Hawks (13-31), Pelicans (23-21)
ATLANTA – One night after an eye-opening overtime win at Boston, New Orleans sustained one of its toughest and most bitter defeats of the season. Atlanta guard Kent Bazemore drained a tough mid-range shot with 2.1 seconds remaining, lifting the Hawks to a come-from-behind victory over the Pelicans. New Orleans had led by as many as 19 points in the first half and was up 60-45 at intermission, but the hosts surged back with a big third quarter.
After two epic performances at Madison Square Garden and TD Garden on this road trip, Anthony Davis struggled, going 2/8 from the floor and totaling eight points with seven rebounds. New Orleans was denied its first four-game winning streak of 2017-18.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Trailing by a point, DeMarcus Cousins caught an inbound pass from Rajon Rondo with 1.0 second remaining in regulation, got a quick shot up at the rim, but it was a bit left of the target. Atlanta’s Ersan Ilyasova stood straight up as Cousins released his attempt, making sure to avoid a foul call.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
There’s something about the Atlanta Hawks that brings out the best in Darius Miller. His 17-point game at Philips Arena meant that his top-two scoring games this season have both come against the Southeast Division team; he had a career-best 21 points in the Nov. 13 matchup. While Miller’s clutch shooting led to a one-point Pelicans victory two months ago, this time it wasn’t quite enough to prevail. Miller shot 7/9 from the field, including 3/4 on three-pointers. Also of note, Jrue Holiday capped a superb three-game road trip for him with 22 points on 9/16 shooting.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“We did it by committee. Obviously our big guys did a great job of keeping him in front and we showed him a crowd all night. We made it tough.” – Bazemore on Atlanta’s defensive success against Davis, who’d totaled 93 points in the previous two games
“Maybe we just didn't get Anthony in spots where he could (isolate. Defenses) are always going to come at him from everywhere. Him and DeMarcus.” – Holiday on Davis only getting eight shot attempts in Atlanta
“I didn’t think we had the energy to start the third quarter that we had played with in the first half. We started to slow down, started to hold the ball some. The ball movement that we had in the first half wasn’t there.” – Alvin Gentry on how the game changed in Atlanta’s favor in the third quarter
BY THE NUMBERS
26-10: Atlanta scoring edge in the third quarter, the pivotal segment of Wednesday’s game. The Pelicans were only 3/18 in that period from the field.
10, 43: Identical three-point makes and total rebounds for New Orleans and Atlanta in this game. Nearly every major stat category was close, including both teams shooting poorly in general. The Hawks were slightly better at taking care of the ball, with 11 turnovers compared to the Pelicans’ 14.