Young, Collins Lead Hawks In Double-Overtime Win Over Hornets

If either the Hawks or the Hornets could have slowed the other in the slightest, Monday night’s contest might have become a lopsided affair. Instead, the two teams delivered a dramatic, offensively-charged contest that resulted in a 143-138 Hawks win.

Both Atlanta and Charlotte entered the game with two of the worst offenses in the NBA, but both lived up to their bottom-six rankings on defense. Each team was effectively unstoppable, and therefore neither could create much separation throughout the game. No single quarter swung more than four points in either team’s direction, and each side generated at least 1.37 points per possession in the first half. The two teams seemed to create layups and 3-pointers at will, and only when fatigue set in did their engines begin to cool.

Led by Trae Young and John Collins, Atlanta shot a scorching 49 percent from beyond the arc and 60 percent inside of it, rebounded 36 percent of their own misses, and averaged nearly 1.2 points per trip in the halfcourt en route to its third-best offensive outing of the season. The Hawks racked up 33 assists as a team, moving the ball into easy looks at the rim or open shots from 3.

“The message tonight was ‘let the basketball create energy,’” Lloyd Pierce said. “Our energy, for some reason, has been up-and-down, and sometimes we focus on shooting, sometimes we focus on trying to make plays. We wanted the ball movement and the basketball to just find the right guys and create some energy, and I thought we did.”

Nearly every Hawk benefitted from that movement and energy. Cam Reddish finished with 22 points off the bench -- his third 20-point outing in the last five contests -- while De’Andre Hunter added 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Dewayne Dedmon shot the ball well before fouling out, and another solid all-around game from Kevin Huerter (10 points, six assists, one turnover) helped give Atlanta’s offense the diversity it needed before Young took the reins late.

The All Star bounced back from a flu-related slump with 31 points and 16 assists, and made six of his 13 3-point attempts after converting only nine of his previous 51. He balanced deep shooting with a fierce intent to get downhill late in the game, and created several opportunities for his team simply by pushing the ball and getting to the rim. Young and Collins teamed up for an alley-oop late in the fourth quarter (after the Hawks decided not to call timeout or hold the ball for a final shot) which gave Atlanta a one-point lead and epitomized Young's attacking mentality late. Despite missing a free-throw that could have won the game in regulation, Young scored 12 points in the two overtime periods to help Atlanta hang onto the win.

“It felt good for me because I’m the reason it went to overtime,” Young said. “I’m proud of the way we all fought in the fourth quarter and overtimes. We really battled tonight. It was good to see that.”

Collins, meanwhile, did nearly all of his work at the rim with 28 points and nine rebounds, and didn’t miss a shot until under a minute remaining in overtime. He provided two crucial defensive plays using verticality at the rim and his quickness in space to stymie Devonte’ Graham with under a minute remaining in double-overtime. “There’s always an extra level of intensity you can reach when you see it and it’s literally right in arm’s reach,” Collins said of his late-game defense. “You want to win, especially when you see it and it’s so close.”

Graham (27 points and 10 assists) and Terry Rozier (40 points on 15-of-26 shooting) led the Hornets’ attack, which scored a season-high 126.6 points per 100 possessions. Charlotte shot 21-of-23 from the foul line, committed just five turnovers, and scored 1.4 points per play in transition to balance out Atlanta’s advantages from the field and on the glass, and had seven players score in double-figures. Caleb Martin provided a 22-point lift off the bench while his twin brother, Cody, and Jalen McDaniels logged most of the minutes on the wing during crunch time (in place of Miles Bridges and P.J. Washington). Rozier kept the offense afloat with a string of clutch shots late, but Charlotte couldn’t muster the stops to get over the hump.

Despite their offensive potency early in the game, the two teams went scoreless for 2 minutes and 47 seconds during the second overtime period before Trae Young found Cam Reddish slicing through the line for a dunk. Terry Rozier responded with a tough stepback 3 over Reddish, but Hunter hit three free throws on the ensuing possession after being fouled by Caleb Martin to give the Hawks a three-point lead. Atlanta closed the game with a stop on the other end and a pair of free throws from Reddish. “You’re seeing these guys figure each other out a little bit,” Pierce said. “All of our guys made plays down the stretch, which was important.”

The first quarter ended on a somewhat controversial call that, upon video review, overturned a defensive foul on Atlanta’s Treveon Graham to an offensive foul on Rozier after a coach’s challenge, which preserved a 131-131 tie with one second to play. Young eventually missed a floater on the ensuing inbounds play.

Their win moves the Hawks (20-46) out of a tie with Cleveland for last place in the Eastern Conference and snaps a three-game losing streak. They will host the Knicks, who also took Atlanta to double-overtime this season, on Monday.