Atlanta Hawks to face the struggling Phoenix Suns

The Atlanta Hawks look to get back to their winning ways when they take on a Phoenix Suns team that has lost six straight games Saturday night in Phoenix.

After a tough loss in Sacramento Thursday night to the improving Kings under head coach George Karl, 91-88, the Atlanta Hawks seek to get back into the win column on Saturday night when they take on the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Tipoff is at 9:00 PM ET and the game will air on Fox Sports Southeast.

While Atlanta sits in third place in the Eastern Conference at 25-18 entering play Saturday night, Phoenix has lost six straight games and finds itself in 13th place in the Western Conference with an awful 13-31 record and losers of nine of their last ten games.

The Atlanta Hawks only trail the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors in the East. The only team with a worse record than the Phoenix Suns in the West is the Los Angeles Lakers. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who beat the Hawks twice this season somehow, shared an identical record with the Suns entering play Friday.

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Atlanta is halfway through its four-game road trip to the West Coast, with a win over Portland on Wednesday night, 104-98 on national television, but a rare loss to the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night. After the Suns on Saturday, the Atlanta Hawks will make their lone trip to the Mile High City to play the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

A win over the reeling Phoenix Suns could ensure a .500 road trip even before the Nuggets game and it may help keep pace with the streaking Raptors who have won six straight and the first-place Cavaliers who just fired head coach David Blatt Friday evening. Atlanta will enter play Saturday night against the Suns 5.5 games back of Cleveland for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Under head coach Jeff Hornacek, the Suns have been both a physical team down low and a team that has had great point guard play. While point guard play has dipped a bit since Eric Bledsoe‘s season-ending knee injury, the Suns do have a strong starter in Brandon Knight at the point, as well as one of the most physical small forwards in the game in Markieff Morris.

Atlanta has to get better performances out of their point guards Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder on Saturday night. Neither did a great job on running head coach Mike Budenholzer’s offense against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night, constantly turning the basketball over and making questionable decisions with the basketball.

While power forward Paul Millsap will likely have another strong game against the Phoenix Suns as he does most nights, maybe shooting guard Kyle Korver will have one of his best games of late going against Phoenix. Korver may end up feeling it from three-point range against his former assistant coach and former sharpshooter Jeff Hornacek when they were with the Utah Jazz.

Though the Atlanta Hawks did an admirable job competing after being down 17 points in the third quarter to the Kings on Thursday night, they will need to remain focused and play a complete game against the Suns to come out on top.

Atlanta may have taken Sacramento lightly on Thursday, even though the Kings might make the Western Conference Playoffs, but expect Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer to have his team ready to play all four quarters in Saturday’s game. He will want his club to go at worst 2-2 in this four game road trip.

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There are no guarantees for a win in Denver, as the altitude tends to have adverse effects on the road, leading to a typically distinct home court advantage for the Nuggets. For now, let’s hope our Atlanta Hawks can gain another victory on the season by playing well against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. Let’s Go Hawks!

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