Dyson Daniels has been filling up every corner of the box score for the Hawks this week, and Wednesday night was no different.
In Atlanta’s 139-132 win over the Wizards, Daniels came up just short of a triple-double with 13 points, nine rebounds and 12 assists. Two nights earlier, he had already been all over the floor in the first meeting with Washington, posting 16 rebounds, eight points and eight assists. Seven of those boards came on the offensive end.
This time, the rebound chase came down to the wire. Daniels didn’t get one in the fourth quarter, though it wasn’t for lack of effort. He had multiple chances where the ball seemed to be in his hands before slipping out of bounds, and then late in the game he had a clean look at another board before Onyeka Okongwu stepped in and grabbed it instead.
“The bench was definitely in my ear about it,” Daniels said after the game. “The win is the most important thing, but I think my natural instincts throughout the game always are just to go rebound.
We’re small out there on the floor, so rebounding is a big thing that I’ve been trying to do. That last quarter, I was telling them to box out so I could go grab one.”
The Hawks needed that kind of collective effort on the glass. With Jalen Johnson, Jock Landale, Asa Newell and Mouhamed Gueye all out, Atlanta was thin up front, and Daniels helped pick up the slack.
He also kept the offense humming. The Hawks finished with 38 assists, and Daniels said that ball movement is baked into the way they play.
“Our team, the way we play the offense that Quin’s built into us is we move the ball side to side. Everyone gets touches and when you play that way, you’re going to get assists, and we want to get out and run,” Daniels said. “We’re undersized as a team, so when we play a team like Washington, who’s really big, we want to run them up and down as much as we can.
“Our offense is moving the ball side to side, breaking the paint, eyes out, and playing that way is going to get you a lot of assists and everyone gets touches.”
That style opened the door for Lu Dort, who finished with 25 points, his highest-scoring game since early last year with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Dort delivered several key baskets late as Washington tried to claw back into it.
“I think as a team, we’re just trying our best to find the right shots in those situations,” Dort said. “When the game comes down to that, you have to try your best to just get stops and take the right shots.
We just had to read the game. We got the ball moving a little bit.
I was the one who was open to make those shots.”
Daniels also spent plenty of the night matched up with Trae Young, his former teammate, who was back in Atlanta for the first time since being traded last season. Young finished with 23 points and 10 assists, but Daniels made him work for it.
“It’s different playing against Trae,” Daniels said. “Obviously, a super talented guy; played here for however many years.
He’s a really good player. He gets his teammates involved.
Our game plan was to force him left, channel the ball screens, and keep him contained that way.”
Over these last two games, Daniels has shown exactly why he’s become such a valuable all-around piece for the Hawks.
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