Home court hasn’t proved to be much of an advantage for the Hawks so far this season. But on Sunday evening, the Hawks gave the fans filling State Farm Arena enough energy to earn the advantage.
In just their third home victory so far this season, the Hawks downed the Hornets, 113-110. The Hawks move to 11-7 this season.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker had an epic strip of Hornets’ Kon Knueppel under the basket before earning a pair of free throws after securing the loose ball.
Alexander-Walker split his free throws, and the Hawks had the right defensive pressure to force an air ball from Hornets forward Miles Bridges at the buzzer.
Quick stats: Hawks forward Jalen Johnson finished with 28 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists. Onyeka Okongwu had 20 points and seven rebounds. Dyson Daniels finished with a season-high 22 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Turning point
The Hawks had a 10-point lead with just over seven minutes to play in the game. But they couldn’t stop Knueppel on the perimeter and they couldn’t stop fouling. They spotted the Hornets a 10-2 run with 3:44 to play in the game before Johnson scored a turnaround midrange jumper and Alexander-Walker made a driving layup to put the Hawks up 111-110.
They held off a driving layup attempt from Knueppel with 32 seconds to play in the game, and stifled a tip-in attempt from Moussa Diabate three seconds later. Vit Krejci grabbed the defensive board, but the Hornets swarmed him, forcing a jump ball.
But Krejci retained possession for the Hawks, winning the jump ball.
Highlight Play
The Hawks needed a bit of energy as they continued to fight through the Hornets’ onslaught of scoring. Johnson had already powered the Hawks through the third quarter. But the Hawks gave the fans a burst of energy off a transition dunk from Keaton Wallace.
With 2:21 to play, Wallace picked off Miles Bridges and raced down court. He gathered his dribble just past halfcourt and took the ball into the paint. He went up and dunked the ball with hand sending the Hawks bench and fans in the arena to their feet.
“Miles Bridges is a good player, so I had to stay into his body,” Wallace said. “I seen the play coming for him, so stayed into his body, and they kind of left me a gap to try to shoot the gap, and I went for the steal, got a fast break dunk.”
What they said
“I know I had a few swipe-down fouls early, and I kind of trusted it more times than not. I get those. So I just kind of stuck to my guns in that moment, just so instinctual, kind of reading the play, knowing that when he spins where the ball was going to be, and just trying to make a play.” —Alexander-Walker on the swipe-down block.
“We got some elite defenders on this team. I mean, Dyson and Nickeil are the head of the snake on defense, and I mean Nickeil just made a big play at the end, and it’s gonna be tough scoring on them in isolation like that. So yeah, it was a big stop.” —Johnson on the team’s late-game defense.
Up next
The Hawks head on the road to Washington to face the Wizards on Tuesday for the third game of group play of the NBA Cup. The Hawks currently rank sixth in East: Group A after splitting their first two Cup games against the Pacers and Raptors.
The Hawks have a long shot at making the next round of the NBA Cup since the Raptors have already clinched the group with a perfect 3-0 record in group play. The Cavaliers currently sit in second place in the group, but three other teams rank ahead of them in the wild card standings.
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