The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hawks end slide to Spurs
Hardaway plays his best game as a Hawk with 29 points.
Paul Millsap and Tim Hardaway Jr. gave the Hawks their best win of the season Sunday night. The duo helped the Hawks snap an 11-game losing streak to the Spurs with a dramatic victory.
Five observations from the Hawks’ 114-112 overtime win over the Spurs at Philips Arena. 1 . Hardaway Jr. had his best game as a Hawk. And maybe his career. The reserve guard scored 11 straight critical points with three 3-pointers — one to end the fourth quarter and two more to start overtime — to save the Hawks. Hardaway hit a 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 100 and force the extra period. He also scored the Hawks’ first eight points of overtime as they built a 108-104 lead. They later led 110-106 but the advantage vanished when Kawhi Leonard hit a 3-pointer with 34.3 seconds left to tie it at 112.
Millsap missed a corner 3-pointer with the shot clock about to expire but Hardaway got the offensive rebound and was fouled with 10.8 seconds left. After making the first attempt, he missed the second. But Millsap
got the offensive rebound and Dennis Schroder got to the line with 4.6 seconds left. Schroder made just one of his attempts to give the Hawks a 114-112 lead with 3.9 seconds remaining. But Leonard missed a drive at the buzzer and the Hawks had a remarkable win.
Hardaway finished with a career-high tying 29 points, including six 3-pointers.
2 . Millsap has been the Hawks best player all season. He proved it again Sunday. With the Hawks trailing 70-63 late in the third quarter, Millsap scored the Hawks’ next 17 points. His 11th and 12th points tied the game at 75. He started his personal run with back-to-back 3-pointers to end the third quarter and he added another in the fourth quarter for his 17th straight.
Hardaway scored four straight points to give the Hawks an 84-82 lead but the Spurs would use a 6-0 run to retake the lead.
Millsap finished with a double-double of a game-high 32 points and 13 rebounds. He had 16 fourth-quarter points.
With the Hawks within a point at 98-97 and with the ball, Schroder missed a drive to the basket. The Spurs rebounded and Leonard made a pair of free throws with 10.1 seconds remaining in regulation.
Hardaway hit a 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds remaining to tie the game at 100-100. Leonard’s last second shot circled the rim several times before falling away to force overtime.
3 . The Spurs entered the game as the NBA’s leading 3-point shooting team (.410). The Hawks entered as the eighth-worst team in defending the longrange shot (.362).
The Spurs were just 9 of 27 from 3-point range. However, they got three in the fourth quarter and overtime with Patty Mills, Tony Parker, Danny Green and Leonard connecting from long range.
4 . The Hawks got caught in an early hole with some poor shooting to start the game. The Spurs led by as many as seven points as the Hawks shot 2 of 12 from the field to open the night. More troubling in the start was that five of the misses were layups.
The Hawks rallied and were 8 of 12 to finish the quarter. They used a 13-0 run to end the first and begin the second quarters to take a 36-27 lead.
Korver (2) and Hardaway hit 3-pointers as part of the run. The Spurs erased the deficit and took a 46-44 lead into halftime.
5 . The Spurs got Leonard back after he missed two games with gastroenteritis. Defending the small forward was a key part of the Hawks game plan. Thabo Sefolosha got the early assignment of guarding the Spurs’ leading scorer. The Hawks tried to match the assignment whenever Leonard was in the game.
Leonard had just five firsthalf points on 1 of 5 shooting in his 13 minutes.
He finished with 10 points while shooting 3 of 12 shooting, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range.