The Atlanta Hawks got out to an extremely hot start in game two of the first round series, shooting 5-5 to start the game on an 11-4 run against the Brooklyn Nets. The Hawks maintained a solid lead of about 6-10 points throughout the first quarter and half of the second quarter, but the Nets found their groove midway through the period.
The Nets went on a 12-0 run to take a 42-36 lead. The Hawks had hit a cold spell, and the Nets took advantage of this to take the 6 point lead, but it did not last long. Atlanta started hitting their shots again, and fired back at the Nets. They went on a 7-1 run to tie the game with about three minutes left in the half. The Hawks ended the half with a 50-47 lead over the Nets.
Jarrett Jack played a phenomenal first half, coming off the bench to score 16 points on 7-9 shooting for the Nets. Kyle Korver scored 11 points while hitting 3 threes on five attempts. Jeff Teague also scored 11 points on 4-9 shooting, and Paul Millsap scored 10 points on 4-5 shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds.
The third quarter was tightly contested, as the two teams battled back and forth. The score was close until the Hawks started to pull away from the Nets with about 2 minutes remaining. Atlanta went on a 7-2 run to end the quarter and the lead went from 68-65 to 75-67 going into the final frame.
The Hawks had control of the game for much of the fourth quarter, even building a double digit lead with 7 minutes remaining in the game, but the Nets came back. With 4 minutes left in the game, the score was 88-83, and the Nets were playing some of their best basketball of the night.
With 1:54 left, the score was 90-86 Atlanta, and Jarrett Jack nailed a three pointer to cut the Hawks lead to 90-89. DeMarre Carroll and Alan Anderson traded buckets to put the score at 92-91 Hawks with 45 seconds left. After Paul Millsap hit one of two free throws to make the score 93-91 with 28 seconds left, Deron Williams found himself wide open for a jump shot from the short corner, but he missed. Kyle Korver pulled down the rebound and was immediately fouled. He made both free throws and the game was out of reach with just 8 seconds remaining in a 4 point game. The Hawks would make one more free throw from Kent Bazemore, and they won game two by a score of 96-91.
Paul Millsap, who has been suffering a shoulder injury, played great in tonight, as he lead the Hawks in scoring with 19 points, and he also had 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. Paul shot great from beyond the arc hitting 4 of 4 threes. Al Horford, who was also banged up with an injury to his finger from last game, was doing everything tonight as he had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds to go along with 7 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. Kyle Korver played great defense tonight with 4 steals, and he also had 17 points while hitting 5 of 9 threes.
The Nets had great production from Jarrett Jack off the bench tonight; Jarrett scored a game high 23 points on 9-13 shooting including 2-5 from three. The Nets wanted to get the ball to Brook Lopez tonight, and that they did. Brook had 15 shots tonight and he made 8 of them scoring 20 points, and he also grabbed 7 rebounds for the Nets. Joe Johnson had a solid game, as he scored 19 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, and he also had one steal. Mirza Teletovic didn’t score any points in his first game back after having bloodclots in his lungs in January, but he did pull down two rebounds for the Nets.
The Hawks and Nets played a fun game tonight, but the Hawks pulled away with the victory to gain a 2-0 lead over Brooklyn. The series will now move to New York City, as the next two games will be played in the Barclays Center. Game three will take place this Saturday at 3:00.
