The Atlanta Hawks didn’t start off their 2023 postseason as planned, and things actually got out of hand for the Hawks early on as Atlanta was down 30 going into halftime of Game 1.
The Hawks found themselves trailing by as much as 32 at one point in time on Saturday, but did show some fight and battled back to cut the Celtics lead to 12 a couple of different times in the fourth quarter.
However, a 32-thirty-two point deficit is very difficult to overcome, too difficult for the Hawks to overcome on Saturday as they ended up losing Game 1 of their first-round best-of-seven series against the Celtics, 99-112.
After the game, Hawks forward John Collins told the media that the biggest difference in the second half for the Hawks was “our intensity, our just will to compete harder in that second half. I feel like that was the biggest difference and brought us back into the game and gave us a chance to truly compete, so you know we gotta lock in and do that for a full 48.”
Earlier today The Morning Shift gave their reaction to these comments.
Those postgame comments from Collins make it seem like the Hawks weren’t mentally focused and “locked in” from the start. Beau isn’t happy about that because going into Saturday the team had 83 games to learn how to get mentally focused and locked in from the opening tip.
“Hey John, it’s the playoffs,” Beau said. "You’ve had 83 games because of the play-in game to figure out how to get locked in and have mental focus to start a game.”
Mike Johnson says this game was “eye opening” to him after the Hawks played so well against the Heat in the play-in tournament. Mike also believes that this game is leaving a lot of Hawks fans scratching their heads.
“At no point was this game in any danger of swaying into Atlanta’s favor," Johnson said. "It leaves you asking more questions than you probably have answers for going into this second game.”
Tiffany says “The focus just wasn’t there,” and hopefully this was a “wake up call.” The Hawks got more offensive rebounds than the Celtics, got to the free-throw line a little bit more than Boston, and won the turnover battle. So statistically there are some things that the Hawks can look into and continue to try and exploit in Game 2.
If you mix in those favorable stats for the Hawks with the fact that the Hawks were able to cut a 32-point deficit to 12, maybe if the Hawks can “lock in” for the entirety of the game then maybe they can win Game 2, take over home court advantage, and make this a series.