Atlanta Hawks blown out at home by Spurs, 103-78

The Atlanta Hawks have still yet to beat the San Antonio Spurs under head coach Mike Budenholzer. Atlanta suffered a blowout at home Saturday night, 103-78.

The San Antonio Spurs seem to always have the Atlanta Hawks’ number. After getting outclassed in San Antonio earlier this season, the Atlanta Hawks hardly stood a chance against the Spurs Saturday night at Philips Arena, losing in a blowout 103-78.

Atlanta didn’t give themselves much of a chance this evening as the Hawks combine for only 25 first half points. While the Atlanta Hawks were only outscored by the Spurs by three points in the second half (66-63), it was getting into a 47-25 hole at halftime that the home team could not recover from.

The only player on the Atlanta Hawks to have double figures in scoring was power forward Paul Millsap. He tied for the game high in points with Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard with 22 points. Millsap had nine of the Atlanta Hawks’ 30 made field goals and two of the club’s five three pointers. Paul Millsap shot 9-13 from the field and 2-3 from three, yet he had the worst plus/minus of anybody in Saturday night’s contest at -28.

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It was the Atlanta Hawks’ poor shooting and rebounding that did the team in. Head coach Mike Budenholzer had to pull his starters halfway through the fourth quarter to prevent injury to his key players in this blowout.

The Atlanta Hawks only shot 37.5% from the field, 20.8% from three-point land, and 81.2% from the charity stripe. On the other side of the coin, the San Antonio Spurs shot 48.6% from the field, a blistering 50.0% from three, and an outstanding 95.5% from the free throw line. San Antonio couldn’t miss a shot and Atlanta, especially in the paint, could not buy a bucket.

In his first three seasons as the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, Mike Budenholzer has yet to beat his former team in the San Antonio Spurs. He won’t get his next opportunity until next year, as he falls to 0-6 versus his mentor in San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich.

This was a game that lacked effort from the Atlanta starters and odd officiating made the game almost unwatchable. While the officiating seemed to heavily favor San Antonio early, it got very strange in the second half with timeouts, technical fouls, not seeing who last touched the basketball. I don’t like to harp on the officials very often, but tonight’s crew did a lousy job.

Next: Paul Millsap: Atlanta Hawks' 2015 1st quarter MVP

Atlanta will host their division rival in the Miami Heat Monday night. Tipoff is at 8:00 PM ET and the game will air on Fox Sports Southeast. The Hawks have had better luck versus the Heat of late, so hopefully the team can end their two-game slide versus their familiar foe. Let’s Go Hawks!