Dennis Schröder Gives Hawks Early Christmas Gift with Win vs. Mavericks

Dennis Schröder went off for a career-high-tying 33 points, and with only 2 days until Christmas, the Hawks MVP through 30 games put on his Santa cap, jumped on his sleigh and delivered a victory to the Atlanta Hawks against a gutsy Dallas Mavericks team.

In what ended up being a seesaw affair at home that featured 18 ties and 18 lead changes, the Hawks came away with a few clutch buckets late courtesy of DS17 and Ersan Ilyasova, and the Mavs were unable to slow down the Hawks’ offense to any degree – letting the Hawks dictate the pace and tone of the game at every juncture.

Though Dennis ended up tying a career high with 33 points, he came out a little sluggish in the first half and went into halftime with only 6 points. He turned the corner in the second half, however, and scored 27 of his points in the second half – including 16 impressive points to close out the game in the 4^th quarter.

Schröd was dialed in throughout this game, and he notched those 33 points on an efficient 13 of 22 shooting (including 4 of 8 from downtown) in a game-high 35 minutes of play. Dennis also had 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and had a game-high +18 in box plus/minus.

At every turn, Schröder was making a winning play, and even when he wasn’t scoring as efficiently in the first half, his slick passing got everyone involved and engaged on offense.

Speaking of passing, 33-year-old J.J. Barea of the Mavericks had a stellar game for the away team, logging 15 points, a whopping 12 assists and a game-high 3 steals. Barea orchestrated stellar offensive action for the Mavs, and he finished with a team-high +12 BPM.

The story of this night was the play of the Hawks’ starters, who thoroughly outplayed the Mavs’ starters, outscoring them 82 to 61.

Kent Bazemore had a supremely inefficient 2 of 8 shooting performance, but he did get to the line for 6 free throw attempts (and makes) and finished with a do-everything performance of 11 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and a +17 BPM.

Ersan Ilyasova had a stellar game starting at power forward and tied Dennis with a game-high 35 minutes of action. Ersan was opportunistic in his scoring, piling up 21 points on 7 of 9 shooting from the field (2 of 3 from downtown) and 5 of 5 from the charity stripe.

With Dennis Schröder doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of scoring, the bench still had some solid contributors – starting with always exciting rookie John Collins.

JC continued an impressive string of games by scoring 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting with 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 20 minutes of play. As usual, highlight dunks and athletic finishes aplenty followed John the Baptist wherever he went, including a poster slam over Salah Mejri and this pearl of a tomahawk:

Malcolm Delaney and Tyler Cavanaugh were the second-highest scorers off the bench, and both had promising games for their respective roles.

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Delaney played 27 strong minutes off the bench, playing his off-ball two guard role to stellar effect and providing strong defense guarding the likes of Harrison Barnes, Wesley Matthews and Devin Harris. Though Delaney only had those 7 points in extended minutes, he finished with a solid 5 assists, 3 rebounds and a neutral 0 BPM in a game the Hawks won by 5.

Tyler Cavanaugh, after a disappointing game against the Thunder on Friday, matched Delaney’s 7 points with 3 of 5 shooting (1 of 3 from downtown) with 5 strong rebounds. Cavanaugh looked sharp in his short stint, and his rebounding continues to impress despite his undersized frame.

If his three-point stroke remains steady (in the upper 30s in percentage), Cavanaugh should stake a claim to a rock-solid rotation spot off the bench.

With Christmas looming, the Hawks have 3 days off and return to action at home against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. EST.

Happy Holidays from Soaring Down South!