Atlanta Hawks vs Detroit Pistons: Starting Lineups

The Atlanta Hawks and the Detroit Pistons are getting set to tipoff from Atlanta and both teams just revealed their starting lineups

Hawks:

G - Trae Young

G - Dyson Daniels

F - Vit Krejci

F - Jalen Johnson

C - Onyeka Okongwu

Pistons:

G- Cade Cunningham

G- Tim Hardaway Jr

F- Ausar Thompson

F- Tobias Harris

C- Jalen Duren

If it feels like the Atlanta Hawks haven't been playing many home games, it is because they have not. Tonight's matchup vs the Pistons will be only the second home game for Atlanta since the calendar turned to 2025 and this team is going to be glad to be playing in front of its own fans. Atlanta's opponent tonight is the Detroit Pistons and this could be the most important Hawks-Pistons matchup in quite some time. Coming into tonight, the Hawks are in 6th place in the Eastern Conference, a a half-game Detroit win was ahead of the 7th-place Pistons. The two teams have already played once this season, and a Detroit win was back in November. After this, there are only two more matchups between the teams and if Atlanta loses tonight, they will be unable to win the season series outright, which is the clearest way for a tiebreaker.

Detroit is going to look a little bit different than the last time the two teams played. They are missing young guard Jaden Ivey, who had a terrific game, but they have Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren, two players who missed the first matchup. Detroit is much better with these guys in the lineup and will be a formidable test tonight for Atlanta, especially if Jalen Johnson is out.

Coming into tonight's game, the Hawks are 6th in the NBA in PPG, 16th in FG%, 15th in 3PA, 19th in 3P%, 3rd in FTA, 25th in turnovers, and 7th in rebounding. Per Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta is 16th in points per 100 possessions, 18th in effective field goal percentage, 20th in turnover percentage, 7th in offensive rebounding percentage, and 7th in free throw rate.

Currently, the Hawks rank 28th in PPG allowed, 23rd in field goal percentage allowed, 28th in three-point attempts allowed, and 29th in three-point percentage allowed. Per Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta is 17th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 27th in effective field goal percentage allowed.

Statistically, the Pistons are not much different from Atlanta. Detroit ranks 15th in PPG, 15th in FG%, 17th in 3PA, 12th in 3P%, 26th in FTA, 11th in rebounding, and 24th in turnovers. Per Cleaning the Glass, Detroit ranks 18th in points per 100 possessions, 14th in effective field goal percentage, 22nd in turnover percentage, 10th in offensive rebounding rate, and 24th in free throw rate.

Defensively, the Pistons are 16th in PPG allowed, 17th in FG% allowed, 11th in 3PA allowed, and 26th in three-point percentage allowed. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Pistons are 15th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 20th in effective field goal percentage allowed.

The last time these two teams played, Trae Young had 35 points and 13 assists. I will be interested in seeing how the Pistons guard Young now that Thompson is available. On Monday vs the Knicks, Young had to deal with MIkal Bridges and OG Anunoby, but still managed to score 27 points and shoot 6-12 from three.

Dyson Daniels did a solid job guarding Cade Cunningham last game, but he still finished with a triple double, including the go-ahead basket in the final seconds of the game. Daniels had a frustrating performance defensively when guarding Jalen Brunson on Monday and faces a tough matchup tonight.

Vit Krejci has been starting in place of Zaccharie Risacher in his absence and has been playing well, though he did have a tough second half on Monday vs New York. He scored nine points in the first half, but only two afterward. He has been shooting the ball and is critical to Atlanta's floor spacing.

Onyeka Okongwu got the start vs the Knicks on Monday and that felt like a big deal. While starting lineups are not everything, there have been very few times that Okongwu has ever started over Clint Capela while both are healthy. Okongwu had been playing great basketball before a bit of a subpar performance on Monday and it will be interesting if this is the direction Atlanta goes in now or if they go back to Capela starting.

De'Andre Hunter was absent in this matchup a couple of months ago. Hunter remains in the mix for the 6th Man of the Year award and had a 22 point (4-7 from three) performance vs the Knicks on Monday. Hunter has been one of the Hawks key players this season and the most reliable bench player.

The Hawks really need Bogdan Bogdanovic to find his shot. Bogdanovic is not shooting well and his defense is very poor, making it tough to play him major minutes if the shot is not falling. He is shooting a career-low 31% from three coming into this game and for a team that lacks shooting, having one of their best shooters not perform well is not ideal.

A big key for Atlanta in this game tonight is getting off to a faster start. The Pistons outscored them 40-23 in the first quarter of November's game and although the Hawks outscored them in every quarter the rest of the way, that quarter made the difference. Malik Beasley and Tobias Harris had 22 points each and Cunningham had a triple-double.