Jaylen Johnson reveals the ‘huge’ factor behind the loss against the Hornets

ATLANTA, Georgia – The Atlanta Hawks they had the Charlotte Hornets – winners of their last eight games – right where they wanted them midway through the fourth quarter. They just fought back after being down nine points early in the quarter, and Zachary Rizacher’s three-pointer gave them three points advantage with less than eight minutes to go. The Hawks didn’t have the lead much longer, and went cold down the stretch, leading The Hornets win their ninth straight game.

If you look at the game, you wouldn’t think the Hawks are too far behind the Hornets; they just missed a lot of shots when it mattered most. Pull up the stats and you’ll see that one of the biggest turnovers in the match was the rebound.

The Hornets had a +19 advantage on the boards, and that’s what ultimately doomed the Hawks for the entire match.

“The rejection was a huge thing coming into the game,” Jalen Johnson he said. “I just don’t think we did the best job on the glass tonight. I have to be better on the glass, but we also gave up a lot of open looks, and that was part of it. Overall, I thought we played a solid game.”

“I thought early in the game we did a really good job on the glass and we were able to pull away,” Quin Snyder said. “I think we played well during that point. A lot of it, you just have to rebound, on both ends, to the point where we can close that gap by getting more offensive rebounds. That’s another way to solve it, it’s the possession game. That’s something that’s been our focus from day one, whether it’s rebounding, rebounding, taking care of rebounding.”

Moussa Diabate had 15 rebounds, five of which were offensive rebounds. Ryan Kalkbrenner only had five rebounds, but four were offensive rebounds.

The Hornets totaled 16 offensive rebounds, while the Hawks finished with just five.

That’s an area where the Hawks have struggled since the start of the season, and they’re near the bottom of the league in that category. Regardless, in this game, the Hawks still gave themselves a chance towards the end to win. It started with Jaylen Johnson, who finished with 31 points, 25 of which came in the second half.

Although it didn’t go his way in the first half, he still found a way to influence the game.

“I might miss my first few shots of the game and other guys might make it, so that opens up a playmaking opportunity for me,” Johnson said. “Obviously, when the time comes, I pick my spots, I’m going to be aggressive when I need to be, and that approach has helped me stay even-keeled when I’m not shooting the ball well to start the game.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get the Hawks to victory, and they’ll get another chance when they play the Minnesota Timberwolves on February 9th.