De'Aaron Fox Scores 24 in His San Antonio Debut as The Spurs Defeat the Atlanta Hawks 126-125

The Atlanta Hawks were unable to spoil the debut of De'Aaron Fox with the Spurs tonight.

After a poor first half shooting the ball, the Hawks played lights out in the second half, but it was not enough in the end to overcome a great debut from Fox and a double-double from Victor Wembanyama. Fox finished with 24 points and 13 assists and four steals, while Wembanyama had 24 points and 12 rebounds including the game winning free throw at the end.

After trailing by 18 at the half, Atlanta, led by Trae Young, Onyeka Okongwu, and De'Andre Hunter, made a big charge to get back in the game, only to have a challenge overturned and a free throw decide the game in the final seconds.

It was the third straight 30 point game for Young, who scored 23 of his 32 points in the second half while finishing with 12 assists. Okongwu scored a career high 30 points to go along with 12 rebounds and five assists, and Hunter scored 22 points on 6-11 shooting from three. Dyson Daniels had 19 points, but the Hawks could not get rookie Zaccharie Risacher going tonight after a couple of his best games of the season coming into the night. He finished with six points on 3-8 shooting.

Atlanta's bench was a huge problem in this game. They were outscored by the Spurs bench 34-16 and none of the five bench players had more than five points. The Hawks are shorthanded and a lot of these players have been forced into action, but Atlanta needs more. Keaton Wallace scored five points in the game, but all five were in the 1st quarter. Dominick Barlow had five points, but all were in the fourth quarter. Larry Nance had 1 point in 17 minutes.

The Hawks shot 53% from the field in the game and 38% from three, both marks better than the Spurs. The difference was that the Hawks had 20 turnovers in the game and the Spurs scored 28 points off of them.

Turnovers and a poor first half shooting the ball doomed the Hawks tonight and now they are 23-28, losing nine of their last ten. Now, they will await the trade deadline to see if this team is any different or if they will push ahead with what they have.

The Hawks kept the same starting lineup as they did on Monday vs Detroit. Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, De'Andre Hunter, and Onyeka Okongwu.

The new-look Spurs started De'Aaron Fox, Chris Paul, Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, and Victor Wembanyama.

Both offenses had no problem getting going in the first quarter, especially when it came to shooting the three. Atlanta got out to an early 14-12 lead despite seven early points from Vassell, but then turnovers started to become a problem for the Hawks. San Antonio capitalized on five first quarter turnovers from the Hawks and scored nine points off of them. They used that to end the quarter on a 23-11 run to take a 35-25 lead into the second.

They've each made a 3 😁 https://t.co/mwgOfFnrzz pic.twitter.com/o77EIoKwkU
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 6, 2025

Feb 5, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels (5) shoots against the San Antonio Spurs in the second quarter at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Hawks's struggles continued to start the second quarter. They missed their first five three-point attempts and went 2-11 from deep in the 2nd quarter. San Antonio turned seven Atlanta turnovers into 11 points and Fox started to assert himself and show why the Spurs wanted him as one of the faces of the franchise. He scored 12 of his 18 points in the quarter and while the Spurs were 2-8 from three, they were 12-16 on all other shots. The amazing part of the first half for the Spurs was that Victor Wembanyama was hardly a factor, scoring only eight points in the first half.

The Hawk's two bright spots of the first half were the play of Onyeka Okongwu and Dyson Daniels. Okongwu scored 12 points in the quarter and had 16 in the first half while Daniels had 12 in the first half. Atlanta trailed the Spurs 72-54 at the half and was shooting 46% from the field and just 30% from three. The Spurs' shooting numbers were not phenomenal from three (40%), but they were 57% from the field.

BIG O BOOM pic.twitter.com/g4SgAS7bC4
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 6, 2025

Young played one of his worst halves of the season. He shot 2-8 (1-6 from three) from the field and had six turnovers.

When the third quarter started, the Hawks offense was doing fine thanks to Okongwu, but the defense could not get a stop. The Spurs led 87-71 and it looked like it was not going to be the Hawks night.

Atlanta would not go away though. Led by Okongwu and Hunter, the Hawks stormed back. Okongwu set a new career high for points midway through the third quarter (29 points) and Hunter hit a three to force a Spurs timeout and cap a 17-6 run to cut the Spurs lead to five. After the timeout, Hunter forced a turnover and Daniels cut it to three points. San Antonio responded with an impressive run to extend their lead to 103-97 at the half, with Wembanyama beating the buzzer. Atlanta outscored the Spurs 43-31 in the third to get right back in the game and they shot 69% from the field and 50% from three. Okongwu had 13 points in the quarter, while Young responded with 11 points in the third. Daniels, Young, Okongwu, and Hunter all played the entire third quarter. Risacher and Wallace were the only other players who played in the quarter.

DR3 splashhhhhh pic.twitter.com/Vy0UPikfMo
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 6, 2025

The Hawks were battling in the fourth quarter and got a surprisingly good stint in the early part of the fourth quarter from Dominick Barlow, who is on a two-way contract, but seeing minutes for the Hawks with the absence of Jalen Johnson. He scored five quick points in the fourth quarter and gave the Hawks some energy with the way he was flying around.

Dom Barlow in the corner 🏹 pic.twitter.com/7VBJpJUG7m
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 6, 2025

The two teams went back and forth for the majority of the quarter, but it looked like the Spurs had control after Chris Paul hit a three to give San Antonio a seven point lead with 2:43 to go. Quin Snyder called a timeout to get the team together for one last rally and the Hawks answered.

Out of the timeout, Hunter hit a shot to cut the lead to five and after a miss from Vassell, hit a three on the other end to cut the lead to 123-121. Wembanyama missed on the other, but the Spurs kept the ball alive. After a foul against the Hawks, Wembanyama missed again and the Hawks had a chance to tie or take the lead. Young, who was playing a brilliant second half, got fouled and hit both free throws to tie the game 123-123.

Dre drills his 6th three of the night ⛽️⛽️⛽️⛽️⛽️⛽️ pic.twitter.com/J1XfCreMw9
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 6, 2025

The Spurs were resilient themselves and Wembanyama hit a shot to take the lead back 125-123 with 17.3 seconds left. Snyder burned another timeout and the Hawks needed a basket. Young hit a shot out of the timeout and it was a tied game with 8.1 seconds left.

The Spurs called a timeout and in the debut of De'Aaron Fox in San Antonio, he and Wembanyama had a chance to win the game. Fox got the ball to Wembanyama, who drove to the basket but was met Okongwu. A foul was called on Okongwu and with one more timeout left, Snyder elected to take a gamble and challenge the call. The challenge failed and the Hawks were out of timeouts. Wembanyama made the first one, then intentionally missed the second one due to the Hawks not having a chance to stop the clock. Young got the ball and did get a shot off, but it fell short and the Spurs won the game 126-125 to win in the new duos first game together. Atlanta now drops to 23-28 this season and has lost nine of their last ten games. They will be back at home on Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.

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