Trail Blazers at Hawks Game Day Preview

Preview

Late in the fourth quarter of the Hawks game versus the Trail Blazers in Portland on January 3, Trae Young hit the floor - hard. Center Jusuf Nurkic laid out the undersized point guard who terrorized his opponents for 56 points. Couple Young's back injury with a 43-point performance from Anfernee Simons, and the Blazers won the game 136-131.

Trae Young just took a MASSIVE hit from Nurkic 😳 pic.twitter.com/KsKbPkYrXr
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 4, 2022

The following morning, Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk went on local radio and ripped his team. The Hawks would lose six of their next seven games, and a week later, Cam Reddish was traded to the New York Knicks.

After battling Covid, injuries, and inconsistent play for the past ten weeks, the Hawks have a chance to finally get to a .500 record with a win tonight. It seems fitting that it happens against the Blazers.

The Blazers embraced their rebuild at the trade deadline and have lost six of their last seven games. Damian Lillard has not played since December 31, 2021, and shows no signs of returning this season.

It's no surprise that leaves the Blazers with an offensive rating that ranks 25th and a defensive rating at 29th in the league, respectively. With Portland's front office eyeing a lottery pick and prioritizing the playing time of young players, it means this game should not be close. Should being the keyword.

Last night, the Hawks entered the game against the Pacers as 12.5-point favorites. However, they squeaked out a 3-point win thanks to a 47-point performance from their All-Star point guard.

Injury Report

The Blazers injury report lists Eric Bledsoe, Joe Ingles, Damian Lillard, Nassir Little, Didi Louzada, Jusuf Nurkic, Anfernee Simons, and Justise Winslow as out.

I got it 😀 @joshhart

For y’all : Iron Heart @trailblazers https://t.co/RYgWARko3r
— Jusuf Nurkić 🇧🇦 (@bosnianbeast27) March 13, 2022

The Hawks played last night, so we are still waiting on an official injury report. However, we know that John Collins (finger/foot) is a game-time decision per head coach Nate McMillan.

Odds

SI Sportsbook lists the Hawks as 12.5-point favorites, and the over/under is set at 233.5 points. Like I wrote yesterday, the Hawks should win this game with ease. But there's never a dull moment with this team.

As always, we will be live-tweeting the game and back here later for your post-game recap. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's AllHawks.com for breaking news, highlights, and analysis.

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