Atlanta Hawks (30-32) swingman Bogdan Bogdanovic continued to solidify his role as a closer with a strong fourth-quarter effort in the 130-126 win over the Chicago Bulls. The win gave the Hawks some breathing room over the Washington Wizards whom they face on the road on Friday. It also snapped a three-game skid against Chicago and avoided the regular-season sweep.
The story has revolved around Trae Young’s spectacular performance dropping 39 points (16 in the fourth quarter) and 13 assists while hitting seven threes.
He had struggled from the floor in the previous matchups and, “owed them one”.
But, without Bogdanovic’s contributions as the game wound down, the Hawks are 0-4 versus the Bulls and, more importantly, heading into Friday’s tilt and needing a win to stay in the final play-in spot.
Atlanta Hawks wing Bogdan Bogdanovic has looked like his old self lately
Bogdanovic finished the evening with 20 points, four rebounds, two assists, and two blocks. He wasn’t terribly efficient in totality, shooting just 38.5 percent from the floor. But he did hit 4-of-10 threes and knock down all six of his free-throw attempts. His final line only tells a part of the story, however.
In the fourth quarter, with the Hawks down 92-90, Bogdanovic hit a three to put them up by two points.
Later, with Atlanta down 110-108, he hit another three to put them back up by one point. After hitting a couple of free throws to tie it at 116, he would have hit another three to put them up (for good) 119-118 as the Hawks outscored the Bulls 11-7 the rest of the way.
As well-rounded of a performance as this was, it has also become par for the course lately.
Over the last eight games, Bogdanovic is averaging 21.0 points on 51.3 percent shooting and has hit 28-of-67 triples (41.8%) while also hauling in 4.8 boards, dishing out 3.1 assists, and notching 1.6 steals. He’s only failed to crack the 20-point threshold twice in that span and both times he grabbed at least six rebounds.
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The fifth-year NBA vet was great in the two previous matchups versus the Bulls averaging 23.5 points, 4.5 boards, and 3.0 assists with 1.0 blocks while shooting 46.1 percent from the floor and hitting 42.8 percent of his deep looks.
Bogdanovic is also the Hawks leading scorer in the fourth quarter over those last eight games, averaging 7.3 points on 48.8 percent shooting and 47.6 percent from downtown.
The Hawks have needed a second option in crunchtime Bogdanovic has been it.
Last season, he averaged 20.4 points on 50.6 percent shooting (48.4% 3P) with 3.9 assists, 3.8 boards, and 1.5 steals over his final 29 appearances (25 starts) of the regular season before averaging 22.7/4.0/3.3 with 2.3 steals and a .453/.429/.833 slash line over the final three games of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Let’s hope they don’t need the heroics against the Wizards. But he was solid in the two previous meetings with them as well with 15.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists on 55.0 percent shooting overall and 50.0 percent from the outside.