News & Notes: Health Updates, Hornets Preview, and More
The Hawks take on the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night in search of their first win in over a week. After a surge after the All-Star break, Atlanta has lost its last three games and sunk back into a tie for last place in the Eastern Conference. Fortunately for the Hawks, each of their next three opponents also resides near the bottom of the East. Cleveland, Charlotte, and New York rank 28th, 27th, and 26th in net rating this season, and the Hawks, who rank 29th, will play all of them at home this week.
Atlanta still has three games remaining against Charlotte, and will look to take a 2-0 lead in the season series tonight. The Hawks played arguably their best game to that point in the season when they defeated the Hornets in December, and hope to rediscover that rhythm to stem the negative momentum that has built over their last three contests.
The Hornets are one of the few teams in the league with an offense worse than Atlanta's, largely because of the fact that they shoot the ball poorly and seldom get to the foul line. According the Cleaning the Glass, the Hornets have one of the largest disparities in the league between their expected and actual effective field goal percentages. They hoist the 10th-largest share of 3-pointers, sixth-most shots at the rim, and third-fewest long midrange shots, but simply don't have the shooters to convert those looks at a high rate. Most Improved Player candidate Devonte' Graham helped buoy his squad on that end early in the season as one of the best pull-up shooters in the NBA, but has since cooled off with the rest of Charlotte's offense.
Defensively, the Hornets are nearly as ineffective as the Hawks, allowing nearly 1.14 points per possession and giving up the most offensive rebounds in the entire league (a position Atlanta was in for most of the season). They protect the rim at a below-average rate, and 77 percent of their opponents' shots come at the rim or from 3. We're in for some riveting basketball on Monday night.
After the Hawks' shootaround on Monday morning, Lloyd Pierce caught up with the media to address some of the most salient topics surrounding his team and the NBA.
Injury report lightens
Clint Capela (heel) and Skal Labissière (knee) remain out, but the Hawks will be healthier against Charlotte than they have in any of their last five games. Trae Young, who suffered from flu-like symptoms last week, and Cam Reddish, who had been dealing with lower back pain, are off the team's latest injury report and available for tonight's game.
After making progress over the last week and being listed as questionable yesterday afternoon, DeAndre' Bembry has been ruled out with a lower abdominal injury. It's unclear when Bembry will return to the court. He hasn't fully participated in practice yet, but told SI earlier in the week that he feels better and hopes to be cleared for full-contact activity soon. Pierce says that while he doesn't have a timetable for Bembry, he hopes the wing will be back before the end of the season.
"This season, I would hope so, but right now I don't know," Pierce said. "He's working out, just the amount of stress he's trying to put on his body, they're slowly bringing him back. But he's done our vitamins, he's gone through, he's in the weight room, but he just hasn't done any basketball. So it's more his comfort and his tolerance at this stage."
Hawks, NBA taking precautions against coronavirus
The NBA has sent out various memos to its teams over the last few weeks on how best to address prepare for the outbreak of COVID-19 and what steps the league might take if the threat of the virus becomes more severe. The Hawks gave gone from high-fiving in practice to fist-bumping, and now to elbow-touching. "A lot of elbows being thrown," Pierce joked on Monday.
The NBA team owners and governors are scheduled to have a meeting on Wednesday to address possible next steps -- which could reportedly include barring fans from games and media from locker rooms -- but Pierce says he isn't clued in on the direction in which the situation is headed.
"I am lower on the totem pole than you guys [the media] are when it comes to what's next," he said. "Our group had a meeting this morning. I think [Hawks owner] Tony [Ressler] is scheduled to have a meeting this Wednesday, [head athletic trainer] Chelsea [Lane] has a meeting with all of the trainers tonight. A lot on the table. What, I don’t know."
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Monday afternoon that "more drastic steps could be coming for the league" and that the NBA has told teams to prepare to play games with "only essential personnel" in attendance.
Both Young and Jeff Teague have been listed on the injury report with "flu-like symptoms" in recent days, but there is no evidence that either has the coronavirus.
As for his own health, Pierce does not seem worried. The 43-year-old says he never gets sick, has never broken a bone, and has weighed the same for the last 25 years. His wife calls him Wolverine, which happens to be Pierce's favorite Marvel comic character, for his ability to avoid ailments. His strategy for remaining in peak physical condition: "Don't stress."
When asked how he avoid stress under all the responsibility that comes with being an NBA head coach, Pierce offered a Popovichian perspective on the game:
"All this stuff going on in our world, and basketball’s gonna stress me out? You guys are kidding me," he said. "It’s basketball, it really is. It’s basketball. I get to come in here and watch guys do this and we can play music, and then we go to the arena and I get this courtside seat and they let me bark out instructions and draw up plays -- it’s basketball. Seriously. It really is."
John Collins' surge and Trae Young's slump
The Hawks' two best players have trended in opposite directions lately. John Collins is playing perhaps the best sustained stretch of basketball of his entire career while Trae Young is currently mired in a brief slump. Collins is up to 41 percent from beyond the arc this season while averaging over 21 points and 10 rebounds per game -- all on just a 23 percent usage rate. He finds a way to involve himself in the action even when plays aren't specifically designed for him, and is a prominent part of Atlanta's offense without being the focal point of its gameplan.
"Part of his success is the game comes to him. John’s not a guy that you can just say, put it in his hands and go make a play," Pierce said. "He’s been efficient because he’s taken the shots the defense has given him and he’s played with his motor and used his athleticism and his touch around the basket."
Young, meanwhile, is just 9-of-51 (17.6 percent) from 3-point range in his last six games, which has dragged his percentage for the season down to 35.5 percent. Young has been dealing with the flu since just after the All-Star break and even missed a game with illness against Washington last week. Unlike most players in the league, Young didn't have much time off his feet during the break, which could have induced some fatigue in last few games.
"Everyone else is decompressing and digesting and rejuvenated," Pierce said. "He was ramping up, and when you come back you finally get to exhale, and that’s when he was sick a couple days and he was sick another day and he missed a game for sickness. Your body feels that."
Young participated in Monday's shootaround and is ready to go against the Hornets. The Hawks had an off-day on Sunday ahead of their three-game homestand and should be well-rested entering tonight's game. Pierce his confident his point guard will bounce back.
"He got a good day this morning where he was able to just get some work in," Pierce said. "I think he’s gonna have a hell of a night tonight."
