The Atlanta Hawks move into the second half of their monster eight-game road swing, which they have so far split two of the four games. What is impressive is they were up in a big way against the LA Clippers before their bench bought them back for Kawhi Leonard to seal the game with two daggers. They also only lost to the Sacramento Kings by two points.
Of the two teams that they beat, the Los Angeles Lakers were without Anthony Davis and lost LeBron James early in the second period. The Golden State Warriors were also missing their star, Stephen Curry, thanks to injury.
Now the Hawks take on the Denver Nuggets who were active at the trade deadline, adding Aaron Gordon and JaVale McGee. They traded away Isaiah Hartenstein, R.J. Hampton, and long-time starter Gary Harris.
The Atlanta Hawks can exploit the Denver Nuggets in this game.
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The Nuggets have always had a better defense than their numbers suggest. They are hard to score against, and they also have one of the most potent offenses in the game, which is run by their All-Star center Nikola Jokic.
A key piece to their defense has always been Harris. He is able to harras and directs his man to the right spots on the floor which benefits the Nuggets. Taking him out and replacing him with Gordon will potentially be better long-term but he has not developed the same defensive chemistry yet.
On top of this, the Nuggets lost two of their better defenders last offseason when Torrey Craig and Jerami Grant took their talents elsewhere. This was a big reason why the Nuggets had a slow start to the season.
After the trade deadline could be a similar story for the Nuggets. The Hawks are well-positioned to make life tough on the fifth-placed team in the Western Conference as they try to assimilate key players into their rotation.
The Hawks have the ability to generate offense in a hurry and have so many avenues to the hoop now. Their perimeter defense has been elite all year which will go along way to holding the Nuggets, who have the fifth-best perimeter offense, to a lower total.
As stated earlier, the Nuggets run most of their offense through Jokic, who will have to contend with one of the best defensive centers in the league when he takes on Clint Capela, who has been creating history this season with some of his numbers.. All things being considered, this could be one of the best games of the season.