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As part of their major offseason overhaul, the Atlanta Hawks awarded Danilo Gallinari a three-year, $ 61.5 million contract as they believed he could help them out of ineffectiveness. and get back into the playoff picture. But even they couldn’t expect nights like Wednesday against the Boston Celtics – especially not after the way Gallinari had started the season.
Sidelined early on due to injuries, Gallinari didn’t quite find his rhythm in Atlanta. He’s shooting 40.9% from the field and scoring just 11.8 points per game – his worst score since his rookie season where he barely played. Coming into the game against the Celtics, he had 51 points and was 12 for 45 on the field in his last five games combined.
So it was a shock, then, when he got standing ovations and set records on Wednesday. But maybe all he needed was a game against the Celtics. Set a new Hawks record with 10 points to 3 points, Gallinari worked his way to a season high of 38 points and led the Hawks to a 127-112 victory. He also became the third player in NBA history to hit at least 10 3s in a game after coming off the bench.
To give you an idea of how he felt, at one point in the second quarter he shot without hesitation behind the hash mark with 15 seconds left on the shot clock. And yes, that one entered.
It was just a pure shooting clinic for Gallinari, who remarkably scored 16% of his season point total in this game. Both, this performance was a reminder of why the Hawks were so eager to sign him and how poor he was for most of the season.
But for as many incredible shots as he has made, Gallinari has also benefited from poor perimeter defense from the Celtics, who haven’t been able to stop anyone lately and, in turn, haven’t been able to to win. With losses in four of their last five and 11 of their last 16, the Celtics have fallen under 0.500 for the season.
Earlier this month, after a resounding loss to the Washington Wizards, Kemba Walker said “it can’t get any worse than this” but the Celtics proved him wrong. They are now 15-17 years old and tied for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. If the season ended today, they would head to the play-in tournament.
To be fair, they’ve been decimated by injuries, and Jayson Tatum recently said he’s still struggling to breathe after battling COVID-19 earlier this season. Still, that’s not where anyone would have expected the Celtics to be at this point in the season.
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