Hawks vs. Clippers: L.A. Goes From Lob City To Bomb City To Beat Atlanta

Quick Thought: Glad the road trip is over.

Deep(er) Thoughts:

The lack of energy was obvious, but the fight was there. Having the Clippers shoot even marginally better than the usually do was enough to hold the Hawks back, though they had some chances to make it interesting again.

The first quarter saw the Clippers shoot out of their minds from the outside, which is exactly what the Hawks wanted them to do -- hit tough, contested shots versus exploring more of the Lob City world. Yet, the Hawks weathered that storm and got back into the game.

The bench was making it happened until the scoreboard changed over to the second quarter. Quickly, the Hawks got down by double digits and they could never pull closer than four the rest of the way.

The Clippers usually shoot 8-22 from both three-point range and from 16-23 feet. Wednesday night they shot 10-20 from three and 8-19 from the 16-23 range.

The Hawks couldn't get it completely going on either end, perhaps still reeling physically from the overtime loss in Denver the night before and getting into L.A. at 2 am local time. The end result was an L.A. win 96-82.

Afterthoughts:

The Hawks still got some good efforts from the starting frontcourt of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia. Josh, in fact, was the only Hawk starter to break even on +/-, having missed a large part of the first half with foul trouble.

The Hawks played with only 10 guys ready to go, after Marvin Williams had to miss with an injury he sustained on a "no call" transition crash to the floor in Denver.

Tracy McGrady and Jannero Pargo look good in the box score, but only if you ignore the seven turnovers between them in 40 combined minutes. Those turnovers stunted momentum time and time again for a team that needed to play better than usual basketball to win, especially given the hotness of the host Clippers from the field.

Final Thought:

2-4 road trip was way less than horrible. This game against the Clippers was the only one that could not be won. This, despite dealing with a lot of lost rotational minutes. I told Clips Nation writer Steve Perrin that seeing Stackhouse, McGrady and Dampier wasn't mop up time -- they play key minutes!

For more on the Atlanta Hawks check out SB Nation Atlanta, follow Jason Walker and Kris Willis, along with Peachtree Hoops on Twitterand check out the Peachtree Hoops Facebook Fan Page.