As part of their big offseason makeover, the Atlanta Hawks gave Danilo Gallinari a $ 61.5 million contract for three years because they believed he could help them get out of irrelevance and get back into the playoff. But even they couldn’t wait for nights like Wednesday against the Boston Celtics – especially after the way Gallinari had started the season.
Cast aside early on due to injuries, Gallinari has not yet found his pace in Atlanta. He’s throwing 40.9 percent off the field and scoring just 11.8 points per game – his worst score since his debut season, where he barely played. Entering the clash against the Celtics, he scored 51 points and made 12 of 45 field shots in the last five games combined.
So it was a shock when he got a standing ovation and broke records on Wednesday. But maybe all he needed was a game against the bass and outside the Celtics. Setting a new Hawks record with 10 feats of 3 points, Gallinari paved the way for the season’s 38 point record and led the Hawks to a 127-112 victory. He also became only the third player in NBA history to hit at least 10 3s in a game after leaving the bench.
To give you an idea of how much he was feeling, at one point in the second quarter he pulled without hesitation behind the hash mark with 15 seconds remaining on the shot clock. And yes, that one did.
This was just a Gallinari pure shot clinic, which markedly scored 16 percent of its total points of the season in this game. At the same time, that performance was a reminder of why the Hawks were so eager to sign him and how poor he has been for most of the season.
But for as many incredible kicks as he did, Gallinari also benefited from some bad Perimeter defense from the Celtics, who have been unable to stop anyone lately and, in turn, have been unable to win. With defeats in four of the last five games, and 11 of the last 16, the Celtics have dropped to less than 0.500 this season.
Earlier this month, after a loss to the Washington Wizards, Kemba Walker said “it can’t get any worse than that”, but the Celtics proved he was wrong. They are now 15-17 years old and tied for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. If the season ended today, they would be going to the play-in tournament.
To be fair, they were wiped out by injuries, and Jayson Tatum said recently that he is still struggling to breathe after a fight against COVID-19 earlier this season. Still, this is not where anyone expected the Celtics to be at this point in the season.