Hawks’ John Collins Dunks All Over Pacers in Loss

A lack of effort in the 3^rd quarter coupled with an improved defensive scheme from the visiting Indiana Pacers downed the Atlanta Hawks 105-95 on a night where the home team received stellar play from its frontcourt.

Despite logging more rebounds, assists and steals in this game, the Hawks’ below-average three-point shooting let them down in a big way, and the Pacers essentially ended the game by outscoring the home team 27-14 to start the 4^th quarter. The Hawks finished the night a measly 8 of 29 from downtown (27.6%), and the Pacers answered with a 7 of 21 showing (33.3%) from beyond the arc.

A spirited effort by the Hawks’ vaunted garbage time lineup (including an unexpected 10-0 spurt) cut the margin to a more palatable 10-point deficit, but this game was over well before that.

The true stars for the Hawks were John Collins and, surprisingly, Miles Plumlee. Almost every time they touched the ball on offense something good happened, and thus we will only be showing highlights from their plays – of which there were A LOT.

Collins had one of his best games of the year despite still being on a minutes restriction (if he had been able to play more minutes, perhaps this game would’ve been a bit closer). JC finished with a team-high 18 points, a game-high 9 rebounds (4 of which were very tough, in-traffic offensive boards) and 1 block.

John the Baptist also lived up to his nickname by obliterating the rim with gargantuan dunks on numerous occasions. Those high-percentage shots allowed Collins to raise his already sky-high field goal percentage after going 6 of 7 from the field – only missing a midrange jump shot late in the 4^th. But forget about that, here’s a dunk:

Again, John Collins continues to impress on a night-by-night basis, and this performance in particular showcased the full range of Collins’s dunking ability – perhaps a dry run for his Dunk Contest participation? You be the judge:

Not to belabor the point, but Collins was finishing dunks in every way against the Pacers: throwing down with one hand cutting backdoor to the basket, finishing a sky-high lob from Dennis Schröder, fully extending for a putback dunk following a Luke Babbitt miss and just generally putting his springy athleticism and titanic ups to good use. You do you, JC.

Though John Collins wowed the home crowd with poster dunk after poster dunk, starting Hawks center Miles Plumlee also looked sharp in what was his best game as a Hawk so far.

Sky Miles went 4 of 6 from the field for a season-high 10 points, and he had only a -1 BPM in a game the Hawks lost by 10. In a game in which John Collins was pummeling the basket with savage throwdowns, Plumlee got in on the fun early with this outstanding reverse jam that boggled the minds of the Hawks’ bench:

Plumlee looked sharp on this night, and he seems to be getting his footing after missing the Hawks’ first 19 games of the season.

Dennis Schröder logged another poor performance as the Pacers double-teamed him and showed a lot of full-court pressure to start the 3^rd quarter, which completely ruined his night. DS17 finished with just 8 points on 4 of 15 shooting with 8 assists and 2 steals in 31 minutes of play.

Marco Belinelli scored 13 points (5 of 12 shooting) off the Hawks’ bench, but his abhorrent defense continues to be a problem and he finished with a game-low -16 BPM.

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Even though the Hawks’ frontcourt players were raining tomahawk jams all over their foes, the Pacers tandem of Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis both played extremely well – specifically Turner.

Turner’s immense size and astonishing athleticism affected this game severely, as his brick house-esque screens stopped Dennis Schröder dead in his tracks on numerous occasions. Turner’s shot-blocking also affected many drives to the basket from Schröd and Kent Bazemore, and Turner finished with a game-high 3 blocks.

Sabonis didn’t post the most glamorous stat line (4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 fouls), but his activity on both offense and defense transformed this game as the Pacers began to command the defensive end in the 3^rd quarter. This shows in his box plus/minus, which clocked in at a game-high +16.

The Hawks return to action Friday night on the road against reigning MVP Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Tip-off is slated for 8:00 p.m. EST.