Hawks Get Unexpected Performances From Keaton Wallace and Daeqwon Plowden In 110-94 Upset Win Against Chicago
The Atlanta Hawks were missing Trae Young, Jalen Johnson, and De'Andre Hunter (their top three scorers) coming into tonight's game vs Chicago. They were playing on a back-to-back and had to travel. Two of the team's best shooter's Garrison Matthews and Bogdan Bogdanovic shot 1-15 from three tonight. Over the past two years, Chicago has had good success against the Hawks. Everything about this game suggested the Hawks were certainly going to lose.
Nobody told Keaton Wallace and Daeqwon Plowden that however.
Given the Hawks roster situation, Wallace and Plowden had to be called up today to be late roster additions for the Hawks. While Wallace has played some this season for the Hawks, Plowden had never played in the NBA before. All it took from him tonight was one of the most surprisingly successful NBA debuts in Hawks history. Plowden finished with 19 points on 7-8 shooting from the field and 5-6 from three, as well as four rebounds. He came off the bench to give the Hawks a huge boost.
Wallace also had a career night. He finished with 27 points, six assists, six rebounds, and four steals. He ran the offense well and found guys for open shots all night long, as well as playing good defense on Coby White.
The Hawks did not have a have a great night shooting the ball tonight, finishing 41% from the field and 30% from three, but they forced turnovers, had a huge edge in second-chance points, and limited the Bulls from the three-point line. Chicago shot 44% from the field, but only 22% from three. Atlanta did a great job of closing out on shooters tonight and not letting the Bulls get a lot of open looks.
The craziest stat about this game is the fact that the Hawks never trailed. Chicago was mostly healthy in this game while the Hawks were missing their top three scorers, but Atlanta got the lead and never gave it back. There were times in the second half when the Bulls got it in single digits, but the Hawks squashed that momentum quickly and never let them have a chance to win the game.
The Hawks have now won two games in a row and they have been short-handed in both of them. They are 21-19 and this was an important win tonight. Coming into the game, the Hawks were in 9th place in the Eastern Conference and the Bulls were in 10th. Not only that, but the Bulls would have won the season series with a win tonight and held any tiebreaker over the Hawks. Now, the Hawks further separate themselves from Chicago and are trying to keep pace in what is a crowded Eastern Conference. This is a good win for the Hawks and up next is none other than the defending champion Boston Celtics. Atlanta is 1-1 vs Boston this season, including an upset win over the Celtics where Wallace was also instrumental.
Atlanta started Keaton Wallace, Dyson Daniels, Vit Krejci, David Roddy, and Clint Capela. The Bulls had their usual starting lineup of Josh Giddey, Zach LaVine, Coby White, Patrick Williams, and Nikola Vucevic.
The Hawks were outmatched in this game and were going to need several things to go their way in this matchup and one of them was forcing turnovers. In the first eight minutes of the game, the Hawks forced six turnovers and led 18-16 and then 27-25 at the end of the first quarter. The Hawks starting backcourt of Wallace and Daniels had seven points each and the Hawks had forced seven turnovers. Atlanta had a nine-man rotation in the first half, with Bogdanovic, Matthews, Plowden, and Okongwu coming off the bench for the Hawks.
Atlanta shot 43% from the field and from three, while the Bulls shot 52% from the floor and were 1-5 from three. 22 of Chicago's 25 points were in the paint.
It was more of the same in the second quarter for the Hawks. They increased the lead to 42-27, but Chicago went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to eight points with 6:18 left. Early in the second quarter, Roddy set his career high for steals in a game with four. The Hawks used an 11-0 run near the end of the first half to lead the Bulls 61-47.
It was an incredible first half for Wallace, who was called up today after hitting a game-winner for College Park (Hawks G-League Affiliate) last night. He had 18 points in the first half, shot 3-3 from three, and also had four rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Daniels had 14 points at halftime. The Hawks forced 13 turnovers in the first half and scored 18 points off of those turnovers. They shot 43% from the field and 26% from three in the first half while the Bulls shot 45% from the field and were 2-15 from three.
The two teams exchanged buckets to start the third quarter, but the Bulls used one of their best runs of the game to close the gap. Chicago used a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 72-67 and it looked like the Bulls were going to get right back in the game. The Hawks offense had a hard time scoring in the third quarter, totaling only 25 points and shooting 36% from the field and 29% from three. Capela had eight of his 11 points in the third quarter and Plowden had six points in the third. Atlanta led 86-78 going into the final quarter, but Chicago outplayed them in the third.
After a rocky third quarter on offense, the Hawks started the fourth on an 8-2 run to push the lead to 94-80 with under ten minutes left and the Bulls never were a serious threat after that. Wallace scored seven points in the quarter and held the Bulls to 16 points. Atlanta won 110-94 and it was the best defensive performance of the season for the Hawks. It was the fewest points they had allowed all season and the lowest defenisve rating (88.7). It was a gutsy win for the Hawks ahead of their tough matchup on Saturday vs the Celtics.