{"id":164214,"date":"2025-10-25T19:14:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=164214"},"modified":"2025-10-25T19:18:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:18:06","slug":"mouhamed-gueye-hawks-lift-win-over-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/25\/mouhamed-gueye-hawks-lift-win-over-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Mouhamed Gueye Gives Hawks Big Lift In Win Over Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Hawks grabbed their first win of the young season on Friday. They completed a 14-point comeback en route to the impressive win without <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/porzikr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is<\/a> (flu-like symptoms) and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/risacza01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zaccharie Risacher<\/a> (ankle). <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> masterfully closed out the game in the fourth quarter, but an easily overlooked hero had a huge impact on Atlanta&#8217;s victory: <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gueyemo02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mouhamed Gueye<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The third-year forward\/center finished with 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two 3-pointers, and a block in 30 minutes. His performance, especially defensively, showed why he needs to be a mainstay in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/21\/hawks-rotation-questions-ahead-of-opening-night\/\" target=\"_self\">Hawks&#8217; rotation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Mouhamed Gueye Gives Hawks Big Lift In Win Over Magic<\/h2>\n<h3>Gueye Takes Advantage of His Opportunity<\/h3>\n<p>Gueye played just five minutes of garbage time in Atlanta&#8217;s first game against the Toronto Raptors. However, Porzi\u0146\u0123is&#8217; absence opened up a spot in the frontcourt two nights later. On top of this, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okongon01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the contest. Head coach Quin Snyder immediately subbed in Gueye, and the third-year player did not disappoint.<\/p>\n<p>His presence as a rebounder, versatile defender, and weakside shot blocker paid dividends for the Hawks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Major Mo SWAT to a Nickeil Euro bucket <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EtTHsXXhiI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/EtTHsXXhiI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ATLHawks\/status\/1981865892699906384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Gueye, along with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Johnson<\/a>, who also had foul trouble, guarded <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/banchpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paolo Banchero<\/a> for much of the contest. Atlanta held Orlando&#8217;s star forward to just 11 points on 4-15 shooting with one assist. Gueye&#8217;s length and lateral quickness at 6 feet, 11 inches bothered Banchero throughout the game. He has given the Hawks a strong defensive boost throughout his career.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, questions arise when talking about the offensive side of the ball. Gueye shot 25.9% on 2.5 attempts from 3-point range last season and can struggle to read the floor with the right pass. However, this was not the case <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/08\/09\/top-3-teams-in-southeast-division-set-to-compete-next-season\/\" target=\"_self\">against the Magic<\/a>. In fact, Gueye was the only Hawks player to hit multiple 3-pointers in the contest. Atlanta went just 8-29 from beyond the arc as a team, but he shot 2-5. His strong outside shooting was crucial to keep him from becoming an offensive liability.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mo Gueye is everywhere!! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Zr2XFSoHX3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Zr2XFSoHX3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ATLHawks\/status\/1981888844828905879?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Gueye finished with a team-high +21 in the plus-minus category. The next closest was <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kennalu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Kennard<\/a> with +11.<\/p>\n<h3>Gueye Needs a Bigger Role, Even When the Hawks Are Healthy<\/h3>\n<p>The Hawks had a disastrous defensive performance against Toronto on opening night. They gave up 138 points, including a shocking 86 paint points and 34 fastbreak tallies, with a fully healthy roster. They flipped that script against the Magic, limiting them to 107 points, including 52 in the paint.<\/p>\n<p>Gueye played a significant role in the effort with his rim protection, and the numbers and eye test indicate that he needs more consistent playing time. Atlanta had a <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BTRowland\/status\/1982083942132936872\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">69.2 defensive rating<\/a> against Orlando when <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/daniedy01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dyson Daniels<\/a> and Gueye shared the floor. Their ability to guard multiple positions played a huge part in slowing down Orlando&#8217;s big frontcourt.<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks face the Oklahoma City Thunder on the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday, and they will be shorthanded once again. Atlanta lists Risacher (ankle) out, while Johnson (ankle) and Porzi\u0146\u0123is are questionable. Expect Gueye to play a major role against <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harteis01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> and\/or <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holmgch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chet Holmgren<\/a> (back), as the Hawks try to pull off the upset against the defending champions.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Mike Watters-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Hawks grabbed their first win of the young season on Friday. They completed a 14-point comeback en route to the impressive win without Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is (flu-like symptoms) and Zaccharie Risacher (ankle). Trae Young masterfully closed out the game in the fourth quarter, but an easily overlooked hero had a huge impact on Atlanta&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5516,"featured_media":164233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,4,62],"tags":[49104],"class_list":["post-164214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hawks","category-nba","tag-mouhamed-gueye"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164214"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164234,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164214\/revisions\/164234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}