Tonight, Atlanta returns to action on the road against Utah, and the Hawks will be the underdog for the second straight game.
They will be hoping for a better outcome than they had on Wednesday night, when the Blazers upset the Hawks after trailing by 16 points. Portland and Utah are both just as short-handed as the Hawks. Kris Dunn, Jordan Clarkson, and Lauri Markkanen will not be playing for the Jazz tonight, and Jalen Johnson may return for Atlanta. Although the Hawks’ offensive statistics appear to be rather strong, they have been having trouble without Trae Young.
Since Young was hurt, Bogdan Bogdanovic has not performed well, and this continued on Wednesday night. Bogdanovic made 3–15 field goals and 2–9 three-pointers.
Being the second-best offensive player in Atlanta, it will be difficult for the Hawks to compete when he shoots like that.
However, Bogdanovic wasn’t the only one. Wesley Matthews and Vit Krejci combined for 10 points, while De’Andre Hunter finished with a 4–12 score. Atlanta won’t have a functioning offense until players like Young and Jalen Johnson return, so men will need to stand up and stop forcing Murray to shoot over thirty times. For this reason, it matters if Johnson comes back tonight. Although Krejci hasn’t been scoring or grabbing rebounds much, he showed off his catch-and-shoot and three-point shooting skills on Wednesday.
If Bogdanovic and Johnson play, Trent Forrest, Bruno Fernando, and Garrison Matthews will probably come off the bench in the rotation. In this game, the Hawks require more from their bench. Atlanta is ranked fifth in points per game, first in offensive rebounding, fifth in free throw attempts, 19th in three-point shooting, 23rd in field goal %, and 15th in turnovers going into this matchup.
The Hawks rank ninth in terms of points per 100 possessions, twenty-first in terms of effective field goal %, eleventh in terms of turnover percentage, fifth in terms of offensive rebounding percentage, and ninth in terms of free throw rate, according to Cleaning the Glass. Utah’s offense may pose a threat to the Hawks if they were well, but they are not. Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Kris Dunn will be missed by the Jazz, because even with those players, Utah was unable to score 100 points in the previous game. Utah is 9th in PPG, 19th in field goal percentage, 10th in three-point attempts, 18th in three-point percentage, 3rd in offensive rebounding, and 29th in turnovers. Per Cleaning the Glass, Utah is 16th in points per 100 possessions, 15th in effective field goal percentage, 28th in turnover percentage, 2nd in offensive rebounding, and 11th in free throw rate.
Keyonte George and Collins Sexton are the guys that can cause the Hawks problems tonight. On Wednesday, Portland had Anfernee Simons and Deandre Ayton, two players capable of taking over a game vs the Hawks and they both went over 30 points, while nobody else on the Blazers did much in the way of scoring. I don’t know if Sexton or George could both go over 30 points, but they can get hot and have big scoring nights.
VIEWING AND BETTING INFORMATION Tip-off time: 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time Location: Delta Center, Salt Lake City, UT Where to Watch: NBA League Pass, NBA TV Spread and Over/Under: The Hawks will be favorites on the road tonight, as they are currently 2.5 point favorites and the over/under is at 223.5 according to the latest odds from the SI Sportsbook Prediction The Hawks won the first matchup handily and they were without Trae Young in that game.
Now the Jazz are without Markkanen and Clarkson and the Hawks might be getting Johnson back tonight. Winning on the road is hard, but if the Hawks can get more support on offense around Murray, I like their chances against the
Jazz. Final Score: Atlanta 113, Utah 107
GET MORE NEWS HERE