Hawks Talon Gaming gearing up for NBA 2K League season opener

After a strong tournament performance in its brand new Gaming House to begin its 2021 season, Hawks Talon Gaming, the official NBA 2K League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks, will look to continue its momentum into the regular season.

This will begin Thursday night, in a two-game divisional matchup against Hornets Venom GT, the official NBA 2K League affiliate of the Charlotte Hornets.

Hawks Talon opened its season last Friday in the league’s opening tournament, “The Tipoff.” A combination of veteran presence from guard KEL (Mykel Williams) and center LEE (Lee Lamb) and rookie firepower from guard CEEZ (Caesar A. Martinez) led the club to a 3-1 tournament record. Hawks Talon manager and head coach Wesley Acuff was pleased with the chemistry and flexibility he saw from his young team.

“They looked good in the backcourt. One thing that we’ve been happy about is that we’ve practiced several different combinations of guards and they all look good,” he said. “We went out there with the first combination that we wanted to try out in an actual game and CEEZ, he really performed and KEL really stepped up and performed and it just worked really well. With CEEZ coming in as a rookie and him being able to be comfortable on the floor and manage the game the way he managed the games, it was good to see it happen in an actual league game.”

Acuff also expressed his delight in the club’s new Gaming House in State Farm Arena, a significant upgrade from last year when players all played individually inside their own respective homes.

“Man, we love it. We have a space to call our own… we no longer have to play in apartments and worry about getting noise complaints when we get excited during the game. The guys get to come in here and just feel like they have a space that specifically belongs to them. It just gives the opportunity to spend a little bit more extra time together and also feed off each other’s energy when we compete, which is great,” he said.

As the club looks forward to continuing that energy Thursday night, Acuff believes it will be his team’s ability to defend, not score, that will decide its outcome against Hornets Venom GT.

“We’ve got a bunch of guards that can put some points on the board… They can all score, but defensively, we need to do a better job of staying focused. The Hornets have a great team and a great coach, so I know they will be focused and locked in and pretty strategic in how they plan to score on us, so we need to counter that with some good defense, so this week will be all about figuring out how to get the stops. I feel like we can score the ball, but getting the stops is what will put us in an advantage,” Acuff said.

Hawks Talon’s games against Hornets Venom GT can be streamed on the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels beginning at 8 p.m.

Kyle Hess