Dejounte Murray and the Atlanta Hawks had a nightmare of a first half against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night; the Hawks' defense was all over the place, allowing 79 points to the Timberwolves as they faced a deficit that ballooned to as many as 21 points. But the game of basketball is played over 48 minutes, not 24, and this game ended up being the classic tale of two halves.

Murray came out of the halftime intermission as a man possessed; after scoring just 11 points in the first half, the Hawks guard exploded for 30 points in the second half as they came roaring back from the aforementioned huge deficit en route to what ended up being a comfortable 125-110 victory over the Timberwolves.

Staying the course isn't easy for a team that was as all over the place as the Hawks were during their dreadful first half effort. But the Hawks took after Dejounte Murray's lead, mustering the requisite mental fortitude to mount quite the impressive comeback.

“The only thing for us was that we couldn't put our head down,” Murray told reporters after their huge victory to sweep their back-to-back set, via Bally Sports: Hawks. “We came in at halftime and said, ‘It's a game of runs. It's the NBA.' […] It's two halves for a reason, and I think we just showed that we're built for whatever.”

Dejounte Murray himself hasn't had the greatest start to the 2023-24 season; the Hawks guard entered Monday night with an average of 14.7 points and 5.7 assists per game on 39.5 percent shooting — uncharacteristic numbers. Perhaps the morale boost that would come from this comeback victory and scoring explosion would spur Murray to even greater heights for a team with ambitions of making some noise in the playoffs.