It’s not an ideal night for the Atlanta Hawks without Dyson Daniels.
It was all you could think about when the Australian defensive ace was introduced to the bench in the fourth quarter of the Atlanta Hawks’ horror loss to the Boston Celtics in a dismal defensive performance.
The undermanned Hawks suffered one of their biggest defeats of the season to the visiting Celtics in a 132-106 blowout on Sunday (all-time AEDT), headlined by Jaylen Brown’s 41 points.
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Also without Zacharie Risacher and Kristaps Porzingis, the Hawks gave up points too easily and missed Daniels’ elite defensive presence.
Thy gave up 82 points in the first half alone following Boston’s dominant 52-28 second quarter as the visitors increased their lead past 30.
The Celtics led by as many as 43 before Atlanta managed to reclaim the scoreboard with a 32-15 fourth term during a period where Sam Hauser let it fly from beyond the arc.
Hauser scored 30 points, including 10 threes, in a dazzling display of outside shooting, with all 21 of his field goal attempts coming from downtown.
Brown led all scorers with 41 to continue his stellar MVP-caliber season by stepping up in a major way without injured superstar Jayson Tatum.
That took the Celtics to 26-16 and cemented the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference while being four and a half games behind the No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons.
Onyeka Okongwu scored a team-high 21 points while Jalen Johnson added 12 on 4-of-14 shooting as his offensive struggles continued in a lean week as the Hawks lost their third straight game to fall to 20-24 overall.
This came after Atlanta reeled off three straight wins following the Trae Young trade earlier this month, with the Hawks now critically sitting just a game and a half in an East play-in spot ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks, who they face on Tuesday.
Atlanta has only suffered two bigger losses this season against Detroit (27 points) and San Antonio (28 points) than Sunday’s.
Daniels missed only his second match of the season with a sprained ankle, with the severity of the injury uncertain after the Australian initially entered the match with a questionable tag before being ruled out.
In other games, Antony Edwards exploded for a career-high 55 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Minnesota Timberwolves fell to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs 126-123 in an epic superstar duel.
Edwards put Minnesota on his back in the fourth quarter with a spectacular 26 points in the period to try to complete a comeback after the visitors were down by as many as 25 points.
The Timberwolves star and Wembanyama traded money during a thrilling final term that went down to the wire as the 7-foot-4 French stud and the Spurs had the last laugh.
Edwards shot 19 of 33 from the field overall, including 9 of 16 from downtown.
Wembanyama had a performance of his own with 39 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, while De’Aaron Fox added a double-double of 25 points and 12 rebounds.
It was a crucial victory against the backdrop of the Western Conference standings as the 29-13 Spurs solidified the No. 2 seed and increased their gap over No. 4 seed Minnesota to two and a half games.
Fox said the hard-fought nature of the win in San Antonio will serve them well in the latter stages of the season.
“We play in a lot of tough games, not just blowing teams out,” Fox said.
“It helps you in the long run to get used to playing games like this.
“But you know, when you’re one of the best teams in the league, you have to be able to put your foot down on teams and put them away. As a team, we have to learn how to do that.”
The Denver Nuggets, who beat the Washington Wizards on Sunday behind 42 points from Jamal Murray, are also 29-13 and just behind San Antonio in third place.
The Spurs remain in pursuit of Western Conference leader Oklahoma City, which suffered a surprise 122-120 loss to the Miami Heat on the road in Florida.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 39 points for the defending NBA champions, but Miami made 20 three-pointers — including Andrew Wiggins’ game-winning score with 32 seconds remaining — to hold on for a hard-fought victory.
Bam Adebayo led Miami’s scoring with 30 points, while Norman Powell finished with 19 on a night where six Heat players finished in double figures.
At the top of the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons won their 30th victory of the season by brutally beating 121-78 the unfortunate Indiana Pacers, finalists of last year’s NBA Finals and last in the standings.
The gap in class between the two teams was evident from the start, with Detroit taking a 31-11 lead late in the first quarter before taking a mammoth 59-25 lead into halftime.
Detroit would lead by 46 points at one point in the fourth quarter before pulling out a wire-to-wire victory that would see them improve to 30-10.
The third-place New York Knicks, meanwhile, stumbled to their third straight loss with a 106-99 loss to the Phoenix Suns at Madison Square Garden.
Devin Booker led the Suns’ scoring with 27 points against a depleted Knicks lineup without injured Jalen Brunson, who is nursing an injured ankle.
-With AFP
ALL RESULTS
Jazz130 Nonconformists 138
Celtics 132 Falcons 106
Pacers 78 Pistons 121
Suns 106 Knicks 99
Thunder 120 Heat 122
Timber wolves 123 Spurs 126
Hornets 116 Warriors 136
Wizards 115 Nuggets 121
Lakers – Trail Blazers
