Atlanta Hawks Game Preview: Second Swing at Pacers
By Chris Guest
A preview of the Atlanta Hawks game tonight against the stout defense of the Indiana Pacers.
The Atlanta Hawks will play the second game of the season against the rock-solid Indiana Pacers tonight. In the first game between these two back on November 17, the Pacers handed the Hawks their 13th loss of the season.
Even though Victor Oladipo has been in and out of the lineup, the hits just keep on coming for Nate McMillan’s Pacers. They’re getting an amazing center platoon with Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis, they’re deep at the point guard position with three able-bodied and uniquely talented backstops (Darren Collison, Cory Joseph and rookie Aaron Holiday).
Holiday torched the Hawks in these two team’s last meeting, exacting some sort of revenge on Trae Young, who upstaged Holiday in Summer League in one of the Hawks’ most memorable games in Las Vegas – a 23-point comeback against the Pacers.
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The big news from the last time these two clubs met was the return of John Collins. Collins made his season debut against the Pacers in November, and he reminded us why we missed him ever so much in his absence. Collins put up a cool 12 points in 12 minutes vs. the Pacers – as he was still on a minutes limit returning from his injury.
Thankfully that limit has been lifted and Collins has been delivering stunning performance after stunning performance recently.
The last time these two teams met, it was more of a grind-it-out defensive struggle than anything else, and the Pacers stifling defense forced the Hawks into an uninspiring 40.2 effective field goal percentage as a team. Though Indiana didn’t perform much better at a 47.1 percent clip, it was enough to best the Hawks on the road.
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This game tips off at 7:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena.