When the Hawks needed a boost, Bogdan Bogdanovic was right there. Especially as teammates push him to shoot.
On Monday against the reigning NBA champion Nuggets, the Hawks leaned on Bogdanovic’s hot hand. With the urging of Clint Capela and Patty Mills, Bogdanovic delivered, going off for a career-high 40 points on a career-high 10 3-pointers.
“We’ve seen him do that and stretches, for sure,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said after Monday’s game. “And I think one of the interesting things about that’s significant and good is that our guys were really aware of finding him. And they found them a lot of different ways.
“They found him in transition. They found him off screening actions. They found him in pick and roll, and both Trae (Young) and DJ (Dejounte Murray), were locked in on how to get him the ball. And not just the guys with the ball, but his teammates off the ball were really alert. And sometimes when a guy’s that hot, it’s hard to continue to get him shots because the defense adjusts, and I thought our guys having an awareness of where he was on the court all the time. And obviously that’s what he did, and his performance individually, it was a special night. And we want that from him and he’s capable of doing that.”
The 31-year-old wing played efficiently going 14 of 24 overall and 10 of 17 from 3-point range in what ultimately was a Hawks 129-122 loss.
During the Hawks’ fourth quarter rally, Bogdanovic scored 13 of his 40 points two of which came off of back-to-back steals. With 1:56 left, Capela followed Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who moved to the top of the key to set a screen for guard Jamal Murray. Though Jokic’s screen stopped Bogdanovic from continuing his defense on Murray, it freed Capela to chip the ball away.
Bogdanovic quickly recovered the loose ball and pulled up for a 3 that cut the Hawks’ deficit to seven.
Fifty-one seconds later, Bogdanovic got into the passing lane and picked off Murray’s pass to Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon. He got out in transition and pulled up again and nailed a 26-footer despite a contest from Jokic. He drained a second-chance shot from distance 22 seconds later after Capela found him off an offensive board following his miss on the first attempt. It forced the Nuggets to take a timeout with their lead down to 126-121, the smallest margin since 10:23 remained in the third quarter.
“Insane,” Capela said on Monday. “I love it. Especially for Bogi. Because he’s the guy that I always see it in the weight room with me after games. He’s always the guy that I see after practice get more reps than everyone. So he deserves. I don’t feel like he’s skipping steps. He’s doing everything right. Any he deserved that. Like I know that when I see 10 3s, when I see him making three in a row I know that this is because he’s putting the work.”
But the Nuggets closed out the game and for the second time this season, the Hawks fell short after a hot shooting night from Bogdanovic. A little over two weeks ago, Bogdanovic made seven 3s, going a perfect 7 of 7 from 3 until 1:14 remained in the third quarter.
Following that game, Bogdanovic talked about needing to demand the ball more when he had hot shooting nights like that. But on Monday, he credited his teammates for pushing him to keep shooting.
“Yes. But also, I would say having teammates like Patty and Clint,” Bogdanovic said on Monday. “It’s amazing. I feel they’re pushing me to another level. They’re reminding me how good I am sometimes. Because sometimes you get lost on the floor. It’s not like you don’t have confidence. But hearing that from your teammates, it’s another level.”
Bogdanovic has had a strong start to the season and could be stringing together a career year. Through 22 games this season, he has averaged a career-high 17.2 points, while grabbing 3.4 rebounds and doling out 2.3 assists. On top of that he’s put up the second-best overall field goal percentage during his NBA career and has knocked down 40.3% of his shots from 3.
Stats-wise the Serbian wing has begun to make a strong case for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award, ranking seventh in bench scoring. But with the Hawks sitting at 10th in the Eastern Conference, with a 9-13 record, it’s unlikely he gets the nod unless the team turns things around.
But Bogdanovic has learned to embrace the challenge, just like he embraced the test of climbing out of a double-digit on Monday night.
“It’s tough when you have lose” Bogdanovic said. “... But as a player, you see, that is another challenge. I’m like, ‘Okay, we are down 20. Let’s go again. Let’s go again and try to come back.’
“When I was younger, probably I was like, maybe down and you kind of lose like, not motivation, but you lose that like, mojo in that moment, and that fire. But I have learned that there is always a chance. If there is a time left on the clock, there is always a chance. So that was my mindset tonight.”
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