The Hawks were winners Tuesday.
The NBA held the tiebreakers to determine the NBA Draft order, and the Hawks won against the Grizzlies and will select No. 19 in the first round.
Both the Hawks and the Grizzlies finished with 43-39 records during the regular season. The Grizzlies will send the No. 20 pick to the Trail Blazers as part of an earlier trade.
The Hawks also have two second-round picks. The have the No. 31 pick, the first of the second round, from the Nets as part of the Joe Johnson trade. They also have the No. 60 pick, the final of the second round, of the Warriors that came from the 76ers as part of the Ersan Ilyasova trade.
Foul trouble limited Hardaway Jr.
Tim Hardaway Jr. struggled on offense in the Hawks’ Game 1 loss to the Wizards in the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. Hardaway said early foul trouble contributed to his issues and not the energy expended on slowing Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal.
Hardaway finished with just seven points on 2-of-11 shooting, including misses in all six 3-point attempts. Hardaway picked up two fouls five seconds apart in the first quarter. He was called for an and-one foul on John Wall with 6:03 remaining and then called for an offensive foul on the ensuing possession. Beal finished with 22 points, but he had just seven points on 3-of-10 shooting in the first half.
“No, I don’t think so,” Hardaway said when asked if the effort to stop Beal contributed to his poor offense. “Not at all. I think the two fouls, I couldn’t be that aggressive coming out on both ends of the floor. I was kind of nervous getting a charge call or even touching a guy. With the first two fouls in the first quarter, you just have to be smart out there. That’s what I was trying to do instead of being aggressive. You don’t have to expect that from me the next game. I’ll be out there being real aggressive.”
Point-guard rotation
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said he expect to use a similar reserve point-guard rotation behind starter Dennis Schroder for Game 2. In Game 1, Schroder played 36 minutes and Jose Calderon eight minutes. Malcolm Delaney remained the third point guard and did not play.
Budenholzer went with stretches without a point guard on the floor, something he did during the regular season as Kent Bazemore and Hardaway served to bring the ball up court and initiate the offense.
“The last few games of the regular season we were playing a little bit of (Bazemore) or (Hardaway),” Budenholzer said. “I think we’ll continue to mix and match it with Jose, and if you want to call it a no-point guard lineup, a little bit of both.”
