A look at three key moments in the Hawks’ 81-73 defeat to the Pacers Friday in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference playoff series.
Second-quarter horror
Kyle Korver scored a 16-foot jumper with 10:35 remaining in the second quarter to pull the Hawks to within 23-22. It would be the last field goal the Hawks would score for 12:56. They finally got a Devin Harris layup – courtesy of a goaltending call – with 9:39 remaining in the third quarter. It wasn’t until a Al Horford scored with 6:52 left in the period that the Hawks actually had a ball go through the basket for a second time.
The result was a franchise-low nine point second quarter for the Hawks, who managed to make 7 of 8 free throws.
“I think the story of this game was our inability to make a shot,” coach Larry Drew said.
Hard-charging fourth quarter
The Hawks trailed by 15 points, 65-50, headed into the final quarter. The rallied and cut their deficit to nine points, 71-62, with 7:42 remaining. The Hawks then missed three prime scoring chances that summed up their evening. After a Josh Smith steal, Jeff Teague missed a floating layup. Then came a Lance Stephenson miss that was rebounded by Kyle Korver and ended up with Devin Harris who missed a 3-pointer. Korver then rebounded a David West miss but Smith missed a fade-away jumper.
The Hawks closed to within three points later in the fourth quarter but they that run of misses could have made for a different game.
“With us, the thing that really got us in trouble is we didn’t run,” coach Larry Drew said. “We did not get out and get in transition. When we did we made bad decisions and we came away empty handed.”
The final failures
The Philips Arena crowd erupted with Al Horford dunked a pass from Josh Smith to pull the Hawks to within three points, 78-73, with 2:41 remaining. It would be the final Hawks points. David West scored on a layup 27 seconds later. After a Jeff Teague turnover and a Kyle Korver miss, Smith attempted a 3-pointer with 43.9 seconds left that was blocked by West. The Pacers closed out the game at the free-throw line.
“For whatever reason, we didn’t execute on the fast break,” Al Horford said. “I think we had some deflating plays on the break that affected us.”
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