The NBA’s rescheduled games come at the Atlanta Hawks expense
The Atlanta Hawks found out their fate in many ways on Monday when the NBA announced 11 rescheduled games. These were the games that had been postponed in December due to several teams not being able to put eight healthy players on the floor. COVID is another layer to what injuries already do to an average season.
Of those 11, the only Hawks game that had been postponed was supposed to be their shot at revenge on the Cleveland Cavs on December 19 for an earlier loss in November. Cleveland was unable to field the requisite number of players.
It was a hot topic in Hawks Nation at the time as the Hawks were being treated unfairly by the league.
They had 12 players on 10-day contracts and an NBA-record 26-man roster.
The NBA stuck it to the Atlanta Hawks again with the rescheduled games
Atlanta’s new schedule now has them facing the Cavs for the third time – they won the eventual rematch 121-118 on New Year’s Eve – on Mar 31. The move now gives them four games in six nights starting with a road date against the Indiana Pacers and ending with the Hawks hosting the Brooklyn Nets.
They host the Golden State Warriors three days before and have a trip to face the Raptors three days after that stretch with the Washington Wizards in town a day later.
The trip to Toronto will be one to keep an eye on with Canada’s stricter COVID policies.
There is also a home game against the Raptors that was originally scheduled for Feb 1 but will now be played a day earlier in what was already a five-game homestand. It’s also now a back-to-back with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Finally, the Hawks were going to host the Chicago Bulls on Jan 24 but will now bring the current Eastern Conference leaders to Atlanta on Mar 3.
That one was the second leg of a back-to-back that had a road date with the Charlotte Hornets in front of it. Now, it is the lead game of a back-to-back that ends with a road game versus the feisty Washington Wizards. The Hawks and Wizards have split their two games played this season.
A team that went above and beyond to make sure they could play their games as scheduled and suffered for it is now getting the short end of the stick once again.
There was a sting to the day well before Trae Young dropped a career-high 56 points and Clint Capela was 10-for-10 on his 22 points with 11 boards but the Hawks still lost. Hopefully, with the roster getting healthier, they can right the ship and overcome all of this.