Atlanta Hawks Drop Fourth Straight Game With An Ugly 117-94 Home Loss to Toronto

Just a week ago, the Hawks pulled a surprising upset over the Boston Celtics to win their third straight game and surge into the top half of the Eastern Conference.

One week later, they are suffering from a rash of injuries and just dropped their fourth straight game. Life comes at you fast in the NBA and the Hawks have learned that over the course of the last week, including tonight's ugly loss to the Toronto Raptors. It was their second loss just this week to Toronto and while the Raptors have been playing better recently, they have been one of the NBA's worst teams all season. They are now 2-1 vs the Hawks this season.

Now, it is hard to discuss this game without mentioning the injuries that Atlanta had tonight. They were missing Jalen Johnson, De'Andre Hunter, and Zaccharie Risacher. That is two of their two three scorers and one of their more effective defenders. Not only that, but it was the first game in nearly a month for Larry Nance Jr (hand surgery), who started this game due to all of the injuries on the wing. Nance still looked like his injury might be bothering him and he shot 2-10 from the field and had four points. Atlanta does not play all of Nance, Capela, and Okongwu in the same game often, but had too tonight out of necessity and it did not go well.

It is not Nance's fault though. The entire Hawks offense was completely absent from this game and there was plenty of poor play to go around. Trae Young had one of his worst games of the season tonight, finishing with 16 points, four assists, and 11 turnovers. This was the second straight poor performance for Young and the timing could not be worse. Until there is clarity on Jalen Johnson's injury, Young is going to have a heavy workload on his shoulders and Atlanta will need more from him.

Atlanta did get two solid performances from Vit Krejci and Onyeka Okongwu. Krejci had 20 points and shot 6-11 from three tonight, as well as getting seven assists and three steals. Okongwu had 19 points, eight rebounds, and five assists.

Atlanta's bench was brutal tonight. They were outscored 47-22 by the Raptors bench (with most of that coming from Chris Boucher) and there was a lot of bad shooting. Bogdan Bogdanovic was 2-12, Garrison Matthews was 1-5. Matthews and Bogdanovic (especially Bogdanovic) are relied upon heavily for scoring off the bench and both have been struggling lately. Atlanta shot 39% from the floor and 30% from three tonight and had 22 turnovers in the game. It was arguably their worst offensive performance of the season.

The Raptors got very good performances from Scottie Barnes (24 points), RJ Barrett (23 points) , and Chris Boucher (23 points) tonight. The Raptors shot 47% from the field and 37% from three. It was not a standout performance from the Raptors offense, but they did more than enough to beat the Hawks tonight.

Atlanta Hawks Drop Fourth Straight Game With An Ugly Loss to Toronto — Jan 25, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Vit Krejci (27) shoots in front of Toronto Raptors guard Gradey Dick (1) during the first half at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

With a lack of forwards tonight, Atlanta inserted Larry Nance into the starting lineup in place of Jalen Johnson. Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Vit Krejci, and Onyeka Okongwu were the other starters for Atlanta.

Toronto kept their starting lineup the same as Thursday. Grady Dick, Davion Mitchell, R.J. Barrett, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl.

The Hawks got off to a much better start tonight than they did on Thursday. The offense was doing a good job of moving the ball early and two threes from Krejci helped the Hawks get out to an 18-9 lead in the first half of the first quarter.

Vit splash 💦 pic.twitter.com/SvyMwZcgRe
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 26, 2025

The offense cooled off for the Hawks in the first quarter and it never really got going for the Raptors at all. Turnovers were an issue for both teams, as they both combined for 13 in the quarter alone. Atlanta led by as many as 12, but it was 27-22 heading to the second quarter. The Hawks shot 48% from the field and 43% from three while the Raptors shot 35% from the field and 29% from three. Krejci led all scorers with nine points. Daniels had eight points, three rebounds, and three assists. Okongwu had six points and three assists. Young struggled in the first quarter, scoring only two points and not getting any assists.

The second quarter could not have gone much worse for Atlanta. They missed their first six shots and the only points in the early going they got were from a pair of free throws made by Young. The Raptors on the other hand found their offense and got a big boost from Chris Boucher off the bench. Toronto would go on to outscore the Hawks 33-21 in the second quarter and held the Hawks to 32% shooting from the field and 27% from three. Toronto grabbed the lead 55-48 heading into the half and the Hawks offense had a lot that it had to figure out if they wanted to win the game.

At the half, Atlanta was shooting 39% from the field and 33% from three. Okongwu had a standout half with 15 points, six rebounds, and five assists and Krejci had 12 points on 4-6 shooting from three, but the rest of the team was struggling. Atlanta's bench unit of Bogdan Bogdanovic, David Roddy, Clint Capela, and Garrison Matthews combined for just five points in the first half.

Toronto shot 44% from the field in the first half and 41% from three. Barnes (12), Barrett (11), and Boucher (10) were all in double-digits for the Raptors. The two teams combined for 21 turnovers.

The Hawks needed a strong start in the third, but they did not get it. The poor shooting continued and Barrett and Barnes combined for the Raptors first 12 points of the quarter. With 7:47 left, Quin Snyder called a timeout with the Hawks trailing 67-55 and it felt like the game was starting to pull away from them.

The offense never got going in the third and the Hawks trailed Toronto 86-70 going into the final quarter. The Hawks shot 35% in the third quarter and had five turnovers.

Atlanta sent in Daeqwon Plowden to start the fourth quarter in hopes of a spark, but it was actually Clint Capela who gave the Hawks a jolt to start the quarter. He scored five straight points as part of a 9-2 run for the Hawks to start the quarter and they cut the lead to nine points. Atlanta had a chance to cut the lead to six, but Bogdanovic missed an open three-pointer (a regular occurrence tonight) and then the Raptors went on a 26-7 run to clinch the game. The final score was 117-94 and now the Hawks head into a tough stretch of games that would be tough even if they were fully healthy, which they are not. This team could be limping toward the All-Star break over the next few weeks, which is much different than it felt a week ago.

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