A.J. Griffin hits clutch buzzer-beater to lift Hawks past Bulls in wild OT finish

ByKamran Khan December 13, 202212 months ago

AJ Griffin wrapped up a wild final seconds with a buzzer-beater at State Farm Arena on Sunday night.

The Atlanta Hawks forward caught a pass inside the lane and nailed a shot with just 0.5 seconds left to beat the Chicago Bulls 123-122 in overtime. Jalen Johnson’s pass from the touchline was perfect and Griffin rose to fire the wide shot.

"Coach Prunty drew up a game-winning play. Our guys did a good job of paying attention and executing that play to give us the win." pic.twitter.com/X5fwZZCK8C

— Hawks On FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSN_Hawks) December 12, 2022

That bucket concluded what was a wild finish to the extra period in Atlanta. First, with just two seconds to go, Trae Young drilled a game-winning 3-pointer to put the Hawks up by two.

But, just a second later, Bulls star DeMar DeRozan was fouled by Bogdan Bogdanovic while firing a 3-pointer. That sent him to the free throw line, where he hit all three of his shots to put Chicago back on top.

That advantage, however, simply wasn’t enough. Then the Hawks took a timeout, advanced the ball, and the rest was history. The one point victory, thanks to Griffin, was his.

“He is confident in himself. He works hard,” McMillan said of Griffin. “When he has a rhythm like he did tonight, you want to try to get that ball in his hands. He can shoot the ball and make plays, and tonight he did. At the end of the game, that play was the most important of the game tonight.”

Bogdanovic led the Hawks with 28 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and Young added 19 points with 14 assists in the win. Griffin finished with 17 points and shot 7-for-17 from the field. Atlanta’s win also snapped a three-game losing streak.

DeRozan nearly had a triple-double to lead the Bulls. He finished with 34 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists on the night. Zach LaVine added 21 points and Nikola Vucevic finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Chicago has now lost four of its last six and fell to 11-15 on the season.