What the Hawks saw on CJ McCollum’s potential game-winner in brutal ending vs. Bucks

ATLANTA, GA – 11 seconds left, no timeouts, and down by two points.

The Atlanta Hawks still had a fighting chance against the Milwaukee Bucks in a game where they started 0-for-21 from three and found themselves down as much as 23 points to start the second half. Through it all, the Hawks started to chip away in the fourth quarter and even took the lead with less than two minutes left. The Bucks took the lead back, and Ryan Rollins went to the free-throw line to try to give his team a three-point lead. He ended up splitting both, which meant the Hawks could either go for the tie or win the game.

CJ McCollum got the ball, dribbled down the court, and tried to make a move on Kyle Kuzma. He fumbled the ball with two defenders on him, and with four seconds left, threw up an off-balanced shot that hit the tip of the rim. Giannis Antetokounmpo grabbed the rebound and dribbled the ball out.

“We didn’t have any timeouts, and those are situations that you work on in practice, and it was one of those we had touched,” Quin Snyder said after the game. “We really trust CJ with the ball, and I thought we got it in a position where we were going to get a good shot. Either he was going to get one or kick it out, and the ball just got tipped.”

“We got off a shot, and we just didn’t make it,” Jalen Johnson said. “That’s about it.”

Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who had 28 points alone in the second half, didn’t expect some of the things that occurred on that play to happen.

“The help guy gambled, and I was kind of shocked that he did, just with it being Corey [Kispert], and late in games, you want to stay as solid as you can be. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the shot we wanted,” Alexander-Walker said.

That was the result that led to the Hawks’ fourth straight loss as they continue to find answers on both sides of the ball.

Hawks can’t finish off Bucks after slow start

It couldn’t have gotten any worse for the Hawks in the first half, as they couldn’t buy a three-pointer for the first 24 minutes of game time. Finally, with about 27 seconds left, McCollum knocked down the first three of the game for the team.

“We understood a lot of shots we were getting were good shots,” Alexander-Walker said. “One thing that I did learn and could feel, despite the shots going in or going out, whatever the game was really giving us, our energy and mentality towards it will change everything. 

“I feel like the game follows the energy, and our energy changed our spirit to a degree. You could feel it more in the second half. The first half we were getting great looks, and maybe if we make those shots, it’s a different outcome. But would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. The main thing is that our energy gave us a fighting chance.”

The Hawks kept getting after it, and the shots that they were missing in the first half, ended up going in through the second half.

“The good thing about it is that we kept shooting,” Johnson said. “Obviously, that’s tough and rare to go 0-for-21, or whatever we were at halftime, and it’s kind of unlike us, but sometimes you gotta adjust. We came out in the second half, and we started making shots, and that helped.”

The Hawks have shown resiliency throughout the season when being down, and they’ve found a way to get back into it, but it’s actually closing the game with the win where things get tough.

With the loss, the Hawks are now 20-25, and are a half-game of being outside the Play-In.

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