Dennis Schroder leads Hawks to win over Raptors
Dennis Schroder stepped up big on Friday night, leading the Atlanta Hawks to a 105-99 win over the Toronto Raptors.
The Hawks and the Raptors faced off on Friday night in Philips Arena and provided a preview of a potential first-round playoff series.
And if this game is any indication, a series between these two teams would be a very good one.
This was the definition of a back-and-forth battle as neither team held a lead larger than four points until the 2:13 mark of the fourth quarter.
But overall, this was a very good performance by the Hawks.
The team shot 52% from the floor, while only surrendering a 40% clip to the Raptors. They shot a solid 36% from deep and moved the ball well, notching 24 team assists. Dennis Schroder led the way in a performance that helped everyone forget about his recent shortcomings.
Paul Millsap also won his matchup with Serge Ibaka. Millsap scored 21 points, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out four assists, all while shooting an efficient 7-for-13 from the field. Ibaka has a good scoring night with 18 points but was held to only three rebounds and wound up fouling out.
Millsap showed his skill advantage over the more athletic Ibaka and has now scored 20+ points in five consecutive games for the first time in his 11-year career.
Dwight Howard was also a force in the frontcourt and had a nice battle with Jonas Valanciunas. Howard put up a double-double with 16 points (on 6-of-9 shooting) and 10 rebounds in a typical Howard outing.
He and Valanciunas had some epic battles for rebounds underneath, as Valanciunas had a double-double of his own (11 points, 12 rebounds) in a fun, brutal position battle.
The shooting guard battle was another exciting one. Tim Hardaway Jr. and DeMar DeRozan both had big moments in this game and went for 20+ points.
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DeRozan had stretches where he held the Raptors’ offense together but was, ultimately, inefficient. He put up 28 points, eight rebounds, and six assists but shot only 12-for-30 from the floor, including 1-for-8 from three-point range.
Hardaway continued to prove himself as Atlanta’s go-to wing scorer with 20 points and six assists while shooting 8-for-13 from the field.
But this night belonged to Schroder. He took full advantage of the absence of Kyle Lowry and put on a show, particularly down the stretch. Schroder was aggressive in his attack and shot 50% from the field on his way to 26 points. There was a stretch in the fourth quarter where Schroder scored 10 of the Hawks’ 12 points.
Schroder also added six rebounds and five assists. Cory Joseph was no match for him in a dominant performance for the German dynamo, including a very nice reverse layup to help ice the game in the final minutes.
The only thing that really hampered the Hawks in this game was turnovers. They had 21 turnovers, to Toronto’s 12, and could’ve secured a resounding win if they had taken better care of the ball.
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But in the end, the Hawks scored a much-needed win against a playoff team to gain some momentum in a crucial stretch of the season.