Tip Off: Wednesday, April 17th, 2024 – 8:30 PM CT
Venue: United Center
TV: ESPN
The Bulls host the Atlanta Hawks in the 9-10 game of the NBA play-in series on Wednesday night. Chicago won two of the three games between these two in the regular season.
The Hawks play fast but they’re ranked 27th in defensive efficiency. They’ve struggled to defend the three specifically, which when combined with their pace of play can lead to some ugly scores. Atlanta allowed 130+ points in 16 games, including 140+ seven times and 150+ twice.
Below are the player ratings graphs from the three previous meetings this season.
The first matchup was “the Andre Drummond game”. Nikola Vucevic was injured the game prior, and Drummond put up 24 points, 25 rebounds, three steals and two blocks in his first start.
The Bulls took the second matchup in Atlanta. No Trae Young in that matchup but Bogdan Bogdanovic led the way for Atlanta with 28 points, 6-10 from three. The Bulls had a balanced performance with four starters with 20+ points.
The Hawks won the most recent one, 113-101 in Chicago. Bogdan Bogdanovic led the way again with 20 points, 2-2 from three and six assists.
Keys
Smart 3’s
The Hawks struggle mightily to defend the three. The Bulls need to take the right shots when they’re open. The Bulls shot just 25% from deep in the one loss to Atlanta. They shot 46.4% in the February 12th win in Atlanta.
Stay on Bogdanovic
Bogdan Bogdanovic has torched the Bulls in each of the last two meetings from deep (combined 8-12 from deep in those two games). Don’t let him get going.
Make it tough on Trae
You can force Trae Young to be inefficient. Alex Caruso and the Bulls defense has done that before. Trae Young was 3-14 from the field and 2-10 from three in the February meeting. That’s not the only example, Young was 6-17 and 3-12 from three in the December game. Young did not play in the April game.
The Bulls need to jump on the Hawks early. The Hawks have lost their last six games and could very easily fold if the Bulls take it to them out of the gate. They need to make Trae Young and Dejounte Murray try to do it all themselves. Don’t let guys like Bogdan Bogdanovic get going. There are a few injury concerns with Andre Drummond (ankle) and Ayo Dosunmu both listed as day-to-day. But even without them the Bulls should have enough to get it done against the struggling Atlanta Hawks.