Nickeil Alexander-Walker reflects after the sunken jazz

ATLANTA, Georgia – The Atlanta Hawks they’ve been in a few situations this year where they’ve needed a bucket to end games, and a few players have broken it. Trae Young when he was once on the team. Jaylen Johnson punished several smaller defenders to close the games. CJ McCollum even had a chance in a short time with the team.

Then you have Nickeil Alexander-Walkerwho has had plenty of moments throughout the season and has shown that he is never afraid of a moment. It was against the Utah Jazz in charge of the occasion one more time.

With ten seconds left and the game tied after Ace Bailey knocked down a 3-pointer, the Hawks called two timeouts. Quinn Snyder decided not to call one, and the ball was handed to Alexander-Walker from the entrance.

“There were cross-matches and they were kind of rushing to get back. As I was bringing it up, I could tell they didn’t really call the pick-up point,” Alexander-Walker said. “At that point it was, ‘OK. Try to get to the basket.’

“I saw a lot of space behind me, I tried to go left to get to the basket, and then when I realized he cut me, I immediately went into ‘What’s the counter I’m working on right now?’ At that point I could put myself back in the practice space and just go through the repetitions of what I practiced every morning.

It was a turnaround jumper that Alexander-Walker settled for. The ball took two bounces before rolling. That gave the Hawks a two-point lead with 1.3 seconds left, and they were able to get a stop at the other end to win the game.

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Before Alexander-Walker came to the Hawks, he didn’t have to make those shots because other players were responsible for that. This season, he has the opportunity to have the ball late in the game to make a decision, and the team trusts him to do so.

“Everything I’ve been through in my career, it’s really cool to finally work to get that trust from somebody,” Alexander-Walker said. “In late game (situations), playing with (Anthony Edwards), playing with guys like (Brandon Ingram), Donovan (Mitchell), Zion (Williamson), like a lot of guys who had the ball late in the game and were trusted to make plays to come out and fairly keep the team in possession, so to speak.”

“It’s pretty cool for me, because I’ve been working for those moments, and today was a shot that everyone told me we’d seen so many times, knowing that I’m working on that stuff. It’s easier for me that it got in because of the effort I put in and how many times I’ve shot it before, and at that point it’s really cool to know that it’s also working and translating.”

Snyder knows he now has options when it comes to late-game situations, and those seem to be the most talked about situations.

“If those guys have a good situation that they can get to sometimes, you can call a timeout and get a great play and score that way,” Quin Snyder said. “There’s a chance you can do it and somebody misses, but whatever you decide to do as a team, that’s something we’ve got covered. That means you have confidence in those guys, and you know how hard they work. We talk about it, and they’re behind each other, and you want to get a good shot.”

There’s no doubt that Alexander-Walker will get more opportunities as the season continues to bring games for the Hawks, and the more he gets, his confidence will only grow.