The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hawks keep playing into the 4th quarter
NEW YORK — Observations from Hawks 99, Knicks 96 at Madison Square Garden:
1. At last, the Hawks were competitive into the fourth quarter, finishing with their second victory in the past seven games. It appeared Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis might finish them off when he scored five points on four possessions in the final three minutes, all of them on fine plays. But Mike Muscala and Kent Bazemore made open 3-pointers in the final minute, with Muscala’s score pulling the Hawks within one and Bazemore giving them the lead for good. Then Knicks forward Tim Hardaway Jr. stepped on the sideline while taking an inbound pass and Dewayne Dedmon made a free throw.
2. As soon as Bazemore received a pass from Muscala in the left corner, teammates on the bench stood up in anticipation of the go-ahead 3-pointer. “That’s his spot,” Hawks center John Collins said. “The way he wound up, shot it, I knew it was going in.”
3. Bazemore was a defensive pest, as always. But until his big 3-pointer he couldn’t convert some good scoring chances in the fourth quar- ter, including two missed free throws with the Hawks down 89-86 (Bazemore made the third free throw after a bizarre do-over). “I almost got down on myself late in the stretch,” Bazemore said. “But my guys corralled me, kept my head up and kept me motivated. When the time came I was ready to make a play.”
4. Save for New York’s 33-point third quarter, the Hawks gave the kind of ener- gized defensive effort that had been missing for a while. The Knicks (16 turnovers) were lazy with some of their passes, but the Hawks also hounded passing lanes and generally made it difficult for the Knicks around the basket. The Knicks failed to score on their final four possessions, including Hardaway’s missed 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds to play.
5. With Ersan Ilyasova
(illness) out, Dedmon was paired with Miles Plumlee in the starting frontcourt. The two had played four minutes together before Sunday. Dedmon checked Porzingis and Plumlee was on Enes Kanter. There were other starting options to consider — Muscala, Collins and Luke Babbitt — but Dedmon was agile enough to chase Porzingis, long enough to challenge his shots and bulky enough to provide some resistance inside. Dedmon helped keep Porzingis (22 points on 19 shots) under control for the most part and also produced 11 points and 14 rebounds.
6. Dennis Schroder (2-for16 shooting) was blowing by Knicks counterpart Jarrett Jack but couldn’t finish at the rim. Schroder also missed open teammates several times while trying to force shots in traffic or shoot over bigs. At least Schroder’s defensive effort and focus were pretty good. But his 3-pointer struggles continued: 0 for 4 to drop him to 53 for 189 (28 percent) on the season.
7. The Hawks got a few friendly bounces from the MSG rims. Muscala had two jumpers roll around before falling through, Marco Belinelli had a 3-pointer bounce three times before dropping and a Dedmon dunk popped out before dropping in.