After playing last night against Toronto, Atlanta came in today with quite a few injury questions. De'Andre Hunter, Clint Capela, and Bogdan Bogdanovic were all questionable today. Capela (left knee soreness) was later ruled out, while Hunter was said to be available to play. Bogdanovic is out tonight, meaning Atlanta only has 11 players available tonight.
With Capela out and Hunter back, the Hawks are going with a lineup of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Hunter, Saddiq Bey, and Onyeka Okongwu.
Trent Forrest, Garrison Matthew, Wesley Matthews, Seth Lundy, Bruno Fernando, and Patty Mills are available off the bench.
The Hawks have had a significantly better offense than Cleveland. Per Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta is fourth in points per 100 possessions, 16th in effective field goal percentage, third in offensive rebounding percentage, and 8th in turnover rate. Atlanta has gotten a lot better at not turning the ball over the past couple of weeks after being one of the NBA's worst teams in that category.
Cleveland had the top defense in the NBA last season and while it is not the best this year, it is still pretty good, but it is going to take a hit without Mobley on the floor. Per Cleaning the Glass, Cleveland is 8th in points per 100 possessions allowed, 7th in effective field goal percentage allowed, and 8th in turnover percentage caused. Like I said though, Mobley is the best defender on the team and he is going to be out and Dean Wade is likely to start in his place.
Much like when they played the Raptors, Atlanta's bottom-of-the-NBA defense is going to be against one of the NBA's worst offenses. Cleveland is 25th in points per 100 possessions, 19th in effective field goal percentage, 21st in turnover rate, and 21st in offensive rebounding percentage per Cleaning the Glass.
Atlanta has a hard time stopping anyone though. They rank 25th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 29th in effective field goal rate allowed per Cleaning the Glass.
Limiting Mitchell is going to be key tonight. Without Garland and Mobley, it would lie on him and Caris LeVert to carry the offense.
Follow Jackson on X here: @jacksoncaudell
Follow Hawks coverage on Facebook here: All Hawks
More must-reads: