It never really stopped Atlanta, though, as those guards made lots of jumpers. Through three quarters, the Hawks had shot 35-66, a 53 percent clip. In the fourth, the Kings defense — visually solid but effectively bad throughout — just went sour. The Hawks shot the lights out (11-19) and the Kings fell.

And so it remains — the Kings' major downfall is shooting defense. Rebounding has improved. The turnover situation in undeniably good. For a night the opponent didn't live at the line. But it's for naught when the Kings can't force a bad shot.

The Kings won all Four Factors but shooting. (Statsheet.com has really awesome embeddable charts showing this now.)

But that shooting. Even with Martin having another stellar shooting night (29 points on 24 shooting possessions, a 60 percent True Shooting clip), the Kings shot just 43 percent on two-pointers, and 33 percent on threes. The Hawks, meanwhile, shot 58 percent on two-pointers and 38 percent on threes. You can't make up those gaps on offensive rebounds and turnovers. Not without perfect timing, which the Kings didn't have in the end.

It was a disappointing night for Hawes, but a killer performance for Thompson, who scored 22, added 12 rebounds and five assists with no turnovers. On the season, Thompson has 19 assists and only two turnovers. (Point-center Hawes has 11/10. Point guard Tyreke Evans has 18/12.)

Speaking of Evans …