Backup Atlanta Hawks guard, Delon Wright, got a shoutout during the team’s dominant 132-103 win over the Charlotte Hornets in their first-leg Play-In Tournament matchup. They will now face the Cleveland Cavaliers, whom they beat 3-of-4 times in the regular season, on the road Friday, April 15.
The win gives the Hawks a 3-2 edge over the Hornets this season, though, due to the rules, the win neither counts for regular-season or playoff statistics.
That means Trae Young’s 24 points and 11 assists “don’t count”. Neither does big man Clint Capela’s double-double that he had before the break and finished with 15 points and 17 rebounds.
It also means Delon Wright’s big block doesn’t count, but not that it went unnoticed.
Former NBA F Dorell Wright sent a shout out to his brother, Atlanta Hawks guard Delon Wright
Wright ended Wednesday’s tilt with eight points, five rebounds, and assists while shooting 75.0% from the floor and hitting his lone attempt from beyond the arc. It was his highest-scoring performance in nearly two weeks since he scored nine points on 50.0% shooting against the Brooklyn Nets on April 2.
He drove to the basket for a layup late in the third quarter that elicited this reaction from his brother and 11-year NBA veteran forward, Dorell Wright.
Ok delon. I like that
— Dorell Wright 🏁 (@DWRIGHTWAY1) April 14, 2022
As nifty as that was, it wasn’t what got the crowd going. That was this block that came early in the fourth quarter with the Hawks up by 28 points.
Delon put some attitude on this block pic.twitter.com/t9NP7lYJgM
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) April 14, 2022
The best part of this is that, while the Hawks were up big in the final frame, they were still playing hard and moments such as this can translate.
His efficiency was encouraging too.
Wright entered postseason play on a frigid run of 2.3 points hitting just two of his last nine shots from the floor across four games. He had three other stretches this season in which he hit one or fewer shots in at least four consecutive games.
All three previous slumps were longer, spanning eight games from October 24 to November 18, six games from December 3 to December 15, and five games from March 9 to 16.
He had not shot even 50.0% from the floor since March 31 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wright is not on the floor to score, he is out there for his defense and to keep the offense humming when Trae Young sits. To that end, he did a great job the assists were his most since an equal mark in that game against Cleveland and he was credited with holding his assignments to 1-for-7 shooting including 0-for-1 from deep.
He had the best defensive rating among the team’s rotation players, per Cleaning the Glass, and the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio among players with at least 75 appearances which is another accomplishment given the Hawks injury and COVID woes.
The elder Wright was the 19th-overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat where he spent the first six years of his career before moving on to the Golden State Warriors and, later the Portland Trailblazers. He signed a couple of deals with the Heat and Los Angeles Clippers in 2016 but did not see any action.
This isn’t the first time he’s shouted out his little bro’s performance even this season, taking to Twitter to applaud his 20-point, three-steal effort against the New York Knicks on Christmas day. He has been publicly vocal in his support for his brother the entire time and on his way into the league.
As far as nice stories go in the NBA, brotherly love is always near the top. Especially when they come amid convincing wins as the Hawks had on Wednesday over the Hornets.