“Kobe would be proud of me”: Dejounte Murray expresses his feelings following Hawks win over Celtics

On Thursday night, The Atlanta Hawks recorded a statement win over the Eastern Conference leaders, Celtics. They extended their gap with the 11th-placed Nets and are showing no sign of relinquishing their post-season bid.

With Trae Young sidelined, Dejounte Murray stepped up with a massive performance to hand the Celtics their second consecutive loss to the Hawks. After the game, Dejounte Murray talked about his performance and hoped that a certain NBA legend would be proud of his night’s work.

Dejounte Murray reacts to Hawks win over Celtics

Dejounte Murray displayed outstanding shooting skills on the hardwood, saving the Atlanta Hawks against the Boston Celtics and then gave an even better reaction following the win.

During Thursday night’s game, the Hawks guard added 44 points to the scoreboard and took the final shot in the crunch time that helped the franchise record a win against the Eastern table toppers. The former steals leader thought that had the late Kobe Bryant witnessed him perform in that game, the Black Mamba would have been proud of Murray.

Assessing his performance in a post-game interview, Murray said, “And I still feel like I played awful. I don’t wanna take that many shots, but I know Kobe would be proud of me. But at the end of the day, we competed at a high level, until the end, and we got a great team win.”

Murray shared StatMuse’s post on X that said Russell Westbrook and Kobe are the only two players in the last two decades to have taken more shots in a single game than the Hawks forwards and wrote “Shoutout RUSS AND KOBE!!!! I’m Tired Dawg!!!!” along with a dozen of laughing emojis.

With his career-high points, Murray saved the Atlanta franchise in the last couple of seconds, extending their winning streak to four games.

Dejounte Murray takes Hawks over the line against Celtics

Thursday’s game was nothing short of an action-thriller with multiple nail-biting moments, however, the Atlanta Hawks left the court with the last laugh, all thanks to Dejounte Murray’s insane on-court heroics.

Despite being on the questionable list pregame because of a soreness in the lower back, the 27-year-old showed his true class when the team needed it the most. From the first quarter, the battle was going neck-to-neck, which later rolled into overtime. Murray scored all eleven points in the OT to grab the second win over the Celtics in a three-day gap.

Murray bagged 44 points, dished out 7 assists, and grabbed the same number of rebounds. Although Boston’s Jaylen Brown tried hard to secure the win with his last-minute go-ahead jumper, Murray stole the show, acquiring two points with his last shot with a few seconds left for the end of overtime.

The much controversial MVP contender Jayson Tatum recorded a 31-point double-double, as did the Hawks’ De’Andre Hunter and Clint Capela but Murray’s clutch again became the highlight of the show.

With only a handful of games left in the regular season, the mid-table teams are struggling to hold their positions to proceed in the postseason tournament. With this game, the Hawks convinced NBA enthusiasts that they were preparing themselves for what’s coming next in the post-season.