The Atlanta Hawks were without Trae Young and Caris LeVert against the Philadelphia 76ers. However, Dyson Daniels led the team with 26 points and Atlanta came away with the 132-123 victory at State Farm Arena.
First overall pick Zaccharie Rishacher scored 22 points, Terance Mann added 19 off the bench and Georges Niang scored 18 points. Head coach Quin Snyder says the young guys are playing with confidence. He’s willing to deal with their growing pains as their collective game continues to evolve.
“They’re young. That’s part of the process,” Snyder said of Daniels and Rishacher. “They go through some things. But As I said at the beginning here, it’s a long runway. “We may not have anticipated those guys being in some of the situations they’re in. But whether it’s injury, trade, all those things. As the roster evolves, there’s been opportunities for them, and they stepped up in those situations.”
As for Risacher, he has a non-judgmental approach to self-improvement. He focuses on maintaining the right mentality and daily effort to make progress.
“I don’t ask myself a lot of questions,” Risacher says. “I just go out there and play my game. And if I gotta adjust something, we talk about it during the game.”
Maintaining the intensity without the key players
Quentin Grimes heated up in the fourth quarter for Philadelphia. He finished the night with 35 points.
“Three and a half quarters of good basketball, and then the last six minutes was a little messy for us.” Daniels said. “So we need to clean that up.”
Daniels was the primary ball handler tonight due to Young’s absence. However, he’s grown up being the primary ball handler but with Young on the squad, it’s only sharpened his game.
“ You know, here in Atlanta, we probably got the best ball handler in the league,” Daniels said. “With Trae, I’m playing off the ball and he finds you and hits you on cuts. It’s really, really good, like that. So I still always have those skills. I’ve always had vision and stuff like that. So I think, you know, when guys go down, you’re not able to step up and play that role.
Looking Ahead
The Hawks are currently the No. 7 team in the East and all but have locked down a spot in the play-in tournament. Atlanta holds a 1.5 game lead over No. 8 Orlando and No. 9 Miami. Atlanta trails the Detroit Pistons by 5 games for the sixth playoff spot.
The Atlanta Hawks host LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets Wednesday night at State Farm Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM.
