NAWt so fast: Nickeil Alexander-Walker sparks huge 4th-quarter comeback for Hawks
Though Suns’ Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks tried to keep the game out of reach, Hawks Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to power the team. It was enough to help lift the Hawks out of their 22-point deficit to a 124-122 win over the Suns on Sunday in Phoenix.
The Hawks needed a spark, especially after seeing teammate Zaccharie Risacher exit the game following a scary fall in the fourth quarter.
“I thought Zacch got us going, he had a couple steals,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said on the postgame broadcast. “Obviously, he got out in transition. Nickeil’s a battler. He’s a tough guy and who loves to compete, and we’ve been talking about going to the rim, getting in the paint, and having our eyes out, and that’s what those guys did, and they found each other, and then when the rim was there, they finished.”
It pushed the Hawks and helped them to sweep their four-game West Coast road trip.
Quick stats: Alexander-Walker ended the night with 26 points. The Hawks front-court tandem of Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu followed up their powerful night in Utah. Johnson had 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Okongwu had 27 points and five assists.
Brooks had 34 points and six rebounds. Booker had 27 points and seven assists.
Hawks’ big rally over Suns
The Hawks had a chance to get back into Sunday’s game after trailing the Suns 103-83 with just under 10:00 to play in the game. A 24-5 run, capped off by a Vit Krejci 3-pointer, cut into the Suns’ lead and brought the Hawks within two possessions and forced the Suns to call a timeout.
But Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker hit some big layups, with Alexander-Walker adding a free throw to cut the Hawks’ deficit to 107-106.
Alexander-Walker’s three-point play kept pushing the momentum in the Hawks’ favor. In all, the Hawks outscored the Suns 47-27 in the fourth quarter.
Highlight play
The Hawks needed a spark and Alexander-Walker lit the match. He confidently called for the ball in the corner with 3:17 to play in the game.
Okongwu drove to the basket to further collapse the defense and free up Alexander-Walker. Brooks realized the rotation and charged to the corner to contest the shot. The Suns forward ended up fouling Alexander-Walker as he let go of the ball and the Hawks wing drew the four-point play to cut the Hawks’ deficit to one.
What they said
“Shoutout to Zacch, who gave us that big lift. Seeing one of our brothers go out like that, JJ said, ‘Yo, we’ve got to pick it up. We’ve got to set the tone right here.’ And we just kept chipping away. Everybody paid their contributions. Everybody locked in on the game plan towards the end. They out-rebounded us to start. That’s how they got their lead. We stopped turning over the ball. We got our good looks, and we stuck together.” -- Alexander-Walker on the Hawks fourth-quarter comeback.
“I just think we have a resilient group. I think we put our head down when we came together this entire trip. And the one thing that I would say that’s really impressive to me is our mentality, like our camaraderie around the team. Everybody is we push each other. JD, gets on this all the time. I get on the guys all the time. Everybody accepts the accountability that we get. And when you do that, we get results like this.” -- Alexander-Walker on why they were the first Hawks team to sweep a West Coast road trip.
Up next
The Hawks return home for one game to host the Pistons on Tuesday.
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