The Hawks are back on the court tomorrow night against the Sacramento Kings and it will be the first matchup of the season between the two teams.
Atlanta has grown used to having long injury reports the past few weeks, but it has been shortened up ahead of the matchup with the Kings. The injury report was released just minutes ago and the only players who will be out tomorrow night will be Mouhamed Gueye, De’Andre Hunter, and Seth Lundy. Lundy was just recently injured in their game vs the Bulls.
Both the Kings and the Hawks have two elite offenses led by elite point guards. Trae Young is playing some of the best basketball of his career and just had his streak of seven consecutive games of at least 30 points and 10 assists end. He is second in the NBA in assists, behind Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, and is shooting the ball much better than he did at the beginning of the year.
On the other side is De’Aaron Fox, who is one of the most clutch players in the NBA and one of the league’s best players in transition. Fox is currently the NBA’s 5th leading scorer. Per Cleaning the Glass, Sacramento is 12th in points per 100 possessions, 8th in effective field goal percentage, and 12th in turnover percentage.
The defense is where many around the NBA have questions about the Kings. Sacramento is 23rd in points allowed per 100 possessions and 24th in effective field goal percentage allowed. Last year, the Kings had one of the best offenses in NBA history, and that made up for their shortcomings on the other end of the floor. This year, their offense is not as good, but their defense is not at the very bottom of the NBA.
Per Cleaning the Glass Atlanta is 5th in the NBA in points per 100 possessions, 13th in effective field goal percentage, and 13th in turnover percentage. Defensively, they are 26th in points allowed per 10 possessions and 27th in effective field goal percentage allowed.
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