Hawks end up short against Raptors, 135-128

The Atlanta Hawks were in action on Wednesday in the ‘6’ to take on the Toronto Raptors.

Both teams have struggled and been on losing streaks as of late, so this felt like a must-win game for the squads to get back on track. For the Hawks, they would have to overcome a series of injuries, with De’Andre Hunter missing another game and Jalen Johnson still sidelined.

The two teams went at each other in the first quarter, but it was the Hawks that came out on top with the lead, finishing with the quarter on a 14-2 run. The threes were falling for the Hawks, with Bogdan Bogdanovic and Onyeka Okongwu joining the party.

It was Trae Young’s quarter as he finished with 9 points and seven assists, including this last-second shot to beat the buzzer.

Young kept it coming in the second quarter, hitting two deep threes early to extend the Hawks’ lead.

Onyeka was feeling it from long range and knocked down another three in the first half.

The Hawks led for most of the quarter until a few seconds left, but a Dejounte Murray three gave them the lead back heading into halftime. Young continued to play at a high level and led the Hawks with 20 points and 10 assists at halftime.

The Hawks took their foot off the gas a bit in the third quarter, which led the Raptors to take the lead, and eventually extending it to double digits. Young continued his shot shooting from deep, as well as Okongwu.

The Hawks trimmed down their deficit in the final minutes of the third quarter, but the Raptors went into the fourth with an eight-point lead.

Bogdanovic did his best to get the Hawks back in the game, knocking down back-to-back threes midway through the fourth.

The Raptors once again went on a run to extend their lead again to double digits. One thing the Raptors did in this game that they haven’t done consistently so far this season is knock down threes. That was a different story tonight, which led them to a victory.

Young finished with 35 points and 17 assists, Clint Capela finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Murray and Bogdanovic finished with 20 points.

The Hawks will be back on Friday to face the Raptors again.