De’Andre Hunter got an extra bucket. Malcolm Brogdon got the W.
Brogdon had 19 points and 12 assists to lead his Indiana Pacers to a 110-100 win over the Atlanta Hawks, which got 21 points from rookie De’Andre Hunter.
Hunter, the fourth pick in the 2019 NBA Draft out of national-champ Virginia, shot 7-of-16 from the floor in 37 minutes.
The issue for the Hawks was shot-happy point guard Trae Young going 9-of-30 from the floor on his way to a 23-point outing.
Brogdon, the big free-agent signee for the Pacers in the offseason, and a 2016 UVA alum, was 7-of-16 from the field in his 32 minutes of floor time.
For the season, Brogdon, the 2017 NBA Rookie of the Year, is averaging 19.5 points and 7.7 assists per game, while leading the Pacers to a 17-9 record, impressive enough, and more so considering Indiana is playing without star guard Victor Oladipo.
Oladipo isn’t expected back now until maybe the end of January, according to reports.
Hunter is having a nice rookie season to this point, averaging 12.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.
The Hawks, though, are struggling, mightily, with a 6-20 record, in part due to the absence of power forward John Collins, who is serving a 25-game suspension for a violation of the NBA’s anti-PED policy, in part because the Hawks are young, and still trying to get their pieces to fit.
Story by Chris Graham
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