Hawks escape with home win over Jazz

By E. Marcel Pourtout, Editor

In a back and forth contest that saw 18 lead changes and crucial late defensive stops by the home team, Atlanta emerged with a 100-97 win over the Utah on Wednesday night at Philips Arena. The Hawks are now on a three-game winning streak.

Paul Millsap led the charge for Atlanta (4-3), finishing the contest with season-highs in points (30) and rebounds (17). Jeff Teague had 20 points for Atlanta while Kyle Korver earned a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Starting in place of injured DeMarre Carroll, Thabo Sefalosha scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Hawks.

After struggling defensively through much of the contest, Atlanta held Utah to only nine fourth-quarter points.

“Thinking positively, looking at our defense in the fourth quarter, holding them to nine points gave us a chance to win a heck of a game,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Very pleased with that effort in the fourth quarter. The difference was our effort, our determination to get contests, to play without fouling and still have an edge and still make every shot difficult.”

Utah (3-6) held a 88-82 lead heading into the fourth quarter. A layup by Alec Burks with less than five minutes left in the contest gave the Jazz a 97-89 lead. However, the Hawks began their comeback effort with two layups by Millsap to cut the lead to 97-95 with 2:12 left in the game.

After forcing a miss from Utah’s Gordon Haywood, Korver hit a three-pointer from the left side with 57 seconds left to give Atlanta the 98-97 lead.

“Anytime Kyle shoots, it’s okay in my mind,” Budenholzer said.

On his long game-winning shot, Korver credits his former assistant coach at Atlanta, current Jazz head coach Quin Snyder.

“That was the one he was always trying to get me to work on,” Korver said. “The only thing I saw that was open was to just pull it. I tried to get a little rhythm and let it go.”

The Jazz had two possessions to take the lead but a missed layup by Trey Burke and a turnover by Derrick Favors thwarted those chances.

“We played really well,” Snyder said. “We got some shot that we’ve been making and some of them weren’t. We missed a couple free throws and just had a couple of breaks down the stretch that didn’t go our way.”

Burks had a team-high 22 points for Utah while Favors scored 20. Burke earned a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Haywood struggled from the field for the Jazz, only hitting five out of 16 field goal attempts and one three-pointer for 11 total points. He did grab a team-high seven rebounds.

Atlanta outrebounded Utah in the win 46-30, including 13 offensive boards. The Hawks shot 51.3 percent from the field while the Jazz were at 50 percent.

Trailing 57-54 at halftime, the Jazz outscored the Hawks 34-25 to take an 88-82 lead into the fourth quarter.

Both teams started the contest strong on offense with the score tied at 32-32 after the first quarter. Atlanta and Utah both shot 64 percent from the field.

Atlanta closed out the second quarter on a 20-3 run to take a 57-54 into halftime. Millsap and Teague combined for 18 of the 20 points during the run. Each player had a team-high 14 points during the first half for the Hawks. Millsap also had a game-high 10 rebounds through the first two quarters.

Burks had a team-high 12 points for Utah while Favors and Enes Kanter each scored 10 points.

Atlanta shot 56 percent from the field in the first half while Utah was at 54 percent.

Post-game notes:

-Atlanta has started 3-0 at home for the first time since 2009-10.

-Millsap is the first player in the NBA this season to record 30 points, 17 boards and two steals in the same game.

-Korver’s double-double was his first of the season.