With the Los Angeles Lakers heading to Atlanta to take on the Hawks Sunday afternoon, and extend their road winning streak to thirteen games, here’s the three keys to victory.
The Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Lakers are about as far apart as you can get when it comes to team success. The Lakers are sitting at the top of the Western Conference, with a top five offense and a top ten defense. The Hawks, on the other hand are one loss shy of being the worst team in the Eastern Conference, with a an offense and defense ranking near the bottom of the league.
These two teams have already met once before, with the Lakers winning handily 122-101. It’s hard to imagine that there won’t be a similar result this time around, but Trae Young is a player who can get hot at a moment’s notice, and has the playmaking to go along with it to will his team to a victory.
Young will still be missing a major weapon in John Collins who is serving a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA’s PED policy. But other than that, the Hawks don’t have anyone else listed on the injury report.
The Lakers have been without Kyle Kuzma for the past two games with a left ankle injury and still considered day-to-day. However, the team got back Rajon Rondo, and his return, along with Avery Bradley’s have been huge for the Lakers second unit.
The Lakers have been good about beating bad teams so far, and so there’s no reason to suspect that the result won’t be any different than the last time these two teams met. But still, the Hawks are a frisky team, with young players who play hard every night, and so, the Lakers need to consider these three keys to victory.