Dennis Schroder was benched for almost the entire second half of Monday night’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, and the Atlanta Hawks point guard would like a word with his coach about it.
Schroder was pulled from the game immediately following a verbal exchange with teammate Dwight Howard. The argument came after Howard turned the ball over on a bad pass with the Hawks leading 70-69. As Schroder and Howard debated about what went wrong, Stephen Curry quickly dribbled down the court and buried a 3-pointer.
As Dennis Schroder and Dwight Howard argue, Steph Curry runs down and drills a three pic.twitter.com/kHiNM5Pav2
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 7, 2017
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer, who was heard telling Schroder “that’s what I’m talking about” after Curry hit the 3-pointer, called the decision to bench Schroder despite his 23 first-half points a coach’s decision.
“Just us staying together is the bigger point,” Budenholzer told reporters, via Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’ve got to stay together and find a way to move on to the next play. Those things are important.”
Schroder conceded that the play where he was arguing with Howard “can’t happen,” but he said he would like an explanation from Budenholzer.
“I don’t understand coach’s decision. I want to be on the court,” Schroder said. “Maybe I’m too competitive. I’m just trying to be competitive and win games. We have to figure it out, me and coach. I want to talk about it. Dwight’s got to be in there too. Get on the same page.”
Howard said he would be open to such a meeting.
“Listen, we are a team right?” he said. “It’s OK if we have conversations. It’s not always conflict when you have a conversation with your coach or a team meeting. That’s what you are supposed to do. By him wanting to have a meeting, it’s great. It’s great for our team. It’s great for each other. We’re all open to it. It’s not always bad when you have a conversation.”
The Hawks ended up losing 119-111, which was their sixth loss in their last eight games. They are currently 34-29 and hold the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Schroder was recently suspended one game by the Hawks for an irresponsible decision following the All-Star break, so it’s possible Budenholzer is simply running out of patience with him.
