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The Atlanta Hawks pulled off an improbable comeback Friday night defeating the Denver Nuggets 109-108 for their fourth straight road win.
Things looked bleak for the Hawks who trailed the Nuggets 108-100 with after a pair of free throws by Emanuel Mudiay with 1:38 remaining. However, Atlanta would finish the game with a 9-0 run that was comprised entirely of free throws including a costly technical foul on Denver coach Michael Malone.
Dennis Schröder got the comeback started with four straight free throws to cut the lead to 108-104 with 1:08 remaining. Will Barton missed a three-pointer at the other end and Nikola Jokic fouled Thabo Sefolosha on the rebound. The foul was Jokic’s sixth and Malone protested and was hit with the technical.
Schröder made the technical free throw and Sefolosha made both of his free throws to cut the deficit to a single point with 42.8 remaining.
The Hawks got the stop they needed at the other end as Wilson Chandler missed. On the next possession, Schröder was stripped on a drive but Mudiay carried the ball out of bounds and was not granted a timeout by the official. That gave the Hawks another chance and Paul Millsap was fouled with just six seconds remaining.
He converted both free throws to give Atlanta the lead and the Hawks forced Chandler to miss the game winning attempt at the other end allowing Atlanta to escape with the victory.
Schröder continued his stellar play of late scoring 12 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter. Millsap was big as well with 20 points, eight rebounds and three assists. The Hawks also got a lift from rookie DeAndre Bembry who played some big minutes and finished with nine points and four rebounds.
Danillo Gallinari led the Nuggets with 21 points while Chandler added 19.
Atlanta played this game shorthanded as they were without the services of Dwight Howard, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Kyle Korver who all sat out with various ailments.
The Hawks trailed for most of the evening and fell behind by as many as 10 points in the third quarter before crawling back into it. Atlanta has now won four straight games on the road and climb back to the .500 mark for the season at 15-15.