Ten observations: Hawks 99, Jazz 94

Ten observations from watching Hawks at Jazz on TV. . .

The Hawks earned a good win when they beat the Jazz at Philips Arena Jan. 22. The victory looked even better once the Jazz surged in the West -- they'd won 21 of 23 games since. The Hawks took a depleted roster to Utah for the rematch but earned the sweep in large part to Dennis Schroder's career-high 41 points. He scored those on 28 shots while his teammates combined for 58 points on 66 shots.
The Jazz couldn't stop Schroder but he almost sullied his night with an inexplicable Flagrant 1 foul in the final moments. After scoring a basket, Schroder swiped Ricky Rubio's face as he ran past him downcourt . Rubio made both free throws and then Joe Ingles made two more free throws on the ensuing possession. That gave the Jazz a 92-91 lead. The Hawks gained a 95-92 lead on Schroder's high-arching floater over Rudy Gobert's massive reach with 36.8 seconds to go, and pushed the advantage to 96-92 on Schroder's free throw with 24.2 left. The Hawks survived a missed 3-point attempt by Ingles on a clean look with 9.8 seconds left.
For much of the night no Hawks player other than Schroder could do much against Utah's defense, ranked third in efficiency before the game. The Hawks stayed in the game by scrapping defensively and riding Schroder's scoring and play-making. They controlled star rookie Donovan Mitchell, shot-maker Ingles and roll man terror Gobert. Eventually Dewayne Dedmon started scoring for the Hawks, too, and the game was on.
Taurean Prince's scoring hot streak ended with a dud: 11 points on 13 shots, two assists, two turnovers in 37 minutes. Prince missed all six of his 3-point tries, with a brick and an air ball among them. Prince also didn't find much room inside the arc as the Jazz showed Prince a crowd when he tried to drive with Gobert or Ekpe Udoh waiting on the back line.
Dedmon's strong work on the boards (15 rebounds, 11 defensive) was a big factor for the Hawks. He was in a spirited back-and-forth with Gobert, who at times seemed taken aback by Dedmon's aggressiveness. Dedmon also had 15 points on 13 shots and four assists. His efficiency improved once he stopped taking 3's (1-for-5) and focused on cleaning up around the basket.
Like in the first meeting, Schroder had it going early against Rubio: nine points on six shots in eight first-quarter minutes. Rubio had little chance of staying in front of Schroder so it came down to Utah's help defense (OK) and Schroder's finishing (good, with four free throws earned in the period). Schroder kept attacking Rubio at every opportunity and didn't force shots at the rim against Utah's bigs.
Also like the first meeting, the Hawks seemed OK with letting Rubio shoot from the perimeter. He couldn't hit during the game at Philips Arena but he did tonight: 23 points on 14 shots, including 3 for 7 on three-pointers.
Hawks rookie Damion Lee made his first career start. Tyler Dorsey had started the past three games since Kent Bazemore went down. Lee created some good scoring chances but had a couple good prime looks rim out while scoring five points on six shots. He did make a key free throw with 1:45 to go and collected six defensive rebounds in 31 minutes. Lee got the defensive assignment against Mitchell, his teammate for one season at Louisville. (Lee was the alpha grad transfer on that young team while Mitchell was a pretty good freshman.) Lee did solid work keeping Mitchell away from his favored drive-and-scoop shots.
Mike Muscala started in place of John Collins (ankle). He did a little bit of everything in 29 minutes: nine points on eight shots, five rebounds, two steals.
With Collins out, Miles Plumlee joined the power rotation. He had two bad turnovers in the first quarter, both coming as he tried to make passes out of the high post. Plumlee had two rebounds in 11 minutes.

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Michael Cunningham