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Hardaway Jr. steals spotlight with dominant 4th in Howard's Houston return

Tim Hardaway Jr. was the unlikely star in Houston on Thursday. (AP)
Tim Hardaway Jr. was the unlikely star in Houston on Thursday. (AP)

Thursday night’s game between the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets had a clear hook — Dwight Howard’s first game back in Houston after three disappointing, frustrating seasons with the Rockets. TNT advertised the matchup along these lines and aired candid interviews with both Howard and James Harden in the first quarter, and the first three quarters seemed to play to the dominant narrative. Howard put up big numbers, but Harden and the Rockets seemed to play more freely and effectively with him in another uniform.

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Then Tim Hardaway Jr. went and exploded that storyline with a tremendous fourth quarter. The fourth-year wing scored 23 of his career-high 33 points (12-of-18 FG, 4-of-9 3FG, 5-of-7 FT) in the final period, leading the Hawks back from a 97-77 deficit with 8:26 remaining to grab a thrilling 113-108 win. Hardaway out-scored the Rockets (22 points) by himself in the quarter, but he was merely the biggest contributor as the Hawks put up 40 points in all.

Hardaway did it in emphatic fashion, as well. His final two points came via this vicious dunk that extended the Hawks lead to three points with 41 seconds on the clock:

Yet that finish was arguably just the exclamation point to end his performance. With top scorers Paul Millsap (just eight shot attempts in 29 minutes) and Dennis Schröder (five points on 2-of-12 shooting) largely taken out of the game, Hardaway took on a major role and thrived in it. It’s unlikely that he’ll score 23 points in a quarter again any time soon, if ever — he had scored at least 23 points in a game just 12 times prior to this one — but there’s no question that this contest belonged to Hardaway.


For most of the night, it looked like Harden would take center stage. The MVP candidate scored 41 points (10-of-23 FG, 5-of-12 3FG, 16-of-21 FT) with eight rebounds and eight assists in another total performance, showing his ex-teammate Howard his newfound omnipresence under Mike D’Antoni.


Unfortunately for Harden and the Rockets, the defense collapsed in the fourth against Hardaway and the resurgent Hawks. Contrary to expectations, Houston’s three-point shooting was not the problem — they shot 3-of-9 from deep, an improvement on their 10-of-42 showing in the first three periods. Rather, the issue was giving up too many open shots. Atlanta made all nine of its attempts at the rim and shot 4-of-8 from beyond the arc against little defensive resistance.

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That collapse left the Rockets to grasp for any chance to extend the game in the final seconds. It briefly appeared to work when Trevor Ariza hoisted a tough three-pointer with six seconds on the clock, but what looked like a swish from the sideline camera was actually a bad miss that led to a game-cinching dunk at the other end:

Oddly, this trick of the eye was not the first of Ariza’s career — Wizards announcers thought he had buried a buzzer-beater on an airball back in February 2013.

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Ariza didn’t make the shot on Thursday, of course, and that meant Howard left Toyota Center as the winner of this battle in his low-energy rivalry with Harden. Frankly, he deserved it — Howard was terrific and finished with 24 points (11-of-13 FG) and 23 rebounds in 37 minutes. If not for Hardaway, he would’ve been the Hawks’ clear star of the night.


Though something tells us he’s perfectly fine playing a game in Houston without getting too much attention for it. He could use some time out of the spotlight, even when the storyline writes itself.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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