Hawks vs Clippers NBA Pick For Monday, March 22

The Atlanta Hawks have vaulted from the bottom reaches of the Eastern Conference to the thick of the playoff race thanks to a recent winning streak. They even handled the Lakers on Saturday in a game where LeBron James was injured. Now they test their mettle against one of the NBA’s best tonight, facing the Los Angeles Clippers at the Staples Center in LA.

Hawks vs Clippers Moneyline Odds

Team
Los Angeles Clippers	-250
Atlanta Hawks	+210

Hawks at Clippers Betting Spread

Team
Los Angeles Clippers	-6.5 -107
Atlanta Hawks	+6.5 -113

Over/Under for Clippers vs Hawks

Team
Los Angeles Clippers	O 225.5 -111
Atlanta Hawks	U 225.5 -109

Atlanta was floundering until the coaching change that saw Lloyd Pierce jettisoned in favor of Nate McMillan. The Hawks have torn off eight straight wins since the change. Amazingly, a team that looked like one of the league’s biggest disappointments now sits in a spot where they would host a first-round playoff series in the East if the season ended today.

Meanwhile, the Clippers haven’t endured those same kinds of highs and lows, instead milling about in the upper portions of the West pack for most of the season while Utah and Phoenix have stolen the spotlight. With the Lakers perhaps in for a swale now that Anthony Davis and LeBron James are out for the foreseeable future, the Clips have a chance to make a move. They come into this contest 11 games above .500, but they’re only 4-6 in their last 10.

Injury Report

Neither team is quite at full strength right now, but both have the kind of depth to withstand the injuries they’ve suffered. The amazing thing about the Hawks’ recent streak is that they’ve essentially done it without two starting pieces in second-year wings DeAndre Hunter and Cam Reddish. Hunter will be back soon, but it’s doubtful that will be tonight.

The Clips have also had to dig a little deeper recently with injuries to Serge Ibaka and Patrick Beverly keeping them out the last few. Ibaka seems on the verge of returning, while Beverly might have to miss some more time. But the Clips have both positions pretty well covered.

What’s been impressive for these two teams is how well the deeper reaches of the respective benches have played. Unheralded rookie Nathan Knight enjoyed a pair of excellent performances in relief of Clint Capela earlier in the winning streak for the Hawks. And Terence Mann has come from nowhere to be an excellent plug-and-play option for Ty Lue and the clippers.

Testing Their Mettle

While it’s exciting to think of how Atlanta has emerged, it’s important to put a little perspective on it. In their eight-game winning streak to date, they’ve beaten only two teams with a winning record. And one of them was the Lakers, who lost James halfway through the game.

But now, things start getting interesting. The game against the Clippers tonight marks the second game of an eight-game road trip. And only two of the eight teams on that list have losing records.

How well they do in this stretch could determine how aggressive Atlanta is about tuning up their roster for the stretch run. Just a few weeks ago, there were rumors that young star forward John Collins would be shipped out because of his lame-duck contract. Now it appears as the Hawks might be looking to add, not subtract:

The Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks have all been linked to Norman Powell, per @JakeLFischer pic.twitter.com/3KUqLh0cFg

— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) March 22, 2021

The McMillan Effect

What has Nate McMillan done to work some magic on what was a flailing team before his arrival? Well, sometimes a team just needs a new voice, as clearly things had stagnated with Pierce and emotions had started to boil over among the players. McMillan, in all his previous stops in his coaching career, has been a calming, steadying influence, and that seems to have helped with the younger group here.

You can also argue that the injuries to Hunter and Reddish have actually helped in an indirect way. It made the rotation much more streamlined, with Danilo Gallinari enjoying it in particular. Gallinari has been on an impressive shooting tear of late:

• Danilo Gallinari March Stats: 17.6 PPG, 49.5 FG%, 48.1 3PT%, 95.8 FT%

Look for Bogdan Bogdanovic, another one of the Hawks key offseason additions, to start to make more of an impact as well. Bogdanovic missed a lot of time with injury as well but has been playing more and more during the streak. He gives Atlanta another deadeye shooter.

There hasn’t been too much of a discernible change in the pace of play under McMillan. They’ve maybe slowed the pace down a hair, but nothing too dramatic. The key has been that everybody has been buying in, which is easy to do when you’re winning, and now they’ll get the chance to prove how far they’ve come against one of the NBA’s best.

The Clippers Style

When you compare these two teams, you immediately notice the experience gap. At the start of the season, the Clippers were the second-oldest NBA team, just a shade behind their crosstown rival Lakers. Atlanta was more middle of the pack, with the veterans they brought in during in the offseason helping to even out the younger core group.

These Clippers understand what they do best, and that’s a slower, grind-it-out style of play. LA comes into the game 25^th in the league in pace of play. But they make up for it with their efficiency, as they are second in the league in offensive rating.

Look for the Clippers to try to grind away in this one, settle in the half-court, and let Kawhi Leonard and Paul George go to work. I mentioned above that the absence of Hunter and Reddish might have cleared a path for others to help the Hawks. But here is a game where they really could have used them, as the matchups for them to try to stop the two Clipper superstars aren’t all that promising.

What’s the Best Bet?

This is the Atlanta team that most expected to see coming into the season, where they were one of the hot, trendy picks to improve. But are they improved enough to go on the road into a tough environment and get a win? They did it against the Lakers, but again, the circumstances were a bit different there.

The Clippers have been frustratingly mediocre of late. But they’ll bring their focus to this one. Look for them to grind down the Hawks and do enough to cover the point spread bet.