What Atlanta saw of CJ McCollum’s potential game-winner

ATLANTA, Ga. – 11 seconds left, no timeouts and down two points.

The The Atlanta Hawks still had a fighting chance against the Milwaukee Bucks in a game in which they started 0-for-21 from three and found themselves outscored by as many as 23 points to start the second half. Despite everything, the Hawks started to pull away in the fourth quarter and even took the lead with less than two minutes left. The Bucks regained the lead and Ryan Rollins went to the free throw line to try and give his team a three point lead. He ended up separating both of them, which meant the Hawks could too go get a tie or win the game.

CJ McCollum got the ball, dribbled down the court and tried to make a move on Kyle Kuzma. He fumbled the ball with two defenders on him and with four seconds left, he unleashed an off-balance shot that hit the top of the rim. Giannis Antetokounmpo caught the rebound and put the ball out.

CJ fumbles the ball and throws a shot

It’s not good.

The Hawks lose 112-110 pic.twitter.com/0dvKai2GZL

— Malik Brown (@_MalikATL) January 19, 2026

“We didn’t have a timeout, and those are situations you work on in practice, and that was one of those that we touched on,” Quin Snyder said after the game. “We really trust CJ with the ball, and I thought we put her in a position where we were going to get a good shot. Either he’s going to get one or he’s going to throw it away and the ball is just flipped.”

“We made it, but we just didn’t make it” Jalen Johnson he said. “That’s about it.”

Nickeil Alexander-Walkerwho had 28 points by himself in the second half, did not expect some of the things that happened in that game to happen.

“The assistant gambled and I was a bit shocked he did, just because it was Corey (Kispert) and in late games, you want to stay as tight as you can. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the hit we wanted,” Alexander-Walker said.

That was the result it led to the Hawks’ fourth straight loss as they continue to find answers on both sides of the ball.

Hawks can’t finish off Bucks after slow start

It couldn’t have been worse for the Hawks in the first half, as they couldn’t buy a three-pointer in the first 24 minutes of game time. Finally, with about 27 seconds left, McCollum knocked down the team’s first three of the game.

“We realized a lot of the shots we were getting were good,” Alexander-Walker said. “One thing I learned and I could feel, despite the shots going in or out, whatever the game was really giving us, our energy and mentality towards it is going to change everything.

“I feel like the game follows the energy, and our energy changed our spirit somewhat. You could feel it more in the second half. The first half we looked great, and maybe if we make those shots, it’s a different outcome. But we could have, could have, should have. The main thing is that our energy gave us a fighting chance.”

The Hawks went for it, and the shots they missed in the first half ended up in the second half.

“The good thing about it is we kept shooting,” Johnson said. “Obviously it’s tough and rarely do we go 0-for-21, or whatever we were at halftime, and that’s a little different from us, but sometimes you have to adjust. We came out in the second half and started shooting, and that helped.”

The Hawks have shown resilience all season when they’ve been down, and they’ve found a way to get back into it, but it’s really closing out games with a win when the going gets tough.

With the loss, the Hawks are now 20-25, and a half game out of the play-in.