The Hawks are hoping for a different outcome when they face the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, compared to the last time the two teams met in Atlanta.
On January 26 of last season, Luka Doncic scored 73 points, leading the Mavericks to a 148-143 win.
Doncic, who was traded for Atlanta’s point guard Trae Young on draft night in 2018, will not play in Monday’s game due to a wrist injury he got in last Tuesday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans. The good news for Dallas is that the injury is not expected to keep Doncic out for a long time.
Monday’s game will be the Mavericks’ final stop on a three-city road trip. Dallas had its four-game winning streak ended with a 123-118 overtime loss to the Miami Heat on Sunday.
Dallas was ahead by two points until Jimmy Butler’s dunk with 4.1 seconds left in regulation. The Mavericks then went scoreless for the last 3:21 of overtime.
For Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd, learning how to play without Doncic could help the team in the future.
“You never know who’s gonna have foul trouble or an injury,” Kidd said. “The bench has been in the positive since Luka’s been out, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case tonight. You just never know who’s going to be able to play, and this is a great lesson learned for all of us.”
Doncic is averaging 28.1 points per game, which ranks eighth in the NBA. Kyrie Irving, who scored 27 points in the loss to Miami, is the second-leading scorer for Dallas, averaging 24.1 points per game.
The Hawks haven’t played since Friday, when they lost 136-122 to the Chicago Bulls. Trae Young and Jalen Johnson each scored 25 points for Atlanta, but the team allowed the Bulls to shoot 57% from the field and 44.2% from three-point range. Chicago also made 19 of 21 free throws in the game.
The Hawks are giving up 120.5 points per game, which is the third-highest in the league, and this is a major concern for the team.
“When you play a team that puts up 50-40-90, those are Hall of Fame numbers,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “That’s not to say you can’t do more. We could have contested better, we could have kept them out of the paint more. I thought that was a big part of the game, as well as our inability to score at times.”
After starting the season 2-0, the Hawks have not been able to get back to a .500 record since October 28. They are now trying to avoid losing three straight games for the first time since that point.
Trae Young leads the Hawks with 22.1 points per game and an NBA-best 11.7 assists per game. Jalen Johnson follows with 19.4 points per game and a team-high 10.4 rebounds. Dyson Daniels, one of the few bright spots on a struggling defense, leads the league with 3.2 steals per game.
