Atlanta Hawks: Rapid Reaction to Overtime Win vs. Wolves

A swift recap of what was an exciting overtime Atlanta Hawks victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Atlanta Hawks completed a season sweep of the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight. Funnily enough, it took overtime in both games to take out the Wolves.

Even though Karl-Anthony Towns produced a typically titanic performance (37 points, 18 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 triples), Minnesota was unable to stymy the offensive efforts of its best young players: Trae Young and John Collins – who combined for a whopping 70 points.

Both Young and Collins were fired up in this one, and Trae finished only 2 rebounds shy of a triple-double. Collins finished one point shy of tying his career-high in scoring with 34 points.

For the tanking crowd, who have quieted down in recent months due to the intensely enjoyable prospect of watching Trae and Collins run roughshod over the league, winning this game might not mean much. In fact, tanking enthusiasts are likely to be rather upset that the Hawks lost a “meaningless” game in late February when they should be focusing on their draft positioning.

However, as has been stated before, teams and players don’t tank, and in the long run, securing this overtime victory with authority is the best thing that could happen for this team.

Sure, if the young guys didn’t play well and the Atlanta Hawks won this game, that would be less than ideal. But on the contrary, Trae Young logged a career-high in minutes (43) and was nearly the sole reason Atlanta was able to topple the Timberwolves due to his passing wizardry and clutch scoring.

If that means our lottery chances are slightly dinged (which, right now, they are not), then so be it.

This was a thrilling basketball game, and it shows that this team is very much on the right track – perhaps even ahead of schedule.

The Atlanta Hawks play next on Friday, March 1 against the resurgent Chicago Bulls.