Atlanta Hawks: 3 Takeaways from Nice Win Over Heat

Replacing Mr. Bazemore

Kent Bazemore was just starting to play his best ball of the season when he went down with a injury that will likely keep him out a good chunk of future games.

He, after accepting a role to come of the bench, was already filling in for Taurean Prince in the starting lineup. Daniel Hamilton had taken on the open spot in the previous three games, but struggled to make a positive impact, and after scoring just 2 points in the disastrous Bucks game, coach Lloyd Pierce opted to make a change.

DeAndre’ Bembry was the choice, and he got his 7th career start. He quickly made pierce’s decision look good, and had a great game overall. He lead the team with a +/- of 26, making 7 of 11 shots for 17 points.

This comes his career high 19 points in the aforementioned Bucks blowout, and is the making himself a case to be a starter when Baze does come back from injury.

Surprisingly however, Pierce kept Hamilton near the front of the bench, and his 23 minutes lead the Hawks’ bench and was actually the most play he’s gotten this season. He continues to get minutes over Tyler Dorsey (7 minutes tonight) and Justin Anderson (threw down massive dunk in his 2 minutes). We’ll see how (or if) the rotation differs in the coming weeks, with both Prince and Bazemore slated to return by month’s end.