Before The Tip: Raptors @ Hawks, Jan. 20th

The Toronto Raptors visit the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena for a Monday matinee. The dinos will be gunning for a fourth straight win while the Hawks have won only 10 times all season.

It’s Martin Luther King Day in the land of America, so this game will tip at 2:30 EST. The fourth-place Toronto Raptors take on the Atlanta Hawks, long-term renters of the East’s basement digs (15th in the conference). Atlanta is 5-22 at home in 2019-20.

Toronto is finally healthy. For just the third time all season long, Nick Nurse’s team had a full complement of players on Saturday against Minnesota. It’ll be the same against the Hawks. Atlanta will be without Jabari Parker (shoulder) and Chandler Parsons (concussion). Alex Len, dealing with a back injury, will be a game-time decision.

The two teams may be “lightyears” away from each other in the standings, but the Hawks always seem to play Toronto tough and nearly pulled off an upset in the two teams only other meeting this season, however, the Raptors won 119-116 after clawing back from a nine-point deficit at halftime. Pascal Siakam led Toronto with 34 points.

Good Matchup For Siakam?

Siakam, by his lofty standards, has struggled in the four games he’s played since returning from a long absence caused by groin discomfort. Toronto’s de-facto go-to guy on offence is averaging just 15 points (15.5) since returning from injury, and Siakam is shooting only 30 percent from three, down eight percent from his season mark. A matchup with the Hawks might be just what he needs.

Apart from dropping 34 on the Hawks back in November, Siakam has averaged 15.2 points in 10 career matchups with Atlanta. Only the Knicks — duh — have allowed Siakam to score more on a nightly basis (15.5), so there’s definitely something about the Hawks that brings out the best in Spicy P.

Trae Young Is A Problem…

Young racked up a triple-double (30-10-10) when the two teams last played, so keeping him in check will be a tall-but-necessary task for Nick Nurse and his team. It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Nurse experiment with different defensive schemes and one-on-one assignments throughout the course of the game…might we see OG Anunoby on Atlanta’s main offensive weapon?

Defensively, Young is not yet at a level I’d deem appropriate. His effort, or lack thereof, is rivalled only by James Harden’s. Look for the Raptors to continuously attack Young on defence which will force the guard to exert energy at the end of the floor he’d much rather rest at.

Player To Watch: Norman Powell

It’s close to impossible to discuss Raptors trade rumours nowadays without having Norman Powell’s name come up — whether it’s the speculation surrounding his status in Toronto or something else, perhaps a clean bill of health, Powell’s play has been remarkable since returning to Toronto’s lineup. He missed 11 games with a shoulder injury.

Over his last four contests, Powell has shot 61 percent from the field, 48 percent from three, and averaged nearly 23 points (22.8) in 29 minutes of action per game. If you’re the type of person that looks at players as stocks — you’d make a good GM if you are –, there may not be a better time than now to dangle Powell in the trade winds.

On the other side of things, if Powell’s current form continues and he’s able to produce at a high level as Toronto’s sixth man, with an occasional start mixed in, then his much-talked-about contract suddenly would seem like a bargain. Another 20-point performance would only add to the intrigue surrounding Powell’s position within Toronto’s ranks.

Enjoy the game.