Atlanta Hawks to play Los Angeles Clippers at Philips
By John Buhler
The Atlanta Hawks will make their triumphant return to Philips Arena Wednesday night when they take on the formidable Los Angeles Clippers at 8:00 PM ET.
The Atlanta Hawks have not played a game at Philips Arena in over a week. Their last home game came on Monday, January 18th when they took care of their Southeast Division rival Orlando Magic, 98-81. Atlanta then went on a four-game West Coast road trip, going 2-2 over the last week.
After finishing their road trip on a positive note Monday night by crushing the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center, 119-105, the Atlanta Hawks will host a strong Western Conference team in the 28-16 Los Angeles Clippers Wednesday night. Tipoff is at 8:00 PM ET and the game will air on Fox Sports Southeast.
Despite having constant turmoil on their active roster, the Clippers are the fourth-best team in the Western Conference. That’s not slight on the Clippers, as the Golden State Warriors, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are all teams that can win an NBA Championship this summer.
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The Atlanta Hawks enter play Wednesday with a 27-19 record and in third place in the Eastern Conference behind only the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors. While Atlanta has a nice record on the season at home (15-7), a team the caliber of the Clippers can certainly hope their own away from the Staples Center (13-9).
Los Angeles is 12-5 against the Eastern Conference, while the Atlanta Hawks are 11-8 against the West, meaning that these two teams are essentially evenly matched. This matchup between the Hawks and the Clippers has the makings for a great game that could go down to the wire.
The Clippers have played well of late, even without star power forward Blake Griffin, who reportedly punched a Clippers equipment manager earlier this week. Keep in mind that the Clippers still have the best point guard of the last decade in Chris Paul, a rebounding behemoth down low in DeAndre Jordan, one of the best sharpshooters in the game in J.J. Redick, and of course one of the best head coaches in the game today in former Atlanta Hawks point guard Doc Rivers.
While the Clippers starting lineup is one of the best in the league, outside of former Sixth Man of the Year with the Atlanta Hawks Jamal Crawford, Los Angeles doesn’t have the bench depth to compare to the Atlanta Hawks’.
Atlanta will need to take advantage of the Clippers bench and erase any deficit they incur from the starters with strong play from power forward Mike Scott and point guard Dennis Schroder.
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Big men Al Horford and Paul Millsap will need to account for DeAndre Jordan on the glass and point guard Jeff Teague will need to win the Battle of the Demon Deacons with Chris Paul at the point in this game for the Hawks to come out on top. Let’s Go Hawks!