This was DISGUSTING...

This was absolutely disgusting. On this Halloween night, the Atlanta Hawks took on the New Orleans Pelicans in what should have been an easy win. But after the Hawks' performance tonight, nothing can be guaranteed for this team. Welcome back to Hawks Digest. My name is Michael Kabrinski, and as we dive into tonight's video, we're going to be breaking down and recapping the Atlanta Hawks' disastrous loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. This performance from the Hawks was by far the worst of the season. Losing 121-99 to the New Orleans Pelicans. And the Pelicans, for them, it was their second win of the year. The Hawks fall to 3-4. And, you know, we're going to get into all the nitty-gritty details of this game throughout this video. But I'm just going to say this as a blanket statement right now. Almost nobody played well for the Hawks tonight. I mean, there was a lot of turnovers. Nobody can make a three-point shot. The offense was all over the place. It really did not feel like the Hawks offense had that flow to it like we've seen in their win so far this season. A lot of stagnation on that end of the floor. There was a bunch of guys clumped up, and they could not make a three-point shot either to save their life. So on top of their struggles with just finding good shots, When they did get those good shots, they couldn't knock them down, and I think the main problem with the Hawks tonight was really the turnover problems, and we're going to get all the way into those problems, and those led to the defensive problems tonight. It was just a disaster of epic proportions tonight for the Atlanta Hawks, but before we can get into the specifics of the game, I've got to tell you about today's video And that is going to be our friends over at And on Kalshi, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like other traditional sportsbooks. 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And $25, why would you want to trade $25 to the Hawks winning? After this video, if you're interested in trying out Kausi, use the link in the description and the pinned comment, the code Digest NBA, as you see on the screen right there, and you will get $55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first $25. So definitely take advantage of that after this video is over. And once again, thank you to Kausi for sponsoring today's video. All right, now let's go ahead and get into this disastrous performance from Atlanta tonight. Let's just go over just some rough box score stats here. As you can see here, no 20-point scores for the Hawks tonight. But what I really want to focus on first are some overall team numbers before we go to some individual performances. Only 20 assists for the league-leading team in assists tonight, and that is the Atlanta Hawks. Before this game. They had been averaging over 30 assists a game, easily leading the league in that category. But tonight... Like I mentioned at the top of the show, the offense was stagnant. Really, really just sloppy. They could not make a lot of shots either. And when you shoot 8 of 46 from 3, definitely a season worst. Only 4 three-point shots made in each half for the Hawks in this game. It's going to be really hard to come back. And, like, there was just a lot of problems. A lot of problems for the Hawks in this game as a whole. And if you look on the other side of things, for the New Orleans Pelicans, They had an easy time scoring the ball, and two people specifically did, and that is Jeremiah Fears and Sadiq Bay. These two guys really were throwing the Hawks' side tonight. You had Sadiq Bey, obviously a former Atlanta Hawk, and he really torched Atlanta off the bench in this game. 26 minutes, 25 points, 9 of 13 from the field, 6 of 7 from the free throw line, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 steals for Sadiq Bey. That's pretty a rare stat right there. He was getting anything he wanted. He only made one three in this game. But getting post-ups, getting runners in the lane, and taking advantage of mismatches, Sadiq Bey was doing that throughout the entirety of the contest. And then also for New Orleans, you had their sophomore, Jeremiah Pierce, who is having a really good last two games overall. And Pierce tonight, 20 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 9 of 12 from the field, 1 of 2 from deep. You're just looking at a lot of great, great numbers here for the New Orleans Pelicans. So, look, those two guys really worth throwing in the Hawks' side. Also, you had 10 rebounds from Carlo Matkovich there. They're starting center tonight. So, he put on a good passing display. I think he's a pretty interesting player, honestly, Matkovich. And I think he could be a solid backup in this league eventually. But I do want to focus on a number here for the Pelicans, 23 turnovers. And if you saw that number, if you saw that number just in a vacuum, I'm sure you'd think, oh, well, the Hawks defense was pretty good. They were just forcing a lot of steals, getting out in transition. Well, only 11 of those ended up being steals. And the Hawks turned the ball over 19 times themselves. And so when the Pelicans can get so many steals, Off those 19 turnovers, 15 of the 19 turnovers for the Hawks resulted in steals for the Pelicans. So the Pelicans turned those into 33 points off turnovers, and that was just, I think, just the most damning stat for the Hawks of the night just because the Hawks could never establish an offensive rhythm, could never really... Get that offensive flow back because they could not hang on to the ball. But the three-point shooting and the turnovers really, I think, were the keys in this loss. And then defensively. Too many line drives to the rim. I thought Nikhil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Lou Dort. I think their perimeter defense did really let them down for the Hawks tonight, which is not something that we've said a lot this season. Hopefully a bounce-back performance in that area against the Pacers. But I do want to go to one player, if you're looking at the box score here, and that's going to be Asa Newell, because he actually entered the rotation into this game because Jock Landale only played one minute after he was ruled out, With a left hip injury in this game, that forced Asa Newell into some center minutes, and he played 19 of those. 5 of 11 from the field, 1 of 6 from 3, 2 of 2 from the free throw line, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 13 points. In the first half, I thought Asa really struggled on both ends of the floor. But in the second half, it was great to see him in the third quarter. He had 7 points in that third frame, and I thought he was pretty good activity-wise, offensively, defensively. In that second half, particularly in the third quarter. So I wonder if we're going to see him in the rotation moving forward. I, frankly, I'd be shocked. I don't think Quinn Snyder's going to do that just based on the pattern of what he's done so far. If Jock Landale is healthy and ready to go on Monday, I don't believe we see Asa in the rotation. But Lou Dort at the power forward, I'm not exactly a huge fan of. So I think it might benefit Quinn Snyder to explore playing some Asa Newell, maybe some even Zuby Edjapour at the power forward and to see what's going on here because the defensive rebounding for the Hawks was also a struggle. And I think Asa Newell could definitely help in that area over Lou Dort for sure. Now, the next performances I want to highlight are actually going to be poor performances from the Hawks, and Nikhil Alexander-Walker pretty much had his first stinker of the season, I'll say in this one. Took 12 points, 3 of 12 from the field, 0 of 7 from deep. The first time this season, Nikhil has not hit a 3-pointer in the entirety of a game. 6 of 6 from the free throw line, 2 rebounds, 1 assist. Also had a steal in there for 12 points. Nikhil, this was just a bad game, honestly, on both ends of the floor. I don't think he played his best defensive performance on Jeremiah Pierce in this game in the first half as well. And when you combine a poor shooting performance and a poor defensive performance, it's going to lead to just a poor overall performance, obviously. So hopefully a bounce back for Nikhil Alexander-Walker against the Pacers on Monday. And it's got to be a similar type of performance from Jalen Johnson. But for Jalen... It could be a bit different because later in this game in fourth quarter, he was actually ruled out with an ankle injury. So that is definitely worth noting to keep an eye on for his availability for his status for Monday against Indiana. Just keeping tabs on if he's available. But Jalen in this game definitely struggled. In 28 minutes, we can... Go to his stat line right here. Twelve Just 12 points for Jalen in this game. Um, Or 13 points, sorry. He had seven rebounds, four assists, five of 11 from the field, he had one of three from deep, six of six from the free throw line. right. He had a steal. thirteen But for Jalen in this game, the shooting outside of anything in the restricted area so far this season has really been rough. That continued in this game. you. He had a team worst plus minus in this game of minus 20 as well. Definitely do not like to see that. So, for Jalen, some of these shots do have to fall down eventually, but I just don't think his decision-making was as good in this game either. Four assists to four turnovers, that's not a great ratio there at all. But for Jalen, I think scoring-wise, there's going to need to be just some more shot making, honestly. And whether that's from the mid-range, whether that's from the three-point line, shots needs to fall because... It seems like to the point where teams are walling Jalen off from the paint. And if he's not in a mismatch where he can just go through somebody and get to the rim, he's having a tough time being effective. So hopefully Jalen can figure out that and get back on track here. And I think CJ McCollum also has to figure out some issues as well. Look, he was the Hawks' leading scorer in this game with 14 points, two rebounds, two assists. He shot an efficient 5-9 from the field and 2-5 from deep. But a lot of that came in the beginning of the third quarter. Um He had the Hawks' first five points in the second half. But to start these games lately, CJ McCollum has had a really, really slow start in these first quarters recently. And it's gotten the Hawks behind early. We saw it in the Cleveland game when they came back and won it. But in the game tonight against the Pelicans, you. the first quarter, a lot of live ball turnovers. The ball just seems to stick to his hands tonight. So overall, you'd like to see him shoot the ball efficiently. But I think it only came in really one portion of the game. So hopefully a more balanced attack from CJ McCollum and really the entirety of the Hawks offense on Monday against the Indiana Pacers. But there was really no exceptional performances in this game. But I do want to briefly mention Kingston Flemings because, look, his stat line is pretty good. In 24 minutes, 12 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 of 8 from the field, 1 of 2 from deep, 3 of 3 from the free throw line, 4 steals. You absolutely love to see that. But Kingston actually got his first career ejection tonight in the fourth quarter. He went up for a layup. I think it was Trey Murphy or actually Bryce McGowan who blocked his shot. And then. Uh, the Hawks called a timeout after Trey Murphy threw down a lob and Kingston elbowed McGowan's in the face. It kind of looked on purpose. So you don't like to see your rookie probably doing that, uh, right after the block shot or right after the Hawks were down in the game and they called a timeout, probably not the best time there, but there's a first for everything. Kingston gets his first ejection. And honestly, I don't think he, he was one of the few guys that I don't think played too badly for the Hawks tonight. I think him, Asa Newell. Aaron Wiggins, I thought, defensively really struggled tonight. And Lou Dort, in the first half, I thought he played pretty well. But in the second half, I think he put up a couple ill-advised three-pointers and kind of slowed down the Hawks' momentum. At one point in the third quarter, the Hawks cut the Pelicans' lead to 10 and found some real momentum. Lou Dort then took two ill-advised three-pointers, bricked both of them, and then the Pelicans went on a 6-0 run, built that lead all the way back up to 16, and then eventually got to a 20-point lead. So that moment there was crucial. Probably not the best shot selection there. So hopefully the Hawks can just knock down some more shots, be more efficient offensively against the Pacers. But the number one thing that comes to mind for me is the turnovers. This Hawks team is normally a team that is going to force a lot of turnovers on their opponents. And not get a lot of turnovers themselves. And tonight, they did force the Pelicans into 23 turnovers. But they turned the ball over 19 times themselves. And 15 of those 19 were live ball steals for the Pelicans. It's always going to be hard to play defense when there are so many steals like that. So the Hawks definitely have to clean that up for Monday. And hopefully, they can bounce back with a good performance. But with that, we are going to head and close out this video tonight. To leave some comments down below, what did you think of the Hawks' performance tonight? What didn't you like? What do you think they need to switch, if anything, to get more of a rhythm offensively, especially to start games with back-to-back poor performances, definitely in the first quarter specifically, but definitely going to be interested in hearing your guys' thoughts. And hopefully, we're talking about a bounce-back performance in Indiana on Monday. But with that, we're going to head and close out this video, guys. Make sure to leave a comment. Subscribe to Hawks Digest. We appreciate the support on the channel. Like the video, and we'll see you in the next one. Peace.