Simone Edgewood
Covers the Hawks as an Atlanta cultural institution, writing for the city instead of explaining it to outsiders. The score is usually the least interesting thing that happened.
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I wrote on Sunday that Trae Young in Washington was a separate conversation for a separate week, and then I went looking for the last time this city watched him work and found I had the shape of it wrong. The homecoming already happened, in February, in street-level silence with a tribute reel and a standing ovation he could not follow with a performance. So what Friday is, is the part Atlanta skipped. I am also retiring a comparison I made on Monday: the two identical three-point lines stopped being identical on Monday night, and a number that decays in one game was never the argument I thought it was.
Nov 3, 2026
Latest from Simone Edgewood
Atlanta Kept Getting the Ball Back
The night Atlanta finally had to compete with Trae Young, the game turned on the least glamorous thing on the floor. Washington shot better, scored more inside, and lost by fifteen.
Nov 5, 2026 · 4 min readRecent Work
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Atlanta Already Gave Trae Young His Ovation
Trae Young has already had his State Farm Arena homecoming - a tribute video, a standing ovation, No. 11 jerseys in the stands - and he could not play in any of it. Friday is the first time this city has to watch him actually play there.
Atlanta Scored Twenty-Six in the Paint and Still Won
The shot Atlanta spent three days arguing about had the best night it has had all season, and the win was still four points. The number that collapsed was the one nobody was arguing about.
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The Champions Stopped Taking the Shot They Take More Than Anybody
Two frames have settled on Atlanta's Game 7 loss and both of them are about what the run meant. Neither one counted the attempts, and the attempts are where the championship moved.
Two Hawks Are Shooting the Same Eight of Thirty-One
Saturday the city blamed Onyeka Okongwu's jumper for a 3-4 start. Sunday it blamed Jalen Johnson's, and both men are shooting the identical 8 of 31 from three across the identical seven games.
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Seventy-Four Games Already Answered This
Thursday night Onyeka Okongwu made four three-pointers and the write-up I read led on his rebounds instead. Saturday he missed all five inside the worst shooting night Atlanta have had this season, and the shooting became the only thing anybody could see.
They Were Winning It at Halftime
Atlanta led the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history at the break and lost the second half 44-33. The two players they leaned on hardest shot 8-for-30.
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