Can you top this? As a matter of fact, yes.
Two nights after beating the East-leading Pacers, the Hawks downed the Rockets, one of the best the West has to offer.
After falling behind by 11 points to start the game, the Hawks rallied for an 83-80 victory over the Rockets at Philips Arena Friday night. It couldn’t have started worse for the Hawks. It couldn’t have ended better.
Kyle Korver hit four free throws in the final 16 seconds to seal the come-from-behind victory. Korver hit two with 15.9 seconds left for a three-point lead. The Rockets’ Jeremy Lin answered with a deep two-pointer, with his foot just on the 3-point line, with 6.5 seconds left. Korver then hit two more free throws with 5.3 seconds left. The Rockets failed to get off a shot as the final buzzer sounded.
The Hawks had scored another improbable win.
“It’s a good confidence booster but it’s one more game on the stat sheet,” Paul Millsap said of the two victories. “But it’s a real good win for us. It really shows who we are. We played some good teams. We played some good defense. It started with the defense and if we continue to keep that up, we’ll be fine.”
The Hawks (20-17, 14-5 home) snapped a six-game losing streak to the Rockets, a team that won by 29 points without star James Harden in November.
Korver and Millsap led the Hawks with 20 points apiece. Mike Scott added 14 points, including eight of the Hawks’ 10 first-quarter points. Korver extended his NBA-record streak to 106 games with a 3-pointer. The Hawks also got 11 rebounds from Elton Brand and eight assists from Lou Williams as the bench helped the Hawks survive a dreadful start.
“Mike Scott,” coach Mike Budenholzer said when asked how the Hawks rallied after trailing 11-0. “The bench tonight was really excellent. We started out, I don’t know is there a better word than slow. Then Mike came into the game. It was fortuitous maybe that Paul picks up a couple fouls and Mike comes in. He was really committed to running the court tonight. I think we beat them in transition a couple times and got a couple easy baskets. We got a little bit of confidence going off Mike’s running.”
The Rockets (23-14, 8-9 road) had a two-game win streak snapped. James Harden led the Rockets with 25 points. Dwight Howard returned to his hometown in a new uniform and had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds.
The Hawks led by six points, 73-67, in the fourth quarter. The Rockets answered with a 9-0 run to re-take the lead with three minutes remaining. A Korver 3-pointer evened the score with 2:41 remaining. After a Harden basket, DeMarre Carroll hit a 3-pointer with 1:54 remaining to give the Hawks a 79-78 lead and setting up Korver’s final four free throws.
The Hawks took a 65-60 advantage into the final quarter as the finally fought all the way back from the 11-point deficit. Korver hit the second of back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the score, 57-57, with 3:58 left in the period. Millsap scored on the ensuing possession with 2:57 remaining for their first lead of the game.
The Hawks trailed 41-39 at halftime after an awful start. They missed their first nine shots and even had their first basket disallowed for a shot-clock violation. They trailed 11-0 before Mike Scott ended the drought. They were 1 of 13 before Scott scored again.
The Hawks trailed 18-10 after the first quarter, their lowest scoring output of any quarter this season. Scott had eight of the Hawks’ first 10 points. They shot 5 of 22 (22.7 percent) in the opening period.
Korver hit a 3-pointer with 9:02 left in the second quarter, the first points by a Hawks starter, as the Hawks ended the half on a 22-14 run to pull within two points at intermission. Scott finished with 12 first-half points that including four dunks. The Hawks’ 39 points matched their season low for first-half points, done three other times.
“We are still figuring things out,” Korver said. “We came out of the gates and are spacing was not good again. Mike Scott came in and gave us a huge lift because we couldn’t get anything going. We have to go back and watch the film again. There wasn’t any space for anyone to get a good shot. We are still a work in progress without Al (Horford). We kept fighting and different guys stepped up and we got a good win.”
The Hawks next play at the Grizzlies for departing for next week’s game against the Nets in London.
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