The Hawks entered overtime for the second straight game, but unlike Sunday they closed out strong to down the 76ers 139-132 at State Farm Arena Wednesday night.
Here are five observations:
1. After trading leads down the stretch of the fourth with the Joel Embiid-less Sixers, the Hawks closed out the night on a 9-0 run thanks to a career night from Jalen Johnson. The third-year forward brought the energy in overtime as he and center Onyeka Okongwu made some key stops.
They double-teamed players that looked to drive into the paint and closed off the rim. A couple of those stops led to the Hawks getting out in transition, one of which resulted in Johnson knocking down a 3 from the left wing.
With 40.5 seconds to play in overtime, Hawks guard Dejounte Murray drove into the paint from the right wing and drew three defenders with him. It left Johnson, who scored 25 points and had a career-high 16 rebounds and seven assists, wide open and Murray found him with a pass to the chest. With no hesitation, Johnson let the shot rip. It put the Hawks up 135-132 and in the lead for the rest of the night.
“Well, when you got Dejounte Murray in isolation situation, you gotta send help,” Johnson said. “So my man went to go help and he found me for the 3. So it’s just him making the right basketball play and I just had to take that shot.”
2. Murray’s assist to Johnson capped off a strong night from the Hawks’ backcourt tandem. Both Murray and Trae Young gave the offense a lift, combining for 16 of the Hawks’ 32 assists.
The Hawks got going early too with Murray continuing his most recent hot streak of scoring, picking up his fifth straight game of 20-or-more points. He helped to navigate the Hawks through the second quarter where he knocked down 3-of-4 shots from the floor, with two of them coming from 3.
Young scored 28 points and had 11 assists, five of which came in the first half. He has 140 straight games where he has doled out five or more assists. With his final stat line he now leads the league with 20 games of 20-or-more points and 10-or-more assists.
“We got stops late and that connectivity is really important,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “And I thought, you know, both Trae and DJ, you know, leading the way with that, and the two of them together as well, managing the game for us down the stretch.”
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
3. With Clint Capela sidelined with right Achilles soreness, the Hawks bumped Okongwu into the starting lineup. The fourth-year big man leaned into the opportunity, scoring five of the Hawks’ first seven points, before leading the team with 11 points by the end of the first quarter.
Young looked to exploit the pick-and-roll early, forcing the 76ers to make a decision on who to guard. The Sixers often looked to try and limit Young and he quickly found Okongwu with a few quick passes down low that got converted.
4. The Hawks also played without another starter with De’Andre Hunter (right knee inflammation) out. They also missed a key rotational piece in Garrison Mathews (left ankle sprain). They started out the night using a nine-man rotation, tapping Trent Forrest, Bruno Fernando and Patty Mills to come off the bench.
They eventually trimmed the rotation down to eight in the second half, something they typically do with their regular rotation.
They leaned on Forrest due to his size and ability to match up against Tyrese Maxey, while Fernando filled in the available backup minutes.
“I think both those guys and our bench -- Patty in the first half -- we’ve got a lot of confidence,” Snyder said. “The most important thing that those guys did, and this has been true, but they played hard.”
5. The Hawks have played in overtime three times this season and have a 2-1 record in those games.
Stat to know
761 -- Patty Mills appeared in his 761st career game as a reserve, tied with Joe Kleine for the eighth-most games off the bench since at least the 1975-76 season.
Quotable
“I did. Yeah, I knew he had five fouls. I knew he wasn’t going to try to want to foul again. And I’d seen him in transition, backpedaling, and thankfully the guys in the stripes called that one.” -- Trae Young on getting Tyrese Maxey to foul out of the game.
Up next
The Hawks host the Pacers on Friday at State Farm Arena.
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