The Atlanta Hawks welcomed back Bogdan Bogdanovic to their lineup against the Sacramento Kings which meant that they had no player on the injury list. This has not happened since Janury of 2020, two years ago.
When he first hit the court Bogdanovic looked a little rusty. He missed his first free throw attempt before making his second. It was a similar situation with his first shot from outside the perimeter. He took a 3-ball which missed and the man who brings the energy, Onyeka Okongwu, got the offensive rebound.
Okongwu passed the ball back to a wide open Bogdanovic. It is good that he did because it is very rare that a shooter as good as Bogdanovic misses two from a similar spot. The ball did not touch the rim and Bogdanovic had his first make from deep since he came back.
The Atlanta Hawks saw the Bogdan Bogdanovic from the second half of last season.
What happened next took us all back to what Bogdanovic was able to acheive in the second half of last season. If you remember, he set a Hawks record for three point shooting in a month. But coming back tho this year, it is easy to see why his shooting is so crucial for the Hawks, it was on full display tonight.
Bogdanovic had 18 points for the game tonight, 16 of these were in the first half. He and Lou Williams were the architects of the 46 point second period which set up the win for the Hawks. The way he did this was of course through his shooting.
He had to be respected any time he caught the ball in the offensive half which left massive driving lanes open. This allowed him to find the open player with incredible regularity, ending the game with seven assists and he got a hockey assist on Okongwu’s massive one handed slam.
He was also active on the boards, collecting three defensive rebounds and his active hands created one steal. He wsa plus 16 in the box score in just 23 minutes. The only negatives you might be able to draw from the performance was he was only 3-of-8 from deep but when you have missed five games if that is the only negative, you know that you have done a tremendous job
Grade: A+