In their second straight game against the Magic, the Hawks prevailed at home in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter – icing the game with two steals and breakaway dunks by Kent Bazemore – defeating the Magic 117-110 after losing in overtime on Wednesday to this same team.
To be fair, the Magic were shorthanded – franchise cornerstone Aaron Gordon suffered a concussion against the Denver Nuggets on Friday and Evan Fournier sprained his ankle against the Hawks.
This takes nothing away from the Hawks, who put in a great effort on both ends of the floor.
Despite a herculean performance by Nikola Vucevic, who tallied a 30-point triple double and was often the biggest player on the court by a wide margin, the Hawks outhustled the Magic late, even with a typical late 4th-quarter malaise that encompassed poor execution and a lack of coherence on offense that has haunted this team all season.
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Still though, there were many bright spots in this close game. The Hawks had 12 fewer possessions than the Magic (92 to 80) but still managed to score a healthy 117 points on those fewer touches. The Hawks shot an almost identical percentage from the field and from three-point range, going 41 of 80 overall (51.2%) and a whopping 17 of 33 (51.5%) from downtown.
The Hawks had six players score in double figures, headlined by an unconscious performance from Ersan Ilyasova, who had a literally perfect night from the field, popping off for 26 points on 9 of 9 shooting (including 5 of 5 from downtown). Ersan’s only misses came at the charity stripe, and he also tallied 3 rebounds, 4 assists and a +11 box plus/minus.
Ersan Ilyasova is never going to miss a shot again, so that's a positive development. pic.twitter.com/wC1Y1NDyKx
— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) December 10, 2017
Ersan was also drawing the toughest defensive assignment for much of the night as the primary defender on Nikola Vucevic. As the past two games have proven, the Hawks do not have personnel that can contain Vuc, but luckily for the Hawks, they performed well in other areas on this night.
The other main orchestrator of this victory for the Hawks was Kent Bazemore. In perhaps his best game of the season, Baze was all over the court in the best way. As has been stated before, when Baze is at his best he seems to be involved in everything, and that was definitely the case on this night.
Baze finished with an amazing stat line of 19 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 block in only 27 minutes of play. Kent (+10 BPM) affected every moment of the game when he played, as his active hands and athleticism downed the Magic on their final two possessions as lazy passes were picked clean by Baze for wide-open, fast break dunks.
Taurean Prince, another double-digit scorer, also had a solid all-around game that included the clutch block of a three-pointer late that helped seal the game; Taurean finished with 10 points (on 4 of 8 shooting), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and a game-high +13 BPM.
Taurean Prince is blocking shots like Tree Rollins. 🌲 pic.twitter.com/NceBZEwwoq
— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) December 10, 2017
Tyler Cavanaugh had another strong game – gritting his teeth against the gargantuan Vucevic and finishing with 14 points and a career-high 8 rebounds in 26 minutes. Cavanaugh continues to outplay his undrafted rookie tag, and with the Hawks waiving Nicolas Brussino on Friday, the presumption is that Cavanaugh will shed his two-way status early in the season and become an official member of the team.
Marco Belinelli had 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting (3 of 6 from downtown) off the bench, continuing his stellar sixth man campaign for the Hawks.
Dennis Schröder had a bit of an off night. Despite notching 18 points, 7 assists and +4 BPM, his efficiency was way down, shooting a poor 6 of 19 from the floor (1 of 5 from beyond the arc) to score those points.
This win proves that the Hawks are a well-coached team that can take advantage of mistakes by their opponents on any given night, despite consistently operating at a very apparent talent deficit against most teams.
The Hawks return to action in a back-to-back against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. EST.