Hawks come up short against the Spurs, lose in OT 133-126

Wild game.

The Atlanta Hawks were in San Antonio Thursday night to take on the Spurs. The Hawks are coming off a four-day break after losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup.

Since then, there have been a few injuries, as Kobe Bufkin will be out for the remainder of the season, and Onyeka Okongwu will miss the next four games. Nonetheless, the Hawks have players who are ready to step up in the moment, and it started against the Spurs.

Trae Young had his imprint on the game early, scoring and assisting on most of the Hawks’ points to start the quarter only.

The Hawks were down for most of the first quarter due to several threes from Victor Wembanyama. The second unit kept the Hawks close, with some threes from Larry Nance Jr. and Bogdan Bogdanovic.

The Spurs led by as much as 10 points late in the first, but the Hawks were able to cut their deficit down to seven points going into the second. To start the second, Nance hit several threes to help the Hawks go on a 13-0 run to take the lead.

The Spurs were able to take the lead back, but not for long. Zaccharie Risacher worked out in the paint and got this layup to go over two defenders.

Once Young came into the game, the Hawks offense started to put its foot on the gas. Young found Clint Capela on back-to-back passes in the paint, one on a lob and the second as a bounce pass.

Young then found Risacher quickly for a corner three.

Going into halftime, the Hawks held a 66-60 lead over the Spurs. Both teams went back and forth throughout the third quarter, with neither team getting a big lead. Dyson Daniels found Risacher cutting in the lane for this easy dunk.

The Hawks turned defense to offense on this play, with Bogdanovic going behind the back to Johnson for the dunk.

The Hawks trailed going into the fourth quarter, but it didn’t last for long, thanks to De’Andre Hunter going on a scoring run by himself. He’s scored 15 points for the 10th game in a row, setting a franchise record for most consecutive games off the bench with 15 or more points

Young came out of the game and went into the locker room for a few minutes after re-aggravating the ankle injury he suffered earlier in the game. The Spurs took the lead from there, but the Hawks were able to hit a few threes to tie the game.

With less than two minutes left, both teams started trading threes.

With 16 seconds remaining, the Hawks trailed by two points after Wembanyama went to the free-throw line and split them. The Hawks came back down, and Hunter got a big poster dunk on Wembanyama to tie the game, and both players got a technical foul.

The Spurs got the ball back, but they knocked the ball out of bounds, and the Hawks got the ball back with eight seconds left. Unfortunately, Young missed the shot with seconds left, and the game went into overtime.

The Spurs led for the entire period, and Paul ended up icing the game with a three.

Hunter finished the game with 27 points, Young finished the game with 23 points and 16 rebounds, Johnson finished with 22 points and nine rebounds, and Nance finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds.

The Hawks will be back at home on Saturday to face the Memphis Grizzlies.