The Hawks needed a hero against the Raptors on Sunday night.
The team found itself down by a point with 7.4 seconds left following point guard Trae Young’s untimely turnover, inching the Hawks closer to their fifth straight loss.
Luckily for the home team, though, small forward Saddiq Bey saved the day. As Young’s last-second layup rolled off the front of him, Bey crashed the offensive glass for a putback layup to give the Hawks a 126-125 lead with 1.3 seconds remaining.
The Raptors half-court heave was no good, causing State Farm Arena to erupt and allowing Bey to rush toward one of the court’s corners to celebrate with fans. The basket gave him a season-high in points, career-high in offensive rebounds and epitomized his mental and physical toughness Hawks head coach Quin Snyder praised before the game.
“I don’t really have a specific mentality coming in besides just to play hard and just be grateful for the opportunity,” Bey said. “I try to just be the most multifaceted guy I can be…just try to affect the game in each and every way.”
Bey finished with 26 points, only behind Young, and led the team in offensive rebounds with seven. This was key in a game without guard Dejounte Murray, who was out due to right hamstring tightness, and highlighted his ability to impact the contest in a variety of ways.
The small forward went 10-for-15 at the free throw line, had eight of the team’s 32 second-chance points and three and-one opportunities. Although Bey missed all six of his three-point shots, he still found a way to impact the game.
“That only opens up the floor for me and DJ when we’re on the court,” Young said. “You could feel his presence because he was attacking the basket, getting rebounds.”
Snyder praised Bey for his work ethic, approach and toughness before Sunday’s affair, emphasizing how difficult it is to stay focused when in a shooting slump. Rather than consuming himself in the box score, he said that Bey looked toward rebounding and defense to help his team.
Bey collected 13 total rebounds in the game, the third-most in a game in his career.
“You can rebound and defend whether your shot’s going in or not, and oftentimes our effort, our focus, on some of those absolutes in the game can be blurred,” Snyder said. “Players that are able to separate that and continue to give that type of effort and focus in those other situations, they help you win games.”
Bey struggled to find the bottom of the basket from late December to mid-January, averaging just 11.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game and shooting 30.3% from the field over 12 games. Over the past four games, though, he’s found his rhythm, shooting 44.8% from the field, averaging 18.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
The fourth-year player talked about playing aggressively and not being a one trick pony after the Hawks’ loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. He wanted to be multifaceted, especially when his shot wasn’t falling.
His mindset was clear on Sunday, whether it be the game-winning putback or scoring six of the Hawks first 12 points carried by two offensive rebounds. And now that he’s finding his shot once again, he’s becoming an even greater asset for the Hawks.
“The putback by Saddiq was emblematic of who he is as a person and as a player,” Snyder said. “Those were big plays, whether it was the foul line, a rebound, those things are momentum plays.”
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