Atlanta Hawks: A Recap of Each Overtime Period in Wild Loss

An overtime-by-overtime breakdown of one of the most memorable games in Atlanta Hawks history.

Friday’s battle between the current 12th (Atlanta Hawks) and 13th seeds (Chicago Bulls) in the East, turned into an all-out marathon and one of the best games of the NBA this season.

Both the Bulls and Hawks set new franchise-highs in scoring for a game, with the Bulls logging a shocking 168 points. The Hawks managed 161 points, both of which are highs for this season. The 168 points for the Bulls is the highest output by a team since 2008, when Carmelo Anthony‘s Nuggets accomplished the feat against Kevin Durant‘s Sonics.

This was the first game in which both teams scored 160 since the highest-scoring game in NBA history: Pistons at Nuggets in December 1983 (when both teams scored over 180 points each).

In a crazy game that needed 4 overtimes for a winner to prevail, the visiting Chicago Bulls eventually pulled it out over the Atlanta Hawks in what was a scintillating tilt with almost too many notable plays to remember

The Atlanta Hawks came in short handed, with their young star forward John Collins out with flu-like symptoms, and left even more under-staffed, with both Omari Spellman and Kevin Huerter suffering injuries as well. Collins’ absence was a big one on paper, seeing how he had one of his career-best games last time these two met, finishing with 35.

After a close first half but a rough 3rd quarter, the Hawks cut it close with a great 4th quarter, outscoring the Bulls 40-29 in the final period.

Trae Young then hit an absolutely clutch shot that we’ll cover in-depth on the next slide. That shot was indicative of him being the best rookie over the past 2 months.

The marathon began after that, with the two young teams getting extremely tired as the 3 following OT frames combined with foul-outs and injuries causing the same cast of characters to play insane minutes.

The Shot, The Foul(?)

After an Otto Porter driving layup to tie the game at 121, coach Pierce opted for a timeout with 17 seconds left.

The play he drew up was simple: Let Trae be Trae.

After dribbling the ball near the center logo, the rookie guard hit a step back three to give the Hawks a 3-point lead with just seconds left. Young had finally hit his game-winner, right?

Well…

Trae only did one thing wrong on the play, leaving 2 seconds left on the clock for the Bulls to chuck up a three, and Porter did just that, missing but getting fouled by Dewayne Dedmon on the attempt.

Porter, to his credit made the 3 clutch FTs to tie, and for the second game in a row, there was free basketball in the ATL.

The shot:

Again, not much Young could have done better here. Perfect step back off a noted good back court defender in Dunn. Of course in hindsight you’d like to say he should have held onto the ball for another second, but that’s just not realistic.

The Foul:

The crowd didn’t like this one, but it was pretty easily a foul in my eyes. Dedmon, who was great defensively all night just needs to know when to contest a bit more lightly. An off-balance deep three is always harder than free throws (for most players).

OT 1 and 2, The Shot 2.0

After Porter’s showing at the stripe, the Hawks went into overtime for the third time this season.

Trae hit a potential 4-point play, but missed the free throw, still setting up a high scoring OT period. Both teams scored 16, with the 31st and 32nd being the most important.

Trae once again dug into his bag of clutch tricks, using his speed to sprint past the defense that was probably expecting a 3 and calmly laid it in for the tie.

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The second overtime period was more subdued, with the Hawks looking notably gassed. They had a 5-point lead with a minute left and failed to extend, allowing the Bulls to claw back to a tie. A Vince Carter miss set up Chicago for the final shot of the period.

Mercifully for the poor Atlanta Hawks fan’s souls watching, Otto Porter missed a lay-in that very well could have been a foul. Opposite the first OT, it was a low-scoring affair, with both teams scoring 7, with Atlanta not scoring in the final 2:25.

Third Overtime Recap

Overtime three began with another Vince Carter rim-clunker, but he made up for it with a steal on the other end, setting up Kent Bazemore’s go ahead free throw.

Things went a bit quiet after that, with Trae getting double-teamed, leading to some nice dump off baskets to Alex Len. Zach Lavine hit a game-tying (and career-high setting) and later tied it up at 155 all with 1:02 left.

DeAndre’ Bembry had an awful traveling turnover to give Chicago the ball and a chance to take a lead with 30 seconds left.

Lloyd Pierce pulled Trae in favor of Justin Anderson in the important defensive possession, and it paid off. Anderson was switched onto LaVine who was forced into a bad shot resulting in an air ball.

This gave the Hawks an opportunity to take the final shot  of the game, but some good D from the Bulls forced a turnover, again switching hands.

With 3.7 on the clock, the 42-year-old Vince Carter used all of his basketball IQ to draw a foul.

Carter then in-bounded to Len who airmailed a 3. Four overtimes.

Overtime #4

The 4th OT began with Young getting some much-needed rest, but he was standing by the scorer’s table after only one possession.

Alex Len made up for some missed free throws with a nice three to give the Atlanta Hawks the lead, and Trae re-entered, missing just under 90 seconds, then nearly hitting a runner. He then actually hit a free throw, putting the Hawks up 2.

Robin Lopez tied it up with 2:40, and and Len fouled a three-point shooting Lauri Markkanen to fall behind by 3. Dewayne Dedmon was missed after that foul, then Len committed an amusing kicked-ball violation as he tried to boot a rebound to himself. Clearly, everyone was tired.

Down by three with a minute left VC missed another, and it was all downhill from there. LaVine hit an off-balance lay-up while lunging out of bounds, giving him 47 on the night and putting the Bulls up 5.

All the momentum was with the Bulls and an ugly, wild shot by Bazemore finished it off.

The Bulls seemed to always have an answer to falling behind in the earlier OT spots, while the Hawks clearly did not.

Final Roundup

It’s so difficult for a young team to withstand a quadruple overtime game, especially when they were so short-handed.

Trae understandably lacked scoring in overtime, getting doubled nearly every time up the court, and playing well over a full game worth’s of minutes. He finished with 55 clocked all said and done. In that time he put up 49, just 1 short of an amazing 50-pointer, and the Atlanta Hawks’ rookie record.

Vince Carter was asked to play 44 minutes, going over 40 for the first time since December 2014. Besides the nifty drawn foul, he was pretty rough down the stretch, shooting 3 of 10 from three. His struggles don’t compare to Len’s or Baze’s however. The latter scored 4 points in 30 minutes on 8 shots. Alex Len missed 5 free throws.

Despite the loss, it was probably the most fun Hawks game since the Millsap-Horford days, and that’s what all of this is about in a rebuilding state. It still would have been nice to get the W however.

Fortunately, the Atlanta Hawks get to turn around and seek revenge right away, when they travel up to the windy city for a rematch on Sunday.

John Collins should be back, and Kevin Huerter will likely be as well. Keep it locked here for the preview, recap and takeaways from that one and more.