Dyson Daniels defeats reigning champions with career-high ...

The legend of Dyson Daniels continues to grow, with a career-high effort enough to push his Atlanta Hawks past the reigning champions Boston Celtics. 

Daniels, who has quickly become one of the league's most fearsome defenders, was dominant on both sides of the court Wednesday, filling in for absent All-Star guard Trae Young excellently. 

They were pushed to the limit by the Celtics, but a stellar showing on offence as well as yet another defensive masterpiece secured the win for Atlanta in a successful opening NBA Cup performance. 

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How do you follow up back-to-back games with 13 total steals? 

For Dyson Daniels, you score a career-high 28 points, as well as seven assists... and six more steals. 

With Trae Young sidelined due to Achilles tendonitis, Daniels shouldered a significant offensive load, but was up to the task, shooting 12-of-21 from the field in the win, in a game-high 41 minutes of action. 

He also continued his takeaways streak, another six-steal outing as he made life hell for Boston's Jayson Tatum, who shot 5-of-16 from the field. 

"We knew it was going to be tough coming in against the defending champs but we fought," Daniels said after the game.

"We fought until the end. They got us in the first half and we went down 15 or something but we kept our head up, kept fighting and credit to the team.

"Coming in here people were probably counting us out but we didn’t count us out. We came in here, we did our job, we did what we needed to do."

With the win, Daniels and the Hawks move to 5-7, tied for seventh in the Eastern Conference.