The Hawks trailed the Bulls by 17 points with 6:32 minutes left in the game.
The Hawks won.
Behind a 31-7 run, they finished off their dramatic late-game rally in the fourth quarter to down the Bulls 141-133 Thursday night at State Farm Arena.
In all, the Hawks scored 50 fourth-quarter points. The Hawks’ 50 points are the most in a fourth quarter in franchise history, per Elias Sports. The previous high was 48 points in the fourth quarter, done three times - April 15, 1997 vs. New Jersey, Feb. 17, 1967 at Baltimore and Feb. 25, 1957 at Minnesota.
“I think we knew we were going to have a run eventually,” guard Trae Young said. “They were shooting the ball lights out and we knew we were going to have our run, and so we just kept playing.”
Here are five observations:
1. The Hawks never backed down despite the Bulls being up 124-107 halfway through the fourth quarter. They honed in on their defense, forcing stops and grabbing rebounds and forcing the Bulls off the 3-point line.
Then the Hawks generated offense off their defense to outscore the Bulls by 24 points in the final six minutes. Center Clint Capela and forward De’Andre Hunter blocked shots on Bulls center Nikola Vucevic and forward Patrick Williams. The Hawks converted both of them.
Offensively, a pair of free throws from Hawks forward Jalen Johnson sparked the erasure of the team’s deficit while Young fanned the flames with a 3 before finding Dyson Daniels for a triple.
Young, who finished with 27 points and 13 assists, hit the game-tying 3 with 3:03 to play help the Hawks outscore the Bulls 50-25 in the final quarter. He had just one turnover.
“We wanted to keep trying to run and attack and not get in panic mode,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said.
2. Johnson has steadied the Hawks this season and it has allowed him to carve out his presence. The Hawks have expanded Johnson’s role on the team and have leaned on him as a scorer, facilitator, rebounder, defender and voice in the locker room.
The 23-year-old scored 30 points and had 15 rebounds in Thursday’s comeback effort. But outside of his four dunks, he scored those points quietly.
“It’s going to be a really simple answer, but literally, whatever it takes to help my team,” Johnson said.
3. The Bulls’ Jevon Carter, who scored 26 points, fired off a running 3 then drew a foul but missed the free throw in the opening period. He drew another four-point play a little over a minute later and completed it. He then pulled up for a 3, hit a step-back jumper, then a wide-open 26-footer at the top of the key. He hit another running 3-pointer that ballooned the Bulls’ lead to 29-16 with 1:36 to play in the first quarter.
If it wasn’t Carter, it was Zach LaVine who scorched the Hawks from deep. Each time the Hawks cut into their deficit, LaVine rose over his defender and fired off a shot from deep.
When the Hawks sent multiple defenders to LaVine, he quickly shoveled a pass out to the perimeter to a teammate who drove in and finished at the rim. LaVine finished with 37 points, five rebounds and seven assists.
4. Larry Nance Jr. scored 10 points in the second quarter to help the Hawks cut the Bulls’ lead to as little as five after they trailed by as many as 16 in the first quarter. Nance provided an explosion of offense off the bench.
He knocked down a 3, which drew a shout of “Save us Larry” from the Hawks FanDuel 404 Crew. He then made a running layup then hit another 3 from the corner, before finishing his scoring punch with a dunk after setting a pick for Young.
But the veteran also gave the Hawks a defensive jolt when he got up and blocked a dunk from Bulls big Jalen Smith. The stop opened up a chance for Johnson to get out for a dunk in transition.
5. Hawks rookie Zaccharie Risacher fired off at officials in Thursday’s matchup after picking up his fifth foul in the second half of the game after going up to block a shot by Coby White and officials called him for the contact. But Risacher didn’t like the sound of that after playing through plenty of no calls, and his emotion sparked a review which the team ultimately lost. But he gathered himself during the timeout and kept driving into the paint.
Stat to know
50 -- The Hawks’ 50-point surge in the fourth was just four points shy of tying a franchise record (set Feb. 2, 1970) for points in a quarter.
Quotable
“Our crowd was really there the whole night, and at a time when we needed it the most they were there.” -- Hawks coach Quin Snyder.
Up next
The Hawks wrap their homestand on Saturday by hosting the Heat.
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