Coming into tonight’s contest against the Pacers, Atlanta was on a three-game losing streak, without the services of Al Horford and hosting an Indiana Pacers team that had a league-high 28 wins. However, behind five players scoring in double-figures led by a team-high 17 points from Kyle Korver, Atlanta earned an impressive 97-87 home win over Indiana.
“I think that was just great and competitive from the beginning to the end,” Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “That’s what we’ve been talking to the group about , that was was going to keep us on track and keep us getting better and improving.”
Atlanta got off to a torrid start, scoring the first 12 points of the contest and took a 25-12 lead after the first quarter. Pero Antic continued his solid play for the Hawks since his insertion into the Hawks starting lineup by contributing eight first quarter points. “I thought the offense at times…the ball was moving, people were cutting and spacing, it obviously helps if we make some shots,” Budenholzer said.
“It was unrecoverable,” Pacers head coach Frank Vogel said on Indiana’s slow start. “It pretty much decided the game and determined how we had to play the rest of the game.”
Pacers guard Paul George, who had a game-high 28 points, stated, “When you fall behind 12 to 14 points to start the game off, you give the team lake this all the confidence in the world plus they’re playing at home. I felt like that’s where we lost the game.”
The Hawks continued its hot shooting in the second quarter and finished the first half with a 50-percent shooting percentage and took a 49-32 lead into halftime. Atlanta’s defense stymied the Pacers throughout the first two quarters, holding the visiting team to 32.5-percent shooting and only four of 12 on three-point attempts.
“I think that the defense fueled the offense and the energy we played offense with,” said Budenholzer. “I thought there was just a commitment on the defensive end that spilled over to the offense.”
Indiana’s frustration on the offensive end continued into the third quarter and after George was charged with a technical foul with 7:41 left in the third quarter, Kyle Korver converted the free throw and gave Atlanta its largest lead of the game, 65-40.
The Pacers did outscore the Hawks, 34-30, in the third quarter, cutting the lead to 79-66. George continued his season-long trend of having strong third quarter performances, netting 11 points in that time frame.
Indiana was finally able to cut the lead into single-digits on a tip-in by Luis Scola at 89-80 with less than six minutes left but that’s as close as it got. The Pacers didn’t hold a lead the entire contest.
On winning tonight’s contest, Kyle Korver, who extended his NBA record of making at least one three-pointer for the 105th consecutive game, stated “we’re trying to re-figure things without Al (Horford). It going to take a little bit of time but I thought tonight was a really great game for our team. We had balanced scoring and we knew where we were supposed to be.”
The Hawks return to action at home on Friday against Houston.
Other notes:
-Atlanta defeated Indiana at home for the 12th consecutive time in the regular season and improved to 13-4 when holding opponents under 100 points.
-The Hawks had 27 assists, two more than its NBA-high team average per contest, and was the 34th time out of 36 contest that they’ve had at least 20 helpers.
-Pero Antic scored a career-high tying 16 points along with four rebounds, one assist and one block.
The Sports Inquirer 
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