Orlando Magic
Magic is coming in to this season with their heads held high after making the playoffs last year. They want to keep that trend going and also keep the trend going against the Hawks tonight after winning 3 out of 4 games last season. Magics coach. coach Clifford has made this team to a really good defensive team and they want to keep that up as the season progresses and tonight. They played the Cavs in their first game of the season and held them to 37% shooting but the Magic themselves were also struggling a bit but could hold on a took a 9 point victory.
Magic vs Hawks is the perfect storm for the Magic. Everything the Magic are good at the Hawks are bad at, offensivley they have Vucevic inside, Mo Bamba and Aaron Gordon aswell they should abuse their matchup pretty comfortably in this game. Markelle Fultz, the number one draft pick a couple of years ago, he look ready to go from the jump last game and gave a good impression with his monster dunk and he will want to keep the momentum going into this game. Fultz will go against Young who is the weakest defender in the NBA, Fultz can hopefully take advantage of this and have a good game. Other players that have good matchups are Evan Fournier and Terrance Ross.
Magic like I said are focused on the defensive end and that will win them games. The team has a couple of long defenders in Mo Bamba and Jonathan Isaac who will be disruptive and the other players feel comfortable with them as anchors. Magic has a good defensive team, the guys talk to eachother and helping in the rotations on a high level. This will give them the win in tonights matchup.
Atlanta Hawks
Hawks have 1 win to their record so far, they took care of business against the Pistons who was on a b2b, Trae Young showed what he was made of with his 37 points. Hawks have a excating team this season and they are hopefull for the future, this season will be tough and it will go in waves, like last season. The teams offense is really good but the lack on the defensive end will kill them, no shotblockers no one to rebound outside of John Collins who is a bit thin yet to go up against the likes of Drummond and Whiteside for example and he hasn't yet find the timing yet on the defensive side. There are a lot of weaknesses in this team and it's easy to take advantage off them in a 48 minute game, when they are a run and gun team who doesn't put to much emphasize on defense and that's why they will lose a lot of games. Offense is the best defense they say but when the other team has atleast as good a offense as you the defense most be flawless. Basketball is all about stops and runs and if you can't get stops you can't get runs either. A good example of that is the Magic last year when they averaged 124 points against this team, that will not take you far.
Hawks has a young team and they are exciting to follow, like Young and Collins. Both of them will be in the scouting report of the Magic and it will be exciting to see if Orlando can hold Young under 25 points. Hawks will have it tough tonight against a disciplined Magic defense who wants to fight for the playoffs this year too.
Bet
Magic is the better team on the defensive end and on the offensive end like Nikola Vucevic who will be the focus of the offense in the post. Will he win his matchup? Yes, I think so. Alex Len is a good pick and roll guy but not much else. It will be a lot of post ups for Vuc and hopefully he can take advantage of a good matchup. Fultz vs Young is another good matchup for the Magic and they have to involve Young as much as possible in the pick and roll, switches and everything else. He will not keep infront of anyone.
Magic should be a bigger favorite imo. Hawks are a fun team to watch with their run and gun playstyle but it isn't a concept that is good in the long run, look at the Sacramento Kings last year with the same playstyle.
