The Hawks needed to flush that awful performance from the other night and come out with a renewed focus today on their annual MLK Day game.
Corey Kispert earned his first start with the Hawks at the 3, and Dyson Daniels made his return after a one-game absence. Both teams scuffled at the onset of the game, but Daniels cashed in some offensive rebounds for points in the paint to keep the Hawks close.
When the bench mob of McCollum, Krejci and Gueye came in, they were able to force a few turnovers and retake
the lead with transition buckets:
It was a very ugly quarter for the Hawks other than that, however. They finished the first period 0-for-13 from three and were lucky to be down just 20-19 to that point.
The game continued to be less than aesthetically pleasing in the second quarter. Atlanta couldn’t stop bricking good looks from deep, and the Bucks offense found their footing first. In a blink, it was 33-21.
The three-point clanks kept coming. And coming. In a flash, it was 0-for-20. Thankfully, Atlanta found some defensive footing and held the Bucks from blowing the game wide open.
At long last, CJ McCollum broke the streak with the last attempt of the half. At the break, it was 54-38 Milwaukee.
The Hawks couldn’t possibly shoot worse than that in the second half, right? …Right?
Well, they definitely hit some threes. But they allowed just as many or more to Milwaukee and found themselves down double digits almost the entire third quarter.
But they kept fighting, stemming the tide a bit with a strong stretch midway through the period. Hopefully this Jalen two-way play gets him going:
The Hawks narrowed the lead to just eight by way of three Nickeil Alexander-Walker free throws in the dying seconds, so they found themselves staring at an 80-72 gap after three.
Atlanta tried to put together the run they needed in the fourth quarter, multiple times cutting the lead to six. Alexander-Walker was a big factor in those efforts:
CJ McCollum pitched in as well, hitting some key buckets to cut the lead to four with 3:13 remaining, 99-95.
Atlanta even took the lead a few times. But they gave up open looks to AJ Green and Bobby Portis and paid for their sins.
But a desperation Alexander-Walker three with less than 20 seconds on the clock down four went in. Ryan Rollins then split the pair of free throws.
With a chance to tie, McCollum lost his dribble on a drive, and his off-balance hoist was nowhere close. The Hawks could do nothing but eat a 112-110 loss — their fourth in four games:
Nickeil Alexander-Walker had a valiant second half rally to bring his total 32 points, but it wasn’t enough.
Next, the Hawks travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies on Wednesday evening.
