Hawks Win Thriller, Topple Timberwolves 105-100

After a string of 3 poor games in a row, the Atlanta Hawks looked terrific tonight against a playoff-bound Minnesota Timberwolves team – defeating them with ball movement and timely defensive stops.

Despite committing a monstrous 21 turnovers, the Hawks took advantage of their depth and used 46 bench points to propel them to a well-fought victory at Philips Arena.

The Wolves seemed to play with little intensity and were quite nonchalant in terms of their pace, as the Hawks outran the away team to the tune of 25 fast break points; the Wolves could only manage 8.

This was generally an even affair, which was definitely unexpected when accounting for these two teams’ exceedingly different trajectories. The Wolves are on pace for a top-5 seed in the extremely competitive Western Conference, and the Hawks have one of the worst records in the entire league.

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However, late on this night in Atlanta, the Wolves seemed to lack coherence and simply tossed the ball over to Jimmy Butler in hopes that he could pull out a miraculous win for them. He could not.

Perhaps the main reason for the Hawks’ success was the team’s defensive effort, particularly at the point guard position. Former Hawk Jeff Teague returned to Atlanta and had one of the worst games of his career while being hounded by Dennis Schröder and Malcolm Delaney.

Teague finished with only 2 points on 1 of 12 shooting, and also had two blindingly bad mistakes in the game’s final 1:01. First, he lobbed a lazy, ill-fated pass to Jimmy Butler in the post that was picked off cleanly by Malcolm Delaney, and second (and most heinous), he committed a five-second violation when he couldn’t get the ball inbounds after a timeout (then called a timeout that they didn’t have).

The worst part for Teague is that both of these miscues occurred when the Wolves were down by only 1 point. Dennis Schröder was fouled twice and made all 4 free throws to close the book on this game.

Individually, the Hawks had many notable performers though none shined more brightly than Kent Bazemore.

Baze finished with one of his do-everything nights, and he got particularly hot as Atlanta’s primary ballhandler in the 3^rd quarter. Bazemore finished with a team-high 22 points on 8 of 14 shooting, including 4 of 8 from downtown. He also logged 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and a game-high +20 box plus/minus – which was fully indicative of his impact on this victory.

Kent also notched 2 blocks, both of which were of the chasedown variety and both of them victimized his former teammate Jeff Teague. Here is the more highlight-reel one from the 4^th quarter:

Dennis Schröder also had a banner night – defending Jeff Teague with aplomb and making the right pass all night. Though he committed an atrocious 7 turnovers, Schröd still finished with more assists than turns, dishing 11 assists and notching 18 points in a team-high 33 minutes.

He also floated this one to the heavens to get past the outstretched fingertips of Karl-Anthony Towns:

Malcolm Delaney had another strong game; so strong, in fact, that he actually started the second half in place of Taurean Prince (3 points on 1 of 10 shooting), who continues to look lost on the court.

Delaney was superb in his 25 minutes of action with 9 points on 4 of 6 shooting with 7 assists and 2 steals and a +9 BPM.

John Collins had a typically strong night – going 4 for 4 from the field with 8 points and 11 rebounds (3 OREBS) in only 20 minutes of action (that total should be higher). Sadly, there were no highlight-reel dunks for the gifted rookie, but he did battle his way through thickets of Wolves’ defenders to score over Taj Gibson on this play:

The rookie who had a more eye-opening night vs. the Wolves was Tyler Dorsey. When Dorsey is hitting shots, he exposes his value, and on this night, Dorsey was extremely valuable. In only 13 minutes of action, Dorsey drove to the rack for a tough layup and swished two three-pointers including one with 4:10 left that gave Atlanta a lead (94-92) that they would never relinquish.

Dorsey finished with 8 points on 3 of 6 shooting with 2 rebounds (including a hard-fought OREB) and a +7 BPM in his limited action. This was something of a coming-out party for TD, as he had rarely contributed to wins in a major way – something he definitely did on this night.

One final note on the Wolves: Karl-Anthony Towns looks to be a generational offensive player and he was blatantly unstoppable in this game. Here was his final stat line: 15 points (only 6 of 8 shooting), 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block in 32 minutes. How about letting the KATman touch the ball a little more next time, OK Thibs?

Next: The Atlanta Hawks Dynasty: a Blueprint for Ruling the NBA in 4 Years

The Hawks are off tomorrow but play at home against the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. EST.