Ivan Johnson stars as Atlanta Hawks run riot over the Toronto Raptors 109-87: NBA Recap
On Monday night, for the second time in two days, Atlanta Hawks went up against the Toronto Raptors.
With the Raptors having won just one night ago, the change of scenery seemed to have worked in favour of the Hawks as they ran riot over the Raptors 109-87 at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON.
This win also cleaned up the season series between the two, 3-1 in favour of the Hawks. This is the fourth consecutive season; Hawks have won the season series against the Raptors.
Hawks, who currently occupy the number 5 spot in the Eastern Conference, secured a playoff berth after this one and will be looking to win the home court advantage by chasing down the 4th spot from the Boston Celtics.
Ivan Johnson came off the bench to be leading scorer for Atlanta as he finished the game with 21 points. Jeff Teague finished the night with double-double figures of 19 points and 10 assists. Joe Johnson contributed 18 points and
Josh Smith added 15 points.
Marvin Williams and Tracy McGrady both also came off the bench to contribute 16 and 11 points respectively as Atlanta had 6 players finish the game, scoring in double-digits.
DeMar DeRozan fought well for the Raptors with his 22 points. James Johnson score 18 points and Alan Anderson contributed 12 points. The rest of the squad had a poor showing as none of them managed to score more than 9 points,
individually.
Toronto started the game off by successfully converting two jump shots on their first two possessions for a 4-0 lead. It took the Hawks around one and a half minute before they opened their scoring account.
From there on, the game went into a series of baskets with both sides scoring on most of their chances. The scores remained close throughout the opening period till the Raptors were able to open up a 5 point advantage with 5.9
seconds remaining. However as the first quarter ended, Williams hit one from beyond the arc to make it a two point game, 32-30.
In the second quarter, Toronto held the lead for the most part but with 5:22 to go in the half, Hawks were able to make the scores level at 46-each. Atlanta went on to take the lead by half time but only by a small margin as they
led, 54-51.
The trend continued in the second half as no side looked to be running away with the matchup. Hawks were holding a three point advantage with 3:22 remaining in the third period. In the final three minutes of the quarter, they went
on a 12-4 run to open up an 11 point advantage before going into the fourth.
In the final quarter of the game, the Hawks finally decided to put this one to bed as they started the quarter off with an 8-0 run and were never troubled for the rest of the night.
The lead got to as big as 24 with 43.9 seconds remaining. They outscored the Raps, 30-19 in the final quarter, as they won this by a margin of 22 points.
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