The biggest play of Bogdan Bogdanovic’s night in the Atlanta Hawks (41-37) 122-115 win over the Brooklyn Nets didn’t even count. At 41-37, the Hawks have won five games in a row and take over sole possession of the eight-seed in the Eastern Conference. They got a big assist earlier in the day when the Philadelphia 76ers took out the Charlotte Hornets.
Now, the Hawks will get a couple of days off before taking on the Toronto Raptors who were idle but still moved into fifth with the Chicago Bulls loss to the Miami Heat.
Trae Young shook off a sore groin to drop 36 points, including the dagger three, and 10 assists with six boards. De’Andre Hunter tried to strengthen his case for an extension this coming offseason with a 15-point, 10 rebound double-double.
Bogdanovic had to leave his mark on this game in other ways.
The stat sheet won’t fully show how good of a game Bogdan Bogdanovic had
The Hawks bench ace finished with just eight points, two assists, and one rebound. It was a truly brutal night from the floor, particularly from beyond the arc. He shot just 33.3 percent from the floor and was 0-for-6 from downtown. He did get to the line for a couple of free throws but finished with two personal fouls and one turnover.
This is the second game in a row Bogdanovic has shot 33.3 percent from the floor after he had 11 points in the win over the Cleveland Cavaliers
He knocked down 3-of-7 triples in that one at least.
His lackluster counting stats only tell part of the story, though, as Bogdanovic finished as a game-high plus-15. That’s right, in a game where his teammate in Young dropped 36 points – and Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant had 55 points – it was Bogdanovic that came out on top.
The five-year NBA vet had an especially solid stretch in the second quarter. He committed a turnover on a pass the Nets center Andre Drummond jumped with 10 minutes to go that put the Hawks down 34-29 following the big man’s dunk. From that point on, the Hawks went on an 18-3 run before a Durant jumper stopped it.
In that span, Bogdanovic grabbed a rebound, found Delon Wright for a corner three, hit two free throws, stole the ball, found Wright again for another three, and hit a jumper.
It took a total of 3:11 from that rebound until the Hawks were up 47-37.
He also hit a big bucket to put them up by three points with just over 2:00 on the clock in the fourth quarter.
Big Bogi pic.twitter.com/dVTaZYfYcJ
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) April 3, 2022
Bogi’s most spectacular play didn’t count as his three-pointer with the shot clock winding down was waved off.
On defense, he was part of an attack that was tasked with stopping the best scorer in the NBA in Durant. While Brooklyn’s ultimate mismatch went off for a double nickel, Bogdanovic was aggressive, trying to make Durant uncomfortable – the only hope teams have.
He did a very nice job getting around this Nicolas Claxton pick in the mid-range.
These last two games broke up what had been a solid scoring stretch for Bogdanovic where he averaged 24.2 points on 50.5 percent shooting and 47.9 percent from deep. He had also averaged 3.2 boards, 2.3 dimes, and 1.7 steals to just 1.7 turnovers helping the Hawks to close out four wins in six games.
We see, though, that he can and will make an impact on the game. There is no better time for guys to max out their minutes than right now with just four games remaining.