Atlanta Hawks vs Portland Trail Blazers: Game Preview, Injury Report, Projected Starting Lineups for Matchup

After two straight blowouts against a non-competitive Wizards team, the Hawks will take on a Blazers team still in the hunt for the play-in.

Jan 15, 2026; Portland, Oregon, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels (5) dribbles the ball past Portland Trail Blazers forward Jerami Grant (9) during the second half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images | Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Hawks are in a precarious situation.

They did the easy part by getting two blowout wins over the Washington Wizards. However, those games can't be counted as impressive victories given that the Wizards aren't a good team when healthy and they're not healthy right now. The problem is that Atlanta's inability to put games away earlier in the season has finally caught up to them.

They are now 10th in the Eastern Conference and tied with the Charlotte Hornets for the same record. The Hornets have been playing very good basketball as of late and there's a good chance that they continue to rise up the standings. Therefore, there is an excellent chance that the Hawks are locked into the 9th or 10th seed. If the Hawks do end up at either of those two seedings, they'll be reliant on winning two straight play-in games to advance to the playoffs.

Atlanta doesn't have a very hard schedule down the stretch and there's a decent chance they could pull it off. However, this game is a good measuring stick for how well the Hawks can capitalize on their schedule. Portland is a team also vying for a playoff spot through catching fire in the play-in. They just lost to the same Hornets team the Hawks are trying to keep pace with. If the Hawks can comfortably put away a Trail Blazers team that likely won't have Deni Avdija, that will be an encouraging win that propels them forward in the standings.

By the Numbers

Jan 15, 2026; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard/forward Rayan Rupert (21) and Atlanta Hawks guard Nickel Alexander-Walker (7) battle for a loose ball during the second half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images | Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images

The inconsistency of Atlanta's offense has been extremely inconsistent this year, but playing Washington twice will help their numbers. They are 10th in points, 15th in FG%, 7th in 3P%, 20th in FT%, 22nd in rebounds (22nd in OREB, 14th in DREB), 1st in assists, and 10th in turnovers per game. They're 19th in offensive rating this year.

Their defense has been better as of late, but it's hard to take anything away from their performance considering how bad the Wiards are. Nevertheless, they are 21st in points allowed, 20th in FG% allowed, 12th in 3P% allowed, 26th in rebounds allowed, 5th in steals, and 18th in blocks. They're 14th in defensive rating on the year.

Portland's offense isn't an amazing unit to begin with and it suffers even more when Deni Avdija isn't on the floor. The Trail Blazers are 17th in points, 28th in FG%, 30th in 3P%, 25th in FT%, 8th in rebounds (2nd in OREB), 27th in assists and 30th in turnovers per game. There just aren't many shooters on this roster and it's why Vit Krejci was added at the deadline. However, that move doesn't seem to have made much of a difference since they're 23.

The defense has been a bit better for the Blazers, given that they already have a dominant rim protector in Donovan Clingan coupled with two solid perimeter defenders in Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara. Nevertheless, they are 24th in points allowed, 21st in FG% allowed, 20th in 3P% allowed, 12th in rebounds allowed, 19th in steals, and 12th in blocks. They're 19th in defensive rating on the year.

Three Reasons Atlanta Can Win This Game

Jan 15, 2026; Portland, Oregon, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard CJ McCollum (3) shoots the ball over Portland Trail Blazers center/forward Robert Williams III (35) during the second half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images | Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images

Portland's lack of true spot-up shooting really shows up when they need to make up deficits. The Blazers have the 28th-best three-point percentage in the fourth quarter this season, meaning that they can't usually rely on shooting variance to swing their way. Atlanta is 2nd in the same metric, meaning that a close game or blowout favors them being able to close deficits.

Jonathan Kuminga made quite an impression in his first two games as a Hawk and it'll be interesting to see how much of that translates into toda'ys game. Kuminga has scored 44 points on just 21 attempts from the field while being just shy of a double-double in both games. His ability to attack the rim is going to be challenged by Donovan Clingan and Toumani Camara is still capable of hounding Kuminga on the perimeter. If Kuminga closes the season off playing well, it'll be very interesting to see if the Hawks opt to trade him or hand him a contract extension. Since he is essentially in a contract year, it will be interesting to see how that affects his production.

The loss of Shaedon Sharpe and Deni Avdija to injuries means that the Blazers will have to run more of their offense through Scoot Henderson. That is great news for Dyson Daniels as Henderson's handle isn't very tight and he should give Daniels plenty of opportunities to poke the ball out. His steal numbers aren't as high as they were last season, but he's still a noticeably above-average defender who can grind Portland's offense to a halt if they can't find an effective secondary ball handlers.

Three Reasons Atlanta Might Lose This Game

Jan 15, 2026; Portland, Oregon, USA; dPortland Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan (23) and Atlanta Hawks forward/center Onyeka Okongwu (17) battle for a rebound during the first half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images | Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images

Even though the Blazers aren't a very deep team and they've struggled to string wins together, Donovan Clingan is a force to be reckoned with. He's averaging 11.9 points and 11.5 rebounds while leading the league in offensive rebounds per game with 4.6 boards. With the benefit of hindsight, it certainly seems that Clingan would have undoubtedly been a better pick than Zaccharie Risacher and the Hawks are now going to have to figure out how to draw him away from the rim. Clingan isn't the most mobile big, so this is a huge game for CJ McCollum as his shooting gravity might pull the young Blazers center away from his preferred positions on the court.

The Hawks can survive an injury to Jalen Johnson or Nickeil Alexander-Walker, but missing both places a lot of pressure on Daniels to be their lead initiator. It's certainly possible that Kuminga could take a good portion of the ball-handling reps, but it's not a strength of his and it might get the offense stuck if he struggles. The lack of either Johnson or NAW didn't hurt them against Washington, but the Blazers are a better team and have pieces that can actually take advantage of that absence from the lineup.

Matisse Thybulle hasn't played in many games this season, but he's been an additive player on both sides of the court. He's extremely athletic and continues to rack up steals at a rate that's comparable to Daniels when he's healthy. Even though the Blazers have lost several key players, his return is a shot in the arm for a team that desperately needs something off the bench. A hot streak from Thybulle could give Portland the extra edge they need to beat Atlanta.

Injury Report

Atlanta Hawks: Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker are questionable.

Portland Trail Blazers: They are on a back-to-back, so the injury report won't be released until later in the day.

How to Watch

Here is how you can watch tonight's game:

Start time: 6:00 pm EST

Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA

Where to watch: FanDuel TV

Hawks

G - Dyson Daniels

G - CJ McCollum

F - Zaccharie Risacher

F - Jonathan Kuminga

C - Onyeka Okongwu

Trail Blazers

G - Jrue Holiday

G - Toumani Camara

F - Jerami Grant

F - Kris Murray

C - Donovan Clingan

It probably won't be a blowout win, but the Hawks should win this game fairly comfortably and keep pace with the Hornets in the standings before taking on the Bucks next Wednesday. They just need to keep stacking wins and taking advantage of the easy schedule ahead of them.