NBA Game Notes: Bucks, Hawks and Mavs go streaking!

Notes from: ATL-CHA, MIL-WAS, PHX-GSW and DAL-UTA

It was a pretty light Saturday in the NBA. Only five games and they were nicely spread out too. That made watching a lot of each game live possible. That’s always the preferred method for putting together the Game Notes, but hardly ever possible.

Here’s what I saw on Saturday!

Atlanta Hawks - 107 at Charlotte Hornets - 104

• The Hornets deployed their best perimeter, Josh Green, on Trae Young. That left Jalen Johnson with any number of favorable matchups, and Johnson delivered. The fourth-year forward made a variety of jumpers and floaters off drive, but this was really exciting to see. Johnson went to work in the post against Nick Smith Jr, who is giving up four or five inches in this matchup. Nice patience by Johnson to get to the easy one here:

• Zaccharie Risacher is rapidly improving on offense. He’s showing more and more confidence in his jumper and he’s really good in transition. But what’s made Risacher really solid is his defense. First, he does a nice job staying with Vasilije Micic off the bounce before rejecting the shot. Then, Risacher does a nice job on the hand-off switch to pick up Josh Green before blocking his shot at the rim.

• De’Andre Hunter has done a nice job adapting to a bench role this season. After starting for the majority of his career, Hunter has come off the bench in eight of the 10 games he’s played. As a reserve, he’s shot 49% from the field, including 40% from behind the arc. Working against second units is working for Hunter and the Hawks.

• The Hornets are really limited right now, especially on offense. LaMelo Ball is out for a couple of weeks with a strained calf, Miles Bridges is out with knee soreness and Tre Mann has missed several game with back soreness. That’s putting a lot on Brandon Miller. He’s putting up points, but the efficiency is rough with defenses focusing on him.

• On the plus side for Charlotte: Nick Richards was back. He did a really nice job inside on both ends, despite fouling out after 25 minutes. Mark Williams is nearing a return too. It will be nice for Charles Lee to have the big man rotation he envisioned for the first time this season.

Washington Wizards - 114 at Milwaukee Bucks - 124

• Giannis Antetokounmpo dominated this game. He did so by sticking with what worked against an overmatched Wizards interior defense. Antetokounmpo was 14-of-16 on shots at the rim, and got fouled several times on shots near the basket too. It was an absurdly efficient night for the Bucks star:

  

• The Bucks have gone back to using Brook Lopez a lot more in drop coverage during this win streak. This is a good example of Lopez captaining the defense. At the start of the clip Milwaukee has switched matchups. Lopez calls out for Andre Jackson Jr. to switch to Jordan Poole, then he picks up Jonas Valanciunas as the pick-and-roll action starts. From there, Lopez goes into traditional drop coverage before rejecting Bilal Coulibaly at the rim.

• Damian Lillard had another strong game as a playmaker for Milwaukee. He’s doing a nice job right now of balancing his own scoring with keeping the ball moving.

• At some point the Wizards need a win just to feel good about themselves again. But they aren’t getting frustrated and going away from the kids. That’s good developmental process and should pay off in the long run.

• This game wasn’t the best example of it, because Washington struggled to make jumpers across the board, but Jordan is having a really nice season. He’s been aggressive, but most of the silly, low-efficiency chucking is gone. Poole has mostly played within himself and the Wizards offense. Every good game makes his contract look a lot less onerous and a lot more tradable.

• It was a short stint, but Marvin Bagley III looked pretty good. In games where Washington runs a lot of double-big looks, Bagley should get more run.

Golden State Warriors - 105 at Phoenix Suns - 113

• Devin Booker and Kevin Durant didn’t play bad for the Suns, but this win was as much about the other guys as it was the stars. Phoenix got terrific games from Tyus Jones, Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, Monte Morris and Oso Ighodaro (OSO!!!) to get a really quality victory.

• This was probably the most aggressive that the Suns point guards have looked for their own shots. Tyus Jones and Monte Morris combined to shoot 10-for-14 from the field, including 6-for-8 from behind the arc, for 27 points. That sort of efficiency helped lift the offense on a night where Kevin Durant and Devin Booker couldn’t get shots to drop as easily.

• (clears throat) OSO!!! Oso Ighodaro is already one of the best cutters in the league. He excels at leaving the corner the minute his man goes to help. The second clip might seem "blah", but it's a huge improvement for Ighodaro. A knock coming out of college was his rebounding and not blocking out. He finds Looney first, then finds the ball. To liven it up at the end, look at Ighodaro track Jonathan Kuminga before swatting the shot away. That's why he's OSO!!!

• It was bound to happen if the Warriors hit a rough patch, and it came after this loss: Golden State is grumbling about the rotation. It came from no more important of a voice than Stephen Curry too. He suggested that the 12-man rotation isn’t allowing players the consistency that they need to find the right rhythm. Steve Kerr was all over this place in this game, in one of the starkest standouts of why playing that many guys every game isn’t something they do in the NBA.

• Golden State really struggled to finish inside in this game. The Warriors were just 19-of-33 at the rim and 3-of-10 on non-rim shots in the paint. That’s 22-of-43 total on short shots, which is really poor. Phoenix has decent rim protection, but it’s nothing special. Just a rough finishing performance by the Warriors.

• On a plus note, Brandin Podziemski seems to be finding his form. He’s had a rough start to his second season. Over the last couple of games, Podziemski looks more like himself and has had some good all-around play.