Atlanta Hawks Host Winless New Orleans Pelicans

The Atlanta Hawks (7-2) will host the New Orleans Pelicans (0-6) at Philips Arena tonight, closing the season series between these two southeastern cities.

The Atlanta Hawks will play the New Orleans Pelicans for the second and final time of 2015-16 when the winless Pellies come to the Highlight Factory on Wednesday Night. Atlanta defeated New Orleans 121-115 on Friday down in the Crescent City at the Smoothie King Center.

Since New Orleans is in the Western Conference, Atlanta only gets to play the club twice a year, once home and once away. It’s still strange to me that our cities football teams, the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints, are the bitterest of rivals and play twice annually as members of the NFC South, while the Atlanta Hawks only play the New Orleans Pelicans and the Memphis Grizzlies a combined four times. It’s silly that two teams from the same geographical region only play twice on the hardwood yearly.

Nevertheless, the Atlanta Hawks hope to get back to their winning ways on Wednesday night, hoping to beat the Pelicans for the second time in a week. Atlanta looked dreadful in the first half of Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, trailing by 30 points at halftime. The deficit got as bad as 34 points before the resilient Atlanta Hawks team pulled off the unthinkable and actually erased the entire lead created by the Wolves, only to lose by ten at home at the end of regulation.

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What that home loss proved to Atlanta Hawks’ fans is that this team will fight tooth and nail to the bitter end, no matter what. Though New Orleans is one of three teams in the NBA without a victory (Brooklyn and Philadelphia), don’t think for a second that the Hawks will take Anthony Davis and the Pelicans lightly at home. Atlanta only beat The Brow and company in NOLA by six points on Friday night.

It took an entire team effort to prevent from getting devoured by the Wolves on Monday. That’s what it will take to keep Davis and New Orleans winless after tonight’s game. Davis had a career high 43 points, but that wasn’t enough to slow down Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap, and the rest of the Atlanta Hawks. Both Korver and Millsap had 22 apiece in that game.

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Atlanta’s two keys against New Orleans are simple: win every battle out on the perimeter and not get eviscerated on the glass. Should Atlanta shoot and defend well from the outside and battle hard on the boards, the Hawks should move to 8-2. I do however, have a sneaking suspicion that the team will need the crowd to help them get out of a funky quarter and take back control of the game. Hopefully the home team prevails. Let’s Go Hawks!

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