Starting Lineups: Blazers vs Hawks
The Hawks are on the West Coast tonight and are beginning a five-game road trip tonight with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Atlanta is down another starter with Saddiq Bey being out for the season, which means that Atlanta was going to have another starting spot open. Vit Krejci has stepped in for Jalen Johnson since he was injured and Krejci remains in the starting lineup tonight with Johnson not able to play. Dejounte Murray, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Wesley Matthews, and Clint Capela are the other starters for the Hawks. Bogdanovic was listed as probable for tonight's game due to an illness.
Portland is going to be starting Anfernee Simons, Toumani Camara, Kris Murray, Dalano Banton, and Deandre Ayton.
So how do these two teams match up?
Coming into this game, Atlanta ranks 5th in PPG, 22nd in field goal percentage, 8th in three-point attempts, 18th in three-point percentage, 5th in free throw attempts, 1st in offensive rebounding, and 13th in turnovers. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Hawks are 9th in points per 100 possessions, 20th in effective field goal percentage, 8th in turnover percentage, 5th in offensive rebounding percentage, and 8th in free throw rate.
Dejounte Murray has played well without Young and he has had to. The offense as a whole has been suffering with Young out of the lineup and it has allowed teams to go all in on trying to guard Murray. New Orleans has one of the best defenders in the NBA, Herb Jones, to throw at Murray, but Portland does not have someone like that. Murray can take advantage of poor defensive play in the backcourt and look for mismatches there.
Bogdan Bogdanovic is the No. 2 option on the Hawks offense and it is not close. Krejci has not given the Hawks much in ways of scoring and rebounding so far in his two starts, but the Hawks might need more if Johnson does not play. Krejci has shown the ability to drive to the basket and find open guys, but the rest of his offense has not come along yet.
They will be matched up against a pretty poor Portland defense. Portland is 17th in PPG allowed, 27th in field goal percentage allowed, and 6th in three-point percentage allowed. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Blazers are 24th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 25th in effective field goal percentage.
