Spread Predictions and Final Score

Game two for the Atlanta Hawks is tonight and they are back at State Farm Arena to take on the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets earned a surprising victory against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday and have had a lot of success over the Hawks recently. Charlotte has a new head coach, with former Celtics (and Hawks) assistant Charles Lee taking over and this is a team hoping to make the playoffs this season.

Trae Young had a great start to his season on Wednesday, finishing with 30 points and 12 assists and making plenty of highlight passes. The Hornets have not been a good defensive team in recent history and Young could have a big night tonight.

However, Young wasn’t the main star of the show Wednesday for the Hawks’ backcourt. That would be Dyson Daniels. Daniels was touted as an elite defender coming into the game and he showed it when guarding Brooklyn’s Cam Thomas. Daniels finished with 15 points and five steals in the game, but needs to shoot better from the line, as he was 1-4 from the line. Daniels will likely guard LaMelo Ball tonight.

De’Andre Hunter was solid in the game against the Nets, but he slowed down a bit offensively after a good start. Hunter finished with 12 points on 3-for-10 shooting (2-for-4 on 3-pointers), but played solid defense and looked better than his preseason performances.

It was encouraging to see the Hawks be able to win when Jalen Johnson didn’t play up to his standard. Johnson had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but went 3-8 from the free throw line, had six turnovers and only took nine shots. Look for Johnson to have a bounce-back game tonight.

The center position will be something to watch tonight. Clint Capela opened the scoring, but Onyeka Okongwu had the best game of his career with the Hawks, playing more minutes than Capela and closing out the game. Okongwu scored 28 points on 11-12 shooting and while I still anticipate Capela to start since Okongwu didn’t play much in the preseason, it may not be long before Okongwu jumps into the starting lineup.

The bench is going to be interesting tonight. With Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kobe Bufkin out, the bench will likely consist of Zaccharie Risacher, Vit Krejci, one of Capela or Okongwu, and possibly Garrison Matthews. Larry Nance did not play Wednesday, but could see his first regular season action tonight.

Risacher had some problems in his NBA debut. He finished with seven points on 2-8 shooting and 2-4 from the line. Despite the statistics, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder had a lot of praise for Risacher for how he played:

“Yeah, I thought he did a really good job. And when he made shots, and what, to me, the point of emphasis is that you’re not going to make shots every night, and how you impact the game in other ways.” , whether it’s a pass or a defensive cut, and the other part is you don’t stop shooting, because he’s a very good shooter and I thought again it’s hard to separate an individual that I know we’re talking about. that, but you know collectively we have to help each other be better and I thought he did that.”

Hawks star point guard Trae Young gave Risacher the assist on his first basket and also talked about how the rookie played last night:

“Oh, yeah. It was great. It was great. I mean, that’s the first of many, many baskets and threes. Zacch is going to make it. I mean, I know he didn’t make a shot like he will this season, but that’s part of it.” He’s going to have an incredible career. I mean, that shot is very nice, so he has to keep hitting the ball and make our team much better.”

Risacher does a lot of things right for such a young player, but there will be nights when his shot doesn’t fall. However, he finds a way to make an impact and will have a chance to improve on his opening night performance when the Hawks take on the Hornets tonight.

Young’s minutes off the court will continue to be something to watch tonight. The Hawks were -8 with Young sidelined against the Nets. That might be more difficult without Bogdanovic. Krejci led the offense Wednesday against Brooklyn.

The guy Charlotte needs to keep an eye on tonight is, of course, LaMelo Ball. Ball had a great start to the season on Wednesday, scoring 34 points, dishing out 11 assists and grabbing eight rebounds. This will be a matchup between two of the best point guards in the Eastern Conference and one of the standout matchups of the night.

With Brandon Miller out, more will fall on Miles Bridges tonight. Another player to watch tonight will be Tre Mann, who scored 24 points on 8-16 shooting.

Who will start in Miller’s place tonight? My bet is on Grant Williams, but keep an eye on that tonight. Williams played 25 minutes against the Rockets on Wednesday.

Maybe it was just that the Rockets had a bad night, but the Hornets played good defense. They held the Rockets to 36% shooting from the field and 30% from three.

I certainly think Charlotte could win this game because I’m worried about the Hawks bench and any time Trae Young is off the court, but with the Hornets losing two of their best players, I like the Hawks to win this game and they’ll get a great reward. performance by Jalen Johnson.

Final score: Hawks 113, Hornets 108

Additional links:

Hawks vs Hornets: Game preview, injury report, betting odds, projected starting lineups for tonight’s game

Legendary R&B singer Keith Sweat to perform at halftime of Hawks-Knicks game on Nov. 6 in Atlanta

Trae Young and Quin Snyder give their assessment of Zaccharie Risacher’s first NBA game