Hawks vs Nuggets final score: Brandon Ashley leads Hawks in 82-73 win

The summer Hawks were able to keep it rolling Thursday night, defeating the Denver Nuggets 82-73 in the game they never trailed in, without 7-3 center Edy Tavares.

The Hawks opened up the first quarter of this one much more stout defensively giving up just 15 points, better than their last appearance against the Nuggets, in which they gave up 86 points for the game. Although shooting a better percentage in the quarter than the Hawks, the Nuggets found themselves trailing the Hawks, 18-15. Lamar Patterson had eight of the Hawks' 18 points.

The second quarter was much of the same for the Hawks, who were able to extend their lead to 37-32 thanks to a pair of Terran Petteway 3-pointers, as well as five points from Stephen Holt. Ian Clark and Erick Green led the way for the Nuggets in the quarter. At the half, Lamar Patterson led all scorers with 12 points. Mike Muscala totaled eight points and five rebounds for the Hawks. Ian Clark led the Nuggets with nine points and three assists, while rookie phenom Emmanuel Mudiay had four points, and four turnovers.

The big difference in the third quarter was turnovers. The Hawks had just four turnovers to the Nuggets eight. The Hawks had a 10-2 run led by Stephen Holt and Brandon Ashley in the middle of the quarter that opened up a 54-41 lead. However, the Nuggets would answer, closing out the quarter with an 11-0 run of their own to narrow the gap to 61-56 at the end of the third.

The Hawks were able to maintain their lead in the fourth, again largely because of Holt and Ashley, and knocked off the Nuggets by a final score of 82-73. Lamar Patterson and Stephen Holt both scored 17 points apiece, while Brandon Ashley led all scorers with 18 points. Terran Petteway scored 14 points, and Mike Muscala had 10 points to go with five rebounds. Glenn Robinson III had just four points in just over 21 minutes.

With the win, the Hawks will play the Dallas Mavericks at 6 p.m. EDT on Saturday in the LVSL quarterfinals.