The Hawks overcame a disastrous third quarter and managed to pull out a hard-fought win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night.
Atlanta led 66-52 at half-time thanks to an offensive explosion in the second quarter, punctuated by this ridiculous sequence courtesy of John Collins and De’Andre Hunter. The Hawks scored 41 points in the second period, shooting a scorching 71% from the field, including going 6-12 from downtown. The Clippers could not hit a shot in the first-half, shooting just 37% from the field. Give credit to the Hawks’ rim protection, with six first-half blocks, as they only allowed LA to shoot 9-16 at the basket. The bench unit was also especially impressive in the first-half, as unlikely heroes Frank Kaminsky III and Jalen Johnson gave the Hawks a nice boost, with Collins and Oneyka Okongwu in foul trouble.
The third quarter was a different story altogether. After some nice ball-movement in the first-half, the team’s offense devolved into isolation’s and zero or one-pass pick-and-roll possessions. The only thing uglier than their 33% field-goal percentage was the actual shot profile, as they took just two attempts from beyond the arc, four at the rim, and 15 from mid-range.
On the other end of the floor, the Clippers, namely, Marcus Morris, woke up from their ice-cold shooting in the first half, going 4-8 from distance and dominated the Hawks on the boards, winning the rebounding battle 18-7 in the quarter. When the dust settled, the Clippers had erased the Hawks’ advantage, and led 87-85 going into the fourth.
The final period did not get off to a good start for Atlanta, as a Kawhi Leonard three gave the home team a 102-91 lead with 6:45 left to play. An Okongwu offensive rebound led to a Trae Young three on the Hawks’ next possession*, and free throw’s from Okongwu and Young would cut the deficit to four with 4:30 left to play. An errant pass from Nicolas Batum followed by a Norman Powell miss gifted the Hawks two transition lay-in opportunities which they did not squander, knotting the game up at 102-102 with 3:55 to go.
*(This three ended a 37-14 Clippers’ run which spanned from the 7:57 mark in the third quarter to the 6:45 mark in the fourth)
With the game still tied with 1:16 left to play, good defense from De’Andre Hunter forced a Leonard miss, giving the Hawks another chance to hit LA on the break. Young blew past Powell to quickly get into the lane for a floater, giving Atlanta a 108-106 lead. Leonard and Young would trade baskets after that, before Young’s free throw’s would put the game out of reach.
Young led the way for Atlanta finishing with 30 points and 8 assists, with 14 of his points coming in the fourth quarter. Hunter scored 20 points on 8-13 shooting, and played some solid defense on Leonard. Collins finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks, and while his numbers may not have been eye-popping, he made two huge plays to keep Atlanta in the game in the fourth quarter. One with this block on Moses Brown that effectively saved them two points Brown, and another with a drawn-charge on Ivica Zubac. Dejounte Murray finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Leonard was the high man for the Clippers, finishing with 29 points, however the Hawks made him work for his buckets, as he only shot 9-23 from the floor. Zubac was a problem on the glass all night long, and finished with 17 points and 18 rebounds, including 8 offensive boards. Powell, Morris, and Terrence Mann combined for 43 points and handled the bulk of the rest of the scoring for LA.
This was the final game of Atlanta’s four-game West Coast road trip, as the Hawks can look forward to returning home for a tilt against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday evening. Tip-off for that one is at 7:30 p.m. eastern from State Farm Arena.
