck.
