Some surprising players show fight for the Atlanta Hawks: 3 takeaways

John Collins can put this team on his back.

In the second period, there were only two Hawks who were doing anything useful for the team. One was Huerter as explained above, the other was Collins. The fourth-year man showed his value to the franchise by putting his head down and getting to work.

He was the high scorer at the half with 14 points to go along with the nine rebounds he collected. He was competing inside, finishing through contact and generally doing the dirty work which is required to come back from a 27-11 deficit at the first break.

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By the end of the game Collins had a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds, four of those rebounds were on the offensive end. He also collected one assist and one steal. Collins shot the ball at 56.3 percent from the floor going 9-of-16 and got to the charity stripe seven times, making five of them.

However, it was not just the numbers that made Collins’ effort special, it was how he played. On one play Huerter turned down a corner 3-point attempt to drive to the hoop. He was cut off and threw the alley-oop to Collins. The pass was poor but using his athleticism, Collins made it look good, lifting his teammates with a laugh about it too. That is leadership.