The Atlanta Hawks gave up a wide-open dunk with 4.1 seconds left on the clock against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night, gift-wrapping a victory for the Cavs by a final margin of 112-111.
This clip underscores the tremendous defensive miscue that led to the Cavs’ bucket:
also, why in the world did Solomon Hill decide to try and double? pic.twitter.com/JzytKlUsbF
— Jordan Zirm (@JordanZirm) February 24, 2021
As you can see, an oddly timed double-team from veteran wing Solomon Hill–a truly head-scratching play from an eight-year veteran–led to one easy pass from point guard Collin Sexton to a nonchalantly cutting Lamar Stevens.
The bucket was Stevens’ biggest career highlight so far in the NBA, as he has only played 20 games for the Cavs in his rookie season out of Penn State.
For Trae Young and the Hawks, it was a disastrous loss that should lead to some real soul-searching for the entire organization. Coming into Tuesday's action, the Cavs had the longest losing streak in the NBA with 10 straight defeats. They had one of the worst records in the NBA at 10-21.
With that said, one rather low-IQ move from a widely respected NBA veteran led to all of that being erased.
As expected, the Hawks camp had plenty of reporting on the subject, including from Kevin Chouinard of NBA.com and Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Solomon Hill on the final defensive possession:
"I take the blame for that."
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) February 24, 2021
Trae Young said that he didn't want to foul Stevens or leave the corner shooter.
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) February 24, 2021
Pierce: "Solo was caught out of position & randomly ran at the basketball & we’re a man down when you do that because it’s up the floor & we just needed somebody to step in. It’s a scramble drill, at that point… We had enough guys back, but we didn’t get organized/communicate."
— Sarah K. Spencer (@sarah_k_spence) February 24, 2021
The loss dropped the Hawks to a 13-18 record, which is 11th in the Eastern Conference. The truly ludicrous decision from Hill only underscores one of the major problems for the 2020-21: a lack of team-wide communication.
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