Defense, rebounding sink Hawks in 130-118 loss to Nets

The Atlanta Hawks hosted the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday night, going for their first winning streak in quite some time after a win Monday against the Warriors that snapped a ten-game losing skid for the club.

After suffering a dislocated finger in the win Monday, De’Andre Hunter joined the list of inactives for Atlanta, while Kevin Huerter made his return off the bench with a 15-minute restriction from head coach Lloyd Pierce. Chandler Parsons (flu) and Allen Crabbe (knee) were also unavailable for Atlanta.

Kyrie Irving (shoulder) remained out for Brooklyn. Taurean Prince returned to Atlanta for the first time since being traded to Brooklyn for a package of draft picks this past Summer.

The Hawks got off to a 9-2 run to start play, with five points in the early going from Cam Reddish.

The Nets climbed back in it from there, trailing by only three with under 4:00 left in the opening period. Damian Jones was active for the Hawks early, scoring nine points in the opening period.

A sloppy quarter for both sides ended with Atlanta up 26-22. Jones led all scorers with nine points, while Spencer Dinwiddie and Jarrett Allen both had six points for the Nets in the opening period.

The Nets bridged an 8-0 run across the end of the first and opening moments of the second to take a 30-26 lead at the 9:23 mark in the second. Prince came to life in the second for Brooklyn, hitting the fifteen-point mark with 4:36 remaining before the half.

Atlanta’s offense struggled immensely in the second quarter, scoring just nine points in the first 7:24 of action in the period. Trae Young hit a pair of three-pointers down the stretch of the quarter, with the second pulling Atlanta back within two at the 2:01 mark before the break.

Brooklyn responded quickly with threes from David Nwaba and Joe Harris to stretch the lead back to eight, closing the quarter on an 11-4 run to take a nine-point lead (56-47) into half.

Prince led all scorers with 15 points in the opening half, shooting 6-of-11 from the floor and 3-for-5 from three-point-range. Allen had eight points and eight rebounds (six offensive) heading to the third period. The Nets had eight offensive rebounds in the second quarter alone, dominating the glass.

Jones led Atlanta with 13 first half points (6-for-6 from the field), while Young had 12 points and five assists at the break.

Young started the second half on fire, scoring eight points in the opening two minutes of the third quarter. However, the Hawks were unable to get a stop so they were unable to trim the margin at that point.

This trend continued throughout the third, as the Atlanta offense was able to keep pace with Brooklyn while the defense could not get them the stops they needed to close the gap. The Nets took a 13-point lead into the later moments of the third.

A Reddish three (his third of the game) cut it back to eight with under a minute remaining in the third. The Hawks trailed 91-82 heading to the fourth.

Reddish stayed hot into the fourth, scoring seven straight points for Atlanta at one point early in the quarter.

The Hawks again however struggled to get stops and still trailed by fifteen inside the six-minute mark, and were unable to mount any run of substance from there, ultimately falling 130-116.

Young finished with 39 points and ten assists, leading the way for Atlanta in both categories. For the second time in as many games, Jones set a career-mark for points, scoring 20 tonight after posting 16 on Monday. Reddish also set his career/season high for points with 25, going for 4-for-7 from three-point-range and 10-for-17 from the floor overall.

Garrett Temple led the way for Brooklyn with 27 points, while Allen finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds, helping control the glass for the Nets (Brooklyn out-rebounded the Hawks 53-35 in the contest). Prince finished with 23 points in his return to Atlanta.