Hawks Talon Gaming looks to build on recent success during busy weekend

Going into its fourth game of the NBA 2K League season, Hawks Talon Gaming, the official NBA 2K League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks, was still searching for its first victory of the young season.

The team had just lost game one of a two-game series against Grizz Gaming, the official NBA 2K League affiliate of the Memphis Grizzlies by 31 points.

Despite some strong offensive flashes, Hawks Talon was struggling to find any consistency on either side of the ball. Game two, however, saw a different story as the squad bounced back to win its first game of the young season by a score of 68-61. Key contributors like point guard CEEZ (Caesar A. Martinez) and center LEE (Lee Lamb) kept rolling in the victory, but weren’t the only main sources of production. Veteran guard BP (Michael Diaz-Cruz) also showed up big in his first night with the team in 2021, leading Hawks Talon in scoring with 19 points while adding three assists and three steals.

Hawks Talon head coach Wesley Acuff believes the emergence of BP should not go unnoticed.

“BP is a natural point guard,” Acuff said. “This year, we drafted another point guard in CEEZ and BP took it upon himself to say ‘Hey man, I want you to feel comfortable when you come in. I feel like I can still be effective at the small forward and the shooting guard and he scooted over and let CEEZ walk into that point guard role. He’s stepped right into that role and he’s able to pick up and get us buckets when we need him and he’s definitely been valuable for us.”

The addition of BP to a backcourt with another lethal scorer in CEEZ amplifies offensive opportunities for Acuff’s squad.

“Our two guards in that backcourt, they can pick and choose when they want to score, and that looked really good for us,” Acuff said. “I definitely saw some good things from being able to score and get each other involved and spread the wealth if you will, because in that second game, we had everyone in the box score.”

Hawks Talon will look to build on its recent success Friday night at 7 p.m. against Raptors Uprising GC, the official NBA 2K League affiliate of the Toronto Raptors. Acuff and his team will then face Heat Check Gaming, the official NBA 2K League affiliate of the Miami Heat, on Saturday, June 5 at 7 p.m. These games will be simulcast live on the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels. Games will also be available on ESRevolution, Loco in India, Sport1 in Europe and Dash Radio.

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