ATLANTA – The Atlanta Hawks know they have a good opportunity in front of them with a long homestand. Not only that, but those games come against teams that have not played very well this season. The Brooklyn Nets were on their schedule today, and though some would think it would be a cake walk for the Hawks, it turned out to be a dogfight for three quarters.
It became less of a fight in the first half of the fourth quarter, where the Nets went up 11 points, and the Hawks didn't have an answer for anything they did. Luckily, a flip switched, and the Hawks woke up with less than six minutes remaining in the game.
The Hawks finished the game on a 24-2 run, and after being down 11 points at one point in the fourth, they walked away with a 115-104 victory over the Nets.
“We turned the aggression up in the last six minutes,” Dyson Daniels said. “We had no choice, we were down 11, we had to change something. Everybody turned it up. We were more physical on the ball; we were able to create turnovers, get stops, and get out and run. We have to be better at the start of the game if we want to beat good teams and give ourselves a chance this year.”
Daniels had three steals in the fourth, one of which came from guarding the inbound and catching the ball mid-air.
“He kind of threw it low,” Daniels said. “I knew he had the ball for already three or four seconds, so it was coming soon, and I just timed the jump.”
It's obvious the defense was key for the Hawks to help them come back late, and it started with the guards and flowed through the entire team.
“Collectively, we did a good job of stopping them,” Jalen Johnson said. “Nickeil [Alexander-Walker] and Dyson set the tone with that, and the rest of the guys followed the lead. Dyson got a few steals, and that shifted the momentum.”
“Defense wins games,” Jock Landale said. “I think we did a good job of that in the fourth quarter. CJ turned it on and made some big shots. [Jalen] did a good job figuring out where he wanted the ball and getting to his spots. That was a mature game to close that out.”
As much as the defense mattered, the Hawks had to come back and score on the other end. It was Johnson who led the way in that category, as he scored 14 points in the fourth and sealed the game with some key buckets in the end. CJ McCollum, who moved to the starting lineup, also hit a big three-pointer to give the Hawks the lead late in the game.
From there, the Hawks never looked back, and they were able to get the win as they continue their homestand.
