The Atlanta Hawks were able to hold off the Chicago Bulls for a 130-124 victory at home on Thursday night. Atlanta had lost the previous three match-up’s against Chicago coming into this game, and this was the final time both teams would see each other for the regular season.
Coming off a head-scratching loss in Boston, the Hawks needed this win in their pursuit of the NBA playoffs. Especially, against this top-ranked Bulls squad, the Hawks had two throwaway games back in December, with multiple players out due to Covid protocols, and the heart-breaker from last week that saw DeMar DeRozan hit a go-ahead basket with 15 seconds remaining. This Hawks team can beat anybody and play with anybody. At this juncture of the season, the team must string wins together to get back into the playoff fold.
Trae Young was absolutely stellar against the Bulls Thursday. The match-up between Young and Bulls rookie, Ayo Dosunmu, was a huge spotlight as the rookie guard had done a terrific job guarding Young in the previous three meetings. Young reminded Dosunmu on why he is a surefire top-ten player in this league. “Ice Trae” was dominate in his performance finishing with another monster double-double of 39 points, on 61% shooting, and 13 assists. Young was nearly automatic from beyond the arc, hitting 7-of-9 from three and the degree of difficulty of some shots led State Farm Arena into a frenzy.
Young kept the Hawks in this game late. The Hawks were down 114-111 with under four minutes remaining, as Young cashed in a 26-foot three-pointer. Later in the fourth, on back-to-back Hawks possessions, Young sunk two dagger three’s that led to the Hawks victory.
As marvelous as Young was, he could not have done this without the help of Bogdan Bogdanovic, who has been playing excellent the past month and a half. ‘Bogi’ finished with 20 points on the night, which is his sixth 20-point outing in his last 10 games. Bogdanovic was big in the fourth quarter hitting three three’s in the final frame alone, including the go-ahead bucket with 1:41 remaining.
Both teams shot very well from three, as the Bulls shot 53.8% on the night and the Hawks finished at 45%. Atlanta dominated the free-throw line, going 24-of-28 from the charity strike. The Bulls only had seven attempts from the line.
This was the frontend of a back-to-back for Atlanta. The team travels up to the nation’s capital to take on the Washington Wizards, a team that is 1.5 games back of Atlanta for the East’s final play-in spot. Atlanta can do themselves some favors by beating the Wizards head-to-head and creating some breathing room in the process. Tip-off for this game is at 7:00 p.m. eastern from Capital One Arena.
