Hawks Steal One vs. Knicks on Bazemore’s Game-Winner

The Atlanta Hawks came into Madison Square Garden on Super Bowl Sunday and defeated the New York Knicks by a final margin of 99-96 on a Kent Bazemore game-winning three-pointer.

For the home team, Tim Hardaway Jr. had two chances to send this one into overtime, but on the first occasion he stepped out of bounds, and, on the second, his game-tying three-pointer struck the rim innocuously.

A 12:00 p.m. EST starting tip-off definitely stymied the flow of the game for both teams early, as neither team looked to be at full speed in the first half. The Hawks managed to pick themselves up and ended up playing tremendous defense on the Knicks, particularly in the 2^nd quarter – when they only allowed 16 Knicks points.

The Hawks shot quite poorly overall (40.2% from the field), but they managed to hit some timely three-pointers (15 of 33, 45.5%) just as the Knicks were missing myriad attempts from the charity stripe (New York went 9 of 15 from the line for 60%). New York was also ice cold from distance, finishing with only 5 three-point makes on 23 attempts (21.7%).

Individually, Atlanta had some strong performances – headlined by the gutsy effort from Kent Bazemore.

Kent has been particularly clutch this season, and in 85 clutch minutes (clutch minutes are the last five minutes of a game with a point differential of less than five), he is shooting 46.2 percent on three-pointers.

Baze lived up to that on this night by drilling a wide-open three-pointer that put the Hawks up 98-96 with 8.5 seconds left on the clock – a lead they would never give up. Bazemore finished with 19 points on 7 of 17 shooting (4 of 7 from distance) with 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a +6 box plus/minus.

Kent’s defense is always rock-solid, and he limited Courtney Lee and THJ to a combined 16 points in 60 total minutes of play.

Dewayne Dedmon also had a standout game starting in place of Ersan Ilyasova, who was out with an unspecified illness. Dedmon’s defense was as stout as possible against the unicornesque play of Kristaps Porzingis (22 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 steals), but where Dedmon truly shined was his work on the boards.

Dedmon finished with 14 total rebounds (10 DREBS, 4 OREBS) and many of them were snatched with difficulty from the likes of Porzingis, Enes Kanter and Kyle O’Quinn – all of which have a size advantage on Dedmon (Zinger and Kanter with height, O’Quinn with bulk). DD fought hard, though, and frankly outhustled many of the Knicks bigs for rebounds on this night.

Scoring-wise, Dedmon also had a strong game with 12 points on 4 of 9 shooting, including a clutch three-pointer after a Knicks run early in the 4^th quarter. He also had this rather amusing dunk attempt pop out then pop back in for 2 points:

https://twitter.com/ATLHawks/status/960220866142289920

Dedmon continues to impress, and he is clearly the Hawks’ best pure center.

Dennis Schröder had a pretty poor game offensively, but the Hawks performed well with him on the floor as his game-high +8 BPM would indicate. Schröd finished with only 10 points on a terrible 2 of 16 shooting performance, with many layup attempts being snuffed out by the immense length of the Zinger.

Off the bench, Mike Muscala had possibly his best game of the season as he notched 15 points on 6 of 8 shooting (3 of 5 from deep) in only 23 minutes. Musky was clutch late with his three-point shooting, as he nailed a catch-and-shoot triple to pull the Hawks within 1 before Baze drilled the game-winner. Muscala also had 6 rebounds, 1 assist and was a +5 in BPM.

Rookie Tyler Dorsey continues to play well in his limited minutes, and he attempted 5 shots in only 14 minutes of action. Dorsey finished with 7 points on 3 of 5 shooting with 4 strong rebounds, 1 assist and a +2 BPM. Dorsey’s one made three-pointer came off of an assist from John Collins, and it’s good to see the Hawks’ rookies working well together:

There were some odd stat lines in this game, including a rather rough outing for Rising Star game participant John Collins. JC finished with 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist and 1 block in 22 minutes, but his 2 of 8 shooting from the field was well below his average.

Malcolm Delaney, who is having a strong second year in the NBA, also had an odd line of 5 points and a game-high 8 assists, but those assists came when the Knicks were playing quite well, so Delaney’s -5 BPM ended up being the lowest on the team (hence why BPM isn’t the most reliable statistic when it comes to in-game performance).

Next: Atlanta Hawks Trade Deadline Outlook

The Hawks are off on Monday, but return to Philips Arena for a game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. EST.