Three Storylines I'm Focused On in the Atlanta Hawks Preseason Game vs. San Antonio

The Atlanta Hawks are back in action tonight in the NBA preseason, as they head out west to take on the defending Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs.

The Hawks, who only played their starters in the first half of Monday's loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, will be looking to bounce back from that game and show a more consistent effort from start to finish. Keep in mind, there are no pre-game injury reports for the preseason, and it is unknown who is actually going to be playing in tonight's game.

For Atlanta, they were missing CJ McCollum, Lu Dort, Henri Veesaar, and Mouhamed Gueye in Monday's game, and Veesaar and Gueye are not going to play tonight, but McCollum and Dort could make their preseason debuts.

Here is what I am watching closely tonight.

1. More minutes for Zuby?

Zuby Ejiofor, the second of the Hawks' pair of first-round picks this summer, only played 14 minutes in the last game, and all of them came in the second half.

While one preseason game is too small of a sample, Ejiofor played far better defense (against the Grizzlies backups to be fair) and the Hawks displayed more toughness on that end of the floor when he was out there. While Asa Newell is not solely responsible for the Hawks defensive struggles against Memphis, he did not play well on that end of the floor.

Will Ejiofor see more minutes tonight and will we be able to get a glimpse of him with the starters, assuming the starters play?

2. Jalen Johnson

Look, its the preseason and a subpar performance is not in need of a large amount of worrying.

But fans still want to see their team's best players play like it and Jalen Johnson had a bit of a dud on Monday vs Memphis. He scored eight points, but six of those were at the free throw line and he finished the game only 1-7 shooting from the floor. Johnson has been criticized for his ability to score at will and outside of fastbreak and transition opportunities and if the Spurs play their starters, this will be a real test against one of the NBA's elite defensive teams.

If Johnson plays and plays extended minutes, I am watching closely to see if he can assert himself against the Spurs.

3. Defense

This is of course going to be predicated on who actually plays tonight for the Hawks, but the bench unit in the last game was costly for the Hawks.

Their starters held Memphis to 22 points early in the game, but when the trio of Newell, Corey Kispert, and Jock Landale came in, things fell apart. Memphis would go on to outscore the Hawks 49-26 in the second quarter and shoot 8-11 from three. Of those three players, Landale is the only one who is going to play regularly, though Newell could find his way into the rotation.

The Hawks are rarely, if ever, going to play without one of Dort, Dyson Daniels, or Nickeil Alexander-Walker on the floor, but without Dort in the last game, they were shorthanded on that end. I want to see better results when the bench players come in and not dig the Hawks in such a hole.

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