It hasn’t exactly been “home sweet home” on the current homestand for the Atlanta Hawks, a trend they hope to reverse when they host the Toronto Raptors on Saturday for the latter game of their two-game series.
Atlanta has lost three in a row, including the first two of a three-game homestand, and is only 11-9 at home. Toronto beat the Hawks 122-119 on Thursday to earn just its second road win of the season. But the Raptors are trending the right way; they’ve won two straight and four of their last five games.
The teams have split their two meetings and play for the final time on Saturday.
“I love this setup,” said Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic, who compared the two games in three days to a truncated playoff series. “For our young team, approaching Game 1, having a game plan, trying to execute it, then going back to film, analyzing, making adjustments going into Game 2 and seeing how we can react to that.”
The Raptors wasted a 17-point lead on Thursday and trailed by six with 4:46 remaining before finding a way to come back. Scottie Barnes scored 25 points, including a decisive basket with 55 seconds remaining that kept Toronto in front.
The only negative Rajakovic found was the 20 turnovers, which led to 28 Atlanta points and allowed the Hawks to get back in the game. The Raptors average 15.5 turnovers.
“It’s just impossible. You cannot play and win constantly with that number of turnovers,” Rajakovic said. “Our focus needs to be better. We know their personnel. We know what they’re doing. We need to do a much better job of protecting the ball.”
The Hawks may have lost forward Jalen Johnson to another shoulder injury. Johnson missed five games with a right shoulder problem and just returned on Jan. 18. He injured his left shoulder on Thursday while fouling Barnes in the second quarter, was taken to the locker room and did not return. Johnson, who has been ruled out for Saturday’s game, averages 18.9 points and 10 rebounds.
The Hawks played without center Clint Capela, who took a hard fall in Wednesday’s game against Detroit and sat out Thursday with a sore right knee. They are already playing without starting forward and top overall 2024 draft pick Zaccharie Risacher, who has missed five games with a left adductor strain and is not expected to return until at least next week.
At least Atlanta’s Bogdan Bogdanovic seems to have relocated his shooting touch. He was 8-for-12 from the floor and 3-for-5 on 3-pointers to score a team-high 23 points. He had made only 4 of 29 from distance over the previous five games.
“We need Bogi to play that way,” Atlanta’s Trae Young said. “We need him to make shots. He’s a big reason we got back in the game (Thursday).”
Davion Mitchell started again in place of Immanuel Quickley (left groin) for Toronto and did a nice job guarding Young, who scored 18 points. Quickley will not play on Saturday.
Toronto’s Kelly Olynyk has been ruled out after leaving Thursday’s game in the fourth quarter with right calf tightness. The veteran reserve has scored 10-plus points in a season-high three straight games. Ochai Agbaji missed his third straight game with a laceration on his right hand and has been ruled out for Saturday.
–Field Level Media
