If tonight's result is any indication, the Atlanta Hawks look ready to go for the season opener.
The Mavericks aren't an elite team, but they're a talented squad. That wasn't very clear in the box score - Atlanta led by a 73-54 margin at halftime and never let their foot off the gas en route to a 135-111 victory. The Hawks played all their starters 15+ minutes, which left Dallas' offense struggling to catch up. Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving did their best with 44 combined points, but they were two of only three Mavericks who scored over 15 points. The other was former Hawk Zaccharie Risacher, who put up 16 points on 7-11 shooting, but did most of his damage when Atlanta had already pulled away.
There's little to criticize in these types of games. Even so, there were some clear decisions made tonight about the rotation by head coach Quin Snyder and tonight's performances are going to have ramifications on the gameplan against Orlando.
Who stood out and who struggled tonight for Atlanta?
Winner: Nickeil Alexander-Walker
NAW's already earned his reputation as one of the most valuable players in the league relative to his contract. More performances like tonight's are going to sustain that narrative. He was a +21, scored 25 points on 6-10 shooting from deep and dished out five assists while only turning it over twice. He's looked better as a facilitator throughout preseason and kept the ball moving tonight.
Perhaps most importantly, he made Dallas pay every time they left him open on the corner. That's a huge bonus for Atlanta's spacing and it'll be critical to his performance this season.
Winner: Jalen Johnson
Posting a double-double of 20 points and 14 rebounds almost always gets someone on the winner's list, but JJ also shot 11 free throws to the Mavericks' 19 as a team. His ability to draw contact is critical to his development as a No. 1 option and it was on full display tonight.
It wasn't his best game as a facilitator, but the connective passing of Atlanta's entire rotation made up for it and he played a massive role on the boards. The Hawks won the rebound battle against a large Dallas team with a 55-42 edge and it was in no small part due to Johnson.
Winner: Jock Landale
Landale is going to be Snyder's preferred backup center this season. While that may seem obvious, there was a miniscule possibility of one of Asa Newell or Zuby Ejiofor threatening him for minutes at times. So far, that doesn't seem realistic.
In just 11 minutes, Landale scored 14 points and canned three threes. His spacing helped the Hawks shoot 41.2% as a team from deep tonight and he helped them build a lead they would never relinquish. The defense is always a question, but he made up for his deficiencies on that end tonight with five assists and finished as a +16 on the evening.
Loser: Dyson Daniels
To be very clear, I'm not suggesting that Dyson Daniels is in danger of losing his starting spot. However, it's a bit worrying to see that he's gone 2-12 from deep and only 14 shots in four preseason games where he played 20+ minutes in three of them. Daniels is never going to be a dynamic scorer, but the shot has to show progress and it hasn't been encouraging thus far.
Tonight, the Mavericks defended him with Daniel Gafford. That strategy largely worked - Daniels finished the night with 8 points on seven shots. To be fair, he did have two steals, a block and a generally solid defensive night. However, this team needs what Daniels brings as a passer and defensive playmaker to complement JJ. If he can't stay on the floor in crunch time because he can be altogether ignored as a scorer, it will make for some frustrating losses. It didn't matter tonight because the rest of Atlanta's lineup made up the difference. Even so, they can't rely on 45 points off the bench from the trio of Kingston Flemings, Jock Landale and Aaron Wiggins every night.
It wasn't a massive point of concern tonight, but the stagnancy in his shot is something that could prove to be an issue for regular season games that do matter.
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