
The Atlanta Hawks have had to play a lot of good teams early on in their schedule this season, and that continued on Thursday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, last year's Eastern Conference runner-up. After losing three straight games, including two of them at home, Atlanta rebounded with a win against the Cavaliers and evened their record to 3-3.
It was a game of runs in State Farm Arena. Cleveland jumped out to a 31-16 lead in the first quarter and the Hawks could not buy a basket. A big run in the second quarter put the Hawks ahead for good and then they held on for dear life at the end to get the win.
When it comes to standouts in this game, who were the winners and losers?
Okongwu was coming off a frustrating game against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, but it was not just that game. Okongwu had been pretty dismal from a numbers perspective in the first five games of the season as a whole and facing the big man duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen was not going to make his life easier.
Okongwu could not have had a better performance tonight. He was the best player on the court for either team, scoring 29 points and pulling in 12 rebounds while hitting four of his six three point attempts. When he is shooting the ball at that high-level, Okongwu is one of the better centers in the league and can make up for his size issues.
It is still early in the season, but there might be some discussions about moving CJ McCollum to the bench at some point if he keeps playing like this. Not only that, but I think that Hawks head coach Quin Snyder made a big mistake by closing with McCollum over Aaron Wiggins against the Cavaliers.
McCollum shot 1-for-8 from the field and 0-for-4 from three, scoring five points and handing out eight assists. He had a particularly rough end to the first half, committing two turnovers and fouling James Harden on a three-point attempt. It was not a good night for McCollum, and given how Kingston Flemings and Aaron Wiggins are playing, it might be time to at least consider shifting his role.
Wiggins has made a home in this section by being a winner after nearly every night, but after a poor performance vs Miami on Wednesday, Wiggins was needing a bounce back.
He got that and more. He finished with 20 points off the bench, shooting 8-for-14 from the field and 4-for-7 from the field and also grabbing seven rebounds. Wiggins is a great complement to the rest of this roster off the bench and has been playing very well on both ends of the floor.
I hate putting Daniels here because he does a lot of little things well, but this is the third straight game where he has scored fewer than double digits, and in this game vs. the Cavaliers, he shot 2-for-8 from the field, scoring four points and pulling in six rebounds as well as handing out five assists.
Daniels simply has to find a way to be effective every night on offense, even if he is not scoring in large numbers, which he typically doesn't. Tonight he was not and it could have cost the Hawks.
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