The Atlanta Hawks are back to .500 after setting season-highs in both three-pointers (19) and assists (32) in a 132-100 thrashing of the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night.
Poor transition defense kept Phoenix in the game early on, as Atlanta only held a 26-23 advantage after the opening frame. From that point forward however, it was all Hawks. The team began the 2nd quarter on a 22-3 run*, and wouldn’t lead by fewer than 17 points the rest of the way. By the time the 4th quarter rolled around, Atlanta’s lead had ballooned to 35, and this game was all but over.
*(The group on the floor for Atlanta during this run: Dejounte Murray, A.J. Griffin, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu)
It may sound simple, but shot-making was truly the difference in this one. The Hawks shot 57% from the field while the Suns shot just 41%. Atlanta hit 15 more three-pointers than the Suns, going 19/33 (57.6%) from beyond the arc relative to Phoenix’s 4/28 (14.1%) mark. It’s a make-or-miss league, and one team was doing the former while the other was doing the latter.
Trae Young and Dejounte Murray led the way for the Hawks, with Young racking up 12 assists to go alongside 20 points, and Murray stuffing the stat sheet with 21 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds. Young’s masterful passing ability was on full display today, making notable effort to get his teammates involved early, with 8 of his assists coming in the first half. Murray did an excellent job when Trae was on bench (minutes Atlanta has struggled in this season), and posted a team-high “plus-minus” of +40 in just under 30 minutes of playing time.
Bogdan Bogdanovic hit 4 threes, and scored 18 points off the bench. Onyeka Okongwu and De’Andre Hunter added 17 and 15 points respectively, on highly efficient shooting (Okongwu was a perfect 7/7 from the floor and hit his first career three tonight). Jalen Johnson was back in the rotation tonight and impressed in the time he was given, making some impressive passes and grabbing a career-high, 11 rebounds on the night. John Collins had a quiet night offensively, but was excellent on the defensive end of the floor with 3 blocks on the night.
Nobody could get anything going for the Suns tonight, but Mikal Bridges was the high-man for them, scoring 23 points on 6/18 shooting. Deandre Ayton chipped in with 20 points and 9 rebounds.
The Hawks are now 26-26, and will look to pick up a 2nd consecutive victory on Friday night against the Utah Jazz. Tipoff for that one is at 9pm EST.
