SAN ANTONIO — As Hawks general manager Danny Ferry and coach Mike Budenholzer continue to model the team after the San Antonio Spurs, Wednesday’s 94-92 loss against the defending champions may have shown the progress that’s been made.
Despite trailing by as much as 17 in the second quarter, the Hawks rallied in the second half and had a chance to win at the buzzer at the AT&T Center.
With 3.8 seconds left, Pero Antic threw an inbounds pass to Jeff Teague, who was swarmed at the 3-point line. Teague had to pass back to Antic, who tossed up a prayer that was blocked.
The Hawks (1-2) got a spark from Dennis Schroder’s nine points in eight minutes off the bench, while DeMarre Carroll and Paul Millsap both scored 17 to lead the team.
“They did a good job switching,” Teague said of the final play. “I was looking for a 3-point shot and we’ve won or tied a game off that play before. They just played it well.”
The Hawks have lost their last 17 games in San Antonio, dating back to Feb. 15, 1997. Four months after that 1997 game, the Spurs drafted Tim Duncan.
Duncan and Parker led the Spurs with 17 points each, which Duncan added 13 rebounds and six blocks. One of those blocks came with 23 seconds left on a Kyle Korver drive.
The Hawks forced 19 Spurs turnovers and recovered from a disastrous start where the Spurs led by 13, just nine minutes into the game.
Teague finished with five points on 2 of 8 shooting after scoring 20 and 25 points in the Hawks’ first two games against Toronto and Indiana. His struggles may have given Schroder an opportunity to check in late in the third quarter, and Schroder provided an immediate lift. The Hawks had been chipping away at the Spurs’ lead, and Schroder’s dunk with 7:59 left cut the Spurs’ lead to 77-76.
“I just tried to bring the energy.” Schroder said. “We had a good second half, and if we do that for 48 minutes, we win that game.”
The fourth quarter when back and forth from there, with Al Horford giving the Hawks their first lead of the game with 1:16 remaining. On the next possession though, Manu Ginobili sank three free throws to put the Spurs back up 91-90.
“We talked about playing through everything,” said Budenholzer, who was Spurs assistant before he took over the Hawks last season. “There were some things that weren’t going our way, whether it was defensively we needed to play better or offensively maybe we were getting good shots that weren’t going in. Things can change in an NBA game when you play through everything.”
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