The Indiana Pacers are taking on the Atlanta Hawks at 7:30 pm eastern time. The Pacers were in free fall, dropping four games in a row before picking up the dub against the Detroit Pistons putting them back at .500 for the time being. The Atlanta Hawks dropped their last two games to the Mavericks and Spurs, their loss to the Spurs wasn't pretty as they stalled out in the 4th quarter only scoring just 15 points in addition to surrendering 42 points to the Spurs.
The Pacer's Sabonis and Brogdan have not played particularly well recently but both are coming off a solid performance against the Pistons which resulted in a win. If the Pacers can continue to get production out of their top players, they can give any team fits since they already have a solid defense in Indiana. Myles Turner has really turned it up lately as he has been a problem on both ends of the floor due to his shot-blocking ability and his efficiency on offense.
John Collins really struggled in his last game as well as Kevin Huerter as they had a plus-minus of -35 and -33 while shooting 5 of 19 combined. The Hawks still don't have De'Andre Hunter back yet who is averaging 17 points per game. Kevin Huerter will have to play well to make up for the loss of De'Andre Hunter for the Hawks to be competitive.
The Pacers are coming off of a good win which is giving me a vote of confidence while they are taking on a Hawks team that looked pitiful. With John Collins less than stellar performance, and with Myles Turner playing the way he has, I don't expect a big game from Collins unless he can hit his jump shots and the same kinda goes for Clint Capela. With no De'Andre Hunter, I don't see how the Hawks can reliably score unless we see huge nights from Young and Huerter which is a possibility considering what they have done to the Pacers in the past. The Pacers will control this one with their defense forcing Young to have a +30 point day in order for the Hawks to win.
