Atlanta, GA – Al Horford scored a team-high 16 points and Jeff Teague poured in 15 to lead the Atlanta Hawks to an 89-86 win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
The Hawks trailed 83-69 with 6:34 to play, but used an 18-0 run to pull ahead 87-83 with 32.7 seconds left. Teague buried a 3-pointer at the 1:04 mark to give Atlanta the lead at 85-83.
Teague's running jumper on the Hawks' next possession gave them a four-point advantage, but Lance Stephenson came back with a 3-ball to pull Indiana within 87-86 and the Hawks called a quick timeout.
Josh Smith found Lou Williams out of the timeout and the undersized guard slammed it home to put Atlanta up three.
Paul George's 3-pointer was off-target and David West's putback was blocked by Horford as the Hawks held on for the win.
Smith scored 11 points and dished out a game-high seven assists and Kyle Korver chipped in with 13 points for the Hawks, who have won their last two since falling to the Rockets in their season opener.
"They tested our team early. It's only our third game, but I was impressed with our resiliency," Horford said. "We kept fighting and kept making plays. We were able to pull it out. It is better to get an ugly win than a loss. We'll take it, we just need to learn from the game."
West and Hill each scored 20 and Paul George added 13 points for the Pacers, who have dropped three of four.
"We struggled to score down the stretch, but we competed our tails off," Pacers head coach Frank Vogel said. "It just wasn't enough. We got some good looks down the stretch. I extended the starters in the third quarter and they probably ran out of gas in the fourth."
Indiana took a 25-22 lead after one quarter, led by West who scored 12 points in the period.
The Hawks shot 56.5 percent from the floor in the second to take a 51-50 lead into the break. Horford and Williams led a balanced scoring attack with six and five points, respectively.
The Pacers outscored the Hawks 27-14 in the third to take a 77-65 lead into the final quarter. Hill led Indiana with 10 points, and was 2-for-3 from behind the 3-point line.
Game Notes
There were seven lead changes and 10 ties ... Atlanta turned it over 17 times, leading to 26 points ... Indiana forward Danny Granger received an injection for patellar tendonitis in his left knee and could miss up to three months.
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