Surely the Bucks couldn’t keep up their 3-point barrage.
They did not.
The Hawks erased a 19-point third-quarter deficit en route to a dramatic 109-104 victory over the Bucks Friday night at Philips Arena. The Bucks built the large lead thanks to 11 first-half 3-pointers.
The Hawks, now fifth in the Eastern Conference, used a 23-10 run to start the fourth quarter to turn the deficit completely around. Devin Harris hit a deep 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer to pull the Hawks within two points, 92-90. A Jeff Teague layup with 5:16 remaining tied the score. An Al Horford alley-oop dunk on an assist from Teague gave the Hawks the lead for good with 4:41 remaining to cap the frenzied comeback. The Hawks built an eight-point advantage of their own in the final minutes.
“If there is one thing for sure with this team, we will never make it easy,” coach Larry Drew said. “We are just one of those team where we have our moments. The first half wasn’t a very good half. To be perfectly honest, coming in at halftime some case I would go in there and rant and rave. I just had the weirdest feeling about this game as far as we were concerned.
“… I really thought we could come back and play the way we are accustomed to playing. There was a lot of basketball to be played and I told our players I had all the confidence in the world we would get it together.”
The Hawks (44-36) won their second straight game and completed a season-series sweep of the Bucks. The four victories came by a combined 19 points.
With the victory, coupled with a Bulls loss to the Raptors, the Hawks moved into sole possession of fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings. They lead the Bulls by a half-game. The Hawks have two regular-season games remaining. The Bulls have three left.
The Hawks can only move up as far as fifth place in the playoff standings as the Nets locked up at least the fourth seed with a victory over the Pacers. The Hawks can finish no worse than sixth after the Celtics lost to the Heat.
Josh Smith and Teague each scored 24 points to lead the Hawks. Teague added 10 assists. Horford finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds and Harris added 19 points.
Teague had his 10th 20-point, 10-assist game of the season. It’s the third most in Atlanta history behind Peter Maravich (13 in 1972-73) and Eddie Johnson (11 in 1984-85).
“I felt it the whole game,” Smith said of the Hawks’ comeback ability. “We came in at halftime knowing we had 15 turnovers in the first half. There were a couple of careless unforced errors. We did what we had to do in the second half to come out and establish ourselves. We played great defense and ran the ball with pace on offense.”
The Bucks (37-42), losers of three straight, lost for the fifth time in the past six games. It was their eighth straight road loss.
Monta Ellis led the Bucks with a game-high 27 points, 17 assists and eight rebounds. Ersan Ilyasova scored 25 points, 22 in the first half. The Bucks finished shooting 17 of 33 from 3-point range.
The Hawks trailed by 19 points, 59-40, after the Bucks hit their first two shots of the third quarter – one a 3-pointer of course. Drew called timeout.
“Some things were said in the huddle,” Drew said. “They responded.”
The Hawks answered with a 12-0 run, including nine straight from Harris. They continued to pressure the Bucks and cut the deficit to five points, 70-75, after four straight baskets by Horford. They trailed by seven points heading into the final quarter after scoring 35 third-quarter points.
The Hawks first put DeShawn Stevenson on Ellis after the guard scored 10 third-quarter points.
“It’s getting time for playoff basketball,” Stevenson said. “The things you do in the regular season are to get ready for this. Sometimes I’m going to get put (on the top scorer). I’ll make my shots like I usually do but there are other things you can do. We’ve got great guys out there. Monta was on fire. They put me on him and it changed the game.”
In the final minutes of the game, Smith took over the task of defending Ellis.
“I was just trying to use my length,” Smith said. “He already had the hot hand and he was distributing the ball so well I was just trying to contain him and make him finish over the top of my body and my length. It definitely was a challenge and I’m all for taking challenges.”
The Bucks lead by as many as 16 points in the first half and took a 54-40 advantage at intermission with the 3-pointer being their primary weapon. The Bucks were 11 of 18 from long range through two quarters. Only nine of their 20 baskets were of the 2-point variety. Ilyasova had 22 first-half points, making 5 of 6 from 3-point range.
The Hawks committed 15 first-half turnovers with Teague and Harris accounting for four each.
Kyle Korver has extended his streak to 72 straight games with a 3-pointer with a basket 18 seconds into the game.
The Bucks played without starters Brandon Jennings (sore left Achilles) and Larry Sanders (sore lower back). Sanders combined for 46 points, 45 rebounds and eight blocks in three games against the Hawks this season.
The Hawks are off until Tuesday when the host the Raptors in the final-season home game. They end the season Wednesday at the Knicks before starting the postseason April 20 or 21.
Prior to the game, Harris was named the Jason Collier Memorial Trophy winner, given in honor of the former Hawks player who passed away in 2005. Following the game, Smith was given the Fan Favorite Award.
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