Next on the Hawks’ to-do list - protect a big lead.
The Hawks lost a 17-point third-quarter advantage but rallied for a 104-94 victory over the Magic Saturday night at Philips Arena. The victory was the Hawks’ 11th straight over the Magic, including seven at home.
The Hawks nearly lost a 19-point lead in a win over at the Kings Tuesday and couldn’t hold an eight-point fourth-quarter lead in a loss at the Nuggets Thursday. They also had an 18-point lead against the Raptors in their home opener before sweating out a victory.
“When we look at ourselves, and we focus on ourselves, sometimes we are doing it to ourselves as far as making mistakes and creating those opportunities,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Sometimes it’s poor offense putting us in a difficult position on defense. When you go back and look at the films, when we lost leads it’s a little bit of everything. What we need to focus on is what we are doing to ourselves, those mistakes we’re making. Tonight, we did unto ourselves in the second half when we got up big.”
The Hawks (3-3) have scored more than 102 points in all six games this season.
Paul Millsap had his third straight double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Hawks. Jeff Teague had a double-double of 19 points and 13 assists. Mike Scott added 17 big points off the bench.
“Just being aggressive and not forcing too many shots on the offensive end,” Scott said. “Just playing hard. Defensively, try to get more rebounds than two. Having energy off the bench and playing hard. That’s about it.”
Al Horford (14) Kyle Korver (14) and DeMarre Carroll (12) were the other double-digit scorers for the Hawks. Carroll had two big rebounds in the final minutes to help prevent another Magic comeback.
Korver extended his streak to 79 consecutive games with a 3-pointer. He is tied for the second-longest streak in NBA history with Michael Adams. Korver needs 10 more games with a long-range basket to tie the all-time streak of 89 held by Dana Barros.
Budenholzer referenced the fact that in the first half the Hawks allowed the Magic eight offensive rebounds and 10 second-chance points. In the second half, the Hawks allowed just one offensive rebound and zero second-chance points. It was a point he hammered home to his team.
“Did he?” Carroll said when asked if Budenholzer pointed to those stats at intermission. “Did he make a big deal? He made a huge deal. That is part of learning and part of growing. … He got his point across.”
Arron Afflalo led the Magic (3-4) with 21 points, including a deep 3-pointer with 3:47 left that gave his team an 88-87 lead. However, the Hawks went on a 10-0 run to put the game away. The Hawks got a Korver 3-pointer and Teague layup after consecutive steals in the run.
“Maybe we get bored,” Millsap joked. “It’s been a reoccurring theme for us. We are still learning. We are still a team that is one the rise. Hopefully, we’ll get better keeping our leads.”
The Hawks opened the second half on a 18-2 run to take a 17-point advantage, 64-47. Carroll had 10 of the points, including two 3-pointers. Carroll had been slumping from 3-point range this season as he entered the game 4 of 20. He said he went to Philips Arena on Friday after the Hawks returned from Denver to work on his shot.
The big lead was short-lived.
The Magic responded with a 24-6 run to re-take the lead, 71-70, setting up the final quarter.
Horford scored two straight baskets to start the Hawks final run. He also was credited with a strong game against Magic 7-foot center Nikola Vucevic, who was limited to seven points, on 3-of-10 shooting, and six rebounds.
“Most of the game, I was really trying to roll hard to the basket,” Horford said. “I found that they were doing a great job defensively so Jeff couldn’t really get me the ball. So Jeff was like ‘You just got to pop, man. You’ve got to pop back and take the jump shot.’ We’ve been doing this for years so that was what I did. I started popping and I had open shots and knocked them down.”
The Hawks took a 46-45 lead into intermission. They led by as many as eight points in the first quarter. The Hawks made 13 of 21 first-quarter shots, a .619 percentage, with 11 assists. For the game, the Hawks finished with 36 assists on 43 field goals.
The Hawks play at the Bobcats Monday.
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