Atlanta Hawks: Set For Second Game With Exciting Young Core
By Kit Anderson
The Atlanta Hawks were impressive in their first game of the season against the Dallas Mavericks. Piling up 117 points and starting a rebuild season 1-0 opening a five game road trip. Tonight’s road game will see the Hawks re-unite with Dwight Howard.
The Atlanta Hawks first game of the season is in the books and the attention has turned to game two tonight on the road in Charlotte. The biggest story line of the night will be the fact that the Hawks are set to see Dwight Howard for the first time since he was traded.
Howard’s time in Atlanta was much the same as Dwight Howard’s time has started and ended everywhere else in his career. Met with initial excitement Howard was a big part of the offense and featured on most offensive plays down the court early in the year.
As the year wore on slowly Howard became less consistent and begin to let his frustrations be known. It became even more apparent it wasn’t working in Atlanta when Howard aired his frustrations for being benched during the playoffs for smaller centers despite his bad play he felt the team made a poor decision and put lesser talents on the floor.
Not long after that Howard found himself traded to Charlotte where he will be looking to get some revenge on his old team tonight. The Hawks have a much different look than they did last season with Howard and could have a hard time defending the big man with Dewayne Dedmon being a smaller center.
Where the Hawks will have an advantage tonight is speed up and down the court and playing tough defense. The Hawks have been a young and exciting team to watch this season with forward John Collins being the big focus.
Collins looked great in his first game as a Hawk and it would not be at all surprising to see him force himself into the starting lineup within the first few games of the season.
One player to watch tonight for the Hawks is Kent Bazemore. Baze struggled in his first game of the season, the Hawks need to get him going early tonight and not allow him to take the forced shots in the paint he took last game.
Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM tonight in Charlotte, as the Atlanta Hawks look to continue to surprise it’s critics with a solid start to the season.