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The Cavs return home from a four-game road trip to take on the 10-14 Atlanta Hawks, who they pounded on Nov. 28 in Cleveland by a 128-105 score. The Hawks were 7-6 when PF Jalen Johnson was injured right before they played the Cavs and have since lost 7 of 9. Johnson was averaging 14.1 points and 7.3 rebounds. His loss was huge.
After losing 7 of their last 8 the Hawks beat the Raptors in Toronto last night 125-104 behind 38 points by Trae Young. The Hawks will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back and they mainly went with a six-man rotation last night as they were desperate for a win and saw an opportunity. Six players played 33-37 minutes, so fatigue could be a factor tonight. Two other players combined for 29 minutes and six points.
The Raptors have now lost 7 of their last 9 and are expected to trade Anunoby or Adebayo or both and start over, so it looks like they are just going through the motions now. No way they should lose by 21 to a Hawks team that had lost 7 of 8 and was missing two starters, especially at home.
With starting small forward DeAndre Hunter out the Hawks were missing both starting forwards last night. Ethan Sands at cleveland.com says Hunter is out again tonight, but national sources have him as a game time decision. Hunter averages 14.8 ppg so between him and Johnson the Hawks are missing 29 points per game.
Last night the Hawks started backup center Onyeka Okongwu at power forward and it worked out beautifully. All five Hawks starters finished at +14 to +24. Bogdan Bogdanovic came off the bench for 20 points and the Hawks won easily. I assume we’ll see that lineup tonight.
The Cavs will be missing Garland and Mobley, of course, so both teams are down two starters. We’ll see how Bickerstaff handles this. I assume Wade will continue to start in Mobley’s spot and match up against Okongwu, who had 14 points and 11 boards last night.
The Hawks are pretty much an all offense, no defense team. They rank 3rd in scoring and 28th in scoring defense. They play at the second fastest pace and are 4th in fast break points per game. They get out and run at every opportunity.
The Hawks rank 11th in both 3-point rate and 3-point accuracy but 18th in 2-point percentage so they’re more dangerous from outside. They rank 26th in assists, so they play a lot of isolation ball, starting with Trae Young. They rank 3rd in offensive rebound percentage. They really attack the offensive glass and get a lot of second chance points. In their game against the Cavs in November they had 14 offensive rebounds, led by Clint Cappela with 6.
The key for the Cavs defensively is to prevent a lot of fast break points, don’t allow uncontested 3’s, and everybody hit the defensive glass. The Hawks have guys who can beat the defender off the dribble and force the big to contest the layup which leads to easy putbacks for Cappela and Okongwu. Those two average 7.3 of the Hawks’ 13.4 offensive rebounds per game. With both of them on the floor at the same time the Hawks will be very formidable on the offensive glass.
Trae Young averages 27.2 points and 10.8 assists per game, but he’s only shooting 42% from the field and 36% on 3’s. He averages 8.6 free throw attempts per game. Dejounte Murray averages 20.0 points at shooting guard, Bogdan Bogdanovic averages 17.3 (including 41% on 3’s). Saddiq Bey and Clint Capela average 13.0 and 11.2 as seven Hawks are in double figures.
The Hawks average 122.5 points per game but the Cavs held them to 105 in the first game. That was with Mobley blocking seven shots, however. I assume Wade gets Mobley’s minutes tonight so the defensive drop-off shouldn’t be too drastic.
Defensively the Hawks do one thing well - steal the ball. They rank 5th in steals, probably because they are so bad at forcing missed shots and getting rebounds that steals are their best chance to stop the opponent from scoring. They are 27th in preventing points in the paint, last in effective field goal percentage, 29th in 2-point percentage, 27th in 3-point percentage and 25th in block percentage.
You can score every which way on this team, so they gamble for steals and fast break off the steal. In the first game against the Cavs they had 9 steals and forced 16 turnovers, but the Cavs still scored 128 points on 54% shooting and 12 offensive rebounds. The Cavs had 64 points in the paint to 32 for the Hawks.
In the first game Evan Mobley was a monster, going 8-for-11 with 17 points, 19 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots. With Mobley out tonight the Hawks will have an easier time scoring.
Donovan Mitchell laid waste to the Hawks with 40 points on 25 shots, plus 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals, but he did have 6 turnovers so he needs to dial it back a little this time around. With Garland out he will probably shoot even more. He needs to be a little less eager to dribble into team meetings.
In the first game the Cavs starters dominated; they were between +16 and +30 while the Hawks’ starters were -18 to -27. Okongwu had 13 points and 9 rebounds in 22 impressive minutes off the bench and Bogdanovich came off the bench to knock down 18 points.
The Cavs did a masterful job on Young, holding him to 3-for-14. He will definitely come out looking for some payback tonight. That was his lowest scoring game of the year and the only time he’s been held to three field goals. Last night he launched 15 three-pointers so I expect him to come out firing from deep tonight.
I’m assuming the Cavs will continue to go with Allen/Thompson at center, Wade/Niang at power forward, and Strus/Okoro at small forward. I expect Mitchell and LeVert will start at guard and both play heavy minutes with either Porter or Merrill, or a little of both, coming in to spell them. This is where we really need Ty Jerome and the fact that he’s missed 23 games with a sprained ankle and there is still no estimate for his return is extremely frustrating.
So now we get to see how Bickerstaff handles being without Garland and Mobley for a while. Can he cobble together some effective units and at least beat the bad teams on the schedule and stay around .500 until the calvary shows up?
The game will be on NBA-TV.
After losing 7 of their last 8 the Hawks beat the Raptors in Toronto last night 125-104 behind 38 points by Trae Young. The Hawks will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back and they mainly went with a six-man rotation last night as they were desperate for a win and saw an opportunity. Six players played 33-37 minutes, so fatigue could be a factor tonight. Two other players combined for 29 minutes and six points.
The Raptors have now lost 7 of their last 9 and are expected to trade Anunoby or Adebayo or both and start over, so it looks like they are just going through the motions now. No way they should lose by 21 to a Hawks team that had lost 7 of 8 and was missing two starters, especially at home.
With starting small forward DeAndre Hunter out the Hawks were missing both starting forwards last night. Ethan Sands at cleveland.com says Hunter is out again tonight, but national sources have him as a game time decision. Hunter averages 14.8 ppg so between him and Johnson the Hawks are missing 29 points per game.
Last night the Hawks started backup center Onyeka Okongwu at power forward and it worked out beautifully. All five Hawks starters finished at +14 to +24. Bogdan Bogdanovic came off the bench for 20 points and the Hawks won easily. I assume we’ll see that lineup tonight.
The Cavs will be missing Garland and Mobley, of course, so both teams are down two starters. We’ll see how Bickerstaff handles this. I assume Wade will continue to start in Mobley’s spot and match up against Okongwu, who had 14 points and 11 boards last night.
The Hawks are pretty much an all offense, no defense team. They rank 3rd in scoring and 28th in scoring defense. They play at the second fastest pace and are 4th in fast break points per game. They get out and run at every opportunity.
The Hawks rank 11th in both 3-point rate and 3-point accuracy but 18th in 2-point percentage so they’re more dangerous from outside. They rank 26th in assists, so they play a lot of isolation ball, starting with Trae Young. They rank 3rd in offensive rebound percentage. They really attack the offensive glass and get a lot of second chance points. In their game against the Cavs in November they had 14 offensive rebounds, led by Clint Cappela with 6.
The key for the Cavs defensively is to prevent a lot of fast break points, don’t allow uncontested 3’s, and everybody hit the defensive glass. The Hawks have guys who can beat the defender off the dribble and force the big to contest the layup which leads to easy putbacks for Cappela and Okongwu. Those two average 7.3 of the Hawks’ 13.4 offensive rebounds per game. With both of them on the floor at the same time the Hawks will be very formidable on the offensive glass.
Trae Young averages 27.2 points and 10.8 assists per game, but he’s only shooting 42% from the field and 36% on 3’s. He averages 8.6 free throw attempts per game. Dejounte Murray averages 20.0 points at shooting guard, Bogdan Bogdanovic averages 17.3 (including 41% on 3’s). Saddiq Bey and Clint Capela average 13.0 and 11.2 as seven Hawks are in double figures.
The Hawks average 122.5 points per game but the Cavs held them to 105 in the first game. That was with Mobley blocking seven shots, however. I assume Wade gets Mobley’s minutes tonight so the defensive drop-off shouldn’t be too drastic.
Defensively the Hawks do one thing well - steal the ball. They rank 5th in steals, probably because they are so bad at forcing missed shots and getting rebounds that steals are their best chance to stop the opponent from scoring. They are 27th in preventing points in the paint, last in effective field goal percentage, 29th in 2-point percentage, 27th in 3-point percentage and 25th in block percentage.
You can score every which way on this team, so they gamble for steals and fast break off the steal. In the first game against the Cavs they had 9 steals and forced 16 turnovers, but the Cavs still scored 128 points on 54% shooting and 12 offensive rebounds. The Cavs had 64 points in the paint to 32 for the Hawks.
In the first game Evan Mobley was a monster, going 8-for-11 with 17 points, 19 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots. With Mobley out tonight the Hawks will have an easier time scoring.
Donovan Mitchell laid waste to the Hawks with 40 points on 25 shots, plus 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals, but he did have 6 turnovers so he needs to dial it back a little this time around. With Garland out he will probably shoot even more. He needs to be a little less eager to dribble into team meetings.
In the first game the Cavs starters dominated; they were between +16 and +30 while the Hawks’ starters were -18 to -27. Okongwu had 13 points and 9 rebounds in 22 impressive minutes off the bench and Bogdanovich came off the bench to knock down 18 points.
The Cavs did a masterful job on Young, holding him to 3-for-14. He will definitely come out looking for some payback tonight. That was his lowest scoring game of the year and the only time he’s been held to three field goals. Last night he launched 15 three-pointers so I expect him to come out firing from deep tonight.
I’m assuming the Cavs will continue to go with Allen/Thompson at center, Wade/Niang at power forward, and Strus/Okoro at small forward. I expect Mitchell and LeVert will start at guard and both play heavy minutes with either Porter or Merrill, or a little of both, coming in to spell them. This is where we really need Ty Jerome and the fact that he’s missed 23 games with a sprained ankle and there is still no estimate for his return is extremely frustrating.
So now we get to see how Bickerstaff handles being without Garland and Mobley for a while. Can he cobble together some effective units and at least beat the bad teams on the schedule and stay around .500 until the calvary shows up?
The game will be on NBA-TV.
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