The New Orleans Pelicans are on the road tonight and face the Atlanta Hawks for the second night in a row. Although this team was the most injured team in the NBA, they received some good news earlier today as star forward Brandon Ingram was upgraded to questionable. However, Ingram has been ruled out for today’s game and will not play against the Hawks.

Heading into today’s game, the Hawks rank 9th in the NBA in PPG, 15th in FG%, 20th in 3PA, 20th in 3P%, 5th in FTA, 27th. Ranked 8th in turnovers and 8th in rebounds. According to Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta ranks 19th in points per 100 possessions, 19th in effective field goal percentage, 22nd in turnover percentage, 7th in offensive rebounding percentage and 9th place in free throw rate.

Currently, the Hawks rank 28th in PPG allowed, 14th in field goals allowed, 30th in three-point attempts allowed and 30th in three-point percentage allowed. According to Cleaning the Glass, Atlanta ranks 21st in points allowed per 100 possessions and 25th in effective field goal percentage allowed.

A lot of this is due to injuries, but the Pelicans have been one of the worst teams in the NBA and the stats show it. New Orleans is 30th in PPG, 28th in FG%, 28th in 3PA, 27th in 3P%, 25th in FTA, 16th in rebounding and 18th in turnovers. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Pelicans rank 29th in points per 100 possessions, 30th in effective field goal percentage, 19th in turnover percentage, 8th in offense -Rebounding percentage and 25th in free throw percentage.

Defensively, New Orleans ranks 23rd in PPG allowed, 27th in FG% allowed, 24th in 3PA allowed and 27th in 3P% allowed. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Pelicans rank 29th in points allowed per 100 possessions and 30th in effective field goal percentage allowed.

Trae Young has been playing really well lately, but didn’t have much of an impact in Saturday’s game against the Hornets. He scored 14 points, had five assists and only shot the ball nine times. Young has been more of a facilitator this year, setting up his teammates, which has resulted in him leading the NBA in assists.

Dyson Daniels has set the tone defensively for the Hawks this season and did so again on Saturday. His job tonight will be to guard either Murray or CJ McCollum and prevent them from having high scoring opportunities. Daniels will look to get his scoring back on track as he hasn’t scored double-digit points in the last two games.

Zaccharie Risacher is getting better and better and put together two really nice games in a row. He played 25 minutes on Saturday, shot 6-10 (2-4 three-pointers) and had 14 points and two blocks. He is progressing well and making successful plays on both ends of the field.

Jalen Johnson is starting to make his mark as an All-Star this season. He scored 20 points on 9-12 shooting Saturday and also had nine assists. He has scored at least 20 points in five straight games and should get what he wants tonight against the Pelicans.

Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu face rookie center Yves Missi tonight, and while both centers weren’t consistent, they both played well on Saturday. Capela played 19 minutes on Saturday and scored 4 points and 14 rebounds, while Okongwu had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

The Hawks bench has been great in their winning streak and after not playing on Saturday, Bogdan Bogdanovic should be back tonight. De’Andre Hunter continued to play well, scoring 18 points on Saturday, and Kobe Bufkin seems more comfortable in his role. The Hawks have played with a nine-man rotation when healthy this season, and that’s likely to continue unless they get a big enough lead over New Orleans.

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The Atlanta Hawks have a huge chance against their marquee opponents this week

Updated Eastern Conference Rankings: The Hawks’ winning streak puts them within striking distance of the top four seeds