The Atlanta Hawks narrowly escaped with a 120-118 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday. The Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton again due to a hip injury, but Bennedict Mathurin returned in a big way. He had 30 points and eight rebounds on 4-6 shooting from downtown to lead his squad.
The Hawks built a big lead in the first quarter behind their defense and Trae Young’s hot start. The All-Star scored 11 of Atlanta’s first 15 points to put his team up 15-5. Indiana began the contest just 3-10 from the field because the Hawks put them in many late shot clock situations. Without Haliburton, the normally high-octane Pacers offense could not get by Atlanta’s perimeter defense. The Hawks opened up a whopping 39-19 lead after the first quarter, shooting 17-26 from the field.
Indiana started the second on a 14-6 run, but Atlanta responded with an 11-3 stretch to end the half leading by 17 points. The home team outrebounded the Pacers 25-17 in the first half and held them to 37% shooting.
Indiana found its rhythm in the second half. It began the third frame on an 8-0 run and held the Hawks to 4-13 from the field. Mathurin and Pascal Siakam, who scored 35 points on Thursday, led the comeback. Suddenly, Atlanta only had an 86-80 advantage with the momentum on the visitor’s bench. The Pacers picked up their energy defensively, forcing the Hawks to shoot just 8-24 from the field in the quarter.
Indiana took a 104-102 lead, its first since the score was 2-0, with seven minutes left, but the Hawks fought back. Caris LeVert, Trae Young, and Onyeka Okongwu, who grabbed eight offensive rebounds on the night, led the charge down the stretch. Atlanta had just a two-point lead with under a minute left.
After Mouhamed Gueye played great help defense to force a Mathurin miss at the rim, the Pacers were forced to foul Young with seven seconds left. He knocked down two at the charity stripe to give his team a 119-116 lead. Indiana needed to draw a play for a three, but Siakam, who scored 23 points, drove inside for a dunk. He knew he made a mistake. With less than a second left, Indiana’s comeback fell short.
“It was a stupid play by me. But it happens. We put ourselves in that situation. We gotta get a 3 at that point. And yeah, my bad,” Siakam said after the game.
Young scored 26 points in the first half to finish with 36. Okongwu dominated inside the paint for a 16-point, 16-board double-double. He also added three steals and three blocks. After a poor shooting performance on Thursday, LeVert bounced back for 26 points on 10-17 shooting.
