Robinson’s last-second 3 sends Pacers over Hawks
Next up, Atlanta will host the Golden State Warriors tonight.
— Glenn Robinson III waited patiently for the whirlwind turn of events to unfold, then positioned himself in the left corner.
The shot felt perfect as it left his hand.
“I just held my follow-through,” Robinson said, “and it went in.”
Robinson hit a 3-pointer with sixthtenths of a second remaining, Paul George scored 34 points and the Indiana Pacers rallied in the closing minutes to beat the Atlanta Hawks 97-96 on Sunday.
Jeff Teague, in his first game back at Philips Arena after spending his first seven seasons with the Hawks, added 16 points and six assists.
Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 24 points and Paul Millsap had 23 points and 10 rebounds for Atlanta, which has lost five of seven.
After Hardaway missed a 3 with 10.3 seconds remaining, Teague pushed the ball up the floor and passed to George, who whipped the ball from the right baseline to C.J. Miles on the left side of the perimeter. Miles fed Robinson for the wide-open shot.
“I believe in the basketball gods,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. “You’ve got to make your breaks.”
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer missed the game after getting suspended for bumping into a referee Friday against Cleveland. Assistant Darvin Ham took his place. Budenholzer will be back on the bench today.
Atlanta, which led 96-90 with 1:43 remaining, was coming off the five-point home loss in which Cleveland set an NBA single-game record with 25 3s.
George had 24 points at halftime, 10 in the third quarter and was 12-for-16 from the field, 6 of 7 beyond the arc, entering the fourth. He went 0-for-3 in the final period.
Indiana had lost eight of 10.
Atlanta was up 13 early in the second quarter and fell flat as Indiana went on a 20-4 run to go up 39-36 on Teague’s floater 6 minutes later. Indiana took its biggest lead of the game, 11 points, when George hit a layup midway through the third.
“Pretty much all their points were in transition,” Hardaway said. “We have to do a better job of that from the start of the game to the finish of the game.”
Schroder finished with 18 points.