Atlanta Hawks Bounce Back With Win Over Chicago Bulls

The Atlanta Hawks bounced back from their blowout loss to the Detroit Pistons by easily beating the Chicago Bulls at Phillips Arena on Friday night.

What a difference 48 hours can make. As you might recall, Wednesday night didn’t go so well for the Atlanta Hawks. Against the Detroit Pistons, a 42-18 first quarter doomed them from the start, leading to a blowout loss. There was some concern within the Hawks fan universe that this loss would snowball into something more.

The team didn’t let that happen. They bounced back in a major way, defeating the Chicago Bulls 102-93. This time, Atlanta was the team that got off to a roaring start. At the end of one quarter, the Hawks held a 35-13 lead.

At halftime that lead had grown to 65-36. It looked like the Hawks were going to run away with the game. For the most part, they did just that. Garbage time, however, provided some drama for the paying customers that remained.

The Bulls bench unit made a run late in the fourth quarter, bringing Atlanta’s lead all the way down to five points with one minute remaining in the game. The run forced Mike Budenholzer to bring Paul Millsap and Dennis Schroder back into the game.

The Bulls run did lead to this funny tidbit from Chris Vivlamore’s recap in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Millsap had already untied his shoes.

"“Just win the game,” Millsap said of going back in for the final 1:30. “Simple as that. Hated to go back in. I untied my shoes. I had to tie my shoes back up. I was ready to let my bunnies breath. Things like that happen.”"

I feel his pain. Sometimes you’re ready to let the bunnies breath. A Dennis Schroder mid-range jumper with 52 seconds left was the dagger that ended Chicago’s run. The Hawks would close the game out at the free-throw line, securing the 102-93 win.

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Schroder led the way for Atlanta, continuing to build on his splendid season. Schroder finished with 25 points and six assists on 11-for-14 shooting and 2-for-3 from three-point range. The young German keeps getting better.

Thanks to the game being a blowout for most of the night, Mike Budenholzer was able keep minutes at reasonable levels for all players.

No player played more than 27 minutes. Paul Millsap scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds in a brisk 24 minutes. He also shot a tidy 4-for-5 from the floor.

Dwight Howard had a quiet night, but he was very effective. He scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds in 25 minutes. He shot just 3-for-11 from the field, but 5-for-8 from the free-throw line.

DeAndre’ Bembry and Tauren Waller-Prince played 10 and nine minutes respectively. Bembry scored four points and Prince scored two points. Gary Neal even got in on the action, playing six minutes and scoring no points.

As a team, the Hawks shot 47.6 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from three-point range. Five different Hawks knocked down a three-pointer over the course of the game. The Bulls did not fare as well from outside.

Chicago, the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA, shot just 7-for-28 from three-point range (25 percent). They shot 42 percent overall and struggled until their late game run. Starting perimeter players not named Jimmy Butler were particularly abysmal. Butler played well, scoring 19 points. But the Hawks limited him to just eight shot attempts.

He was an efficient 6-for-8 from the field, but Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore didn’t let him explode for one of his 30-point outbursts. That’s a victory for Atlanta’s defense. Other than Butler, things weren’t pretty on offense. Dwyane Wade, Michael Carter-Williams, and Rajon Rondo combined to shoot a dismal 4-for-21 from the field.

Jerian Grant came off the bench to be Chicago’s second leading scorer. He scored 12 points on 3-for-5 shooting and was instrumental in Chicago’s fourth quarter comeback. Unfortunately for Grant, the comeback effort fell short.

The win brings Atlanta’s record to 25-18. They’re still the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference, as they’ve been for the last few weeks. The Hawks return to the court fairly quickly.

Next: Dennis Schroder's All-Star Case

They’ll welcome the Philadelphia 76ers to Atlanta on Saturday night. Philadelphia, like the Hawks, is 8-2 in 2017. Unstoppable force meet immovable object. Philly will likely be without star center Joel Embiid. He suffered a left knee contusion in Friday night’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers. We’ll see if the Hawks can take advantage of his absence.

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