Kevin Huerter kept his streak alive in Atlanta Hawks win over Pacers

The Atlanta Hawks (33-34) have gone 27-18 this season with Kevin Huerter in the starting lineup following their 131-128 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. They took over the ninth spot in the East with the Charlotte Hornets idle. Both teams play on Monday with the Hornets visiting the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Hawks hosting the Portland Trail Blazers.

This is the Hawks second win in a row and the third time they’ve beaten the Pacers this season with one more matchup on the schedule in a little over two weeks.

Trae Young dropped 47 points while going 7-of-10 from deep as he continued to torment an extremely short-handed Pacers team missing big man Goga Bitadze as well as standout rookie Chris Duarte and former Hawks 10-day signee, Lance Stephenson.

Meanwhile, Huerter continued with his shooting resurgence to help eke out the win.

The Atlanta Hawks need Kevin Huerter’s shooting streak to continue into the postseason

We detailed how the Hawks have deployed Huerter at small forward more than shooting guard this season. Some of that has had to do with the constant shuffling of the roster due to injuries and COVID. But the results have been encouraging with the fourth-year man out of Maryland shooting a career-best 46.0 percent from the floor.

Better yet, he’s now matched his career-high 38.5 percent from three with his 4-for-9 showing on Sunday. It marked the first time in Huerter’s young career that he’s hit at least four triples in three consecutive games and point to an even larger point.

Over his last five appearances, he’s averaging 13.6 points on 48.1 percent shooting overall and 46.9 percent from downtown.

The Hawks have gone 4-1 in that stretch.

Of course, there are a ton of other factors. Again, COVID ravaged this team. They boasted the largest roster in NBA history at one point and started players like Chaundee Brown and relying on the likes of Malcolm Hill for depth. But the Hawks have gone 3-5 without him in the lineup and 3-11 when he has come off of the bench.

His defense is still not to the level we often saw last season. But, much like playing Lou Williams over Delon Wright, he’s offset porous defense with better offense. His 4.0 net rating is a big improvement over the 1.7 mark he posted last season.

Still, the Hawks have gone 17-13 when Huerter hits multiple threes this season but, interestingly, just 6-6 when he hits four or more.

Huerter is also a part of the Hawks most efficient lineup along with Young, Bogdan Bogdanovic, John Collins – who missed Sunday’s contest with multiple injuries – and Clint Capela.