Kristaps Porzingis reveals how to unlock Atlanta’s firepower

ATLANTA, Ga. – Everything was good until it wasn’t. The Atlanta Hawks came out in the first half of their game against the Toronto Raptors, clicking on all cylinders. The ball was moving along the wire, shots were falling, and the defense was suffocating. Without Tree Youngthis is how the Hawks will have to play if they want to achieve success and wins.

If they do the opposite, things might not go their way, and that’s what happened in the second half. The Hawks were outplayed, leading to turnovers and bad shots late in the shot clock. The Raptors took advantage and brought another victory in Atlanta in two weeks, with a 109-97 victory. When you don’t have a player like Young on the court, it can be hard to get easy shots.

Kristaps Porzingis knows this, but also thinks the Hawks have done well without Young so far. At the same time, he knows the reality of the situation: things just aren’t as easy as they used to be.

“I think we’re doing a good job,” Porzingis said after the game. “We won a couple of games, we lost one tonight. The offensive firepower isn’t the same; that’s true. But we still have a lot of firepower. We can run, we can go, and we’ve got guys stepping up and playing well. He’s just going to add more when he comes back, but it’s also not ideal because we want to get those minutes.”

Consistency is the name of the game for the Hawks right now. There have been moments in the last few games where they have looked good in attack, but when things get tight, that’s when they fall apart, similar to what happened tonight.

The Hawks fall apart offensively in the second half against the Raptors

It was a tale of two halves as the Hawks shot 45% from the field in the first half and 26% in the second. It was more difficult to get shots, especially in the fourth quarter, where the Hawks took the lead. Too many times they ended up passing too much instead of taking the open shot, which put them in a bad position more than once.

“We have to realize that they are our targets,” head coach Quin Snyder said. “When you’re open, let it fly.” Don’t think about it. Because as you walk away from the clock, you miss a shot, you probably won’t get a better one. We have confidence in our guys to take them on; you have to. A lot of times, when we would get into the lane and people were open, we missed them too.”

“In the first half we played our game at our pace, and in the second half we didn’t even play the game,” Zachary Rizacher said. “That helped them come back, and it was close from that point on, and they found confidence; they played more in transition. We didn’t get it right after the first half.”

Obviously yes The Hawks are still adjusting without their generaland they know they have to find other ways to get easy bins. As time goes on, that chemistry and flow of play should improve, but first they have to take the hits the defense gives them.

The Hawks will have another chance to find consistency when they play the Los Angeles Lakers in less than 24 hours.