The Atlanta Hawks are trying their best not to convey a top first-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs, and with Jalen Johnson out for the season, making the playoffs will be an uphill climb yet again for them. Nonetheless, the Hawks are still fighting with everything they’ve got, and on Monday night, they managed to get back on track with a 98-86 victory over the Miami Heat.
It was a grimy affair between the Hawks and the Heat, as both teams played their hearts out on defense, leading to some putrid shooting nights from the team’s lead guards. And Dyson Daniels, in particular, played a starring role in slowing down Tyler Herro, who was limited to a 11-point night on 4-19 shooting from the field.
Daniels has been one of the most prominent breakout players of the 2024-25 season, emerging as one of the best perimeter defenders in the association and allowing the Hawks to recoup plenty of value in the failed Dejounte Murray trade. On Monday night against the Heat, Daniels recorded seven steals — his third game with seven thefts this season — and in so doing, he made some history that has him in the company of one of the best defensive guards of all time.
According to Hawks PR on X (formerly known as Twitter), Daniels joined Chris Paul as the only two players to accomplish the aforementioned feat. Paul also recorded three games with at least seven steals back in the 2008-09 season when he was still with the New Orleans Hornets.
It’s hard to imagine where the Hawks would be if it weren’t for Daniels’ contributions all season long. The Hawks may have fallen off their strong pace early in the season, but they are still positioned to fight for a playoff spot via the play-in tournament, and these multi-steal games will go a long way towards this goal of theirs.
Hawks survive grimy shooting night with excellent defense
A team failing to score above 100 points doesn’t happen all that often anymore in today’s NBA. But on Monday night, both the Hawks and Heat failed to cross the century-mark in scoring, with Atlanta clamping down Miami all night long.
The Heat shot a ghastly 27-84 from the field for a percentage of 32.1, which is absolutely atrocious especially in today’s NBA. The Hawks deserve plenty of credit for not giving Miami any breathing space all night long, earning them their 27th win of the season in 58 tries.
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