Hawks Notes: Snyder, Landale, NAW, Risacher, Kispert

Appearing on 92.9 The Game on Tuesday morning, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder referred to the play that injured Jock Landale last Wednesday as a “dirty” one by Magic center Goga Bitadze (Twitter video link). Bitazde pulled Landale down by his shoulder as he took the ball up for a scoring chance at the basket, resulting in the Atlanta big man landing awkwardly and spraining his ankle. He was ruled out for at least two weeks.

“I wish it would have been taken more seriously than it was,” Snyder said, per Mike Conti of 92.9 The Game (Twitter link). “To get to a point where there’s no penalty, there’s no suspension, there’s nothing?”

Snyder went on to point out that it wasn’t a first-time offense for the division-rival Magic, whom the Hawks beat by 29 points in Orlando last week (Twitter video link).

“The part of it that’s even more concerning to me is that we played (the Magic) last year — we were in a similar situation, where we had a trade at the deadline and we were playing really well,” Snyder said. “And we went down to Orlando and two guys on our team were knocked out for the season, Larry Nance and Vit (Krejci), both on dirty plays.

“So here we are, a year removed, and you could see it coming. That’s the game plan against the Hawks is to try to punk us. And you know what? It didn’t work, because we were tough and we competed. And then it turned into that when the game was over. It makes me really, really angry.”

We have more on the Hawks:

• Nickeil Alexander-Walker continues to strengthen his case for Most Improved Player recognition. The guard scored 36 points in Monday’s loss to New York and hit seven shots from beyond the arc, increasing his three-point total for the season to 244. That’s a new single-season team record, per the Hawks (Twitter link), surpassing Bogdan Bogdanovic‘s 240 threes in 2023/24.
• Former No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher played a career-low seven minutes on Monday, which Snyder chalked up to a crowded rotation, stressing that it wasn’t an indictment of the second-year forward. “We only have so many guys that we can actually put in the game,” he said (Twitter link via Maura Carey of The Associated Press). “… It’s not anything about one player, that’s just the game.”
• Sharpshooter Corey Kispert has also been a DNP-CD in three of the past four games after appearing in each of his first 35 contests with the team. “Corey didn’t play (on Monday), and Corey played great last game,” Snyder said (Twitter link via Carey). “We can only have so many guys that we can actually put in the game, and in certain situations we’re giving Nickeil, Dyson (Daniels) and those guys more minutes… (Jonathan Kuminga) played a little more, so those minutes come from somewhere.”
• After winning 18 of their previous 20 games, the Hawks fell at home on Monday to a potential playoff opponent, losing 108-105 to the Knicks. Atlanta viewed the defeat as a learning experience, writes Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (subscription required). “This is like a lesson,” Alexander-Walker said. “It’s good for us to be battle-tested headed for the postseason. That’s a good team. Now we know how much better we can be. And we know their strengths, they know ours, and it’s how do we make an adjustment should we meet in the playoffs.”