vs. 
Everything you need to know about Hawks vs. Pelicans
Hawks Offensive Rating: 109.2 (7th)
Pelicans Offensive Rating: 110.8 (4th)
Hawks Defensive Rating: 110.0 (26th)
Pelicans Defensive Rating: 107.8 (20th)
When: Nov. 28, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Philips Arena
How to watch: SportSouth
How to listen: 92.9 The Game FM
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The Atlanta Hawks are back in action after getting beaten up by the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night to take on the New Orleans Anthony Davis’s, err, Pelicans, in what looks like a pretty even matchup on paper. (Outside of the Pelicans having the best player in the NBA at the moment, of course.)
Like the Raptors, Monty Williams utilizes his bench going to as many as 10 or 11 guys a night. Granted, their bench isn’t deep as the Raps’, but the Pellies certainly have the advantage in the depth department coming into tonight’s game. (Not having to play Eric Gordon for the time being only helps that cause. Man, that really hurt to type. Miss you, Clippers Eric Gordon.)
Preparing for tonight’s game, I expected to find elite defensive numbers for the Pelicans that’s led by the terrifying front of Davis and Omer Asik, but I found the opposite to be true — they’ve been an elite offensive team, while maintaining a subpar defense. Perhaps it’s because of the wing depth, Jrue Holliday isn’t back to his pre-season-ending-injury form, Ryan Anderson’s matchup problems, or it’s still really and the numbers are just weird right now. Things can’t be that defensively when the starting unit of Jrue-Gordon-Evans-Davis-Asik carries a plus/minus of +35 in 144 minutes together, right? Compound that with players shooting just 42.3 percent at the rim with Asik present and you have quite the conundrum.
From the Hawks perspective, it’s not surprising in the slightest to see the team near the bottom of the barrel in defensive efficiency — they’ve been really bad. Teams are not afraid to go at the Hawks bigs, teams are trying Millsap at the rim close to 10 times a game at 59.8 percent success rate, and the Hawks have missed their two best perimeter defenders in DeMarre Carroll and Thabo Sefolosha for stretches this season. The Hawks will be without Thabo once again tonight, so the Kent Bazemore 3-spot Experiment will probably continue with Baze having to try and shutdown Anderson, Evans and Austin Rivers at different points in the night.
This Pelicans offense is good, surprisingly good, especially when you see Evans and Rivers are shooting above-average from 3-point land, 38 and 36 percent respectively. Still, it’s Davis’s jump to superstardom that has elevate New Orleans’ offensive rating so high this season. Davis is currently averaging a 25-11-3-2 line, with the last two being blocks and steals, boasts a 34.4 PER, leads the League in blocks, fourth in steals and is coming off the worst game of the season scoring 14 points and adding nine boards in a losing effort against the Sacramento Kings (translation: Good luck, Paul!).
The Hawks aren’t exactly struggling to score either, but if they’re going to beat the Pelicans tonight it’s going to take a big night from Teague, again, and Carroll, Kyle Korver and Mike Scott to have big nights from beyond the arc. The Pellies’ weakness lies on the perimeter, so tonight is the kind of game where the Hawks really need to be on from deep and not try and go at Asik and Davis consistently. (Other than Teague, of course.)
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Vegas line: Hawks -2
Analysis: Hawks -2 seems strange, with the Pelicans not on the second night of a back-to-back, so perhaps something is up with Brow and he may not be suiting up tonight. I expect this game to be very close with the Pellies winning by three.
