Atlanta Hawks Swipe Right to a Victory
The Atlanta Hawks held a social media promotion on Wednesday night centered around the Tinder app. For those of you who don’t know, Tinder is a hook-up app where you judge people almost entirely on their pictures, swipe to the left if you aren’t interested, and swipe to the right if you are. I believe they called it Swipe Right Night. They rejected my idea of Hawks Make You Hot Night. Oh, and the Hawks beat the Memphis Grizzlies 96-86 if you weren’t interested in meeting someone feisty at the game.
In the first half, the Hawks started slowly. Several bad turnovers really cost the Hawks chances to extend a big lead, but Memphis was just as bad with their own possessions. Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver really kept Atlanta in the game, as the rest of the starting lineup couldn’t find the bucket. However, several triples in the second quarter by Mike Scott, Kyle Korver, Pero Antic, Jeff Teague, and DeMarre Carroll put the Atlanta Hawks up 49-44 at halftime.
The Hawks started the second half shooting decently, while Memphis went absolutely ice cold. At one point the Grizzlies went 4 minutes in the quarter without a point. By the time the 3rd quarter ended, the Hawks were staring at 13 point lead on the way to a laugher win. But wait, nothing is that easy on Tinder night. Well almost nothing. Anyway, Memphis came back in the 4th quarter with renewed defensive intensity while it was the Hawks turn to go ice cold.
In the first 6 minutes of the final quarter, the Hawks only scored 6 points. That lack of offense caused the 13 point lead to evaporate into the cold Atlanta night air. With 6 minutes to go in the game, the Hawks found themselves in an unwanted war for this game. But the biggest thing for the Hawks all night was the three ball. At 2:58 left the game was tied at 84. Then, the Hawks responded with a dominant 10-0 run to put the Grizzlies away. The biggest shots were back to back three-balls by Teague and Korver. You could hear Phillips Arena rocking all the way in Buckhead.
The Hawks shot 44% from the floor, but an astounding 13-25 (52%) from three-point land. Jeff Teague gets my nod as MVP for his 25 points, 6 assists, and 2 steals. Kyle Korver gets honorable mention for his 14 points, and nailing the dagger triple that ended the Memphis’ hopes.
Next up, the Atlanta Hawks face off against the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Should you skip it? With the team on a 6-game winning streak? Not a chance!