The Atlanta Hawks had some rough moments in game one of their first round playoff series against the Boston Celtics, and one of those rough moments was at the beginning of the game where Trae Young’s first pass was a turnover. The Hawks first half play got them down thirty points at the half, and even though the Hawks eventually battled back to cut the lead to twelve, the deficit was too much for the Hawks and they went on to lose the game 99-112.
Atlanta Hawks General Manager, Landry Fields, joined The Morning Shift earlier today, and broke down exactly what happened in game one against the Celtics. Fields’ said “We’ve got guys that have not necessarily played too many playoff games, and there were things that occurred during the game that were just us sort of handing baskets to them, didn’t really pose a huge resistance defensively, and that’s something that we’re gonna have to clean up and then you know we just didn’t shoot the ball well either.”
Fields continued by saying “You know that’s something where the environment changes and in the playoffs everything raises up a level and the stakes are higher, so I think for a lot of guys they just needed to sort of feel that…”
Clint Capela by far has the most playoff experience with eighty-two playoff games under his belt going into tonight’s game. Trae Young, John Collins, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Onyeka Okongwu to an extent have solid postseason experience.
However, guys like De’Andre Hunter, who has only played in eleven playoff games due to injuries, A.J. Griffin who is a rookie, Jalen Johnson is only in his second year and got minimal postseason experience last year, and even Dejounte Murray, who has only played in seventeen career playoff games coming into tonight, don’t have a lot or any playoff experience coming into this series, so while a good chunk of this core went on the 2021 playoff run together, there is a little inexperience there to Fields’ point.
However, there are plenty of guys who have plenty of playoff experience, so another slow start and loss won’t be taken lightly because of inexperience in the postseason. The Hawks did bounce back with a solid second half in game one, and if they can carry that momentum into game two and not shoot 38% from the field and 17% from three then the Hawks should give the Celtics a much more competitive game two tonight, and may possibly leave Boston with a tied series.
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