Hawks seeing returns with player development in win over Magic

Wallace became the Hawks’ first-ever two-way player to record a triple-double after scoring 17 points, 11 rebounds, 15 assists and five steals. The Hawks guard had career-highs in rebounds and assists, while tying his career-best in steals.

“I knew this was gonna be our last game of the season and my last game this season,” Wallace. “So if I just wanted to go out play hard, make sure we was going the right way and get a dub, a lot of things went my way.”

But as the head of the Hawks’ offensive snake in Sunday’s game, Wallace got the team organized by following the team’s philosophy.

“When you spend as much time as we have, talking about playing with the pass, playing with pace, spacing and second actions, movement, all those things in the offensive end, you see a group come out and attack collectively, good things happen,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said.

2. But Wallace was not the only one who showed the fruits of the Hawks’ developmental labor. Hawks wing Vit Krejci finished the day perfect from the floor after making all five of his overall field goals, two of which came from 3.

Krejci, who will likely play significant minutes in Tuesday’s game against the Magic, also showed growth throughout the season.

The Hawks wing finished the season averaging 7.7 points this season after returning from a fractured lower back. But Krejci has shot the ball well this season shooting a career-high 43.1% from 3.

“It’s been definitely a lot of ups and downs,” Krejci said. “But yeah, I was just trying to take a day at a time. So if it was, if it was rehabbing, I was trying to rehab. And I was trying to rehab 100% if it was playing, was trying to play 100% so again, it just speaks to the work that everybody puts in here.”

3. The Hawks had seven players end the double figures. Two-way forward Jacob Toppin made his debut in a Hawks uniform after the team acquired him off waivers last month.

Though the Hawks started Wallace, Terance Mann, Zaccharie Risacher, Mouhamed Gueye and Dominick Barlow, all of them did not play a lot of minutes. Risacher and Gueye only played in the first quarter and the Hawks went with Krejci and Toppin to start the second half.

“We got a lot of guys that deserve a lot of minutes on the floor, too,” Wallace said. “So, they were locked in. We was executing the same thing that coach was talking about. A lot of people stepped up tonight. Had a good game. DQ (Daeqwon Plowden) play today. So, you know, everybody had a role to play. Everybody stepped up.”

4. Hawks guard Trae Young accepted the annual Sekou Smith Award for his professionalism with the media before tip-off Sunday. While Zaccharie Risacher and Dyson Daniels accepted their respective awards for Rookie of the Month and Defensive Player of the Month.

“I just think it’s something that I have tremendous respect for, with our guys, and that’s how our staff is set up, and that’s who we want to be,” Snyder said. “We want to get better individually and get better collectively. And when you talk about player development, like, there it is.”

5. The Hawks won 40 games in the regular season after analysts projected they would win just 36 games. That projection came after the Hawks finished last regular season with 35 wins and a 10th place finish in the Eastern Conference.

The team’s improvement on their season in spite of the loss of Jalen Johnson, as well as several other key rotational players in and out of the lineup.

“What this group has accomplished is pretty impressive,” Snyder said. “To finish the season with 40 wins, given the change and the adversity that they’ve gone through, it goes to their development. It goes to their determination and their ability to take adversity and turn it into opportunity.”

Stat to know

Vit Krejci finished the season with more than 400 points this season, which surpassed his total points scored over the last three seasons combined.

Quotable

“A lot of guys got a lot better, you know, throughout the year. And you can see that on the paper, and you can see it on the court.” -- Vit Krejci on the Hawks development.

Up Next

The Hawks head to Orlando, where they suit up to play the Magic for first game of the Play-In Tournament.