In search of their first road victory, the Hawks put the ball in the hands of a guy who wouldn’t be rattled.
The youngest guy on the team. The kid off the bench.
Dennis Schroder handled it.
He handled the ball. He handled the pressure. He handled the crowd. He paid off the confidence that Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer showed in him Monday night, and the result was that the Hawks did get that first road win, 91-85 against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“In the Garden,” Hawks center Al Horford said. “That’s pretty cool.”
It was a different kind of game for the Hawks, their worst shooting night of the season so far (a season-low 38 percent), one in which Kyle Korver missed nine of his first 10 shots, one in which starting point guard Jeff Teague didn’t make a shot from the floor and had as many turnovers (three) as points.
Even with all that, a great defensive effort and a good third quarter put the Hawks in position to win. They took the lead for good in the third quarter but could never pull away, so they needed to make plays down the stretch.
They needed Schroder, the 21-year-old second-year pro from Germany, who played a career-high 28 minutes and didn’t leave the floor once Budenholzer brought him in for Teague with 5:05 to play.
“I thought Dennis was playing very well all night,” Budenholzer said. “He gave us a big boost in the first half. Second half, he gave us a big boost. Defensively, he had a presence on the ball. Then he was getting in the paint and creating problems.
“That’s why you have a bench, and have depth. He was very good.”
He wasn’t the only one. Paul Millsap scored a team-high 19 points while also taking the responsibility of guarding Knicks star Carmelo Anthony. DeMarre Carroll had a big night defensively, and Mike Scott made some big shots early in the fourth quarter.
But it was Schroder who had the biggest responsibility at the end.
“I was still doing what I do,” Schroder said. “Try to run the team, try to help us win, try to bring the energy on the court. He trusted me, and I made the good reads, the good looks.
“I think that’s the reason he kept playing me.”
He kept playing Schroder because Schroder gave the Hawks the best chance to win, after losses in their first three road games this season.
“It’s big for us,” Millsap said. “This is the mentality we’ve got to have on the road.”
They had the mentality. They had the defense.
And the calm kid running things.
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