Hawks play beautiful string music in wild win over Jazz, 147-134

Defense optional. Scoring mandatory.

Atlanta came into Sunday night looking to erase all memories of an ugly loss to the New York Knicks from the afternoon before. With the Jazz missing Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Walker Kessler and others due to injury, this was a game the Hawks could hardly afford to drop.

Georges Niang found Dyson Daniels after a drive and slight fumble for not one nor two, but three whole points:

Atlanta leapt to a 10-4 lead early in this contest, and they looked to keep the momentum up after the first timeout.

The Hawks continued to execute against an undermanned Jazz squad, finding both offense and defense come fairly easily.

After one quarter, the Hawks had a comfortable 41-28 lead.

In the second quarter, both teams remained hot from the floor. Atlanta had trouble getting stops in the paint, however, letting the Jazz start 12-for-16 (75%) from inside the arc. When the lead was winnowed down to five points, coach Snyder had clearly seen enough and needed his troops to regroup.

Then, Vit Krejci said “I’ll do it myself.” He hit three threes in rapid succession to stretch the lead back to double digits:

From there, the Hawks took off and ran the score up in a hurry, moving the ball extremely well on offense and splashing threes from everywhere.

Trae Young netted two of his 15 points in the first half with a smooth floater to cap off the onslaught from the good guys:

After one half, the Hawks had a commanding 81-64 lead. Nine of the 10 Hawks that appeared splashed a triple, and as a team they went 15-for-28 (54%) from deep that half.

The Hawks came out of the break slow, letting Utah back into the game with some less than stiff defense.

But the Hawks quickly picked up the energy and pushed the lead back to 16 points.

Vit Krejci remained hot into the second half:

Atlanta cracked 100 points halfway through the third quarter, as a Jazz defense down Collins and Kessler was not nearly equipped to slow them down in any capacity.

However, Atlanta had some defensive breakdowns of their own, allowing too much dribble penetration and kick outs for wide open threes. Through three quarters, Utah was shooting 15-for-33 (46%) from deep. Of course, the Hawks had bested that with a 20-for-37 (54%) mark from the same range.

After three quarters, the Hawks led a barnburner 119-107.

Risacher continued the three-point parade with a stepback early in the fourth quarter:

But Atlanta still had trouble stringing together stops, and both teams seemed destined to crack 130 points by the end of regulation.

Terance Mann, however, got the crowd hype with this big play:

And he was the eventual recipient on this play as well:

The scoring didn’t stop from either side, as the score hit 140-128 with under four minutes left to play. Trae Young put in Atlanta’s 22nd triple of the night with this deep bomb:

Atlanta used offense as their best defense against a young Jazz team that wouldn’t go away. They managed a big score every time the score got semi-close.

The good guys finally put the Jazz away with some late scores, 147-134. Onyeka Okongwu led the way with 27 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and a block. Trae Young added 23 points and 15 assists.

147 points represented the 10th most in a regulation game in franchise history. The 22 threes also tied a franchise high.

The Hawks now head to Orlando to take on a possible Play-In Tournament foe in the Magic on Tuesday evening.