by Tonight’s game would be a tough test for Atlanta. A cold piece of attack in the link sealed a narrow loss of bucks on Tuesday evening, but their match against the Indiana Pacers was an excellent opportunity to rebound against a strong playoff team of the Eastern Conference. After a slow start of the season, the Pacers have put it together lately and look like a real force in the east. They are demonstrably a more complete team than the Eastern Conference Finals team of last year and their Trio Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner can match almost everyone. It should be noted that the Hawks did not play the pacers of full strength – Haliburton was excluded with a hip injury.
Fortunately they took care of business. After being on the receiving side of a fourth quarter of the bucks, they used an excellent performance in the fourth quarter to send the Pacers packaging. Georges Niang led the team with 24 points from the bank (including four three), but Trae Young achieved 22 points and 16 assists. Onyeka Okongwu only missed one attempt from the field when collecting a 20-point, 13-Rebound Double-Double. Zaccharie Risacher ended up like a team -high +16 with 11 points on 3/3 shooting from deep while Dyson Daniels had 17 points. Mo Gueye played excellent defense and recorded 4 shares (3 steals, one block) in his minutes. They also received nice bank minutes from Terance Mann, who ended with 12 points.
For Indiana, Siakam led all scorers with 35 points at 12-18 shooting while he grabbed nine rebounds. Atlanta had no answer to him, but they could still win. Andrew Nembhard had a Double-Double with 15 points and 10 assists while Aaron Nesmith ended with 21 points. Myles Turner had 17, but the rest of the violation of Indiana was largely ineffective and they could not get the necessary defensive stops. Their bank ended with a combined 22 points that Niang himself overshadowed.
Let’s summarize tonight’s game.
The Hawks opened the game with a starting line -up from Young, Daniels, Risacher, Mo Gueye and Okongwu. Young let Atlanta go by finding an open Gueye for an easy bucket in the paint. Both teams were relatively even for the first half of the opening quarter. Although Indiana had a small advantage with a head start of 15-11, there were some solid moments for Atlanta. Risacher hit a catch and shot three on the circumference with little hesitation. His shot from Deep continues to look smooth and he was able to give Atlanta a legitimate distance despite his young age.
Although it was not a great achievement of Indiana van Deep, they still managed to make it difficult for Atlanta to take the lead. Siakam had 8 points in the quarter and nine different pacers scored in a balanced attack that masked a calm scorekwartier from Turner. The attack was largely listless (only 21 points on 23 assets), but Young gave them a spark at the end of the quarter. He hit two free throws before he touched a buzzing stepback jumper on the next possession. Indiana checked the first quarter, 31-21, but the Hawks had a momentum on their way to the second quarter.
That momentum was handed over almost immediately opened the quarter with a three-pointer of Risacher’s feed before the pacers made a game of 10 points again. Fortunately, Terance Mann’s first brand came from the night – a 24 -foot three -Wijzer – at the perfect moment for Atlanta. It led to a 9-0 point to give them a 40-38 lead before Indiana was forced to call a time-out. Mann was excellent during the run, good for four of those points. The Pacers brought it on free throws from Turner, but Mann has nailed a floater to give Atlanta the lead. Turner again hit a three-guide to give Indiana a 47-44 lead, but Caris supplies with four straight points to direct the ship for the Hawks. It was the first points of the Night of Delivery, which is quite surprising how essential he has been as a bank scorer for Atlanta. The Hawks do not win against Memphis without his 25-point performance, so a quiet night for him certainly does not predict well for the attack. Yet he hit another layout to give Atlanta a slender lead before Daniels hit a floater to give Atlanta a lead of 53-49. Unfortunately, Atlanta lost the lead on the 1:27 Mark on a sweater from TJ McConnell and never got it back for the rest of half. A late three-pointer from Niang did little to change that while the Hawks entered the dressing room with a deficit of 56-63.
As standard, the Hawks did not shot the ball very well during the first half. They finished half by shooting 47.1% out of the field and 31.3% of deep. Only five of their sixteen shots actually connected. They also hit the Boards Indiana had 19 defensive rebounds for their 13 and pointed them out, 27-22. Conversley, the Pacers shot 51.1% out of the field and 90% of the free throw line. They also had a gloomy three -point percentage of 33.3%, but they could stay in it because of their variety of offensive options. Aaron Wiggins and Andrew Nembhard both came with shots when needed, while Jarace Walker did well as a rebounder.
Indiana did not show any signs of slipping early in the third quarter. Nesmith has nailed a three-guide to open things for the Pacers and to give them a lead of ten points. Atlanta, however, went on a 9-0 point fed by Young and Risacher. Young found Okongwu for a big dunk while he hit another stepback. Risacher stated that to bury his second three-pointer of the Night of the Pas of Daniels. Daniels found Risacher again for the layout to put some pressure on the pacers, but she saved Nembhard again by finding Siakam for a timely three-pointer. His game was completely shown tonight – he did very well to enter Haliburton as a facilitator and Atlanta could not lure him into sloppy turnover. It gave the Pacers a lead of 69-65 that again stretched Nembhard by touching his first three-guide of the second half.
Yet the attack of the Hawks has done an admirable work to keep pace. Daniels worn Atlanta well and they never left the main balloon out of hand. However, their inability to get stops really put a lot of pressure on the attack. Fortunately, they were able to set up a solid reaction halfway through the third quarter. After a Nembhard-DriepuntSpel made it a game of 77-69, Daniels and Gueye made it a four-point game with their own buckets. Okongwu joined a chopping shot to give the Hawks a little more life before Young made it a 79-78 game with one and one of his own. The Hawks took the lead on successive Jumpers van Delivers and Daniels Before delivering a thunderous block on McConnell’s attempt to respond. There was an official controversy about the block, but head coach Quin Snyder challenged the call and let it be destroyed in their favor. Unfortunately, Indiana went on a 12-0 run fed by Siakam who had erased the momentum that Atlanta had erased. They never found it again in the third quarter and went down the fourth quarter, 94-86.
If the Hawks attack sputtered during the second half of the third quarter, it looked very different in the fourth. Okongwu let Atlanta go with an easy bucket after Young found him under the edge and was polluted in the process. He fell the free throw and made it clear that the Hawks would not let them slip away. Two sweaters from Walker and Nembhard were everything that the pacers came in the fourth quarter in the start. Atlanta had an excellent two-way rack where they were interrupted at a 17-6 point by six different Hawks-scoring baskets. The momentum, however, was really about when Risacher nails his third three-guide of the Night of Feeding Feeding. Turner then hit free throws to give Indiana a narrow lead, but Niang has nailed two three-Pointers quickly in succession. After they had taken a 104-102 lead, the Hawks never followed and they answered every brand of Indiana with one of them. Siakam made it somewhat of a match by scoring four points on back-to-back ownership to bring Indiana to a shortage of 115-120. Okongwu, however, ended the game on free throws and both hit Atlanta a much needed victory.
With this victory, the Hawks are a step closer to securing a top-8 seed and a better path through the late season. They are currently the 8th seed because of the magical losses, but they have to hold that place. At this stage, every victory is important for them and it means more when they can do it against one of the better teams in the east. The Pacers certainly missed Haliburton tonight, but the Hawks placed 38 points in the fourth quarter. That made the difference.
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