Atlanta Hawks: Shelvin Mack Finds His Form
By Adam McGee
In the absence of their starting point guard Jeff Teague, no one was expecting the Atlanta Hawks to have an easy ride in the Quicken Loans Arena Wednesday night. From somewhere though, the team dragged up their performance of the season to put the Cleveland Cavaliers to the sword 127-98.
Who was the man to spearhead Atlanta’s attack? None other than Shelvin Mack.
It has to have been a frustrating season for Mack up to this point. After breaking out last season, and earning himself the security of a guaranteed multi-year NBA deal thanks to rock solid play off the Hawks’ bench, the Kentucky native would have hoped to kick on and improve even further.
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That hadn’t materialized though, until last night.
With Teague absent, most of the pre-game talk centered upon young Dennis Schröder and how he would fare stepping up into the starting lineup. The answer turned out to be incredibly well, as the German continued to demonstrate his new found control with a double-double of 10 points and 10 assists in just 22 minutes of play.
Still, it was Mack who proved to be the guard to grab the headlines.
With some early foul trouble against Paul Millsap, Atlanta found themselves hanging on and having to battle through the first quarter. In fact, it was to their credit that they managed to hang tough and finish the period within eight points.
Once the second quarter kicked off Mack took over though, and Cleveland never really caught sight of the lead again.
The Hawks made nine of their eleven three-point attempts in the quarter, and Mack stepped up to make 5-of-5 in that period. He would finish the game having shot 7-gor-8 from the field, and having made all six of his three-point attempts, for a career-high 24 points.
What will really please Hawks fans though is that it was the sort of impact and sharpshooting that the former Butler Bulldog had demonstrated last season, but hadn’t yet surfaced in this season.
With Mike Scott grabbing 15 points of his own, in many ways it was reminiscent of perhaps Atlanta and Mack’s signature game from last season, when they defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference first round.
Having entered into Wednesday night shooting 34 percent from the field and 20.4 percent from three-point range, it was no understatement that he needed a performance like this one for his confidence, and that the team needed one to be able to continue trusting in him.
Much like he did last season, it’s worth mentioning that Mack has had plenty of positives aside from his shooting. As a ball handler, the 24-year-old has been incredibly reliable and efficient.
Per 36 minutes, Mack is averaging 6.6 assists to his 2.2 turnovers, which when compared to last season has an uncanny similarity, where Mack averaged 6.5 assists and 2.1 turnovers.
That shows a consistency of performance that makes Mack a mature and competent option, and one that the surging Atlanta Hawks are lucky to have coming off their bench. The big X-Factor for Mack is the consistency of his shooting.
Sure, he can’t be expected to make 6-of-6 from three every night, but even if Mack could average close to 40 percent, his role will likely grow as the season goes on.