Atlanta Hawks: Studs and duds from confidence-building win over BOS
Atlanta Hawks dud from confidence-building win: Gallo had a rough go on both ends of the court
Things seemed to be turning around offensively for Danilo Gallinari recently, just as they have for Huerter. After missing the first three games of the season, he averaged just 6.3 points on 34.4 percent shooting over his first 10 appearances with just two games where he scored at least 10 points.
He’s now done it twice in his last three games, Wednesday’s win notwithstanding.
Gallo had just eight points to go with four boards in just over 20 minutes versus the Celtics, neither of which are that big of a deal with the others contributing as they were. But Gallinari was efficient, shooting 50 percent from the floor.
He was not so fortunate from outside, going 1-for-4 from deep. But we know he is a bucket, the concern was his defense in this one.
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No one is confusing him for a lockdown defender, but he hadn’t been a liability.
The Hawks largely did a good job of hiding him on easier matchups. But, whenever their scorers go the chance, they attacked, going 4-for-4 against the 6-foot-10 14-year vet with Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Grant Williams, and Marcus Smart all taking a turn.
There is a level of nitpicking going on here. We know what he is offensively and that bad (or simply low volume) nights are going to happen. What the Hawks cannot afford is for him to be a constant target for the opposing offense.
That will lead to him being taken off of the floor and it’s kind of hard to score at all from the bench.
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Again, this isn’t a call for him to turn into Aaron Gordon on defense. But he needs to do a better job of using his size than he did against the Celtics who got all of their points against him from inside the arc.