Toronto Raptors blow out Atlanta Hawks

In their first game post All-Star break, the Atlanta Hawks… well they didn’t really show up, and the Toronto Raptors cruised to their third win over the team this season, 105-80.

This is one of the biggest losses the Hawks have had all year, and is a bit of a disappointment as they look to finish out the season strong.

The team shot just 33 percent from the field and a woeful 21.1 percent (8-for-38) from behind the 3-point line, as no player on the team scored more than 11 points–Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver and Paul Millsap all finished with 11.

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But the Raptors had two different players eclipse that mark easily, with DeMar DeRozan and Louis Williams scoring 21 and 26 points respectively to show that the Hawks are not, in fact unbeatable. No team in the NBA has beaten Atlanta twice, and now the Raptors have done it three times.

Toronto won this game with its defensive effort (I mean come on, look at the shooting numbers), and racked up an extremely impressive 15 steals and nine blocks.

Here’s what DeRozan said about the game, via the Associated Press:

"“We were scrambling,” said DeRozan. “We tried not to let them get anything easy. We didn’t want to let them get going, get a rhythm. As long as we do that, we can live with the outcome.”"

Whatever, the did it certainly worked. Korver shot just 3-of-13 from the field and 2-for-11 from 3. Teague and Al Horford both went 3-for-9. DeMarre Carroll shot 2-for-4 and Paul Millsap made just five of his 15 shots. The entire team struggled against Toronto’s defense, including the bench with just Kent Bazemore managing double-digit scoring on 3-of-7 shooting for 10 points.

Let’s hope the Hawks rebound from this one Sunday night against the Bucks.

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