RealGM

...the shorthanded Clippers will make their second stop of the road trip in Atlanta to take on the Hawks. Since making the curious decision to essentially hand sharpshooter Kyle Korver to the best team in their own conference for very little, the Hawks have been the hottest team in the East.

Atlanta has won 10 of its last 12 games overall to climb into first place in the Southeast Division and fourth in the conference behind Cleveland, Toronto and Boston. They have primarily done it with defense. ATL ranks fourth in the league in defensive rating coming into this game...


The Key Matchup
Dwight Howard vs. DeAndre Jordan

These two are certainly no strangers to one another.

Despite Jordan’s defensive abilities, it’s a matchup Howard has enjoyed throughout his career. In 18 career regular season head-to-head meetings, Dwight has averaged 20.9 points and better than 13 rebounds per game.

Jordan will obviously have to spearhead the effort and keep Howard at bay, particularly on the offensive boards. The Hawks have been opportunistic in that area all year long, and rank sixth in the league in second chance points per game (14.0). Howard is third among individual players at 4.5 second chance points per game. DeAndre, meanwhile, ranks eighth (3.4), while the Clips as a team are just 24th.

“I think they played good defense,” Budenholzer said. “Anytime you shoot 32 percent from the field your opponent usually has something to do with it. But it felt like one of those nights where we couldn’t get a shot to go down.”

The Hawks shot an anemic 28 percent in the second quarter.

Credit the DeAndre Jordan, the Clippers’ lone-standing of the Big Three. He had seven points and 12 rebounds. His presence inside was an issue for the Hawks. He blocked three shots.

“Having DeAndre Jordan down there obviously change the dynamic of our offense a little bit with Dennis (Schroder) getting to the rim,” Bazemore said. “Other than that, we had some shots that we normally hit that just didn’t fall.”

The Hawks may have been weary playing their third game in four nights.