Hawks Talon Gaming looking to rebound after Thursday losses

After dropping both of its games Thursday night and falling to 5-7 on the year, Hawks Talon Gaming, the NBA 2K League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks, will look to adjust on the defensive side of the ball Saturday night.

Despite some strong offensive performances from point guard CEEZ (Caesar A. Martinez) and center LEE (Lee Lamb) on Thursday, Hawks Talon struggled to stop NetsGC, the official NBA 2K League affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets, losing 70-79 and 68-81. Hawks Talon head coach was pleased with his team’s offensive performance, but saw his team’s defensive flaws as the cause for loss.

“NetsGC shot the ball very well tonight. It felt like for every shot that we made, they were ready to answer. They controlled the tempo all night long,” said Acuff.

Acuff’s worries for his team are not new ones. In a press conference Thursday morning, the coach also commented on the team’s room for improvement defending the virtual bucket.

“The strength is that we can score,” said Acuff. “Offensive firepower is there and that’s one of our weapons. An area of improvement is becoming more consistent. Defensively, always getting the stops we need when we need to get the stops and consistently building on that momentum to carry it into the next game. Just improving on extending our winning streaks and becoming a more consistent team and I think that’ll get us where we need to be.”

Hawks Talon will get two chances to correct their mistakes Saturday night against Heat Check Gaming, the official NBA 2K league affiliate of the Miami Heat. Saturday’s contests will be the third and fourth meetings between the two teams after Hawks Talon beat Heat Check twice two weeks ago. Despite the recent success, Acuff refuses to take Heat Check any less seriously than any other team he would prepare for.

“Heat Check has retooled their roster. We’re not playing the same Heat Check team we did the first go around. We’ve got to come out there and really be on our business because they’re winning games and they’re building some momentum on their end and they’re going to come ready to play, so we’ve got to be ready for that and match the energy because they definitely are on the up and we don’t want to take anything lightly just because we got some wins last time,” he said. “We want to show up and take it seriously and try to get the job done.”

Game one will tip off at 7 P.M. Both games will be simulcast live on the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels. Games will also be available on ESRevolution, Loco in India, Sport1 in Europe and Dash Radio.