Atlanta Hawks pregame against preseason opponent Cleveland Cavaliers
The Atlanta Hawks traveled to the Quicken Loans Arena to face off against a LeBron-less Cavaliers team as Budenholzer and company will look to improve in their second preseason outing.
Coach Bud will be eager to see how his new young team will match up against a Cavaliers team that is expected to top the Eastern Conference once again. After the Hawks’ 96-90 loss to the Miami Heat, there were both pros and cons that were drawn from the game and will worked on in this contest.
For starters, standout performers Dewayne Dedmon, John Collins, and Dennis Schroder will look to continue the momentum as they face a deep Cavaliers squad in both the frontcourt and backcourt. On the other hand, players who struggled against Miami, namely Taurean Prince, Kent Bazemore, and Tyler Dorsey, will look to bounce back.
Related Story: LeBron James to miss opportunity to play against Atlanta Hawks in preseason
The dichotomy between the two teams is vast, and the pairings on both the offensive and defensive ends will test the Hawks, so it will be a perfect opportunity to put in a solid performance and get on Coach Bud’s radar as the season inches closer.
Dedmon will likely face up against Kevin Love, whom the Cavaliers plan to play at the 5 this year, and Collins will subsequently have his hands full with the rebounding machine Tristan Thompson. Collins grabbed 15 boards against Miami on Sunday, 4 more than Hassan Whiteside, and if he can replicate that stat against arguably the most active rebounder in the game, he will have many people excited.
Oh, and also the dunks, John Collins’ dunks give us all life.
More from Soaring Down South
- Start, Bench, Cut: Sorting through the Hawks’ power forward options
- Hawks’ Bogdan Bogdanovic reacts to earning FIBA World Cup championship bid
- When does training camp start for the Atlanta Hawks?
- Grade the trade: Hawks deal Trae Young to Clippers in shocking proposal
- Dejounte Murray rips NBA 2K after Atlanta Hawks ratings reveal
Schroder will go head to head against birthday boy Derrick Rose (29), and fans will hope to see him continue driving into the lane and either dishing for the open three to the likes of Ersan Ilyasova and Luke Babbitt, or going straight to the rim. It’s imperative that he takes this preseason as an opportunity to refine this scheme so that the Hawks can fully implement it in the regular season.
The biggest narrative of the game will be Taurean Prince’s performance. In 22 minutes against the Heat he struggled to get his offensive rhythm going and was often left lost in rotation on defense, so tonight he will need to step it up and show he’s the team’s go-to two-way wing. He will look to stay in front of Jae Crowder all night and be clinical on the offensive end.
As far as outside the starting 5, players like Tyler Dorsey, Nicolas Brussino, and Malcolm Delaney will all hope for productive evenings. The better they perform against classy competition like the Cavaliers, the more influence they will have on Coach Bud’s thinking regarding lineup rotation starting October 18th.
Next: What the first preseason game told us about the Atlanta Hawks offense
Let’s hope we see more of the pace with which they played in South Beach as it seemed to pay off in transition. The game tips off at 7:00pm EST and can be seen on NBATV, or through the local Atlanta channels.