All Hawks

Atlanta Hawks Beat Indiana Pacers 132-123

The Hawks are now 38-37.
Pat Benson|
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

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Atlanta HawksIndiana Pacers

Summary

We knew the Pacers were going to be short-handed against the Hawks tonight. The Hawks used that opportunity to rest De'Andre Hunter and Danilo Gallinari, which drastically altered head coach Nate McMillan's rotation. Delon Wright and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot started, and rookie Jalen Johnson logged 17 minutes as a reserve.

If seeing Johnson on the court wasn't weird enough, tonight was one of the rare occurrences where Trae Young was somewhat outshined by his red-hot teammates. Clint Capela scored 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Sharpshooters Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter scored 29 and 22 respectively.

Just because Young wasn't the center of attention doesn't mean he didn't play a vital role for the team. The floor general scored 14 points and dropped 16 dimes. The Hawks shot an incredible 54.7% from the field and 48.6% from deep. What resulted was a high-scoring affair, which the Hawks won to sweep the season series.

Once again, the Hawks defense was abysmal. The Pacers easily exceeded their average of 110.5 points per game thanks to equally hot outside shooting. The Pacers shot 48% from deep tonight, despite averaging 34% on the season. Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton combined for 51 points.

Post-Game Interviews

Hawks head coach Nate McMillan wasn't ready to celebrate tonight. "It's two games. And we have to be able to take that to Oklahoma City and continue to work on that rhythm that chemistry we been talking about, and that consistency."

McMillan continued, "I thought defensively - percentages are still a little too high. We made an adjustment in the second half defensively to try to keep them from getting downhill. It was a little better when we went to our reads and switching."

Trae Young wasn't surprised when the Pacers threw double-teams at him. "They did that to end the game last game. I think now we knew what they were probably going to do coming into this game - try to take me out of it from the jump. That's okay; I just got to give it to my teammates and let them make plays. We kind of knew what to expect a little bit better tonight."

The Hawks next game is Wednesday in Oklahoma City against the Thunder. As always, we will have plenty of content for you between now and then. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's AllHawks.com for breaking news, highlights, and analysis.

With so many injured players out tonight, Atlanta Hawks rookie forward Jalen Johnson got nearly 20 minutes of action.

Indiana Pacers shooting guard Buddy Hield was highly efficient tonight but wasn't able to lead his team to victory.

Indiana Pacers sophomore Tyrese Haliburton notched an efficient double-double against the Hawks.

To the surprise of no one, Atlanta Hawks shooting guard Trae Young accrued another double-double against the Pacers.

Atlanta Hawks shooting guard Kevin Huerter caught fire tonight. 'Red Velvet' reminded everyone what he is capable of accomplishing on the court.

Stats

Hawks Leaders

Bogdan Bogdanovic - 29 PTS, 5 REB

Clint Capela - 22 PTS, 15 REB

Kevin Huerter - 22 PTS, 6 AST

Pacers Leaders

Buddy Hield - 26 PTS, 5 AST

Tyrese Haliburton - 25 PTS, 13 AST

Keifer Sykes - 16 PTS, 4 AST

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Published
Pat Benson
PAT BENSON

Pat Benson covers the Atlanta Hawks for Sports Illustrated's All Hawks. He has covered the NBA for several years and is the author of "Kobe Bryant's Sneaker History (1996-2020)".

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