Second-half turnovers doomed the Hawks in their 91-88 loss in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference playoff series with the Pacers on Saturday afternoon.
The Hawks committed nine of their 14 turnovers in the second half, including five in the fourth quarter.
“Our execution wasn’t where we needed it to be,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ll all work on that and look to improve as we execute down the stretch. … I think we need to get more efficient offensively (and) better execution offensively.”
The Hawks had three turnovers in a span of 1:53 — all coming in the final two and a half minutes. Jeff Teague stepped out of bounds with 2:26 remaining. He had a bad-pass turnover with 1:54 remaining that came after Paul George made a 3-pointer to give the Pacers the lead for good, 86-85. Paul Millsap threw the ball away with 32.9 seconds left and the Hawks down by three points.
“Just a miscommunication, broken play,” Millsap said. “I thought I saw Pero (Antic) open and led him a little bit too much.”
Shooting woes: The Hawks struggled on offense much of the game. They shot 35.7 percent (30-of-84) for the game and 35.5 percent (11-of-31) from 3-point range.
The Hawks’ issues were compounded in the second half when they shot 28.2 percent (11-of-39).
“We just didn’t shoot the ball very well,” Kyle Korver said. “We shot 35 percent for the game. We’ve got to shoot a little better. I don’t think we converted on a lot of the fast breaks that we had.”
Final play: The Pacers had an eye on Korver on the Hawks' final possession. Antic missed a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer, on a pass from Millsap, on the possession that began with 7.5 seconds left.
“We’re a half-court defensive team,” Paul George said. “We take pride in guarding guys in the half-court. We knew Korver was the main option. George Hill did a great job of fighting over the screen and not letting him come back off the screen. From that point, David West was locked on his guy, and we just forced them to take a tough shot.”
Korver said he couldn’t get free.
“I wasn’t open,” Korver said. “That is all that I know. I tried to run a little play and George Hill stayed on my top side, and I wasn’t able to come off the screen. Maybe I could have run the play a little better. I don’t know.”
Hibbert still starts: Despite his well-documented struggles, the Pacers kept Roy Hibbert in the starting lineup for Game 4.
“Not to put pressure on himself,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said of Hibbert before the game. “To play extremely hard. More than anything to defend Paul Millsap. I think his work on that matchup has been overlooked. I think he’s done a really good job on him on the post-ups in particular. And then to finish plays around the basket. We are not asking him to score 25 points a game in the low post, but finish basketball plays and not try to do too much.”
Hibbert finished with only six points and three rebounds in 25 minutes. For the third consecutive game the All-Star center did not play in the fourth quarter.
Etc.: The Hawks recorded the first perfect free-throw game in franchise playoff history by making all 17 attempts. … Korver (nine) and Teague (six) had career playoff highs in rebounds. … Lou Williams had a career playoff high with four steals. … All five Pacers starters blocked at least one shot, including Hibbert's first two of the series. … George played 43:39 of the 48-minute game for the Pacers.
