Traditionally, even dominant Boston Celtics groups have struggled towards the Atlanta Hawks within the playoffs. Tuesday, that battle prolonged to the Emirates Cup.
Onyeka Okongwu tipped in a Dyson Daniels miss with 6.1 seconds for the game-winning basket in Atlanta’s 117-116 win over Boston. The 2 groups traded turnovers earlier than Jaylen Brown’s 13-footer on the buzzer missed and let the Hawks pull off the large upset.
The Hawks had been 15-point underdogs towards the defending champions, because of an harm report virtually so long as Okongwu’s 7-foot-2 wingspan. Atlanta was lacking All-Star Trae Younger, starter De’Andre Hunter, sixth man Bogdan Bogdanovic and the primary three level guards on their depth chart.
However the Hawks obtained a career-high 28 factors from the 21-year-old Daniels, who additionally had six steals within the win.
Atlanta additionally obtained the second profession triple-double from Jalen Johnson and a career-high 5 three-pointers from Larry Nance Jr. to stun the Celtics, who led by as many as 15 factors within the third quarter.
It is doable that the format of the Emirates Cup, which makes use of level differential as a tiebreaker, damage the Celtics. With the Celtics maybe ready to run up the rating, the Hawks racked up six steals within the third — a part of Boston’s 20 turnovers for the sport.
Now the Hawks are in first place in East Group C of the Emirates Cup standings. The Celtics are nonetheless the clear NBA title favorites, however they have an uphill battle forward within the in-season match.
