After a rough start to the season, the Atlanta Hawks are rolling, while the Oklahoma City Thunder have let late leads slip away in each of their last two games.
The Thunder will look to hit their own reset button Monday when the teams meet at Oklahoma City.
The Hawks come into the game on a four-game winning streak and near the top of the league in scoring at 122.8 points per game and offensive rating — points per 100 possessions — at 119.3.
Trae Young and Dejounte Murray are each averaging more than 21 points per game.
But Atlanta’s offense goes much deeper than that, with eight different players averaging in double figures.
“We don’t really worry about who’s taking over a game or who’s the leading scorer that game. We just want to win,” Young said. “It could be somebody else another night. We’re just going to continue to play the right way, feed the hot hand.”
Young is also averaging 10.3 assists. His 62 assists through six games are the most for a Hawks player in the first six games of a season since Doc Rivers had 66 in 1986.
The game is a return home for Young, who grew up in nearby Norman, Okla.
The Hawks are also top 10 in the league by averaging 46.2 rebounds per game. Saddiq Bey is fourth on the team with 5.5 rebounds per game, but Atlanta coach Quin Snyder said Bey’s effort on the glass has become contagious.
“His commitment to the boards, whether he gets it or not or keeps it alive and tips it … Saddiq, in my mind, that’s leadership,” Snyder said. “It may be by example, but if you see somebody doing that, you go too.”
The Thunder are coming off back-to-back tough losses.
They blew a 22-point first-half lead in Wednesday’s 110-106 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans and then fell to the Golden State Warriors 141-139 on Friday on Stephen Curry’s last-second layup.
Oklahoma City could be without star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the second consecutive game.
Gilgeous-Alexander sprained his left knee in the loss to the Pelicans.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Sunday that Gilgeous-Alexander’s status would be determined based on how he feels Monday.
Though Oklahoma City’s offensive rating isn’t quite as good as the Hawks’, at 113.2, the Thunder have been one of the best shooting teams in the league during the early part of the season, shooting 49.5 percent from the floor.
Rookie big man Chet Holmgren is a big reason for the production. He’s shooting 62.5 percent, while averaging 17.2 points per game, which is second on the team to Gilgeous-Alexander.
“Chet is a problem,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said after Friday’s matchup. “He can dribble the ball, shoot the ball, has great length, a great shot blocker. He’s only gonna get better.”
Monday’s meeting is the fifth in a season-long six-game homestand for Oklahoma City.
The game is the first of two this season between the teams.
–Field Level Media
