The Atlanta Hawks are having trouble putting away the Brooklyn Nets in the first round. On Friday, the Eastern Conference’s top seed Atlanta has a chance to hammer the final nail into the coffin of Brooklyn’s season. Will the Hawks be able to do just that? Or will the Nets win to send the series into a Game 7?
Read on for more about this game below. You can also click here for the preview of Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs series between the Wild and the Blackhawks.
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Atlanta Hawks vs. Brooklyn Nets Predictions Game 6 Preview
Series Scores & Schedule
Game 1 – April 19, 7: 00 PM ET, Brooklyn Nets 92 at Atlanta Hawks 99
Game 2 – April 22, 7: 00 PM ET, Brooklyn Nets 91 at Atlanta Hawks 96
Game 3 – April 25, 7:00 PM ET, Atlanta Hawks 83 at Brooklyn Nets 91
Game 4 – April 27, 3:00 PM ET, Atlanta Hawks 115 at Brooklyn Nets 120 (OT)
Game 5 – April 29, TBD, Brooklyn Nets 97 at Atlanta Hawks 107
Game 6 – May 1, 8:00 PM ET, Atlanta Hawks at Brooklyn Nets– view all NBA lines
Game 7* – May 3, TBD, Brooklyn Nets at Atlanta Hawks
* If necessary
Betting on the Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta is back on track after beating Brooklyn at home, 107-97, on Wednesday to regain the series lead. With the series now shifting to Brooklyn, the Hawks will have to find a solution to their road woes if they are to end the series in six games. Going back to the regular season, the Hawks are only 2-8 SU and 2-7-1 ATS in their last 10 games away from A-town.
[sc:NBA240banner ]As usual, Atlanta’s balanced distribution on offense did the trick for Hawks in Game 5 with all of their five starters scoring in double figures.
DeMarre Carroll led all Hawks scorers with 24 points, while Al Horford and Jeff Teague put up 20 points apiece. Carroll is turning out to be the Hawks best wing player in this series. He is averaging 17 points through five games.
Atlanta will have a good shot at closing the series out in Friday’s game if Carroll and Kyle Korver continue stroking it well from the outside. Korver, who finished Game 5 with 17 points and went 5-of-12 on threes, bounced back from some poor shooting in Games 3 and 4. He went just 7-of-24 (29 percent) from the field and 4-of-18 (22 percent) from beyond the arc, as the Hawks lost both games in Brooklyn.
Horford and Teague, meanwhile, are also looking to carry their momentum into Game 6. Horford dominated the glass on Wednesday, grabbing 15 of the Hawks’ 43 total rebounds. Teague, on the other hand, is keeping in step with Brooklyn’s guards as he is averaging 17 points and 6.8 assists thus far in the first round.
Last year, eighth-seeded Atlanta managed to force a Game 7 in its first round series matchup with the Indiana Pacers. Brooklyn wants to duplicate that feat this time around, as it looks to extend its season when it takes on the Hawks at home for Game 6 of the series. The Nets are 7-2-1 ATS in their last 10 home games overall.
The Nets, however, need the Deron Williams that played in Game 4 and not the one that struggled to find the bottom of the net in Game 5 if they are to avoid elimination this coming Friday. After dropping 35 points in the Nets’ win in Game 4, Williams followed that up with a letdown performance on Wednesday. He finished with just five points on 2-for-8 shooting from the field.
Williams’ inconsistency has definitely hurt Brooklyn that has been getting great performances from its other guards, Jarrett Jack and Alan Anderson in particular.
Jack and Anderson both came off the bench in Game 5 and scored all of the Nets’ 41 bench points. Lionel Hollins played a shorter rotation against the Hawks in that game, using just eight players. But Brooklyn somehow managed to outscore Atlanta’s reserves, who had only 16 points.
The Jack-Anderson duo will have to be just as sharp on Friday, especially with the Nets’ season on the line. Jack is averaging 12.6 points thus far in this series, while Anderson is putting up 12 points per game.
Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson, meanwhile, have been the most dependable players on the Nets’ starting unit in this series. Lopez, however, must be able to do a better job on the boards to limit the impact of Atlanta’s bigs. Lopez scored 15 points in Game 5 but only had three boards. He is averaging 20 points and 9.4 boards in the first round. Johnson, on the other hand, is averaging 17.4 points. He has 10 three-pointers since Game 2.
