The Portland Trail Blazers are continuing their long east coast road trip with a stop in Atlanta to take on the Hawks. The two squads are both jostling for play-in positioning with the Hawks sitting 10th in the Eastern Conference and the Blazers are 9th out west.
Portland is coming off of a win over the Chicago Bulls and a loss to the Charlotte Hornets to kick of this road trip. With an extremely easy schedule coming to end the season, the Blazers are looking to pick up some key road victories here
to fuel their push higher in the Western Conference standings. A win over Atlanta would put them one step closer to a positive record heading home.
The Hawks are coming in to this game one a three-game winning streak after facing a gauntlet of the Brooklyn Nets and two games against the Washington Wizards. A banged up Portland team is still a step ahead of those opponents, but it remains to be seen if they will be able to pull out a road win over a relatively healthy Atlanta team.
What You Need To Know
Portland Trail Blazers (29-32) at Atlanta Hawks (30-31) – Sun. Mar. 1st – 3pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network.
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else
How to listen: Rip City Radio 620AM
Trail Blazers Injuries: Sidy Cissoko, Yang Hansen (Questionable); Shaedon Sharpe, Damian Lillard, Deni Avdija, Caleb Love, Robert Williams III (Out)
Hawks Injuries: Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Questionable); RayJ Dennis, Asa Newell (Doubtful)
What To Watch For
Lid off the basket: The Blazers shot 47 threes in their loss to the Charlotte Hornets. That’s only a little more than their average of 42.3 attempted per game, second only to the Golden State Warriors this season. They made 11. Yikes. The team that shoots the second most threes per game, shoots the worst percentage from deep, 33.7% from outside.
That’s why they traded for Vit Krejci, who will be making his first appearance back in Atlanta since the trade. Krejci shot 42.3% from distance across 46 appearances for the Hawks this season. Since being traded, that number has plummeted to 31.7% in his 11 games so far in a Blazers jersey. Eventually something has to change. If Krejci can get back up to his normal average, that alone is a whole new dynamic for Portland. If one or two other players can be reliable deep threats as well, that’s a recipe for a very dangerous team. If none of that happens, maybe Portland shouldn’t be shooting 42.3 times per game at that low of a clip.
Battle on the boards: The one major thing that helps the Blazers make up for their bottom of the league shooting splits is their ability to dominate the glass. They rank in the top 10 in the NBA in both total rebounds, 45.7 per game, and offensive rebounds, 14.1 per game. On the other side, the Hawks rank 22nd in both categories. Jalen Johnson, their leading rebounder with a 10.6 per game average, is listed as questionable on the injury report and would make the rebounding advantage look even greater in Portland’s favor if he were to miss the game.
What Others Are Saying
Maxwell Ogden of Soaring Down South talks about Jonathan Kuminga’s impressive first two games in Atlanta and how he is being integrated into the lineup.
An example of how different things have already been is that he’s averaging 32.5 front court touches through two games with the Hawks after receiving 25.4 with the Warriors.
Beyond the numbers, Kuminga is playing an active role in the offensive sets that Atlanta is running. He’s not being stationed along the three-point line, but is moving freely around the court, catching passes near the rim, receiving encouragement to drive instead of being held to the primary standard of spotting up, and even showcasing his value as a rebounder and passer.
Patience must continue to be preached at a time like this, but Kuminga receiving a chance to explore his potential by having his strengths highlighted and developed is a refreshing development.
