Atlanta is now 15-18, in 10th place in the East, and the upcoming schedule offers few reprieves with games against the Thunder, Wolves and Knicks again. Eight of the next 10 games are on the road; eight of the next nine are against teams with winning records. A home game against New Orleans on Jan. 7 might be the only one in which the Hawks are favored. Yikes.<\/p>\n
The Hawks haven\u2019t always played badly in this stretch; they lost at the buzzer to a good Knicks team and were beaten by a phantom call in the second loss to the Bulls. The underlying stats still say they\u2019re more of an average team than a bad one \u2014 16th in offense, 17th in defense, 18th in Net Rating.<\/p>\n
But they also face-planted in a winnable, rested game against Miami and played no defense in the first loss to the Bulls. And more importantly, the expectations were for more this year after acquiring Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is and Alexander-Walker in the offseason.<\/p>\n
That said, the feeling internally after Saturday\u2019s game was slightly different from what you might expect; Atlanta took encouragement after rallying from an 18-point deficit to briefly take the lead in the fourth quarter, coming on the heels of a team meeting after the moribund loss to Miami the night before.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a real sit-down with the whole crew and said we need to be better,\u201d said Alexander-Walker, \u201cand I think you can feel it in the game, in the stretch where we were able to kind of stop the bleeding, we fought.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was proud of how we competed,\u201d Snyder\u00a0said. \u201cYou would like to get a win because that\u2019s affirming of how you played, but we did the things we need to do to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told each other we need to be serious,\u201d Jalen Johnson\u00a0said. \u201cA lot of guys spoke. I think it was a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snyder may have also finally landed on something that works rotationally after experimenting, mostly unsuccessfully, with his bench units for much of the year. He finally staggered Young and Johnson to keep one on the court at all times, avoiding some of the bench unit disasters that have plagued the Hawks in previous losses. Guards Keaton Wallace and Luke Kennard, who featured in some of the worst-performing units and have a minus-11.5 per 100 net rating as a two-man unit, combined for just eight total minutes over the last two nights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had more urgency; we were more dialed in,\u201d said Onyeka Okongwu of the Hawks\u2019 rally. The 6-foot-8 center had 31 points and 14 rebounds despite giving up many inches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to challenge ourselves to play a whole game and not go through lapses.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Atlanta's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/USATSI_27892337-scaled-e1766919089182.jpg\")
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\n Jalen Johnson and the Hawks ran into the Knicks\u2019 major size advantage, personified by Mitchell Robinson, Saturday in Atlanta. (Brett Davis \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n