Atlanta Hawks Game Preview: April 1st at Chicago Bulls

The Atlanta Hawks travel to Chicago Saturday afternoon, looking for their third consecutive win. Can they get by Jimmy Butler and the Bulls?

The Atlanta Hawks are back on track. Consecutive wins over the Phoenix Suns and the Philadelphia 76ers helped put their seven-game losing streak in the rear-view mirror. They’re still tied for fifth place in the Eastern Conference with the Milwaukee Bucks, but that’s better than falling out of the playoff picture completely.

The Bulls are in ninth place, just three games behind the Hawks. That gives tonight’s contest some added importance. A Chicago win would help them start to close that gap, and send Hawks fans back into panic mode.

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The Bulls have been a bit of a mess this season. Unless they’re playing on TNT during a Thursday night, then they’re unstoppable. At 36-39, this season has not gone the way they planned. They went all in on aging former stars during the summer, bringing in Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade to form a backcourt with absolutely no spacing.

Early in the season, it looked like their gamble on talent rather than fit was going to pay off. Wade was hitting threes and the Bulls were winning. Life was good in Chicago.

Then the regression monster reared its ugly head. Rondo was benched, Wade came back down to earth, and Jimmy Butler’s super-stardom was not enough to overcome all the bad things about their roster. The ill fitting pieces on their roster became a problem. Especially on offense. Basketball is like building a jigsaw puzzle. If the pieces don’t fit, you’ll never finish the puzzle.

The Bulls score just 107.2 points per 100 possessions. That’s only the 20th best offense in the NBA. Their defense ranks 12th, allowing 108.1 points per 100 possessions. That’s a recipe for mediocrity.

As expected, they’re one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league. They shoot just 33.3 percent from outside. They only attempt 21.9 three-pointers per game and they have only made 547 threes this season. That is the lowest total in the NBA. The Bulls have not exactly embraced the “pace and space” era.

Jimmy Butler is the lone bright spot on this team. The All-Star starter has had a tremendous season, despite all the adversity. Butler is averaging 23.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game on 45 percent shooting and 34.8 percent from three-point range.

Butler hasn’t been enough to make Chicago a clear playoff team. They’re still in the race, but it will come down to the wire and they’ll likely be on the outside looking in. Unless the Indiana Pacers continue their nosedive, then the Bulls may sneak their way in.

Dwyane Wade hasn’t had a bad season, but injuries have kept him down of late. Wade has been out since March 15th with an elbow injury. Wade has played in 57 games, scoring 18.6 points per game on 43.4 percent shooting and 31.5 percent from outside. It hasn’t been a vintage Wade season, but he’s been productive when he’s been on the court.

Rajon Rondo, on the other hand, has not been productive. Shockingly, his outside shooting hasn’t been what’s brought him down. It’s everything else. Rondo is averaging 7.5 points and 6.6 assists per game on 40.3 percent shooting and 36.7 percent from three-point distance. Somehow he’s now back in the starting lineup. Everyone say a prayer for Fred Hoiberg,

Their current starting lineup features Rondo, Butler, Paul Zipser, Nikola Mirotic, and Robin Lopez. That group did manage to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers recently. That game was played on TNT, though. The TNT Bulls are a different beast altogether. The Saturday night local television Bulls aren’t as scary.

The Bulls and Hawks have already played three times this season. The Hawks have dominated the season series, winning all three games. The most recent game came on Jan. 26. Both rosters looked a little different at the time.

Atlanta won with their offense. They scored 119 points, shot 51.8 percent from the floor, and shot 56.7 percent from outside. Dennis Schroder was outstanding. Schroder scored 24 points and handed out nine assists on 7-for-15 shooting. Paul Millsap, who will miss tonight’s game, added 21 points, six rebounds, and two assists on 8-for-14 shooting.

Chicago shot 45.7 percent from the field, but just 29.6 percent from outside. They held an eight point lead heading into half-time, but a huge second half performance from Atlanta sunk their battleship.

Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade combined for 73 points (Butler had 40, Wade had 33). The rest of their starting five combined for just 13 points. That’s not how you get Capone. Without Wade, Butler is on his own tonight.

This is an important game for both teams. An Atlanta win would cement their status as a playoff team. It wouldn’t clinch anything, but it would increase their odds significantly, putting a full four games between themselves and Bulls (they also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker).

I’m going to let my optimism keep flowing. I think the Hawks have figured some things out after their seven-game losing streak. They’re better than the Bulls, so they’ll figure out how to beat the Bulls. Plain and simple.

It won’t be that easy, but sometimes making predictions is about about being bold and looking stupid.

Next: Why Hawks Fans Should Be Cautiously Optimistic

Who: Atlanta Hawks (39-36) @ Chicago Bulls (36-39)

When: 5:00 PM EST, Saturday, April 1st, 2017

Where: United Center

How: Fox Sports Southeast

Prediction: Hawks 110 Bulls 103

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