Bogdanovic’s 26 lead Young-less Hawks past Bulls 123-105

CHICAGO (AP) — Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 26points and the Atlanta Hawks overcame the loss of top scorer TraeYoung to beat the Chicago Bulls 123-105 on Tuesday night.

Young, who leads the Hawks with a 26.2 scoring average, didn’tplay due to a non-COVID illness. Forward De’Andre Hunter missed histhird consecutive game because of a left knee bruise.

But Bogdanovic led the way on 9-of-15 shooting from the field,including 5-of-10 on 3-point attempts.

“I tried to put him back in a couple times, but he was tired,”Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “Which tells me he’s good. That meanshe was playing defense. We know he can shoot the ball.”

Atlanta (40-39) opened a two-game lead over the Bulls (38-41),who clinched a play-in berth in the Eastern Conference by virtue ofOrlando’s loss to Cleveland earlier in the evening.

After Zach LaVine opened the game with a basket, the Hawks ranoff 13 consecutive points, with Bogdanovic scoring 11 during thatspan as the Hawks never trailed after that.

“We didn’t guard the ball well, didn’t rotate well and didn’trebound well,” LaVine said.

The Bulls managed only seven fast-break points, and the Hawkshad a 66-48 advantage in points in the paint. Saddiq Bey added 18points while Dejounte Murray had 17 and Jaylen Johnson 16.

LaVine led the Bulls with 26 points, and DeMar DeRozan added 21and Nikola Vucevic 19.

Without Young or Hunter, Atlanta still managed to exposeChicago’s porous defense by shooting 55.8% from the field(47-for-85), including 10-of-28 shooting from 3-point range.

“I think the key thing is we responded collectively, and that’swhat it takes,” Snyder said. “There was no one guy that said, ’OK,I’m going to be the guy who closes the door on a run. They did itas a group, and they did it defensively, getting stops at varioustimes.”

The Bulls’ defensive efforts were challenged after specialistAlex Caruso committed his second foul six minutes into the game.Caruso returned midway through the second quarter but left twominutes later after being charged with his third foul.

The Hawks led by as many as 20 points after Bey turned aloose-ball sequence into a reverse layup with 1:11 remaining in thesecond quarter.

“Every one of these games is a must-win game for us,” LaVinesaid. “Obviously we didn’t do good enough. They wanted it more thanus. It’s tough to have that type of result at this point in theseason.

A restless crowd booed the Bulls, who responded with an 8-0 runcapped by a LaVine 3-pointer to end the quarter.

TIP-INS:

Hawks: Young didn’t make the trip to Chicago, and Snyder wasunsure when he would rejoin the team. ...

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Hawks: Wednesday vs. Washington.

Bulls: Wednesday at Milwaukee.