It seems that the Hawks are beginning to regain sensations. The Atlanta team beat Boston 110-99 this morning, adding their third consecutive victory and gradually beginning to climb places in the league table after a highly improvable start to the season. McMillan’s men continue with a negative balance of 7-9 and out of the positions of play-in, but this little streak could serve as a turning point to begin to return to the level that they offered last year.
On this occasion, Georgia did not need a great Trae Young to win the game, as the point guard had serious problems to overcome the aggressive defense of the Celtics. Udoka’s team sought to overwhelm the point guard with continuous 2vs1, trying to make him make hasty decisions and prevent him from getting into the rhythm, something they achieved to a certain extent. Young could not go beyond 18 points after signing a 4/12 in the shot and losing 6 balls (although he distributed 11 assists), but this came at the cost of neglecting the defense over the rest of Atlanta’s men, who took a step forward and they showed that this team is more than its star.
Both John Collins, with 20 points and 11 rebounds, as well as Kevin Huerter and Cam Reddish, with 19 points each, knew how to appear at different times to keep adding up and make the Hawks take the crash with some comfort. The locals were ahead practically from start to finish, and although their distance was never excessively bulky, they did manage to maintain a sufficient income not to suffer in the last quarter and close the duel comfortably. Each attempt at Boston’s reaction found an answer, as their choral performance allowed them to have numerous active men ready to solve each possession.
“If any team wants to be aggressive and try to override Trae, the rest of us are ready to take responsibility and do more than usual,” said Collins. «The game becomes more comfortable for us. We have a lot of very talented players.
The opposite happened in the Celtics, in which, in the absence of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum had to pull the car excessively without finding too much support. The forward ended the match with 34 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, a great performance that was, however, insufficient.
Grant Williams and Dennis Schröder, with 18 and 15 points respectively, served as support, although neither of them was a solid enough second sword. The big problem, however, came in the second unit, in which only Josh Richardson scored, so Massachusetts lost the bench duel 32-11.
(Cover photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
