The Hawks aren’t on the favorites list this season, but they’re in that group of dangerous teams you can’t trust in the slightest.
Denver checked last night. After winning four straight games, Colorado folded to Atlanta and didn’t have their franchise player: Trae Young. In his absence, Dejounte Murray took the lead in operations to climb to 34 points and dishing out four assists. He was undoubtedly the leader of a team that completed a strong game to give the Nuggets no options in the final stretch.
Because it was. Always in tow, Denver grit their teeth in the fourth quarter to drop within three points with less than four minutes left. They didn’t start there. They suffered an 8-0 run and went three minutes without scoring. There was no emotion. The Georgians won the game 117-109.
“I think we just showed how deep we are. We have young talent and a lot of hard working guys. We had three key players out, three starters, and it’s hard to win games in this league in those circumstances, especially playing against a team like this. Obviously , their record shows what they’ve done this season,” says Murray, proud of the victory against the Nuggets, and noting the absences of John Collins, De’Andre Hunter and the aforementioned Young.
Faced with so many losses, less common players stepped up. Rookie AJ Griffin went to 24 points and four other players were in double figures in scoring. Also, to round off the evening, he enjoyed the return of Bogdan Bogdanovic, who made his season debut with five points after undergoing knee surgery.
Blow for the Nuggets
On paper, a victory was expected for Denver, but as always happens, it’s the parquet that ends up serving the sentence. There the Hawks were better despite Nikola Jokic coming close to the triple double with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. Jamal Murray also did well with 20 points and Bones Hyland with 16 off the bench. Ish Smith stressed at the end of the fight that all players who are in the NBA must be respected.
I give him 100% credit. There are 450 guys in this championship. You have to respect everyone. I think they have talented guys. They had the opportunity to play and they did really well,” she explains.
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
