It was indeed an anomaly.
A night after Al Horford and Paul Millsap were held to season-low point totals, the Hawks big men bounced back in a big way en route to a 117-105 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center on Monday night.
Horford and Millsap were two of five Hawks in double-digit scoring, all starters, in a game they led by as many as 18 points with a strong second half.
Horford finished with a game-high 28 points and Millsap scored 19. They combined to go 19 of 31 from the field. It was a far cry from the combined 10 points and 4-of-21 shooting a night earlier in a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Whether it was Dennis (Schroder), Jeff (Teague) or Paul, they were finding me and contrary to last night the shots were falling,” said Horford, who was 11 of 18 from the field.
The Hawks (43-10, 18-7 road) have won 36 of their past 40 games. They avoided matching a season-high two-game losing streak.
DeMarre Carroll added a career-high 26 points, 11 in the third quarter, for the Hawks. Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver each finished with 12 points.
“My teammates did a good job of putting me in the right position to be able to score the ball,” Carroll said. “You have to give them credit because they were making good passes to me when I was cutting and hitting me when I was open.”
The Hawks swept the season series with the Timberwolves and ended a two-game losing streak in Minnesota. The Hawks are 15-4 against the Western Conference.
The Timberwolves (11-42) had a season-long three-game winning streak snapped. Kevin Martin scored 21 points in the losing effort.
The Hawks took a 57-53 lead into intermission. They shot 55.6 percent from the floor, including 6 of 12 from 3-point range. Millsap led the way with 15 points, five rebounds, four assists and one steal through two quarters. The game was close as the Timberwolves held a big rebound advantage, including 14 first-half offensive boards. That had to stop and it was the dominant halftime message.
“Coach really came in and was really amped up about us not hitting guys, especially their guards,” Carroll said. “Big guys like Al and Paul and Elton (Brand) were hitting their guys but myself, Kyle and Jeff weren’t really getting hits on (Andrew) Wiggins and those guys. We made an effort to hit them. This is the first time we really came across guards that crash the offensive glass. It was a good test for us.”
The Hawks started the third quarter on a 7-0 run to build an 11-point advantage. The edge would grow to as many as 18 points in the period and the Hawks took an 86-72 lead into the fourth quarter. Carroll had 11 third-quarter points in the decisive run.
The Hawks improved to 37-1 in games they have led by 10 or more points at any time this season.
“Offensively, I thought we were in a pretty good place all night,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “It was just a matter of whether we could get some stops and get some boards we might be able to get some separation.”
The Timberwolves outrebounded the Hawks 50-36, including a season-high 23 offensive rebounds. They had 14 offensive boards in the first half.
“They beat us up on the boards in the first half,” Millsap said. “We didn’t get a body on anybody. We didn’t stick to our fundementals. In the second half, we did a much better job.”
The Hawks are off Tuesday to travel to Boston where they will take on the Celtics on Wednesday in the final game before the All-Star break.
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