Dyson Daniels have a day.
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The Atlanta Hawks guard’s breakout season continued to build momentum in a big way on Wednesday, with the 21-year-old putting up a career-high 28 points in a 117-116 win over the Boston Celtics.
Hawks commentator Bob Rathbun described it as an “upset of biblical proportions” as Atlanta, without offensive centerpiece Trae Young (right Achilles tendonitis), stunned the reigning NBA champions.
Daniels, the league’s runaway leader in steals, added six more in the win to go with seven assists and three rebounds.
Rathbun called it another “defensive clinic” from the Australian and said it was the “best game of his career no doubt with these circumstances”, noting the added responsibility he had with Young unavailable.
“He has been basically cooking on all cylinders,” added co-commentator Brian Oliver.
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Daniels now has 36 steals on the season, the most in a player’s first 10 games for a team since Allen Iverson in 2003.
Hawks coach Quin Snyder was asked after the game how he balanced the rotation and minutes across the board with the team’s depth tested and it was telling that his first instinct was to go to Daniels.
“One of the biggest things is keeping matchups for us with Dyson,” Snyder said.
“He’s that impactful defensively.”
Meanwhile, Daniels’ previous career-high mark in points was the 18 he posted against the Hornets earlier this season and it was only fitting that he passed that number on a steal, anticipating a Sam Hauser pass and getting the deflection before laying it on the other end.
“We knew it was going to be tough coming in against the defending champs but we fought,” Daniels said after the game.
“We fought until the end. They got us in the first half and we went down 15 or something but we kept our head up, kept fighting and credit to the team.
“Coming in here people were probably counting us out but we didn’t count us out. We came in here, we did our job, we did what we needed to do.”
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The Celtics were getting up plenty of shots early in the game but couldn’t get them to fall, shooting just 25 per cent from deep in the first quarter.
The Hawks, meanwhile, were relying on plenty of screening, cutting and off-ball movement in general without the creation of Young as the primary ballhandler.
They were also generating points by consistently out-working the Celtics and crashing the offensive glass to create second-chance looks.
Atlanta led 11-8 early with six offensive rebounds. Jalen Johnson was the primary point guard at the start of the game, although the offence later ran through Daniels as the de facto option with Johnson and Wallace on the bench.
Daniels played all 12 minutes of the first quarter, with the NBA’s leader in steals racking up three more quickly in the opening period to go with seven points and two assists.
The Bendigo product was doing well to consistently get into the paint when playing as the floor general, laying it in on one occasion and then getting an and-1 soon after.
When he wasn’t finishing Daniels was penetrating and forcing the Celtics defence to help before dumping it off to either Clint Capela or Larry Nance Jr.
The Celtics closed out the first quarter with a Sam Houser triple to take a 31-29 on the back of 16 points from Jaylen Brown.
Daniels checked back into the game after four-and-a-half minutes on the bench to open the second quarter, with Boston up 41-38 at that point.
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The Celtics were able to push it out to 65-54 by halftime after a costly foul from Johnson on a last-second shot from Brown, who made both free throws.
It looked like Boston was going to push away but instead the Hawks refused to go away, going on a 9-0 run at one point in the third quarter to make it a six-point game.
That continued deep into the quarter as a Payton Pritchard 3-pointer put the Celtics ahead 86-77, only for Nance Jr. to answer right back with a triple of his own.
An aggressive Daniels then added another driving layup and floater to get the Hawks within four points before a Hauser triple pust Boston ahead 91-84 at the end of the third quarter.
While being without Young obviously limited Atlanta’s offence, the Hawks were consistently able to get into the paint on Wednesday and tied the game at 108-108 entering the final two minutes.
A Derrick White 3-pointer — his fourth in the quarter — then put Boston back up again 111-108 in what looked like a late dagger, but once again Atlanta continued to hang around.
A Tatum triple which would have put the Celtics ahead 119-115 with 23 seconds left rimmed out in a big break for Atlanta, who called a timeout with a chance to win on the final possession.
Daniels had the chance to hit the game-winner and while his floater was just off, Onyeka Okongwu made the tip shot to give Atlanta a 117-116 lead with six seconds left.
The Celtics had two chances to steal the result late but couldn’t get it done, with the Hawks holding on for the upset win to improve to 5-7 on the season while Boston dropped its third game.
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