Atlanta Hawks: 7 Takeaways After Toppling West-Leading Nuggets

Vince Carter, Bona Fide Legend

As we’ve stated before, everything Vince Carter does for the Atlanta Hawks in his age-41 season is newsworthy, as he is a complete legend and one of the greatest players in NBA history.  In this one, Carter nailed 3 triples and had a putback dunk to end the 3rd quarter:

All in all, Vince ended with 13 points on 5 of 10 shooting, quite prolific work for a player that only saw 16 minutes of action on the night. We love you, Vince; never change.

Red Pepper Check-In

True to our brand, a takeaways piece wouldn’t be complete without a check-in on beloved rookie Kevin Huerter (aka Red Pepper). Similar to Baze, Huerter’s stats are never particularly eye-popping (though we believe that will come in time), but he always seems to impact the team into making the right play when he’s out there, and his BPM of +13 was the game’s highest on this night. Red Pepper finished the night with 8 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block in a team-high 36 minutes of action. Perhaps the most pleasantly surprising aspect of Huerter’s game has been his defense, as he is really able to move his feet well and stay with opposing players easily with his lateral movement and underrated length. Once he gets a bit more comfortable taking players off the dribble and his shot falls more consistently (2 of 6 tonight from deep), Huerter will be an impact player. He did hit this triple off a stylish no-look pass from Ice Trae, so there’s that:

The Atlanta Hawks are now off for 3 days before a date with Luka Doncic and the Mavericks in Dallas on December 12th.

Tip-off for that tilt is slated for 8:30 p.m. EST.