The Hawks welcomed back second year player Zaccharie Risacher, and he was inserted directly back into the starting lineup along with Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jalen Johnson, and Mouhamed Gueye — the latter to counter Indiana’s small ball preference.
Risacher got on the board with a great two-way play early:
Both teams got off to hot starts, with Jalen Johnson the primary guy for our favorite team. He bullied the Pacers almost every scoring
possession in the opening minutes:
But Andrew Nembhard absolutely couldn’t miss in the opening minutes, putting in 15 points on perfect shooting in the first quarter. As such, the Hawks couldn’t pull away despite their offense clicking.
After one quarter, it was 39-35.
The high scoring affair continued into the second period. With the Hawks up 48-39, they ceded a 9-0 run that included three fouls to Dyson Daniels. Those fouls pinned the Aussie to the bench for the rest of the half.
The Hawks by no means played great defense, but Indiana capitalized on every friendly whistle and were almost automatic from deep (11-for-20), and so the Hawks found themselves down 80-73. Jalen Johnson led the scoring with 21.
The track meet continued in the second half, but Atlanta struggled to retake the lead. Defensive highlights were few and far between, but Mo Gueye provided one here:
At the end of three, the Hawks trailed 103-100.
At the end of the fourth quarter, it remained a close contest — albeit one in which the Hawks were seemingly always down seven points. A late Jalen Johnson triple made it a four-point contest. With a stop on one end, and a McCollum make off an out of bounds play narrowed the lead to just two with a touch over 30 seconds remaining.
But Pascal Siakam hit a free throw line fadeaway and the Hawks literally tossed away a chance to tie the game from three and lose 129-124.
The Hawks have two days off before taking on the Heat in Miami on Tuesday.
