Not much to cheer in holiday loss

Pierce unhappy as Hawks take first-quarter lead, then get overrun in 122-103 home loss to Magic.

Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce didn’t mince words.

In a Martin Luther King Day matchup of NBA Southeast Division foes, the Orlando Magic snapped a three-game losing streak by silencing the Hawks 122-103 at State Farm Arena on Monday afternoon.

“We sucked,” Pierce said. “I don’t like to say that or use that much, but we weren’t very good.”

Dewayne Dedmon led the Hawks (14-32) with a career- high 24 points and was 5-for-7 from 3-point range. Trae Young had 21 points and six assists and John Collins had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Nikola Vucevic led the Magic (20-27) with 29 points and 14 rebounds. Evan Fournier added 29 points and seven assists and Terrence Ross put up 16 points off the bench, helping assuage the absence of Aaron Gordon (back) for Orlando.

The Hawks opened with an efficient first quarter, scoring 31 points on 52 percent shooting to jump out to a 31-28 lead. The sec- ond quarter was defined by a 12-0 Magic run that gave Orlando a 60-57 lead at halftime. The Hawks offense slowed thanks to turnovers and poor shot selection.

Atlanta wasn’t nearly itself from beyond the arc with Kevin Huerter scratched from the game minutes before tip with a sore neck. He had averaged 18.8 points per game and 4.0 made 3-pointers per game in the Hawks’ last four games. Dedmon knocked down his first five 3-point attempts, but the Hawks needed more than a few good shots to correct their poor performance.

In “the first quarter, I thought we were good. After that, we were just out of rhythm. … I don’t know what happened,” Young said.

Orlando won the third quarter by 10 points, extending the lead to 91-78. On the Magic’s final possession of the third quarter Ross converted a deep jumper from an inbounds play where Orlando bounced it off the back of a Hawks player, a microcosm of a frustrating game for the Hawks.

Atlanta got no closer than seven points after digging itself a dou- ble-digit hole early in the second half.

The game came with the backdrop of the MLK holiday, a celebration the Hawks did not lose sight of. “I’m super-appreciative, and so are my family and teammates, of what (King) was able to do for us and how far we have come as a country,” said Taurean Prince, who was in the starting lineup with Huerter out.

Pierce said: “It’s a special opportunity for myself, the team and the community. I’m 42 years old, African-American, and a head coach in the NBA. I don’t take it for granted. This is one of those days you sit back and reflect and

appreciate the work that a lot of people did.”

The Hawks now head out on a seven-game road trip over the next two weeks.

Smart fined: Celtics guard Marcus Smart was fined $35,000 by the NBA, but not suspended, for an altercation with the Hawks’ DeAndre Bembry.

The incident took place Saturday after Smart was assessed his second technical foul and ejected in the third quarter of the Celtics’ victory. The two exchanged words while waiting for a jump ball. Smart later charged Bembry as the teams were being separated and appeared to throw a punch.

Bembry said after the game he was standing up for rookie Young, who was the subject of an exchange with Smart. Bembry was assessed a technical during the initial fracas and will receive a $2,000 fine.