Hawks spoil return for John Collins

In the return of former Hawk John Collins, Atlanta held Utah to 97 points in Tuesday’s win, marking the first time since 2021 the club has held its opponent to 100-or-fewer points in back-to-back games.

We still love you!” fans chanted during Atlanta’s tribute to John Collins. Collins was selected by the Hawks with the 19th overall pick in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft. In six seasons in Atlanta, the forward from Wake Forest has career averages of 15.8 points on .551 shooting, 8.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 block in 29.2 minutes per game in 364 games (313 starts).  During the 2022-23 season, he averaged 13.1 points on .508 shooting, 6.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 30.0 minutes in 71 games (all starts).

He’s definitely missed and the fans definitely miss him that you can see how they cheering back.” said Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Atlanta dished out 27 assists and pulled down 15 offensive rebounds leading to 22 second chance points.

Jalen Johnson tallied his 18th career double-double behind a game-high tying 22 points , 13 rebounds, six assists, one steal, making it his 17th double-double of the season and his fourth straight.

The 6-8 forward, De’Andre Hunter led all bench scorers with 20 points on 6-10 shooting from the field (.600 FG%), five rebounds and one block in 28 minutes of play. Serbian product Bogdan Bogdanovic added 19 points, three rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals in 33 minutes of action. Dejounte Murray pored in  his ninth double-double of the season and his fifth point/assist double-double of the campaign with 17 points, 11 assists, four rebounds, two blocks, one steal.  While the Villanova product Saddiq Bey rounded off the scoring efforts with 16 points.

Atlanta head to the Big Apple to take on the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday Feb 29.,Nets again on Sat Mar 2, and the Knicks on Mar 5. The team will return to State Farm arena on  March 6. to take on Cavaliers.