Free Daily NBA Lock Pick, Tuesday December 19th: Boston vs Golden State 10:00pm ET
CLICK TO SEE PICK NOW
Texas will be very red on Wednesday night, with the Atlanta Hawks (11-15; 6-20-0 ATS) visiting at 8:00 p.m. EDT. The Houston Rockets (13-11; 16-7-1 ATS) are set to host the first of two matchups this season. That means that Toyota Center will be opening its doors for this contest. The home team took both meetings last season. Will it happen again, or is Atlanta poised for a road win?
Nobody does it better when it comes to NBA picks!
Facing the Detroit Pistons on Monday, Atlanta had another win lined up. A six-point margin may have been tighter than expected, but this reeling Hawks team needs any win that they can get right now. 130 points, led by none other than Trae Young, was enough to get the win. He's the face of the NBA's fourth-best team by offensive rating. 40.4% of Atlanta's shot attempts are threes, and 37.8% connect, guiding the Hawks to 11th in true shooting percentage. Atlanta is the league's third-best free throw shooting team and offensive rebounding unit. Their turnover percentage is the 12th-best. Finishing at the rim is a struggle, but these Hawks fly high on the offensive end.
Meanwhile, they aren't getting stops, hence a defensive rating that's 27th p er NBA.com. It starts with allowing the worst effective field goal percentage league-wide. The Hawks also allow the 27th-highest offensive rebounding percentage. So, they're terrible at forcing misses and don't finish possessions with rebounds often. Outside of forcing a lot of turnovers, the Hawks are a mess defensively. No wonder they've allowed at least 120 points in five of their past six games.