The Atlanta Hawks are set to face the Orlando Magic tomorrow night in the first game of the NBA’s play-in tournament, with the winner clinching a playoff spot and getting a first round date with the Boston Celtics. The Magic and Hawks split the four regular season matchups 2-2, but the Hawks win on Sunday came without the major players on either team playing. The Magic have proven to be a tough matchup for Atlanta, especialy without Jalen Johnson, but Atlanta certainly has a chance to win the game.
Make no mistake, though, the Magic will be favored, and in a survey of 10 ESPN NBA experts, eight of the ten picked the Magic to win tomorrow’s game:
Jamal Collier: Magic
Chris Herring: Hawks
Tim MacMahon: Hawks
Bobby Marks: Magic
Dave McMenamin: Magic
Jorge Sedano: Magic
Ramona Shelburne: Magic
Marc J. Spears: Magic
Jeremy Woo: Magic
Ohm Youngmisuk: Magic
Final tally:
Magic 8, Hawks 2
Atlanta has to limit their turnovers in this game on Tuesday night. Orlando is one of the best teams in the NBA at forcing turnovers, ranking 2nd in the league with a 16.9% turnover percentage. Atlanta on the other hand is near the bottom of the league in turnovers, ranking 22nd on offense with a 15.0% turnover percentage per Cleaning the Glass. In the first three games against Orlando this season, the Hawks averaged 14.3 turnovers per game, including games where they had 18 and one where they had 16. Orlando loves to create chaos with turnovers and the Hawks have to limit that if they want to advance to the playoffs.
Without Jalen Suggs (their best perimeter defender), the Magic don’t have a great guard option to defend Trae Young. He has scored 19 points, 38 points, and 28 points in his three games against the Magic this year, but the Hawks supporting cast has not always been there. For example, in the February 20th matchup against the Magic, Young scores 38 points, but no other player had more than 13. Zaccharie Risacher was 4-15 from the field, Onyeka Okongwu only had 11, and Dyson Daniels was 3-15 from the field. The bench unit of Caris LeVert, Terance Mann, and Georges Niang was ineffective as well. No matter what Young does, the supporting cast has to be better on Tuesday night.
This is a lot to put on a rookie, but given their injuries, the Hawks need a big game from Zaccharie Risacher on Tuesday. He has been ineffective in the first three matchups against Orlando, but his three-point shooting can change the game. Risacher is critical to Atlanta’s three-point shooting and spacing, and unless Orlando has a horrific game on offense (always possible), Atlanta needs scoring and shooting from Risacher in this game if they want to advance to the playoffs.
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