Atlanta Hawks: Studs and duds from confidence-building win over BOS
Atlanta Hawks stud from confidence-building win: Huerter and Reddish played to their strengths
It hasn’t been the best start to the season for Kevin Huerter. To put it plainly, he was bad out of the gates. The fourth-year wing averaged 4.8 points on 28.6 percent shooting over his first six games. Since then, following a one-game absence, he’s averaged 11.6 points 55.1 percent shooting.
Even more encouraging has been the return of his long ball. After shooting with efficiency in the teens, he’s up to 47.2 percent from distance in this recent stretch.
Against the Celtics, in his third-consecutive start (and fourth overall) in place of De’Andre Hunter, Huerter had 19 points on 77.8 percent shooting.
He also went 5-for-7 from beyond the arc while holding his defensive assignments to 3-of-13 shooting. But none of that was the best part of the night for him.
Huerter had 14 points and was 4-of-5 from three in the first quarter.
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Maybe that makes this a bit of a disappointment. But after just one game scoring in double-figures before he sat out, Huerter has scored at least 10 points in five of his last nine.
It’s why he shares this space with Cam Reddish, who matched his teammates total with 19 points. The former Duke Blue Devil shot 57.1 percent, had three steals, two rebounds, an assist, and a block with just one turnover in over 26 minutes of action.
While Huerter missed his lone attempt in the second half, Reddish scored 11 of his points in the game’s second act.
Unlike Huerter, Reddish struggled from deep (1-for-6) but looked like a force driving to the basket.
Their contrasting halves are exactly what we mean by the Hawks need more consistency from the wings now that Hunter is out.
Performances like these are great. Now, they need to occur with more regularity if the Hawks want to dig themselves out of their early hole and catch back up to an Eastern Conference pack that has failed to truly separate itself.