Atlanta Hawks overcome Ty Lawson and Denver Nuggets 108-104: NBA Recap
Atlanta Hawks beat the Denver Nuggets 108-104 here at Philips Arena on Wednesday. It was neck and neck between the both teams throughout the game with no one piling up a big lead at any stage of the game.
Ty Lawson was red hot on the night; he scored six of his night high 32 points early in the period to put the Nuggets up 8-5. They were up 12-9 before Devin Harris nailed a three pointer for the Hawks to tie the score. Denver went
for an 8-2 run to go up 20-14, their highest lead of the game, before the Hawks scored some buckets late in the quarter to lead 27-26 by the end of the period.
Corey Brewer’s running layup made it 32-33 early in the second period before the Hawks started to push, a Zaza Pachulia deuce putting Atlanta at 37-32. Later on, a Pachulia free throw pushed their advantage to 50-42 before the
Nuggets went for a 5-0 run to slash the deficit down to 47-50. Two Lawson free throws at the end of the period had the Nuggets trailing 51-55 at halftime.
The game remained close in the second half as well and a Josh Smith layup tied the score on 57 early in the third. Harris connected one from downtown to put the Hawks ahead before an Andre Iguodala dunk snatched the lead for Nuggets
at 61-60. Hawks made the only major run of the game in the ensuing as they went for a quick 10-0 burst that put them ahead 73-62, their biggest lead of the game. But the Nuggets were not to go down without a fight as they came back to reduce the deficit down
to 75-77 with 1:25 minutes left in the quarter. Jeff Teague slammed one home from downtown at the close of the period to have Hawks leading 85-78.
The Hawks maintained a reasonable distance between them and the Nuggets early in the fourth quarter before the Nuggets came back and closed the gap down to 92-95 around the mid period mark. The Nuggets kept the up the pressure
as they made it a one point game on 94-95 before going ahead on 98-97. Having led for most of the game, alarm bells started ringing for the Hawks but they had a flurry of free throws in their favour towards the end of the period and they took full advantage
of them to win 108-104 in the end.
Al Horford led the Hawks with 25 points 12 rebounds; Josh Smith posted a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds while Louis Williams came off the bench to add 16 points and dish out 6 assists.
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