Behind 100 points from their starting five, the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-97 on Martin Luther King Day at State Farm Arena.
For the Hawks, the win could not have come at a better time, dropping their last two games and blowing leads in both.
“It wasn’t pretty, but it’s a win, and we’ll take a win. It’s easier to watch a film after a win, it’s easy to communicate with the guys after the win, and the good thing is we get to play them again and hopefully correct some of the sloppiness of the game,” Lloyd Pierce said.
What sloppiness?
As a team, the Hawks coughed the ball up a season-high 26 times. Pierce said that calling the number of turnovers “more than [the team] would like,” Pierce called it an “understatement,” specifically focusing on the team’s ability to execute.
“We continue to try and play fast, and then we don’t have anything; we stay unorganized,” Pierce said. “A lot of our turnovers is, instead of just settling down and getting us organized to a set, we just start making up things.”
Aside from the turnovers, the Hawks played an efficient game as they debut their MLK uniforms and court. They shot 47% from the field, 32% from three and 92% on free throws. They also made it difficult for the Timberwolves to find many open shots and taking advantage of the 17 Minnesota turnovers.
Individually, the home team thrived on both ends of the floor in what Pierce described as a “balanced” game, as all starters notched 15 or more points, led by particular De’Andre Hunter’s season-high 25 and Clint Capela’s 23 and 11 rebounds.
“I had a lot of open shots, open threes, missed a few early, connected on a few in the second half. Just my overall aggression, I think, helped me in this game,” Hunter said.
Capela performed well and said he’s feeling “way, way better” and more comfortable with the Hawks. But he took the time to talk about what it meant to him to play on MLK Day and wear the custom jerseys while playing on the one-of-a-kind court.
“It means so much, especially here at home in Atlanta, and it was really important for us to get this win,” Capela said. “2020 was a tough year where I learned a lot by being international and by being a Black man in this country coach gave us a speech before this game to really let us know how important is for him to see our growth as a team and use the country as an example to our growth as a team.”
After the game, Pierce praised Hunter’s improvements from last year to this year, especially his aggressiveness. Hunter picked up his first technical foul of the season. A quiet and shy persona, it is unlike him to let his emotions get the best of him, but Pierce was happy about it.
“You’re starting to see some fire, you’re starting to see some passion, you’re starting to see some intensity from a guy who’s pretty reserved, and I like [Hunter’s] level of engagement,” Pierce said.
Hunter himself has seen the vast improvement from just a season ago and feels like he’s benefitting well from it. In his eyes, his most significant improvements have been “attacking downhill … and not settling [for jumpshots] and “drawing fouls.”
Trae Young got in foul trouble early but still put up 20 points on just eight shot attempts (11-12 from the free-throw line) and season-highs of eight rebounds and 15 assists. He also contributed to Atlanta’s turnovers with six of his own but acknowledged his wrongdoing.
“They’re a super scrappy team; they’re going to get teams to turn the ball over just because of how scrappy they are,” Young said. “For us, we were really loose with it. [The] ball slipped out of my hand a couple of times just trying to gather it and just trying to be loose with it kept them around in the game.”
Kevin Heurter got the start in place of Cam Reddish and made the most of it, playing a solid game with 17 points, six rebounds, eight assists and four steals, which tied a career-high for him that he set earlier this season. John Collins posted 15 points and four rebounds.
On the other end, the Wolves were without their all-star center Karl-Anthony Towns and heavily relied on just a few players for shots.
Outside of D’Angelo Russell’s 31 points, only Anthony Edwards and Malik Beasley — two Atlanta natives — recorded double-digit points, with 12 and 15, respectively.
The Wolves played a mediocre game, getting most of their offense from the three players above. They did not shoot well, at just 40%, and while they climbed back from a 15-point deficit, Atlanta gave them an answer for every shot they made.
“I thought our guys competed at the very least, and I thought they executed down the stretch, a major point of emphasis for us into that fourth quarter,” Pierce said.
The Hawks will take tomorrow off before hosting the Detroit Pistons to end their three-game homestand Wednesday night.
