Hawks season officially ends in 131-116 defeat to Bulls

A bitter end.

The Atlanta Hawks were in Chicago on Wednesday night to take on the Bulls in the 9/10 Play-In matchup.

The winner of this game will go to Miami on Friday to face the Heat for the 8-seed in the playoffs. Atlanta and Chicago played two weeks ago — and the Hawks won in convincing fashion with the help of the three-ball falling — but with the team being down several key players, they were going to need all the help they could get.

Dejounte Murray got the Hawks on the board with his patent mid-range jumper.

Murray kept cooking in the first quarter and got this three-pointer to fall over Nikola Vučević.

Even though Murray was cooking, the Bulls as a unit couldn’t be stopped. Everything was falling for Chicago, while the Hawks couldn’t buy a shot to go in. To end the first, the Bulls led 40-22.

The start of the second quarter was much better for the Hawks as they went on an 11-0 run to cut their deficit down to single digits. Murray kept it going for the Hawks and got this jumper to fall plus the foul.

Garrison Mathews helped as well with a three-pointer.

Though the Hawks were able to come back, the Bulls got back to what helped them get a double-digit lead and went on a run to increase the Hawks’ deficit. Clint Capela played a good half of basketball, dominating in the paint.

The Hawks continued fighting down the stretch of the first half, and Bogdan Bogdanovic came alive giving the team a much-needed lift.

Going into halftime, the Hawks only trailed the Bulls 73-67. Both teams traded blows to start the third quarter, and the Hawks couldn’t seem to gain much ground on the Bulls. The offense started to come alive though, which was a good thing. Murray continued his strong play in the third.

Later on, he put down this huge dunk over Vučević.

Down the stretch of the third, the Hawks got cold and the Bulls took advantage, extending their lead back to double digits, and it was up 19 points going into the fourth. The Hawks started off the quarter cold, and they continued just like that for most of the period. The Bulls stayed afloat and were able to come away with the win.

Murray finished with 30 points, Young finished with 22 points and 10 assists, and Capela finished with 22 points and 17 rebounds.

The Hawks will be back in action next season!