Tonight at State Farm Arena, it was a match between two teams that had lost their last three games. The Hawks haven’t been playing well for a few weeks now, but the Denver Nuggets, who are the reigning champions, have lost three games in a row, which is a surprise. Nikola Jokic, who has won two MVP awards, has also had two bad shooting games in a row. He was going to play the Hawks, who have one of the worst defenses in the NBA and were missing two key players. 

The medical report for the day said that De’Andre Hunter was questionable, but he was ruled out a few hours before the game. Instead of Hunter, Garrison Matthews got to play right away with Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Saddiq Bey, and Clint Capela. 

Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, and Jokic were Denver’s starts. 

Since the Hawks were missing two players, I thought Bogdan Bogdanovic would play a lot tonight. Atlanta would have to win the minutes that Jokic wasn’t on the court. In the first half, Denver’s bench was one of the best parts of the game. I thought the Hawks’ bench might still give them an edge over the Nuggets. The Hawks had a pretty good first quarter, though. 

The Hawks’ defense was strong right away, and Atlanta’s three-point shots were going in while Denver’s weren’t. There were times when Jokic was good for the Hawks, but he wasn’t the best player on the court. After the first quarter, they were ahead 36–28, and Young had nine points and four assists to lead the way. Bogdanovic came in the second half and scored nine points in a big role. 

The Hawks made 61.9% of their shots from the field and 60% of their three-point shots in the first quarter. It took 44.4% of their shots to make the field, but only 25% to make threes. He scored eight points, grabbed two rebounds, and gave out one assist. Most of the Nuggets’ work was done in the paint, where they beаt Atlanta 18–12. 

The Hawks’ lead started to slowly slip away in the second quarter, and Jokic wasn’t the main reason why. Julian Strawther scored 19 points in the first half after coming off the bench. He made five of his seven three-point shots. In the second quarter, the Nuggets beаt the Hawks 37–26 and were ahead 65–62 at the break. 

Atlanta made 51.1% of its shots from the field and 42.9% of its three-point shots. Bogdanovic scored 16 points, which was the most on the team. Young had 14 points and five assists. In the first half, he played for about 17 minutes. 

In the first half, Denver made 55.1% of its shots from the field and 40% of its three-point shots. Jokic scored 12 points, grabbed three rebounds, and gave out six assists. Strawther scored 19 points plus six assists. 

Denver had been in charge of the game since the first quarter. Before the break, the Nuggets were ahead by three points. They then went on a 17-9 run to take an 11-point lead with six minutes left in the third quarter. 

From there, things would only get worse. The Nuggets had another great quarter, beating the Hawks 39–24 and going into the fourth quarter 18 points ahead. 

The worst part of the third quarter was when Young was kicked out. He was disputing calls and got a technical foul. Quin Snyder then got a technical foul for disputing why the ref gave him one, and Snyder also got one. Young kept arguing about the call, got a second technical, and was kicked out of the game. With Young being kicked out, there was pretty much no chance for Atlanta to make a return. 

Atlanta did a great job of coming back from being down a lot to cut the lead to seven points with 1:45 left in the game. To make things better for the Nuggets, Jokic made two free throws that put them ahead. 

It looked like that. 

Atlanta kept coming back, and Bogdanovic was not going to let this go easily. The crowd went crаzy when he made his tenth three-pointer of the game. With just under five minutes left, Atlanta turned the ball over, and Bey was sent to the line because of a foul. The Nuggets got the ball back after he split the pair. 

The Hawks lost their fourth straight game and are now 9-13 on the season because they couldn’t finish the amazing comeback. 

Athens made 45.8% of its shots from the field and 38.6% of its threes during the game. Bogdanovic scored 40 points, with 10 three-pointers. He had 21 and Bey had 16. 

At the end of the night, Denver made 53.4% of their shots from the field and 41.4% of their threes. Jokic scored 25 points, grabbed eight boards, and passed the ball eight times. Murray scored 29 points, and Strawther scored 22 points after coming off the bench. 

Atlanta will play two road games in a row against the Raptors in Toronto, and then they will go to Cleveland for another road game against the Cavaliers.