The Atlanta Hawks (38-36) ended their losing streak on Tuesday night at Philips Arena. They defeated the Phoenix Suns (22-53) in an ugly basketball game.
Well, the losing streak is over!
The Hawks ended their losing streak at seven games when they defeated the Phoenix Suns in Atlanta by a 95-91 score. The Suns lost their ninth consecutive game in this contest and the Hawks avoided another embarrassing home loss.
Just to be clear, the Hawks did not play well in this game at all. But it was just enough to scrape past the lowly Suns, who rested Devin Booker for the night and had already shut down Eric Bledsoe for the year.
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The Hawks shot just 40.0 percent from the field and were once again held to under 100 points. They jumped out to a 30-12 lead that evaporated rather quickly and they were forced to dig deep to beat a team that appears to be tanking.
Dennis Schroder led the way for the Hawks with an enigmatic performance. The young German point guard was brilliant, at times, in this game. He finished with 27 points, nine assists, and six rebounds. But Schroder was rather shaky for portions of the contest, shooting just 12-for-27 from the field, 2-for-8 from three, and committed eight turnovers. Schroder did not have an elite performance but was dazzling in stretches of this game.
Taurean Prince and Ersan Ilyasova showed up with nice performances for the Hawks. Prince registered 15 points, six rebounds, and two blocks, and displayed a very quick first step. His ability to attack the rim appears to be very good at this stage. Ilyasova had a big double-double with 18 points and 12 boards.
Dwight Howard disappeared for stretches of the game but did show up big, for the most part. He finished with 15 points (on 6-of-8 shooting), 11 rebounds, four assists, and four blocks. When he asserted himself, Howard was physically dominant on the inside.
Tim Hardaway Jr. struggled mightily in this game. He shot just 1-for-9 from the floor and finished with two points. Prince took Hardaway Jr.’s minutes down the stretch and picked up the slack on this off night for THJ.
The bench was also better in this game. They scored just 18 points, as opposed to the 20 points by the Phoenix bench, but were not as overmatched as they have been in recent weeks.
The scary part of this game is that the Suns were depleted and played terribly but still almost won the game. The Suns shot just 36.5 percent from the floor and 22.6 percent from three-point range. That is a horrible offensive performance but is understandable given the absence of Booker.
TJ Warren led the Suns with 24 points and eight rebounds while Tyler Ulis added 15 points and 10 assists.
This game showed that the Hawks’ slump is definitely not over. They went life-and-death with a bad team that was without their best player and played terribly. But the Hawks did play tough and erased a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit. Progress was made in that the team got a win, but there is still work to do.
Next: Playoff Dwight Has Arrived Early
But being back in the win column is a good start.