The Atlanta Hawks, led by a spectacular performance from Kristaps Porzingis, cruised by the New Orleans Pelicans 115-98 in a Saturday night matchup in the bayou. Porzingis dropped 29 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks in 22 minutes of action against Hawk-for-a-day Derik Queen.
Queen was the player Atlanta technically drafted 13th in the 2025 draft – the rights to the pick were part of the since-infamous draft night trade. Queen has since blossomed into quite the intriguing rookie, but he was no match for Porzingis’s heroics Saturday night.
Porzingis showed Hawks fans why the team was willing to trade a first round pick for the Latvian big man against the Pelicans.