The Atlanta Hawks are coming off a big win against the Cleveland Cavaliers the day before Thanksgiving, and that's been the story of the season for the team so far. The Hawks have impressive wins this season against the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Cavs but also have losses to the Washington Wizards twice, who are dead last in the Eastern Conference.
There's no doubt that the Hawks have been inconsistent, but their win against the Cavs was an example of what the team expected to look like this season. Trae Young spoke about the team's inconsistencies after the game.
“We’ve been a little bit inconsistent with how we’ve been playing, but times where we’ve been playing really well, we’ve been playing really well,” Young said. “If we can just find some kind of consistency with the way we play really well, I think it’ll help us. You can see how we play when we’re all healthy and we’re all playing really well at a high level, and see what we can do.”
The Hawks are still trying to build chemistry early due to the multiple injuries they suffered early, and there have been some positive signs in the past few games. Bogdan Bogdanovic is starting to become for efficient, and De'Andre Hunter has looked like a different player when he's on the court. Kobe Bufkin had one of his best games of the season against the Cavs, and the hope is that those three players can continue to trend upward for the second unit as the season progresses.
Hawks looking to find consistency
The Hawks have had some tough losses this season, and their last one came against the Dallas Mavericks earlier this week. The Mavericks were without Luka Doncic and Klay Thompson, but they were able to get a win with Kyrie Irving scoring 16 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter. It wasn't only Irving, but Spencer Dinwiddie and Jaden Hardy had big games as well.
Throughout the season, it's always been the role players for the other teams that have hurt the Hawks, and Trae Young acknowledged it after their loss against the Mavericks.
“I don’t think any of us expect teams to come in and feel like they might have a bad night right now,” Young said. “Everybody's shooting well, everybody's doing well right now, so it's definitely frustrating because you see the scouting report, you watch the film, and guys aren't playing the way they do when they come here.”
One thing to point out while the Hawks were on their three-game losing streak was the chemistry, as they were getting players back from injury. Though that could be a good reason, Young didn't want to use it as an excuse for why they had been playing the way they had.
“I don't like using that excuse that we need time to gel, but in reality, it could be true,” Young said. “This is [Kobe Bufkin's] first year really being in the rotation, and now he's back out there playing. This is [Bogdan Bogdanovic's] third game back, so we're still trying to figure it out, but we should still be better.”
With a big win against the Cavaliers, hopefully, the Hawks can find some consistency and continue to climb up the standings in the conference.
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