Three Things I Liked, Three Things I Disliked About The Atlanta Hawks This Past Week

The Atlanta Hawks are 7-1 in the eight games since the All-Star Break and their biggest acquisition at the trade deadline, Jonathan Kuminga, has only played in three of those games due to a nagging knee injury. Kuminga has been fantastic in the three games that he has been able to play, but Atlanta has managed to win without him as well.

Looking back on the last week, here are some things I liked and disliked about the Hawks week.

I liked that the Hawks continued to win

With this winning streak, the Hawks have positioned themselves to potentially make not just the top six of the Eastern Conference, but, maybe even the top five.

After Sunday's games, the Hawks are 3.5 games behind Toronto for the No. 5 spot in the East, 2.5 games behind the Magic and the Heat for No. 7 and No. 8, and 1.5 games behind the 76ers for the No. 8 spot. The Hawks own the tiebreaker over Philadelphia and if the win one of their final two games against the Magic, they will win that season series and the tiebreaker as well.

The schedule ahead for the Hawks provides plenty of opportunity as well. Atlanta faces Dallas, Brooklyn, and Milwaukee this week, a real chance to extend their winning streak to nine.

I didn't like the slow starts on defense

Against the Bucks, the Hawks allowed 71 points in the first half and Milwaukee shot 62% from the field and 11-19 from three. Against the 76ers, Atlanta allowed 73 points and 65% shooting from the field and 8-13 from three.

Now, Atlanta won both of those games and some of it was shooting luck, especially on the part of Milwaukee. However, the Hawks cannot afford slow starts against better teams.

I liked Jalen Johnson's play

In the two games this past week, Johnson averaged 27.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 8.0 APG while shooting 53% from the field and 50% from three.

Johnson tallied a game-high 35 points on 12-19 shooting, including a perfect 9-9 from the charity stripe, to go along with a team-high 10 rebounds, seven assists, and two steals in 39 minutes of play, securing his 39th double-double and his career-best 12th 30+ point performance this season. In four games against Philadelphia this season, Johnson has three double-doubles and one triple-double

He continues to make a case to be an All-NBA selection and he was awesome this past week.

I disliked the bench production

Now, Zaccharie Risacher had some impactful moments in both games this past week, but overall, the bench was weak, especially on Saturday against Philadelphia.

Against the 76ers, Atlanta produced 24 bench points and nobody produced a positive +/-. Risacher had 12 points on four made threes against Milwaukee and Corey Kispert had seven points and seven assists in that game as well.

The Hawks were missing Jonathan Kuminga to be fair, but the bench was underwhelming in both games.

I liked Quin Snyder's rotation decisions

One of the biggest criticisms of Snyder in Atlanta is his rotation and lineup decisions. Lately, he has shown the willingness to pull the plug on players who are not playing well and get them out of the game.

For example, Gabe Vincent played a quick five minute stint in the first half vs Milwaukee, but did not score a point and was a -11 in those minutes. He did not play in the second half. In the first half against Philly, he played four minutes, did not score a point, and was a -11 again in those minutes. He did not play the rest of the game.

Also against the 76ers, Kispert was struggling on defense and Snyder elected to go back to Risacher.

I disliked the turnovers

The Hawks averaged 16 turnovers per game this past week and while the 21 turnovers from the win over the 76ers skews this number a little, turnovers nearly cost the Hawks that game. They have to take better care of the ball in the games ahead to keep this winning streak alive.