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Brad Rowland wrote:Hawks @ Portland Game Preview



Opening a long road trip in Portland
After 50 games, the Atlanta Hawks are 25-25, and the team is entering a pivotal stretch of the 2022-23 season. The Hawks begin a five-game trip through the Western Conference on Monday with a visit to Portland, and the schedule isn't terribly forgiving between now and the trade deadline.

As always, I encourage you to check out the Locked on Hawks podcast and a new episode from Saturday evening to break down everything from Hawks-Clippers. Now, let's go to Portland.

The Blazers are pushing for the Play-In but it hasn't been great lately
Portland entered the season with modest expectations but a 10-4 start gave the Blazers early optimism. Since then, the Blazers have been on a downward trajectory, and Portland is 4-9 in the last 13 games. Over that sample, the Blazers are allowing more than 1.19 points per possession on defense, and Portland is very shaky on that end of the floor.

Speaking of defense
Portland isn't good on defense, even at full strength. As we'll touch on below, the Blazers might not be at full strength in this game, but Portland is No. 25 in the NBA in defensive rating, giving up 114.9 points per 100 possessions. Perimeter defense is a glaring issue for the Blazers with Dame Lillard and Anfernee Simons. They need those guards to initiate offense, of course, but it creates issues on the other end, and the Blazers are below-average essentially across the board on defense.

One thing to circle is that Portland is dead-last in the NBA in opponent rim frequency. The Blazers allow opponents to take 38.7 percent of shots at the rim, per Cleaning the Glass. That isn't an area the Hawks are fantastic in on offense, with Atlanta settling for a lot of mid-range attempts and floaters, but an emphasis on attacking the paint and the rim would be wise here.

The other end is more challenging
Portland is quite good on offense, which you would expect from a Damian Lillard-led team. The Blazers are in the top eight in offensive rating for the season, and that climbs to a blistering 119.5 points per 100 possessions with Lillard on the floor.

In some ways, this is the polar opposite matchup of Saturday's game against the Clippers in that Portland is guard-driven, porous on defense, and far less reliant on wing-sized creators in general. It will be interesting to see how the Hawks respond, but it is also worth noting that Atlanta's point-of-attack defense has been shaky all season, and the Hawks will need a lot of defensive attention from players like De'Andre Hunter, Dejounte Murray, and potentially Aaron Holiday (as a specialist against Lillard) on Monday.