State Farm Arena- The Atlanta Hawks are taking full advantage of being back home after their west coast road trip. The Hawks extend their win streak to three in a row after beating the Boston Celtics 110-99.
The Celtics were without starting center Robert Williams and starting guard Jaylen Brown. Brown is their second-leading scorer on the team, and his offense has truly been missed. However, grant Williams did give an early first-half scoring spark in the starting lineup and finished the game with 18 points and six rebounds. Jason Tatum finished the game with 34 points and nine rebounds, but there wasn’t much production from the bench outside of the five starters. The Celtics had four bench players that ten minutes or more, and only one scored. Yes, three NBA players played ten or more minutes and didn’t register a single point.
Dennis Schroder and Al Horford were welcomed back to Atlanta. This is their first time returning as teammates since they were teammates with the Hawks from 2013-2015.
The Hawks were without starting forward De’Andre Hunter, but that wasn’t a problem for them. Instead, they showed their depth with five players scoring in double figures and four players scoring 15 or more points in the game.
Trae Young led the way with a double-double, scoring 18 points and having 11 assists. John Collins had his double-double as well with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanovic have hot shooting nights from the three-point line. Both players combined to go 9 of 17 from three. Huerter finished the night going 7 of 9 from the floor to go along with 19 points. Huerter was so hot that he didn’t miss his first shot until the two-minute mark in the first quarter and proceeded only to miss one more shot afterward.
Cam Reddish was effective coming off the bench. Reddish finished with 19 points and was very active on defense as well. He had two key steals on Tatum, with one coming late in the fourth quarter when the Celtics were trying to make their run. With De’Andre Hunter being sidelined for two months with a wrist injury, the Hawks will need Reddish to play effectively and efficiently every night. Reddish got off to a hot start to kick off the season, but his play has been up and down all November.
“The guys were trying to find me,” Reddish said. “I got some easy ones, and that got me going.”
The Hawks will have two days off and continue their five-game homestand when they take on the Charlotte Hornets at State Farm Arena this Saturday. The Celtics will take on their longtime rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, at home on ESPN.
