Image From ATLHawks Twitter
Coming off the heels of a six-game losing streak, the Hawks have now won three games in-a-row. Building off their wins against Milwaukee and Orlando, the Hawks dispatched the Boston Celtics by a score of 110-99, Wednesday night in Atlanta.
The Hawks controlled this one wire-to-wire, and came out hot, led by Kevin Huerter, who had 14 first quarter points. He finished with 19 overall on 7-9 shooting from the field. The Hawks played defense all night and controlled the tempo of this game. They played the passing lanes excellently, played great physical defense and held their own in individual defensive matchups. The offense looked much like it has during this three-game home stand: balanced, efficient and potent.
The truth about tonight’s game was not just about the numbers, it was the effort. They let the Celtics know from the jump how this game was going to play out. It seemed like the first time in forever that they held an opponent under 100-points and that was from the great effort as a defensive unit. On the offensive side of the ball, the rock was finding the open man and swinging side-to-side. With effort like tonight and trusting teammates like they did, this looked a lot more like the Hawks team that was two games away from an NBA finals appearance last season.
Cam Reddish was a huge bright spot for the young Hawks, as he finished with 19 points, which included a strong second half that helped finish this game off. He was aggressive and got to the spots that he wanted all night long. Atlanta had five different players score in double figures on the night. John Collins led the way for all Hawks-scorers with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Atlanta’s bench also outscored Boston’s with a tally of 32-11.
The Celtics rode the coattails of Jason Tatum all night long as he poured in 34 points. Tatum did not have much help and the C’s were bogged down by shooting 11-41 from three-point land. Boston battled from behind most of the game and it was a losing battle the way Atlanta was moving the ball.
The Hawks now turn their attention to the Charlotte Hornets this Saturday. Charlotte will head down to State Farm Arena to take on the Hawks for the first of four meetings this season. Tip-off is at 7:30pm eastern, catch us pregame and postgame on our TwitterSpaces show The Highlight Factory.
