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Hawks extend win streak to three by beating Trail Blazers, 120-106

Lauren Williams, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on

Published in Basketball

ATLANTA — The Hawks hosted a young Trail Blazers team that had seven veteran players absent, and they took advantage en route to a 120-106 victory Wednesday night.

Here are five observations:

— 1. Though the Trail Blazers had so many veterans out due to various injuries, the Hawks had theirs to lean on. Dejounte Murray set the tone with an efficient night from the floor, scoring 30.

He got to his spots, hitting all of his long jumpers from midrange, going 3 of 3 on baskets between 10 to 15 feet. He made all but one of his five attempts in the third quarter as the Hawks got out to a 15-point lead, their largest by that point of the night.

Murray also had seven assists that netted the Hawks 16 of their points.

“His efficiency tonight was just terrific,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “I thought picking spots, you know, you got 20 shots which were 20 great shots, and he set people up. He’s getting mad at his teammates when they don’t shoot.”

 

— 2. Murray’s teammate Garrison Mathews confirmed that he gets an earful when he doesn’t shoot the ball. But it has paid off for Mathews, who scored 21 and has scored 20 or more in two of the last three games.

Mathews rarely hesitated on Wednesday and when he did, it ended up hitting the rim. But Mathews made five of his nine (a season-high) attempts from deep and has leaned into taking more attempts as Murray and the Hawks coaching staff encourage him to let it fly.

Before the All-Star break, Mathews averaged 2.3 attempts from deep per game but that number has increased to 3.1 after the team returned.

— 3. For the third straight game the Hawks had strong output from their reserves, especially Dylan Windler. He went 4 of 4 from the floor and knocked down all three of his attempts from deep in his first 11 minutes of action.

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©2023 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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