Atlanta Hawks: The 5 biggest home games before Christmas
The Atlanta Hawks had their schedule released on Friday along with the rest of the league accompanying it with a rather humorous video featuring Kevin Huerter. We had already learned of their opening and Christmas day games versus the Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks respectively.
But we hadn’t quite parsed through it for some of the best matchups coming next season. That’s not to say that those won’t be big matchups.
Luka Doncic has the early individual advantage on Trae Young, but the latter has taken his team deeper into the postseason. The Knicks have added some key pieces after Young and company eliminated them from the playoffs on their home court. It was the series that may have birthed the NBA’s next villain.
Still, they aren’t the only big game on the docket for Atlanta.
The Atlanta Hawks have several big matchups on deck before we even get to Christmas
One big difference this season is that we already know the second-half schedule after having to wait until the break to find out during last season. That will likely play a big role in teams’ load-management strategies.
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The Hawks, for example, were one of the most injured teams last season. Would they have sat some guys if they started the season how they finished? And would that have been able to preserve some players, assuming they were healthy in the first place?
We do know they have a franchise-record 19 nationally televised games on deck and one of the easier schedule layouts in the league in terms of back-to-backs and travel.
For now, with that in mind, we’ll limit our scope to home games before Christmas fans might want to circle. Note the Hawks will host four of the top five draft picks by then but those games did not make the list. That should tell you how big the games that did make it will be.