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De'Andre Hunter Drops 26, Powers Hawks to Road Win Against Jazz

Hunter scored 26 points and hit a cold-blooded three-point dagger to lead the Atlanta Hawks to a big-time road win at the Utah Jazz
Matt Newton|
De'Andre Hunter Drops 26, Powers Hawks to Road Win Against Jazz
De'Andre Hunter Drops 26, Powers Hawks to Road Win Against Jazz

De'Andre Hunter has a message for his opponents in the NBA: don't leave me open.

Those were Hunter's words in a postgame interview just moments after he hit a cold-blooded dagger late in the fourth quarter to seal a big-time 115-108 road victory for his Atlanta Hawks over the Utah Jazz on Friday night. 

Trailing by four points with less than 30 seconds remaining and desperately needing a stop to have a chance of staging a late comeback, the Utah Jazz made the interesting decision to leave De'Andre Hunter wide open in the corner, the same spot on the floor where he once hit a clutch three-pointer to send the NCAA National Championship Game to overtime. Trae Young fed Hunter the ball with a nice skip pass and Hunter calmly buried the catch-and-shoot triple to put the nail in the coffin. 

That clutch shot capped an utterly brilliant performance for Hunter, as the former UVA basketball star dropped 26 points on an elite level of efficiency, shooting 10/15 from the floor and 3/5 from three-point range and adding four rebounds, three assists, one steal, and zero turnovers in 36 minutes of game action. 

Hunter delivered two solid outings for the Hawks to start the month of February, as he had 15 points and five rebounds and was +23 in 25 minutes of action in Atlanta's blowout 132-100 win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday. The fourth-year wing is currently averaging a career-high 15.9 points per game on 46.2% shooting from the floor and 37.0% from downtown to go along with 4.3 rebounds per game. 

De'Andre Hunter and the Hawks will look to make it three wins in a row on this road trip when they take on the Nuggets on Saturday night in Denver. 

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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