Atlanta Hawks fall late in Memphis, 94-88

The Atlanta Hawks traveled to Graceland to take on the Memphis Grizzlies and couldn’t overcome poor shooting and Memphis’ rebounding. Those factors and a homecourt advantage from the Grizzlies led a 94-88 final margin.

The first half, and more specifically the first quarter, was ugly. Al Horford and DeMarre Carroll were a combined 0 for 7 in the opening frame.  The Hawks were out-rebounded 13-8 and turned the ball over 5 times. Nothing was going right, but Atlanta managed to play well enough defensively to keep the quarter close. The visitors trailed by 4 after the opening quarter and the feeling was that if the Hawks could right the ship, they could take the game over.

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The second quarter wasn’t much better but the Atlanta bench did enough to give the Hawks the lead with 5:12 remaining.  Kent Bazemore led all bench players with 5 points as the bench accounted for 13 of the 27 second-quarter points. And while the Hawks led the rest of the half to take a 1-point lead into the locker room, they continued to turn the ball over at a higher rate and were out-rebounded for the second straight quarter. Those two stat lines would continue to haunt the Hawks in the 2nd half and eventually lead to the their downfall.

Atlanta’s poor shooting reared its ugly head again in the third as the Hawks only shot 36% from the field and continued to get dominated on the glass.Tony Allen and Zach Randolph were all over the offensive glass as they grabbed 9 of Memphis’ 17 offensive rebounds and held Atlanta to only 3 offensive boards. Memphis took a 3-point lead into the fourth quarter despite only shooting 38% from the field.

The final frame was a battle and Atlanta actually managed to out shoot Memphis in the fourth, but the second-chance points were the difference for the Grizzlies. Memphis was 9-for-17 on their second chances and outscored the Hawks 22-6 in 2nd opportunities. Memphis took an 88-86 lead with 2:28 left and never looked back.  The Grizzlies would extend the lead all the way to eight with finally closing out the game 94-88.

Atlanta was led by Jeff Teague who ended up with 22 points and 6 assists, but that wasn’t enough. Paul Milsap and Al Horford struggled mightily. The two big men only combined for 10 points and were the cause of 6 of the 14 Atlanta turnovers. The loss finally puts Atlanta in the double-digit L column at 42-10.

The Atlanta Hawks won’t have much time to dwell on the loss as they head to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves tomorrow night 8:00 pm ET. Check back tomorrow morning for a full preview.