Hawks: ‘We need to be better’

Instead, the team sat down with each other and implored each other to be better.

“We told each other what we needed to say yesterday,” Hawks forward Jalen Johnson said. “A lot of guys spoke. So I think that was a good sign, and I think it reflected today.”

In the second half of Saturday’s game against the Knicks, the Hawks looked like the team that went 12-8 in their first 20 games and ranked as high as third in the Eastern Conference standings in that span.

But since Nov. 29, the Hawks have won the second-fewest games, ahead of only the Pacers, who currently rank last in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Hawks have gone 3-10 over their last 13 games, have put up the third-worst defense in the NBA and have dropped to 10th in the conference standings.

In the second half of their 128-125 loss to the Knicks, the Hawks nearly completed an 18-point comeback. Their collective struggles on the glass dropped them in a hole early.

But the Hawks pushed the pace, ran the floor and made the Knicks pay in the paint. Alas, they did lose their sixth straight game.

“I think it’s just kind of what we have been looking for in the past seven games, six games, however many this stretch has been,” Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said. “But I would say that after last night (Dec. 27), we kind of had like a real sit-down with the whole group, and said, ‘We need to be better.’ And I think you can feel it in the presence of the game.

“There was a stretch where we weren’t making shots and they kind of had that little stretch where they pulled it out. We were able to kind of stop the bleeding. We fought to get it back. We played through mistakes because that’s what the game is going to come to. And through the ups and downs, we were able to ride it out, able to take the lead twice, and it’s just unfortunate.”

The Hawks’ stretch of upcoming does not let up as they head into January. The Hawks’ next four opponents have records above .500. All but one team has a winning record in their last 10 games.

Monday, the Hawks face the reigning NBA champion Thunder on the road in Oklahoma City. Then the Hawks host the Timberwolves on Dec. 31. The Hawks open the new calendar year on the road in New York against the Knicks and then in Toronto for two matchups against the Raptors.

The Hawks could get a little relief in the form of the return of veteran center Kristaps Porzingis. The Latvian big has missed the last eight games because of illness, and the Hawks should be able to provide an update on his next steps as early as Sunday.

Porzingis will, of course, need to reacclimate to playing with the group, especially with the reintegration of Trae Young in the rotation.

But, with Porzingis in the lineup, the Hawks score an additional 8.4 points per 100 possessions played, according to Cleaning the Glass. Porzingis also helps defensively, blocking 3.1% of opposing players’ field goal attempts.

The Hawks still have a lot to figure out. But gathering for a players’ only meeting amid one of their rockiest stretches this season could be the right place to start.

“Just afterward, it was just players decided to stick around to have a discussion,” Alexander-Walker said. “You know, I think everyone knew what it meant, because we could feel that we were a better team than we had been playing, and tonight (Dec. 28), we looked like a way better team than those past five.”