Studs and duds as the Atlanta Hawks have won three straight road games

Atlanta Hawks stud after third-straight road win: Kevin Huerter shot the  ball well against Indy

It hadn’t been a good start to the season offensively for Kevin Huerter. He’s averaging 9.9 points and while his three-point efficiency has risen from last year’s mark, it’s still a ways off from his 38.5 percent he shot from deep as a rookie. Huerter is knocking down a career-best 47.8 percent of his looks overall, however.

He’s also played some of the best defense on the team.

Huerter dropped 19 points on Indy and did efficient damage from deep, going 3-of-4 from deep and 8-of-11 from the floor overall.

Since the Hawks snapped their losing streak, the 6-foot-7 swingman has averaged 12.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists on 53.7 percent shooting overall and 43.6 percent from outside.

The Hawks offensive rating goes up by .5 points when Huerter sits. But their defensive rating plummets by 11.3 points when he goes to the bench. That is the third-highest mark on the team behind reserves Solomon Hill and Gorgui Dieng neither of whom are providing close to what Huerter has on either end.

Huerter is indispensable with Bogdanovic, Hunter, and Reddish all sidelined. The most encouraging part of it all may be that his three-ball is finding the bottom of the net again.

We’ve seen him raise his level of play before. Namely in last season’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals. This was a good sign for the fourth-year man out of the University of Maryland, and the Hawks, going forward.