Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson led the way for Atlanta in their first NBA Cup game this week, as the injury-hit Hawks upset Boston.
Boston Shocked By Atlanta
The Celtics were 16 point favourites against the Hawks on Tuesday night, so it is fair to say that nobody would have predicted Atlanta getting a win in Boston – especially without the injured Trae Young.
In the absence of Young it was Jalen Johnson who exploded into action for the Hawks, with the 22-year-old scoring his second career triple double. Johnson became the second youngest player to record a triple double at TD Garden in history after LeBron James.
It wasn’t just Johnson on fire in Boston though, as Dyson Daniels also recorded a career-high 28 points in the victory. In 41 minutes on the floor, Daniels recorded 28 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 5 steals.
Dyson Daniels has 36 steals in his first 10 games
That is the most since Allen Iverson in 2003 pic.twitter.com/uo1w6u2HW8
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 13, 2024
Boston certainly didn’t go down without a fight, as Jaylen Brown scored a season-high 37 points along with Derrick White, who added 31 of his own in a close loss in the cup.
Brown was asked postgame what went wrong in the loss and he addressed the team’s turnovers: “I think mentally, we were just careless tonight. We expected to win too careless. I mean, it showed.
“Our turnovers. It’s uncharacteristic of us having 20 turnovers… We wasn’t in sync like we normally were, so we got to be better at that and I got to be better at that.”
Jaylen Brown:
Me and JT gotta be better. We had 20 turnovers as a team, and me and him had 11 combined. pic.twitter.com/EoCLxSnmOX
— Cameron Tabatabaie (@CTabatabaie) November 13, 2024
By no means are the Celtics out of the cup, but they will have a long, uphill road to climb if they are going to make the quarter finals in Las Vegas this year.
It seems unlikely Boston will top their group this year after the loss, with the fixtures only getting harder for Joe Mazzulla’s side who face the unbeaten 12-0 Cavaliers in the second round.
Of course the reigning NBA champions could still advance to the quarters as one of the two best finishing second place teams.
