Hawks eke out Game 2 victory on night team is sold

The Atlanta Hawks earned a hard-fought victory in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets, and the two teams got together again for Game 2 on Wednesday night with news circulating around that an agreement had been reached to sell the team to a group led by billionaire Antony Ressler and featuring former NBA star Grant Hill.

The Hawks played another tight game against the eighth-seeded Nets, but just like Game 1, pulled out the victory to take a 2-0 series lead. Paul Millsap bounced back from his poor performance in Game 1, leading the way with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Four other Hawks scored in double figures, with Kyle Korver notching 17 points, Al Horford putting up a double-double and Dennis Schroder adding 12 points and six assists off the bench.

Kevin Liles/USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta looked to be on the verge of a blowout 10 minutes into the game, going up by 12 points. But the offense slowed down, and the Hawks wound up shooting just 38.9 percent for the game. This comes after a 43.0 percent effort in Game 1, so it’s clear Atlanta’s offense isn’t firing on all cylinders. That’s going to have to improve moving forward, but it has been enough to hold off Brooklyn for two games.

It almost wasn’t enough, though, as the Nets kept fighting back and fighting back throughout the course of this game. Brooklyn had chances to tie or take the lead in the final few minutes, but Joe Johnson missed a potential go-ahead shot with 1:16 left and Deron Williams missed a wide-open jumper with 10 seconds left that would have tied the game. Korver made two free throws on the other end, and that was that.

The Nets stayed closed despite three of their starters (Williams, Thaddeus Young, Bojan Bogdanovic) combining to score just 12 points. Johnson and Brook Lopez combined for 39 points, while Jarrett Jack had 23 points off the bench and Alan Anderson added 13.

During the game, the Hawks made the announcement that the sale to Ressler had been agreed upon for $850 million, so it was a big day for the franchise.

It’ll be interesting to see how Atlanta plays on the road after struggling somewhat in these first two games. Some of the issues we’ve seen are why not many believe in the Hawks to come out of the Eastern Conference despite winning 60 games this season. The Cleveland Cavaliers have the best odds to come out of the Eastern Conference at 11/5, per VegasInsider.com, while the Hawks are next in line at 12/1.