Atlanta–The Atlanta Hawks found its offense surge late in the third period to outlast the Indiana Pacers 116-111 Saturday night in front of 16,207.
The lead grew to 20-9 with another 12-3 run as Indiana struggled to make shots in the first half.
“Good, inspired basketball. I’m proud of our guys. We were playing musical chairs with our lineup before the game with guys being out and I thought the guys came in and really played inspired basketball.” Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said about his team’s performance.
The Pacers cut it back to a ten-point game near the midway point of the second, as the Hawks offense had some issues scoring with Young on the bench.
Young checked back into the game, hitting two three-pointers as well as a pair of free throws, putting him at 28 points and 9-for-9 from the floor (5-for-5 from three) with under four minutes to the break.
Indiana made some adjustments on offense closed the half with confidence, trailing 64-60 after trailing by as many as 22 in the first quarter.
Justin Holiday led the Pacers with 16 points in the the half while Domantas Sabonis had 13 points and six rebounds.
The Pacers came out of the break sprinted to a 10-2 run to take a 70-66 lead early in the third quarter. Both teams went back and forth in the quarter.
Indiana cut the deficit to 113-110 after split free throws from Aaron Holiday. The Pacers had an opportunity to tie the game with a three with 19.8 seconds to play. Warren was fouled with 4.5 to play, hitting one free throw and cutting the lead to 113-111. Hawks called a timeout with 4.5 seconds to go.
Young finished the contest with 41 points and eight assists in the win. Brian Huerter had a season-high 26 points to go along with five assists and six rebounds.
Sabonis scored 25 points to go along with 11 rebounds and four assists while Warren had 17points and seven rebounds.
“We didn’t show calmness throughout this game. We were able to fight our way back into the game. I thought we allowed the official to get to us. We got to be clear about what we need to do. They seemed to want it more than we did.” Indiana Pacers coach Nate McMillan said.
The Hawks will be back in action Monday night at home against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
