Utah face off against familiar faces in a new place, Jazz at Hawks preview

NBA Regular Season Game #29:

Utah Jazz (7-21) @ Atlanta Hawks (14-12)

December Game Streams /  Peachtree Hoops (SBN) / Jazz vs Hawks coverage

SO MANY REVENGE GAMES!

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Tonight is, clearly, the Paul Millsap revenge game. But it's also the Marvin Williams revenge game, kinda. It's also the DeMarre Carroll revenge game though. But also the Derrick Favors home coming game. Oh, any Kyle Korver is going to be playing against the team he did best on too. And Dennis Schroeder is playing against a team that he may have felt should have drafted him (after all he did tell Mychal and I that his top 2 teams were the Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz way back when . . . ). Jazz head coach Tyrone Corbin is also coaching against his former team, but to be fair, Ty has played for like all of the league so that's just how journeymen do. (Btw, you should check out this post by Tom Ziller that looks at rookie NBA head coaches this year, including the Hawks Budenholzer.)

More seriously, the NBA game is a 5 on 5 game, and not entirely dictated by one on one match ups. (ROY match ups aside) The Hawks are the #3 team in the Eastern Conference, and only 5.5 games off of the conference leading Indiana Pacers. They are 10-4 at home and 5-6 against the West. And in their last 10 games they've won 6 of them, losing only to the Washington Wizards (your guess is as good as mine), San Antonio Spurs (by 2), Oklahoma City Thunder, and the New York Knicks. They've pretty much taken out the trash in the last 10 games beating the Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards (got them back), Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings.

We should expect a loss tonight. And that's not just because the Jazz are 17-29 All-time in Atlanta either. The Jazz do hold a 48-43 lead in head to head games, but this Hawks team is just better than we are. And there's no shame in admitting it.

Atlanta is pretty middle of the pack on offense and defense. They do play much faster than before (11th fastest pace), and they don't really have any obvious weaknesses. They don't really have many strengths, but here is a run down:

• They are #9 in 3pt%, #8 in three point attempts, and #5 in makes. Korver and Millsap are killing it this year. Williams, Teague, Mack, Martin and Carroll help as well.
• They are tops in assists
• They are #5 in Defensive rebounding %, which helps them counter attack in transition
• They don't send teams to the line much on defense either
• They suck on offensive rebounding %, at #29
• But that's somewhat mitigated by them being #6 in eFG%
• They don't get to the line
• They can be sloppy with the ball at times
• They are middle of the pack in causing turn overs
• They foul, but like I said, don't usually put teams on the line

The Jazz are in the middle of a 5 game road trip, and this is game #3. It's the first game of a double header (we play the Charlotte Bobcats next night). And well, it's going to be fun seeing how our wings handle their wings. The Hawks are big and experienced inside with guys like Elton Brand, Al Horford, Paul Millsap and company. It's going to be a good test.

We're healthy. They are missing Ayon and Martin.

Here are the player stats:

Yes, Kyle leads them in MPG this year. They are very balanced and everyone can hurt you.

We're very top heavy, but I'm glad to see guys like Jefferson and Lucas have their MPG go down, down, down (to goblin town.)

I expect this game to be a battle of two forces, experience against attitude. They have a rookie head coach, we don't. So we have the experience advantage, right radio guys? Anyway . . .I hope for a good game.