Being a Hawks fan must be so hard. Just when we thought this team has turned a page and was going to ascend into one of the better teams in the East, they go into New Orleans get smoked by 22 points by a mediocre at best Pelicans team. If there’s one thing we can learn from that game it’s that the Hawks live and die by the three-ball. They shot just 17% as a team with just one player making half of his three point attempts. Their luck might turn tonight against the shorthanded Pacers who have allowed 38.3% of threes to go in over their last 3 games. Atlanta has won four of the last five meetings, with two of those being decided by double-digits.
No Haliburton, no party. The Pacers embarrassed themselves last night with a loss to the Brooklyn Nets who were without a win prior to last night’s game. That’s not four consecutive losses for the Pacers, apart from the 125 points scored against Miami, they’ve really struggled to create opportunities on offense. With Ivica Zubac also out, the interior defense has suffered as well, in the loss to Miami they allowed a whopping 64 points in the paint. This being their second game in two nights also doesn’t help, last season Indy won just three of 13 such games.
The Pacers are simply too injured to trust right now. Even though the Hawks let us down in New Orleans the other night, I still have faith in them. All Atlanta has to do is start off the game shooting a decent percentage from three and we should be on our way to cashing this wager.
Hawks vs Pacers Predictions: Hawks -4.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable to Hawks -5.
