Thus, we will start with a preview of a game on Friday the 20th between the Toronto Raptors and the Atlanta Hawks with the game to be played at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta with tipoff at 7:30PM ET. With the NBA games to restart after the NBA All-Star game on Sunday the 15th of Feb. 2015, the regular games begin again for the 2nd half of the season the 19th and 20th of Feb. 2015.
The Raptors prior to the All-Star break had increased their winning streak to 3 games as last Wednesday they had a great win over the Wizards of Washington 95-93, but to continue that streak will not be easy in this game with the Hawks of Atlanta who have been very hot lately as they have won their last consecutive 12 games playing at home in Atlanta. So this game will bring out a leader in the Eastern Conference division after this Friday night game.
The main reason the Raptors become difficult to beat this 2014-15 seasons is a result of its balanced attack offensively. Their leading scorers are DeRozan and Williams and additionally they have three players that are averaging double figures in Lowery a 1st time All-Star select with 15.2 points each game, Valanciunas averaging 12.0 points per game and Ross with 10.3 averaging points each game this season.
The Raptors 2 leading offensive scorers DeRozan and Williams have been a taken an important role in the Raptors elevation in the standings of the NBA Eastern Conference with DeRozan averaging 18.3 points each game, while Williams has averaged 15.2 points each game. With their offensive talent Toronto has averaged 105.6 points each game which is 5th in the league for scoring, and thus have elevated themselves to 2nd in the Eastern Conference at the half-way point in the season at 36-17.
The Atlanta Hawks struggled somewhat in the first half of this season, including a horrific defeat to the Celtics of Boston this past Tuesday evening 89-88. That was only the Hawks 3rd loss since the 1st of January 2015, with all of those losses taking place in the last 10 days. That was amazing occurrence, especially since they had come off a 19 game win streak that took them to 1st place in their league.
Thus far the Atlanta Hawks team is happy to be where they are standing in the conference and their performance in the first half of the season as they presently hold the best record at 43-11 in their Eastern Conference of the NBA as they went into the All-Star break and ending the 1st half of the NBA Regular 2014-15 seasons.
The Hawks under coach Budenholzer have has a great start this season and can be attributed to their excellent execution offensively with their system that promotes moving the ball on all occasions. Having said that, just look at their standings, as the presently are 2nd in the league with assists at 25.8 each game, thus they like to share the basketball. That we witnessed in the Hawks last meeting against Toronto back on the 16th of Jan. 2015 when Atlanta had 30 assists in routing the Raptors in that game 110-89!
Their willingness to share the basketball was pretty much evident in their last meeting against the Raptors on January 16. The Hawks recorded a total of 30 assists in their 110-89 destruction of Toronto in that game.
So for those that are Hawks or Raptor fans and Bet on NBA basketball at a Sportsbook, the Toronto Raptors are 10-0 in their ultimate home games of the same amount. We think the Hawk should again be the Raptors in this Eastern Conference match-up.