Atlanta Hawks extend winning streak to six games, defeat Denver 96-84

By E. Marcel Pourtout, Editor

The Atlanta Hawks extended their winning streak to six games with a 96-84 home win over the Denver Nuggets at Philips Arena on Sunday.

Atlanta (13-6) have now won eight of their last nine games while Denver (9-11) have dropped its last three games after a two-game winning streak.

After allowing the first five point of the contest, Atlanta led the rest of the game despite being outscored 30-20 in the third quarter.

“It was a little bit of a tough game playing with a lead,” Hawks’ head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We have to be sharper in the third quarter and throughout the second half. They steopped up their aggressiveness…we nee dot respond with moving the ball better, taking care of it better and being stronger.”

Paul MIllsap had a team-high 23 points while Kyle Korver scored 15 for the Hawks. DeMarre Carroll had a team-high nine rebounds along with 11 points while Al Horford grabbed eight boards and scored 11.

Atlanta shot 41.4 percent from the field in the game, including hitting 10 three-pointers.

Denver’s Wilson Chandler had a game-high 29 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Timofey Mozgov also notched a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds and 14 points. Ty Lawson had a game-high 10 assists but struggled from the field, scoring only four points on 1-of-10 shooting. The Nuggets shot 36.6 percent from the field but outrebounded the Hawks 52-43 in the loss. Denver made only six out of 35 three-point attempts.

“Defensively, overall, our activity was good, except for that third quarter,” Budenholzer said. “We want to keep trying to find a way to do it for more than 48 (minutes).”

The Hawks took a 32-21 lead after the first quarter. Atlanta continued the strong play into the second quarter, taking a 57-36 halftime lead. Korver had a game-high 10 first-half points for the Hawks while Carroll, Millsap, Pero Antic, Dennis Schroder and Mike Scott each had seven points. Atlanta shot 46 percent from the field in the half.

“We had good energy,” Horford said. “The ball was moving well. We had some hot shooting too. It was a good start.”

Chandler had a team-high nine points for Denver while Mozgov had eight. The Nuggets shot 31.7 percent from the field in the half.

The Hawks were outscored 30-20 in the third quarter and their lead was cut to 77-66 heading into the fourth quarter.

Denver kept chipping away at the lead and got it down to single digits but a Korver three-pointer from the right side with 3:05 left in the contest gave Atlanta the 90-80 advantage that wouldn’t be relinquished.

“We only forced one turnover in the first half,” Nuggets’ head coach Brian Shaw said. “Than in the second half we forced 11 and got 19 points off those turnovers. We took 35 three-point shots, which are probably too many, but I thought we had good looks, but didn’t knock down those shots.”

The Hawks now find themselves second in the Eastern Conference standings. “I didn’t even know that,” Korver said. “We’ve had a favorable schedule to this point and talked a little bit about how we have to get these games. I keep looking back to last year, when we got to the hard part of the schedule and we had guys banged up. Every game matters, but we try to talk a bit about not just getting wins, but really trying to play good basketball because its a long season.”

Notes:

-The Hawks have averaged 103.3 ppg and 27.7 apg in the winning streak while limiting opponents to 88.7 ppg.

-Atlanta is 5-0 on the season when it holds opponents below 90 points and 8-1 when it pulls down 40-or-more boards.