Trae Young grabbed a deflected inbounds pass and made a last-second jumper to lift the Atlanta Hawks to a, 136-135, overtime win Sunday over the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks.
Justin Anderson had 24 points and 12 rebounds for Atlanta, and John Collins finished with 23 points and 12 boards. Alex Len also scored 23 points.
Sterling Brown scored 27 points for Milwaukee, including a go-ahead layup with 1.1 seconds remaining in overtime.
Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez deflected Atlanta’s inbounds pass but Young grabbed the ball with his left hand and sank the short game-winner. A video review confirmed Young, who had 12 points and 16 assists, got off the shot before the buzzer.
“That was super-exciting. Stressful. It shouldn’t have gotten to that point,” said the Hawks rookie Young. “I’m just glad we got the win. That was a fun game to play.”
The Bucks played without Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton due to injuries. Antetokounmpo, one of the favorites for the NBA MVP award, was held out due to right ankle sprain. Middleton has a sore groin.
“It was a real weird game,” said forward John Collins. “I think they only had seven or eight active guys so it was sort of tough for us to be mentally prepared, we weren’t ready for that zone.
“But like I said and we saw today, we had a lot of fight today and fought back and pushed it to overtime.”
Milwaukee began the day 3-1/2 games ahead of Toronto in the race for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The team’s magic number was two for securing home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Milwaukee led by as many as 23 points during a high-scoring first quarter.
With 42 points in the second quarter, the Hawks set an Atlanta record with 14 quarters with at least 40 points, passing their 13 in the 1968-69 season.
“Big shout out to our bench,” said Anderson. “They came in and closed that gap. our energy just switched up. I was telling (Alex Len) and Trae, when we get back in the game, we have to keep building on what they started.”
Atlanta recovered to lead in the third quarter and rallied again after trailing by 10 points midway through the fourth period.
“It shows the resilience of our team,” Young said. “It just shows the fight of our team, how much we don’t quit.”
Tim Frazier had 20 points and 15 assists for the Bucks.
Len’s jam cut the Bucks’ lead to 133-132 with 33 seconds remaining in overtime. Following Brown’s missed jumper, Young’s baseline floater with 6.6 seconds left gave Atlanta a 134-133 lead.
Len sank a tying 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining in regulation. Brown missed a late jumper, sending the game to overtime at 122 apiece.
“That was an interesting afternoon game,” said Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce. “It was a good win, 36 assists, the guys come out and fight and compete. You see Justin Anderson get inserted into Taurean’s role and have an unbelievable game and Alex Len hits a big three to tie it up. It’s not the way we all draw them up but sometimes that’s just kind of how it works and guys step up and make plays.”
The Hawks were without center Dewayne Dedmon, who will miss the remainder of the season with a left ankle injury.
Vince Carter moved into fifth place in NBA history with 1,477 games played, passing Karl Malone.
Antetokounmpo aggravated the ankle injury while scoring 34 points in the Bucks’ 128-118 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night. He left midway through the fourth quarter.
Coach Mike Budenholzer said “there’s a good chance” Antetokounmpo could return on the team’s road trip, which continues with games at Brooklyn and Philadelphia.
The Hawks will face the Spurs Tuesday night in San Antonio.
