The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hawks continue to fumble their way through 3-pointers
Pierce is confident in his team, but wants to see better execution.
Even though the Hawks have struggled with their 3-point shot as of late, Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce isn’t too concerned.
“It’ll turn,” Pierce said after the 112-106 loss Saturday against the Trail Blazers, when the Hawks went 6-for-30 on 3s. “We’ll get our shot going and we’ll get our rhythm going again.”
It’s the nature of the sport, Pierce said, for shooting to come and go throughout the season.
But the Hawks (5-7) — who are missing two of their better 3-point shooters in Bogdan Bogdanovic (right knee fracture) and Danilo Gallinari (right ankle sprain) — have certainly struggled from distance recently, and those numbers only got worse on their West Coast road trip, when they shot
17.9% in Friday’s 116-92 loss in Utah, and 20% in Portland the following night. The Hawks have lost six of their last seven games.
Trae Young typically leads the scoring charge for the Hawks, but he also has looked out of sorts while shooting from the field overall, but specifically from 3-point range. Young was 1-of-9 on 3-point attempts in Portland. He went 5-for-32 (15.6%) from 3 in the past six games and is shooting 26.5% in 12 games this season.
The Hawks endured an odd trip. Their game in Phoenix was postponed for contact tracing after the Suns played the Wizards, who have several players in COVID-19 protocols.
Someone in the Hawks’ traveling party tested positive for COVID-19, forcing several members, including Pierce, to isolate. Pierce was quickly cleared to travel with the team to Utah, but two staff members had to stay behind in Arizona and continue isolating.
Then the team suffered back-to-back losses. Their 3-point shooting struggles are not due to a lack of practice, Pierce said, even with their schedule being thrown off.
“We’ve been able to get in the gym,” Pierce said. “We’ve been in NBA arenas. The guys practiced in Phoenix the two days that we were there. We were able to get a workout in, in Utah. So it’s not a lack of court time.”
He wants the players who are struggling from 3-point range to stay aggressive and take those opportunities.
“I think we’ve had an opportunity to be in the gym and we’ve gotten the shots with guys that we want shooting the basketball, Trae, Kevin (Huerter), (Solomon Hill has) been shooting it well, (De’andre Hunter has) been shooting it well all year. We’ve just got to get these guys going again,” Pierce said. “We obviously know the guys that have struggled, and they’re taking those shots, and I encourage to keep taking them.”
Hunter is shooting 38.9%; Hill is at 36.2%; and Huerter is making 35.3% of his shots from 3-point range.
Overall, the Hawks are shooting 33.7%, which puts them at 25th in the league. They’re making 12.6 of 37.3 attempts per game — the 11th-highest volume in the league.
Last season, the Hawks were the worst 3-point shooting team in the NBA, at 33.3%. In the past six games, only once have they topped that number (38.6%): on Jan. 11 against a depleted Philadelphia team. However, they shot very well the first five games of the season, so they’re certainly capable of putting up big numbers from 3: 40% in the season-opening win in Chicago; 36.1% in a win at Memphis; 47.6% in a win against Detroit; and 39.1% and 41% as they split two games in Brooklyn.
In the loss to Portland, when Damian Lillard scored 36 points and the Hawks were held to 40 points in the second half, making 1 of 15 3s, Pierce was encouraged, overall. But, they didn’t get quality shots down the stretch, and had two turnovers in the final 16 seconds — an offensive foul on Young and a bad pass from Huerter — that proved costly.
“I’m encouraged by our ability to play high-level basketball on a second night, to be on the road as we’ve been, and coming here and trying to play against a team that’s high-level scorers,” Pierce said. “They had a great shooting group on the floor in the second half and they were able to climb back in with some timely big 3s, but I’m encouraged by our guys. I think we have the ability to play high-level basketball against anyone, but in order to get over the top, we’ve got to execute better.
“We’ve got to be able to manage the game better. Again, we did some good things defensively, to climb back into it. I thought we had some opportunities, turned it over twice, two or three times, and just didn’t get the quality shots that we needed, the ball movement that we needed down the stretch.”