As part of their major off-season overhaul, the Atlanta Hawks gave Danilo Gallinari a three-year deal worth $ 61.5 million because they believed he could get them out of the irrelevance and back into the playoffs. But even they couldn’t have expected evenings like Wednesday against the Boston Celtics – especially after the way Gallinari had started the season.
Gallinari was out early due to injuries, but hasn’t quite found his groove in Atlanta. He shoots 40.9 percent of the field, scoring just 11.8 points per game – his worst mark since his rookie season in which he barely played. In the game against the Celtics, he had 51 points and was 12-for-45 off the field in his last five games together.
So it was quite a shock when he got standing ovations on Wednesday and set records. But maybe all he needed was a game against the down and out Celtics. Set a new Hawks record with 10 3-pointers made, Gallinari fired his way to a season-high 38 points 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 coming off the bench.
To give you an idea of how much he felt it, at one point in the second quarter he pulled from behind the gate without hesitation with 15 seconds left on the shot clock. And yes, he went in.
This was just a pure shooting clinic from Gallinari, who scored a remarkable 16 percent of his total points for the season in this one game. This performance was an instant reminder of why the Hawks were so eager to sign him and how poor he was for most of the season.
But despite so many incredible shots as he took, Gallinari also benefited from poor perimeter defense from the Celtics, who haven’t been able to stop anyone lately and in turn have been unable to win. With losses in four of their last five games, and 11 of their last 16, the Celtics have dropped below .500 this season.
Earlier this month, after a major loss to the Washington Wizards, Kemba Walker said “it can’t get any worse,” but the Celtics have proved him wrong. They are now 15-17 and are tied for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. If the season ended today, they would go to the play-in tournament.
To be fair, they’ve been decimated by injuries, and Jayson Tatum recently said he’s still struggling with his breathing after a fight with COVID-19 earlier this season. Still, this is not where anyone expected the Celtics to be at this point of the season.