Hawks lose 123-115 to Phoenix Suns in final game of road trip

.500 again.

The Hawks were defeated by the Suns in Phoenix when a late game effort came up short. They were still without Jalen Johnson and Vit Krejci filled his spot in the starting lineup.

Dyson Daniels scored first for the Hawks, and the next bucket came in flashy fashion, Trae Young did a fake behind-the-back we’ve seen so often and threw one up to his big man for the slam.

The Suns were out to a 20-11 start before Quin Snyder called his first timeout of the game. De’Andre Hunter picked up three fouls in the first quarter. The two teams exchanged threes to end the quarter, with a David Roddy buzzer-beating three making the score 38-31.

The Hawks stayed in striking distance largely due to making nine of their first 14 three-point attempts. They cut the deficit to four points with 5:07 remaining in the half, forcing a Suns timeout. Then, the Hawks took the lead thanks to a bomb from Bogdan Bogdanovic.

The lights out shooting continued and the Hawks led 72-68 at half. The team made 12 of 18 three-point attempts and shot 14 of 26 from the field in the second quarter. Young, Bogdanovic, and Roddy were already in double figures.

The scoring slowed down for the Hawks in the third quarter. They were outscored 30-20 and trailed by six points entering the fourth quarter. The Suns’ big three in Booker, Durant, and Beal combined for 24 of the team’s 40 made field goals to this point.

The Suns took a 109-99 lead midway through the fourth quarter befoe Zaccharie Risacher put together a three point play.

Shortly after, the Suns would make back to back three-pointers to put their lead back into double digits. The Hawks started to put a run together with back to back scores from Trae Young, followed by free throws from Hunter. This brought the deficit to seven points with 1:46 left. With a steal the Hawks turned it into a 10-0 run with a chance to bring it within one score.

Young came down and missed a three-pointer that would’ve made the score 120-118. Grayson Allen scored a layup on the other end, essentially icing the game.