Kyrie Irving’s dominant fourth quarter leads the Mavericks past the Hawks

Irving was electric in the final 12 minutes. He knocked down hard hit after hard hit, scoring 11 points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter and forcing the Hawks into a timeout, 115-107, with 6:04 to play. After the timeout, he made another three-pointer, the Mavericks’ fifth triple of the quarter.

The eight-time All-Star accounted for 60.6% of the Mavericks’ points in the fourth quarter (16 points, 2 assists, 4 points from assists).

“I think we had (Jaden) Hardy, (Spencer) Dinwiddie and Kyrie Irving on the field, those are three guys that can create a shot,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “They made threes. They did the midrange. I just have to tell the guys that getting stops along the way is the only thing they can do.”

2. The Hawks have a habit of giving the opposing team’s role players a night out. Monday evening was no different. After dealing out Luka Doncic (right wrist; sprain) and Klay Thompson (left foot; plantar fascia), the Mavs got a strong hand from three players who averaged 10 or fewer points early in the game.

But Jaden Hardy, Naji Marshall and Spencer Dinwiddie all took advantage of opportunities in the Mavericks rotation, despite an overtime loss to the Heat on Sunday night.

Hardy, whose season-high was 13 points, surpassed that number with just over three minutes left in the second quarter. Marshall scored 22 points, four points shy of his career high set three nights ago. Dinwiddie scored 22 points despite averaging just 4.7 points per game entering the night.

“I don’t think any of us expect teams to come in and feel like they might have a bad night right now,” guard Trae Young said. “I mean, everyone is shooting well, everyone is scoring well right now. It’s definitely frustrating because you look at the scouting report, you watch film and the guys aren’t playing the way they do when they come in here. But we have to force that.”

3. The Hawks had a breakthrough offensive night with Bogdan Bogdanovic, who continued his 50% shooting night in Chicago. Not only did Bogdanovic create looks for himself, but he also opened up looks for his teammates just through his ability to create space on the floor.

He scored a season-high 18 points, including a spectacular play in his first stint in which he made a behind-the-back tackle to create space for Hardy, his only defender.

4. With Bogdanovic, Kobe Bufkin and De’Andre Hunter all returning to the team’s rotation over the last three to five games, the Hawks’ second unit is still experiencing growing pains.

“It’s been three games, so we’re at full speed,” Snyder said. “We’re playing and yeah, we had that, there was an 11-0 run. It was tough, but we recovered from it.”

The Hawks have struggled to generate enough stops and that has affected their offense, which has been stagnant.

They led the Mavericks by 13 minutes in the first quarter with 2:09 to play, but that quickly evaporated. The Mavericks went on a 4:00, 17:7 run between the first and second quarters. The Mavericks eventually took the lead with 8:28 left in the second quarter.

5. The offense picked up steam when Young played, with the Hawks guard notching 16 assists. It’s Young’s fourth straight game with double-digit assists and seventh time in nine games. He continues to lead the league with an average of 11.7 assists per game.

The Hawks were minus-one with Young on the floor and minus-9 without him.

“It’s tough,” Young said. “We take a lot of groups of two; We take a lot of shots from mid-range. I hate that they played so much high school defense against tonight – zone – and it worked. That should never work: going into the zone and being able to stop us.”

Stat knowing

Trae Young became the first player in the NBA this season to reach 200 assists after posting his 13th assist.

Quotable

“Of course we could have been better, but 120 is a lot of points. I don’t think that was the reason we lost tonight.” – Trae Young on his thoughts on Monday night’s attack.

Next

The Hawks travel to Cleveland to take on the 17-1 Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Wednesday.