Atlanta Hawks: Play Scrappy and Win Game One
By Kit Anderson
The Atlanta Hawks started out the season with a 117-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks. The win was a good one, that showed how the Hawks are going to play this season as a whole.
The Atlanta Hawks were often labeled as the worst team in the East this season among rankings this off-season. One game in and the Hawks look like anything but the worst team in basketball. While there is a long way to go the Hawks looked like a scrappy team that could remain in the mix this season.
Wednesday’s game was the first game of the season for the Hawks and they showed up to play on the road against the trigger happy Mavericks. Winning every quarter but the third the Hawks stayed in control of the game for most of the night and play consistently on both ends scrapping on defense and forcing turnovers.
Dennis Schroder led the way for the Hawks putting up 28 in his first game of the season with 7 assists. While Dennis did a lot of the heavy lifting it was a very good team win that saw the Hawks score a lot of points from the bench.
That included a 20 point scoring effort from Marco Belinelli who hit four of his attempted six threes and paced the second unit. Right behind him scoring from the bench was John Collins the rookie forward put up 14 in his first game as a pro, with 5 rebounds as well.
Collins was one of the bright spots early on in the game. He hammered down two rebounds that he gathered dunking them home and looked like a young player that could soon demand a starting job on a young Hawks team.
The one downside to the game for the Hawks was the fact that Kent Bazemore did struggle early in the game and didn’t look like a capable starter. Only one game into the season is far too early to judge his ability to start but paired with last year’s struggles it is worrisome if Bazemore cannot get it going in the next few games.
Josh Maggette made his Hawks’ debut as well in a brief appearance with the second unit. He likely earned himself more minutes hitting a deep three in his only shot attempt.
Overall the first win of the season for the Hawks confirmed two things that fans already thought to be the case. The first is the fact that Dennis is set to do his best Russell Westbrook impression this season and carry the Hawks on offense.
The second was the fact that this team is not the worst team in the East. While they may be short on proven talent there are plenty of young up-and-coming players on this roster along with proven veterans who are going to play a scrappy brand of basketball and find ways to win.
Game one is in the books and the attention will now shift to the next game. The Hawks will be going on the road to face the Hornets and reunite with last year’s center Dwight Howard. The game is scheduled for Friday night with tip-off set for 7:00 as the Hawks look to win their second in a row.