Atlanta Hawks to close out West Coast trip vs. Nuggets

The Atlanta Hawks look to end their two-game slide by getting a win at the Pepsi Center versus the Denver Nuggets to finish their West Coast trip at .500.

The Atlanta Hawks are coming off two close losses on the road before their play the fourth and final game of their West Coast road trip. Atlanta fell to the Sacramento Kings for the first time in eight years on Thursday night, 91-88.

The Hawks lost by the same margin in a more painstaking fashion to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. Suns starting point guard Archie Goodwin nailed a buzzer-beating three-pointer to knock off the Atlanta Hawks, 98-95. That shot ended Phoenix’s six-game losing streak and extended the Hawks’ to two.

Atlanta will hopefully have the services of its best player in starting power forward and certain Eastern Conference All-Star Paul Millsap on Monday night in Denver, after missing the Hawks’ game in Phoenix to attend his grandfather’s funeral in Louisiana.

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The Atlanta Hawks enter play Monday night with a 26-19 record and in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, 5.5 games back of the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers and percentage points behind the Chicago Bulls for third place.

Denver enters play with a 17-27 record and in 11th place in the Western Conference, trailing the Sacramento Kings by 3.5 games for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West. Like Atlanta, Denver is 5-5 in its last 10 games, so neither club has the upper hand with regards to momentum entering this contest.

However, Denver has not used its unique elevation to orchestrate a strong home court advantage this season. The Nuggets are only 9-14 at home in the Pepsi Center and are playing about as well away from the Mile High City with an 8-13 record on the road.

Atlanta isn’t a great team away from Philips Arena with an 11-12 road record, but do boast a winning record against the Western Conference this season. Atlanta is 10-8 versus teams that head coach Mike Budenholzer used to beat routinely when he was on Gregg Popovich’s staff with the San Antonio Spurs.

One promising streak that the Atlanta Hawks are riding is that their No. 6 defense in the NBA has held opponents to under 100 points in each of their last five games. This is good news for a Denver Nuggets team that is 20th in offensive rating, 20th in points per game, and 18th in pace.

It’s very interesting that Nuggets head coach Mike Malone isn’t using the Denver altitude to his team’s advantage by adopting a grueling offensive pace like the legendary Nuggets head coach Doug Moe used to use in the 1970s and 80s.

With Malone’s Nuggets 10 games below .500, it has to make one wonder why the Kroenke Family didn’t hire offensive guru Mike D’Antoni to run their team. The former Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers head coach now helps out Brett Brown in Philadelphia.

Being that Atlanta didn’t win in Denver last season and have dropped its previous two games on this current West Coast road trip, expect Mike Budenholzer to have his team geared up to play a game dictated on pace to try to up-end the Nuggets in Denver to close out this lackluster road trip before heading home to face the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

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As long as the Atlanta Hawks don’t go on lengthy dry spells from the field and can do a better job than what they displayed in Tyson Chandler‘s 27 rebound performance for the Suns on Saturday night, Atlanta should have no problem hanging with the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. Here’s to stopping the losing streak at two games and finishing this West Coast trip at 2-2. Let’s Go Hawks!

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