Atlanta Hawks: Unpacking Kevin Huerter’s success against the Celtics

The Atlanta Hawks have had three tremendous games at home which is starting to make up for the disastrous road swing they just finished. The four-straight road losses on the trip were compounded by the earlier losses to the Brooklyn Nets on the road and then the Utah Jazz at home the next night. The schedule was not kind to the Hawks.

Part of the reason for this is that with the exception of John Collins and Trae Young, every player had an extended stretch on this losing streak where they struggled. Kevin Huerter was not an exception to this, his slump had been for most of the start of the season.

Still, there was a reason that the Hawks signed him to a rookie extension, Huerter can flat out ball, he just needs to keep shooting the ball and creating for others and we all knew the performances like Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals would come back.

How the Atlanta Hawks have used Kevin Huerter and his skills.

Since moving back into the starting lineup for the Hawks thanks to the injury to De’Andre Hunter. The starting wing is going to miss eight weeks of basketball thanks to surgery on a tendon in his right wrist. Fortunately for the Hawks’ they are well-practiced in covering for injured wing players.

Huerter played well against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first game of the homestand and then was quiet in the second game against the Orlando Magic. However, the way that he started against the Boston Celtics set the Hawks up for the relatively easy win.

In the first quarter, Huerter was unstoppable, hitting 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and 5-of-6 from the field which gave him 14 points for the quarter. The reason he was so dominant was that the Celtics were trying to trap Trae Young as soon as he crossed the timeline through a double team.

This left Huerter open as the Celtics obviously thought that Young was the most likely player to hurt them. Well, Huerter is a tremendous shooter when left unchecked and his game really helped the Hawks win.

Last season Bogdan Bogdanovic took this role of taking the pressure off Young but teams are trying to hold him in check as well. Huerter has another seven weeks to potentially win a position as a starter and games like this will go a long way to doing this.