Kevin Huerter announced his return to form with an insane last 30 seconds, which saw the Atlanta Hawks survive a tight game against the Sacramento Kings. The Hawks have had a brutal last few games, seeing leads dissipate, defensive collapses, and just awful all-around basketball from this club.
There’s no way to know how this game will affect the rest of the season, but seeing as we were without Trae Young, who had a historic performance on Monday, this was quite an improbable win. On top of that, Kevin Huerter himself has had a rough start to the season. Coming in and out with injuries and COVID protocols, as a shooter, it has been challenging for him to find rhythm. While he didn’t shoot lights out from three, he was highly efficient, with 25 points on 10-18 shooting from the field. Not only that, but he was an astonishing +14 and had 11 rebounds off the bench.
The game started with a nice Hawks run; however, the Kings cut it close in the second half and were 3 points away from the lead to end the third quarter. Finally, the fourth quarter was an absolute dog fight coming down to Huerter’s last 5 points, all of which came in the last 35 seconds in the game. Assistant coach, Prunty ran a short rotation of just eight players, which many Hawks’ fans asked for.
While the Hawks defense wasn’t running on a historic level, they held the Kings below 130 points, which sadly we have not done in 2 of the last three games. Outside of Huerter’s excellent clutch performance, Cam Reddish, Clint Capela, and Onyeka Okongwu had good games. Reddish dropped a somewhat efficient 18 points and was one of the only shot creators on the floor the entire night. Capela has been playing a bit more like himself lately, with another double-double and two blocks. Onyeka Okongwu has played great this season, with another staunch defensive performance.
Let’s hope we can see a similar performance on Friday against the Lakers. HawksFan TV will be hosting a watch party at the North River Tavern, details can be found at @HawksFanTV on Twitter.
