Kyrie Irving Comes Alive In 4th Quarter as Dallas Defeats Atlanta 129-119

This is the Hawks third straight loss and drops them to 7-11 this season

Nov 25, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) shoots against the Atlanta Hawks in the first quarter at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Dallas Mavericks were on the second night of a back-to-back, having gone to overtime in a loss to the Miami Heat last night and they were without Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes, and Dante Exum. This was a great opportunity for the Hawks to get a win at home to end their three-game losing streak, but they could not take advantage of the opportunity. There have been a lot of inexcusable losses this year for the Hawks, but tonight was one of the worst. The Hawks had every reason to win this game, but they did not. What makes the loss even harder to stomach is the fact that Mavs star Kyrie Irving was not shooting well in the game until the 4th quarter. The Mavs role players stepped up more than the Hawks did and it was costly.

Dallas outscored the Hawks 68-52 in the second half and when a team is typically on a back-to-back, they can run out of gas in the second half. That was not true tonight. Irving scored 22 of his 32 points tonight in the second half, with 16 coming in the 4th quarter. Atlanta did as good of a job as you can early on guarding a great scorer like Irving, but he started making shots in the second half.

The role players for Dallas stepped up tonight. They got 23 points from Jaden Hardy, 22 points from Spencer Dinwiddie, and 22 points from Naji Marshall. Dinwiddie also had a huge second half as well, scoring 14 points and shooting 4-6 from three.

It was another tough night for the Hawks and another night where they did not shoot well from three. The Mavericks made seven more threes than Atlanta did tonight and that is becoming a theme of the Hawks season so far. They have not been a good three-point shooting team and are consistently outshot each game.

Jalen Johnson was the Hawks best player tonight, scoring 28 points on 12-20 shooting and grabbing 11 rebounds. Trae Young also chipped in a double-double, scoring 18 points and handing out 16 assists.

Dyson Daniels started the game find, scoring 13 points in the first half, but only managed to get four in the second half and was not a factor offensively.

It was a rough night for both Zaccharie Risacher and De'Andre Hunter. Hunter played most of the minutes tonight, but was 3-11 for the field and scored only nine points. Risacher had five points in 16 minutes.

The center position was once again a problem for the Hawks. Clint Capela was the best tonight, but Onyeka Okongwu once again had a bad game. He scored eight points and had seven rebounds, but was a -19 when on the court.

Bogdan Bogdanovcic was the best player off the bench and had a good night offensively, but did struggle on the offensive end. Bogdanovic scored 18 points on 8-15 shooting. Kobe Bufkin only played 13 minutes and had four points, four rebounds, and four assists.

The story of the game was the Hawks allowing another team to have its role players step up and get hot, while they themselves have a poor shooting night from three. It seems to happen in nearly every Hawks game and tonight was no different. Hardy scored his season high in points tonight, as did Dinwiddie.

Let's recap another tough loss for the Hawks.

The Hawks kept their same starting lineup of Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson, and Clint Capela.

Dallas was very shorthanded coming into the game and their first five was Kyrie Irving, Jaden Hardy, Naji Marshall, P.J. Washington, and Dereck Lively.

The Hawks defense got off to a very good start and it led to good offense. Atlanta jumped out to a 12-4 run to start the game and held Dallas to 1-6 shooting from the floor and they forced three early turnovers, one of which led to an early Jalen Johnson highlight.

clear the runway 🛫 pic.twitter.com/QlfDvFZQOE

— Hawks On FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSN_Hawks) November 26, 2024

That was not the only highlight off of a turnover in the first quarter. Dallas continued to struggle on offense and a poor pass led to a basket for Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Bogi GOT 'EM 🔄 pic.twitter.com/iebCLsHz4V

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 26, 2024

Atlanta led by as many as 13 in the opening quarter, but the Mavs finished strong. A big reason for that was the fact they went 7-7 at the free throw line and shot 43% (3-7) from three. The Hawks, who have struggled shooting from three this season, were 29% from deep in the first quarter. Dallas was able to tighten things up as the quarter ended and Atlanta led 31-28 going into the second.

The Mavs carried that momentum into the second quarter and the Hawks were struggling to get anything going on offense. Dallas kept chopping away at the lead and eventually got, in large part to the play of Jaden Hardy. With Doncic, Thompson, Grimes, and Exum out, someone was going to have to step up alongside Kyrie Irving and in the first half, it was Hardy. He scored 10 points in the quarter and also had two steals.

With 4:06 left in the first half, Dallas led Atlanta 56-50 and was slowly seizing control of the game.

Until the Hawks got going again.

Atlanta closed the half on a 12-0 run to get the lead back and the Hawks led 67-61 at halftime. It was a great close to the half and it was Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, and Trae Young leading the attack.

At the end of the first half, Atlanta was shooting 51% from the field and 25% from three. Johnson had 15 points and eight rebounds, Daniels had 13 points on 5-7 shooting, and Young had 10 points and seven assists. The three point shooting was still an issue, but the Hawks made up for it in other areas

Dallas shot 41% in the first half and 38% from three. Hardy led Dallas with 15 points.

The Hawks started the third quarter much like they ended the first half. They got the lead up to 11 with 9:34 left in the quarter and Jason Kidd wanted to take a timeout. It felt like the Hawks were starting to take control of the game, but the Mavs were not going away. Not if Spencer Dinwiddie had anything to say about it. This season has been a struggle so far for Dinwiddie but predictably, he came alive vs the Hawks tonight, going 3-4 from three in the third quarter and scoring nine points. Marshall added in seven