The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hawks looking for more Play-In Tournament success
They are hobbled but have advanced in previous 2 years.
For the third consecutive year, the Hawks find their postseason hopes hinging on how they perform in the Play-In Tournament.
For the second time in three years, the Hawks will play in the 9-10 game. In 2022, the Hawks advanced out of the 9-10 game on their way to securing the No. 8 seed before losing to top-seeded Miami in the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. A year ago, the Hawks advanced out of the Play-In as the No. 7 seed, then lost to No. 2 Boston in the first round.
This year, the No. 10th-seeded Hawks will look to go beyond the first round, but are entering tonight’s game undermanned in the front court and with some players nursing bumps and bruises.
Here are some things to know heading into the Play-In game at the Bulls.
Who’s available?
Because of injuries and ineligibility for the playoffs, the Hawks have six players unavailable for the matchup against the Bulls.
Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu have long-term injuries. Bey tore the ACL in his left knee and had surgery to repair it in March; he likely won’t return for at least a year. Johnson has
a sprained ankle, and the team announced April 11 that it would re-evaluate him in three weeks. Okongwu underwent a procedure to address inflammation in his toe, and the team said April 11 that it would re-evaluate him in four weeks.
The team’s two-way players will not be able to play tonight, so that means Vit Krejci, Seth Lundy and Dylan Windler won’t be available.
Krejci provided critical minutes for the team in Johnson’s and Trae Young’s absence, but the team opted not to sign him at the end of the regular season. The Hawks would have needed to waive someone to open a roster spot to make a Krejci signing possible, but they stood pat and kept the roster as is.
“Really, it’s no different than throughout the course of the year,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “Just the guys that you do have have to be ready to go and have to play at a high level, and you can’t lament those things.”
Who is available to play? Here’s a list.
Guards: Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Wesley Matthews, Garrison Mathews, Trent Forrest, Kobe Bufkin.
Forwards: De’Andre Hunter, Mo Gueye, AJ Griffin, Bruno Fernando.
Center: Clint Capela.
Matchups to watch
The Hawks have to play collectively on both ends of the floor to have a chance to advance to a second opportunity to make it in the playoffs. But a couple of matchups could swing the pendulum.
Perhaps the biggest one is Trae Young against Bulls third-year guard Ayo Dosunmu, who is day-today with a quad injury. Dosunmu, like Young a former first-round pick, has played strong defense against Young during his career. During the 202122 season, Dosunmu held Young to 11-of-30 (36.7%) overall shooting. This season, in two games, Dosunmu held Young to 44.4% shooting in two games.
On the offensive end, Dosunmu has burned the Hawks this season, averaging 21 points, 12 rebounds and five steals per game while making 55.6% of his overall attempts and 50% of his 3-point shots.
Another matchup includes De’Andre Hunter against DeMar DeRozan.
“He’s been a great player in this league for a long time, and we have a ton of respect for him,” Snyder said of the Bulls’ star. “He puts a lot of pressure on you defensively because he can do a lot of things.”
The Hawks want multiple guys ready to defend DeRozan because of effectiveness in the pick and roll, in the post and in isolation situations. But Hunter likely will be DeRozan’s primary defender.
What happens next?
If the Hawks beat the Bulls tonight, they would head either to Philadelphia to face the 76ers or to Miami to face the Heat.
The Hawks beat the Heat in a Play-In Tournament game to secure the seventh seed last season. But the Hawks have lost three of four to the Heat this season.
Atlanta was 2-2 against the Sixers, with two of those games coming with 76ers star Joel Embiid sidelined by a knee injury. Embiid is back for the postseason.
If the Hawks make it out of the Play-In Tournament, they would enter the playoffs as the eighth seed and face the Celtics. Boston beat Atlanta 4-2 in last season’s first round.
Before they worry about all of that, the Hawks tip off against the Bulls at the United Center at 9:30 p.m. ET.