The Raptors had the Hawks’ number this season. They downed them 118-100 on Monday to close out the season series and complete the four-game sweep.
Quick stats: The Hawks had seven players score in double figures. Onyeka Okongwu led all scorers with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Zaccharie Risacher had 16 points, all of which came in the second half despite playing with five fouls for the majority of it.
Jalen Johnson had 13 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
Key moment
Risacher had a rough night. It looked like it would come to an end quickly, too, after he picked up his fifth personal foul 19 seconds into the second half.
Perhaps that took some pressure off. The 20-year-old just put his head down and kept playing, scoring all of his 16 points in the second half.
He scored a cutting layup with 11:20 to play in the third quarter before hitting another just over one minute later. Risacher then chipped the ball away from R.J. Barrett, which turned into a 3 from Okongwu that pulled the Hawks within nine.
Risacher hit a running layup and scored a 3 that brought the Hawks back within 10 after a Raptors run.
He then scored back-to-back layups, then a 3 that brought the Hawks within seven, their smallest deficit of the second half. Risacher’s night came to an end shortly after that when he fouled out of the game.
Highlight play
The Hawks couldn’t get much going in the paint and needed to rely heavily on their triples. In the first quarter, Hawks center Kristaps Porzingis knocked knees with Raptors guard Jamal Shead and fell to the floor.
But Porzingis popped up in time for a pass from Luke Kennard to knock down a wide-open 3.
What they said
“Luke’s (Kennard) been playing well. We saw him play well again. It’s good to see. Having KP (Porzingis) back, the ball didn’t go in for him, but I thought he took good shots and had an impact on the game. And you know, he’s an important player for us as well.” -- Hawks coach Quin Snyder via the FanDuel Sports broadcast on what he saw from Kennard and Porzingis.
“I think the biggest thing was just our aggression, our physicality, our defense, just like digging in at the beginning of the game. We shouldn’t have been surprised, we played them two days ago, with how aggressive they are at both ends. We got down, and that kind of rallied us in our level raise. But it’s difficult when you’re playing from behind for long stretches. And we had a couple times we had a chance to cut it to six late. I think the score, the final score, isn’t as representative of what we did in the second half. That said, the score is representative of how they played and how we played.” -- Snyder via the broadcast on the adjustments the Hawks made after getting down early.
Up next
The Hawks return to State Farm Arena on Wednesday to host the Pelicans. The matchup holds some anticipation after Pelicans center Derik Queen marked the day on X (formerly known as Twitter) to troll the team following a minor dust-up at the buzzer of a November game.
Queen did not adhere to the unspoken rule of the winning team dribbling out the shot clock on their final possession. Instead, Queen stole the ball and scored a layup.
Correction
The story was updated to include a photo from Monday’s game.
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