Atlanta Hawks Come Up Short in Near Comeback, 117-107

The Atlanta Hawks erased a 34-point deficit to the Minnesota Timberwolves Monday night. Atlanta almost pulled out a comeback for the ages, but lost 117-107.

This game was truly a tale of two halves. The Atlanta Hawks could not have come out more flat than they did in the first half, as the probably exhausted Hawks trailed the young, but talented Minnesota Timberwolves 72-42 at halftime. Then, something amazing happened.

The Atlanta Hawks came all the way back from being down at most 34 points to take a brief lead by one point halfway through the fourth quarter. Atlanta’s second half resurgence was one of the better examples I’ve seen of pure hustle in a long time.

No way did the Atlanta Hawks deserve to win this game, but they nearly did. Minnesota is a better team than people realize. Andrew Wiggins is on the verge of becoming a superstar. The Wolves also have first overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns on their roster. Both are 20 years of age or younger. Their future is so bright in the Twin Cities is almost unfair. It wouldn’t shock me to see them challenge for the eight-seed in the West this season.

While Wiggins carried the Wolves tonight with his 33 points on 15-22 shooting, Atlanta leaned on Jeff Teague in the third quarter and Paul Millsap in the fourth to at least make this a respectable game. Teague had a team high 24 points to go along with his 9 assists, though he did turn the ball over 6 times. Millsap had 22 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds.

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One aspect of this game that seemed constant was that both teams shot the ball well in their respective halves: Minnesota in the first and Atlanta in the second. The Timberwolves finished shooting .575/.467/.818 tonight, while the Hawks shot .512/.419/.857. Both teams did turn the ball over a ton (36 combined turnovers), but very few shots didn’t go in (67 rebounds between both teams).

Rarely do you come away from a 10-point loss at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves and feel good about your Atlanta Hawks’ team, but here we are. The recap for tonight was almost “Atlanta Hawks Devoured by Wolves, (score)”, but their second half effort scrapped any thought of that.

Next: Atlanta Hawks Rising in National Power Rankings

The schedule for the Atlanta Hawks in the first part of the year isn’t brutal more than it’s taxing. Atlanta has played more games than anybody in the first part of the season and will have played over a quarter of their games before December 1st.

Tonight’s resilience speaks volumes, given that this was the seventh game in ten days for the Atlanta Hawks. Next up are the New Orleans Pelicans coming to town on Wednesday. Let’s Go Hawks!