What We Learned From Atlanta's 120-106 Win Over Portland Last Night

The Hawks and the Blazers were both short-handed last night, but the Blazers more than Atlanta and while it was not easy from start to finish, the Hawks got a double-digit win over the Blazers. It was the third straight win for Atlanta and they remain 1.5 games behind the Chicago Bulls for the No. 9 spot in the Eastern Conference. 

So what did we learn from last night's game?

1. Garrison Matthews continues his impressive stretch

During the early parts of this season, Garrison Matthews was buried in the Hawks bench and struggled in the minutes he did get. When De'Andre Hunter and Jalen Johnson went down with injuries, Matthews started some games. His three-point shooting has been very good all season and in two of the past three games, Matthews has eclipsed 20 points, the only times he has even had double-digit scoring games this year. He has become an important player for the Hawks off the bench because of his ability to make threes and score. He could have set a career-high in points last night if he had not fouled out. 

2. The Hawks three-point shooting continues to be hot

The Hawks had outstanding nights shooting from three in wins over the Hornets (48%) and Monday's game vs the Celtics (50%) and while their three-point shooting dropped to 39% last night, it continues an impressive stretch of shooting games for the Hawks, who are now 14th in the NBA in three-point percentage. Last night, the Hawks did not get the same production from De'Andre Hunter and Vit Krejci that they got from them on Monday vs the Celtics, but they will need to step up again if the Hawks want any chance of hanging with the Celtics.

3. Atlanta got unexpected help from Dylan Windler

Since signing Windler to a two-way contract, he had only played in three games for the Hawks, with his season high in minutes (19) coming in Saturday's win over Charlotte. Windler got to play 17 minutes last night and he had his best game as a Hawk, scoring 11 points (all in the second quarter) and shooting 3-5 from three. With the Hawks on the second night of a back-to-back, you could see Windler get 15-20 minutes tonight vs Boston.