Three Things That Mattered in Atlanta's Preseason Loss to the Grizzlies

Are preseason losses catastrophic in the grand scheme of things? No, but the Atlanta Hawks would have liked to have had a better start to their year than they did last night.

After leading the Memphis Grizzlies 35-33 after the first quarter, Memphis proceeded to outscore the Hawks 49-26 in the second quarter, shooting 8-11 from three in the process, and they never lost the lead after that. Atlanta kept battling, but they started the preseason with a suboptimal performance against Memphis.

When looking at the game last night, what are the three things that mattered most from the result?

1. Hawks defensive woes in the second quarter

In case you missed it, the Hawks were missing CJ McCollum and Lu Dort last night, but missing McCollum is not a reason for the defense to have been better. Dort on the other hand is supposed to help the Hawks have one of the best perimeter defenses in the NBA, but his presence was missed last night.

The lineup that sent the Hawks into a defensive abyss was Kingston Flemings-Aaron Wiggins-Corey Kispert-Asa Newell-Jock Landale. That is not an optimal frontcourt trio to have out there on defense and having a defensive rating of more than 200.0 is proof.

Now, I don't have huge cause for concern because I think that in the regular season, Quin Snyder is not going to have a lineup that doesn't have at least one of Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, or Dort out there, but if Newell and Landale are going to have big roles on this team, they need to play better defense.

2. Asa Newell gets first crack at backup power forward

One of the biggest position battles for the Hawks is the backup power forward spot and without Mouhamed Gueye available last night, it was second year forward Asa Newell that got the first crack at it and there were mixed results.

In the first half, Newell's defense was a real problem and not in a good way. He was a -12 when on the court in the first half and only had three points and three rebounds. For his first audition for a real spot in the rotation, it was not a great first impression.

Things got better in the second half though. Newell had nine points and nine rebounds in the second half to finish with with 12 points and 12 rebounds on 5-9 shooting to go along with two assists and two steals.

Newell excelled in the G-League last season and in games against tanking teams. Is he able to scale up and play well against tough NBA competition or does he just put up numbers against that kind of competition?

3. Hawks have real talent in their two-way contracts

It is hard to find a team with better talent at their two-way contract spots than the Atlanta Hawks.

RayJ Dennis, Jalen Wilson, and Keshon Gilbert all made impacts in the second half and helped the Hawks fight back from a big deficit. Wilson and Dennis had 12 points each and had the best plus/minus on the team during the game while Gilbert was able to provide on-ball pressure against the Grizzlies guards in the second half.

These players may not be every night guys for the Hawks, but it will be exciting to watch them develop in College Park this season and see if they can continue to be winning players at that level.

Add us as a preferred source on Google