Atlanta Hawks steal home-court advantage with Game 1 win – Grades

Atlanta Hawks starting lineup grades:

Kevin Huerter remained steady with 13 points, though it probably felt like a letdown coming off of his huge 27-point performance in Game 7 of the last round.  Huerter is the Hawks third-leading scorer in points per game since replacing De’Andre Hunter in the starting lineup. He’s also shown he’s more than just a spot-up shooter.

John Collins, the Hawks second-leading scorer, has been making a new highlight in just about every game. This time it was this off-the-backboard opp he caught from Trae Young. Collins has scored fewer than 12 points in just three games. They are 0-3 in those games and 9-1 in the others. It’s safe to say they need him to keep it up.

It’s never pretty but Clint Capela just keeps doing his thing, wearing down opponents on defense, catching lobs on offense, and crashing the glass on both ends. Capela scored eight of his 12 points in the second half of Game 1 and hauled in 19 rebounds. He also had a clutch putback late that put the Hawks up by one point with less than 30 seconds.

This grade is being generous. Bogdan Bogdanovic is suffering from a knee injury that has just sapped all of his lift. He shot 16 percent from the floor in this one, though he only attempted two three, which he missed. Bogi also had three steals, giving him seven over his last three games.

Let’s put this in no uncertain terms, Rayford Trae Young is a certified superstar and is quickly gaining the reputation of being an assassin. He scored his 48 points in Game 1 in a variety of ways, from the floater to the deep three (which almost got him in trouble). Young added another 11 assists and went to the free-throw line 10 times in the fourth quarter alone.