When the Atlanta Hawks lost point guard Trae Young to a hand injury for a month, initially there was some genuine concerns that the Hawks may struggle on the court. After the first two games everything went swell, as the Hawks clobbered the Orlando Magic 109-92 on Sunday and the Utah Jazz 124-97 on Tuesday.
Then on Thursday, the Hawks were unable to keep their two-game momentum, and were pounded 124-97 to the Brooklyn Nets. Ironically, it was the exact same score as of Tuesday where the Hawks beat the Jazz.
In the Brooklyn win, six players reached double digits in scoring. Power forward Cameron Johnson of Moon Township, Pennsylvania had 29 points, guard Dennis Schroder of Braunschweig, Germany (the third best player traded at the deadline) had 23 points, small forward Mikal Bridges of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had 15 points, center Day’Ron Sharpe of Greenville, North Carolina had 12 points, shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV of Reading, Pennsylvania had 11 points and point guard Dennis Smith Jr. of Fayetteville, North Carolina had 10 points.
What we learned from the Nets’s win on Thursday is the fact this Brooklyn team still has the drive to reach the NBA Play-In Tournament. Despite being winners of three of their last 10 games, and being 13 games below the .500 mark at 23 wins and 36 losses, they are only three games back of the Hawks.
The fact that the NBA continues to reward mediocrity is downright ridiculous. The Chicago Bulls and Hawks, which are in ninth and 10th place in the Eastern Conference respectively, are a combined 10 games below .500 and should not be in the playoff conversation whatsoever.
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