The Junkyard Dog, DeMarre Carroll, returns to where his career took off, as the Toronto Raptors come to town to face your Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night at Philips Arena.
DeMarre Carroll was a bit player when he came to Atlanta. He had bounced around from team to team, and even spent time in the D-League, before the Hawks signed him to a two-year contract before the 2013-2014 season. A role player off the bench to begin his career, Coach Bud and the Hawks gave Carroll a chance to start at SF. DeMarre took full advantage of that opportunity, having the two best seasons of his career, while being part of the Hawks’ transformation under Coach Bud and then GM Danny Ferry. To the dismay of almost every Hawk fan, DMC parlayed those two seasons into a near max-contract with the Raptors, a deal he couldn’t refuse. Now, he makes his first visit back to the place where his career essentially began. And I, for one, couldn’t be happier to welcome him back.
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The Hawks continued their Jeckyll and Hyde ways on Monday night, as they took down one of the West’s best in the Thunder. The Hawks were in control for much of the game until Russell Westbrook decided to take over down the stretch, and all but single handedly bring his team back. Luckily for the Hawks, Jeff Teague was able to make one or two more plays than Westbrook could late, and the Hawks sealed one of their better victories of the season. It was Horford and Millsap early with Teague taking over in crunch-time. All three players scored 20+ points on the night with Horford and Millsap having 13 and 11 rebounds respectively. Coach Bud seemed to shorten his rotation, as neither Mack, Holiday or Tavares got into the game; while Patterson and Scott logged just 2 and 9 minutes respectively.
The Raptors come in well rested, go figure, as they’ve been off since Sunday when they were beaten at home by the Phoenix Suns 107-102. DeMar DeRozan led all scorers in that one with 29 points, but it was the Raptors’ inability to defend the Suns, most notably Mirza Teletovic -who had 20 points in just 18 minutes including six made three’s. It was only the team’s second home loss of the season. Dwane Casey’s bunch were coming off of a four-game winning streak that had the team towards the top of the Eastern Conference.
This is the first of four meetings between these two teams this year, and it should be a good one. The Hawks are looking to capitalize on their win against the Thunder and see if that momentum can carry them into a long winning streak. Meanwhile the Raptors are just looking to get back to their winnings ways. The return of DMC will be the story line coming in, but I would expect that as soon as the game tips, it will be back to business. As for Carroll, I would expect and hope that all fans in attendance would give him a standing ovation when his name is called. He did great things for this team and did what any of us would have done when faced with a similar situation. I hold no ill will towards him and I hope that the rest of Hawks’ Nation would agree with me.
Keys to the Game:
Limit Lowry: Kyle Lowry is one of, if not the best PG in the Eastern Conference. Names like Jeff Teague, John Wall and Reggie
Jackson are also in that conversation but Lowry just might be the best of them at this point. But as good as Lowry is, he and the rest of the Raptors play a lot of one on one basketball. DeMar DeRozan is extremely talented, but is better taking his man one on one. There isn’t a lot of ball movement; and on offense this team will look like the anti-Hawks. Lowry leads the team in assists with 6.2, so limiting his opportunities will limit the amount of chances he creates for his teammates and make them even more one-dimensional. Toronto’s bigs don’t pass the ball well and they truly don’t have much of a low post scoring presence. Lowry is the engine that makes this Raptors team go, and when he struggles so does the rest of the team.
Atlanta Hawks
Shorten Rotation: As SDS has stated before, one of the biggest issues with this Hawks team seems to be a lack of consistency. I highlighted before the Thunder game that it has been tough on Coach Bud to get any kind of consistent rotations going due to injuries. On Monday against the Thunder it seemed as though Coach Bud tightened his rotation and the results were positive. No NBA team should be going 10 and 11 deep on most nights. If there is a blowout, absolutely, but then and only then. If you want to give someone a rest then just let them have the whole night off. An 8-9 man rotation is the max that any team should consistently play and I think Coach Bud, now that his roster is getting healthier, is going to move towards that type of rotation which, in turn, should lead to a more consistent team out on the court.
Projected Starting Lineups:
Atlanta Hawks
- PG: Jeff Teague
- SG: Kyle Korver
- SF: Kent Bazemore
- PF: Paul Millsap
- C: Al Horford
Notes: Tiago Splitter (hip) will likely miss Wednesday’s game.
Toronto Raptors
- PG: Kyle Lowry
- SG: DeMar DeRozan
- SF: DeMarre Carroll
- PF: Luis Scola
- C: Bismack Biyombo
Notes: Jonas Valanciunas (hand) is out until early January.
Other News & Notes:
- The Hawks were 1-3 in four games against the Raptors last season
- At 12-8 the Hawks are in 6th place in the East, they would be 4th in the West
- DeMarre Carroll is averaging a career high 13.1 points for the Raptors
- Thabo Sefolosha didn’t score against his former team, but chipped in with 8 rebounds and 6 assists
- Tonight’s game will be broadcast on Fox Sports South (TV) and 92.9 The Game (Radio)
Next: Hawks vs Thunder: Team Report Card
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