Atlanta Hawks Open Season With Ugly Loss to New York Knicks

The Atlanta Hawks lost in ugly fashion in their season opener on Wednesday night in New York. Losing to the Knick 126-107, the Hawks were blown out after a promising first quarter.

Watching the Atlanta Hawks play in the first quarter they were choppy, but had a sustained energy on defense and were putting enough points on the board. The second quarter turned ugly quickly for Atlanta as they gave up 49-points and the Knicks never looked back in a blowout win.

While there were a few bright spots in the opener for Atlanta, the biggest takeaways were terrible defense and laughably bad turnovers.

The Hawks turned the ball over consistently killing any momentum they had. DeAndre’ Bembry was the biggest standout for the Hawks and not for positive reasons. Bembry looked nothing close to an NBA player on Wednesday night turning the ball over and driving into double and triple teams.

Atlanta’s rookies saw limited action with rookie Trae Young getting his first start at point. Young played well despite missing early shots. He finished with 14-points and 5-assists.

Omari Spellman and Kevin Huerter both saw very limited time with Spellman scoring 7-points in eight minutes and Huerter failing to tally.

For the Knicks, Tim Hardaway Jr. led the way scoring 31-points being the catalyst in the Knick’s huge second-quarter surge.

For Atlanta, the takeaways from this game are seemingly very simple. The first is the fact they have a lot of work to do on defense to slow down an even average offense. The second, Atlanta must find a way to give Trae Young more room to work with the ball on offense and limit turnovers.

The Hawks will now travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies the second in a three-game-road trip. Friday night’s game will tip off in Memphis at 7:30 EST as the Hawks attempt to win their first game of the season.