It was a night to forget for the Hawks in California.

The Hawks were facing the Western Conference-leading Golden State Warriors in a late-night game and it didn’t go well for them. The Warriors took a 41-22 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The Hawks offense didn’t show up and couldn’t catch the Warriors and Atlanta’s record fell to 7-9.

So, what are the main lessons from last night?

When the Atlanta Hawks have lost basketball games this year, you can usually point to a single quarter as the reason. They were outscored 38-17 in the third quarter in a loss to the Blazers on Sunday, they scored just 15 points in the 4th quarter in a loss to Chicago and tonight against the No. 1 team in In the Western Conference, Atlanta was dominated by 41 points. -22 in the first quarter. Golden State only outscored Atlanta 79-75 for the rest of the game, but the damage was already done. Atlanta’s offense was non-existent all night and Golden State took a 120-97 victory over the Hawks.

The defense was bad in the first quarter, but the offense was the main problem. The Hawks shot 35% from the field and 29% from three. Golden State, on the other hand, was 60% from the field and 46% from three. The Warriors bench dominated the Hawks bench 19-3. It was a really tough first quarter for Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu, De’Andre Hunter and Kobe Bufkin.

More often than not in Hawks losses, it’s the defense that costs the Hawks more than their offense, but their defense played pretty well last night, especially after the first quarter. It was the offense that didn’t find its way last night. There have been plenty of games where the Hawks have allowed their opponents to have a big night, but this wasn’t one of those nights.

Atlanta’s offense failed to find its rhythm all night. The Hawks shot 33% from the field and 26% from three and it’s hard to point to good performances from anyone. Atlanta finished with a horrible 86.9 offensive rating in the game and a true shooting percentage of 42%. Golden State has one of the best defenses in the NBA, but the Hawks’ offense was a no-show and they couldn’t knock down shots.

There is no need to panic about Bogdanovic yet as he has been a very good player for a long time and this is only his second game back from injury, but he has yet to find his shot. Bogdanovic was 2-14 from the field last night and 1-7 from three. He didn’t throw the ball well in the Hawks’ win over the Kings on Monday. Again, this isn’t the time to panic about Bogdanovic, but when he’s not making shots, it’s hard to have him on the court.

Additional links

Atlanta fails to overcome shooting woes in 120-97 loss to Golden State