Hawks' rally comes up short in MLK Day loss to Bucks

The Hawks gave away too many chances to pull away from the Bucks, and they ended up losing 112-110.

In the final seconds of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day matchup, Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker made a clutch 3-point shot with 12.6 seconds to play in the game, which brought them to within 111-110.

Bucks guard Ryan Rollins then split a pair of free throws, and the Hawks, who were out of timeouts, took off down the floor. But CJ McCollum lost his dribble and the Bucks crowded him, forcing him to take a one-handed, off-balance jumper. It fell short, and that was the Hawks’ final chance at a victory.

“Those are situations that you work on in practice,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “It was one of the ones we had touched. I really trust CJ with the ball. Thought we got it into a position where he was going to get one, he was going to kick it out and the ball just got tipped. So it’s our default.”

Quick stats: Alexander-Walker led all scorers with 32 points, to go with six rebounds and six assists. Jalen Johnson finished with 28 points, 16 rebounds and six assists. McCollum had 17 points off the bench.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 21 points, 16 rebounds and six assists for the Bucks.

Key moment

The Hawks trailed the Bucks by as many as 23 points in the third quarter. But after the Hawks gave up a 3 to AJ Green, something finally clicked on the defensive end of the floor. They finally got stops after subbing out some of the starters.

Atlanta ended possessions with defensive rebounds. Dyson Daniels had back-to-back steals that Johnson and rookie Asa Newell converted with layups. They also finally got to the free-throw line.

The Hawks ended the third with a nearly six-minute, 18-6 run to cut their deficit to 80-72.

Highlight play

The Hawks could not make a shot longer than 13 feet for 23 minutes and 32.8 seconds of game time. Despite getting guys open after collapsing defenses, the Hawks could not sink a 3.

But with 27.2 seconds left in the first half, the Hawks finally appeared to have pried the lid off the bucket on 3-pointers. Johnson tried driving to the paint on Green, before Antetokounmpo rotated and made the wall.

So, Johnson kicked the ball out to a wide-open McCollum on the wing for the team’s first made 3 on its 22nd attempt.

CJ for 3 pic.twitter.com/e5Ay3uozf0
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 19, 2026

What they said

“... as a whole team, we were one of 22 from 3 (in the first half). We have better shooters than that, but we were getting great looks, and it’s really easy when that happens to stop doing the things that got us those shots. You can lose your resolve to keep playing that way. That was a big topic for us. Just let’s keep doing what we’re doing and eventually we’re going to make some shots.” — Snyder on the Hawks overcoming their shooting woes.

“I just got to be better moving forward. So I don’t hang my head over bad shooting games or none of that, so just keep focusing on what I can control. ” — Johnson on working through his shooting struggles.

“One thing that I did learn and could feel was despite the shots going in or going out, or whatever the game was really giving us, our energy and mentality towards it will change everything. And I feel like the game follows the energy, and our energy change, our I want to say spirit, to a degree, kind of you can feel it more in the second half than the first half.” — Alexander-Walker on the Hawks playing through their shooting slump in the first half.