The shorthanded Atlanta Hawks — playing without point guard and leading scorer Dennis Schröder, who sat out with an ankle injury — battled hard in OKC only to come up short at the very end, with reigning MVP Russell Westbrook draining a three-pointer with 1.7 seconds remaining to settle the score 120-117 in the Thunder’s favor.
Marco Belinelli — who stepped into the starting lineup at shooting guard after the Hawks decided to deploy Bazemore at the point guard position — led the Hawks with 27 points while Ersan Ilyasova added 22 points.