Hawks at Clippers
The Atlanta Hawks will try to continue a number of winning streaks when they visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, most impressively a six-game road winning streak. The Hawks have won four straight games overall with seven consecutive wins against Western Conference opponents for the first time since 1997. The last team from the West to beat Atlanta was the visiting Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 18.
The Clippers will be playing the sixth game of a nine-game homestand that began two days after they lost to the Hawks in Atlanta on Dec. 23. The Clippers, who had lost the night before in San Antonio, managed to keep leading scorers Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap under control, but small forward DeMarre Carroll exploded for a career-high 25 points on 5-for-6 shooting from 3-point range and took down 10 rebounds. The Clippers will need a better game this time around from former Hawks reserve guard Jamal Crawford, who shot 5-for-19 against Atlanta in the last meeting, part of a rough December in which he shot 37.4 percent from the floor overall.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, SportSouth (Atlanta), Prime Ticket (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE HAWKS (25-8): The Hawks are averaging 26.5 points off turnovers the last four games, but the Clippers are one of the better NBA teams at taking care of the ball, coming into Sunday tied for fourth in the league at 11.9 giveaways per game. On the flip side, Clippers point guard Chris Paul is tied for third in the league at 2.03 steals a game, so Teague will need to be mindful of that. Teague is averaging 24 points over the last four games, surpassing the 20-point mark in each outing.
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (23-11): The Clippers did something Friday they hadn’t done in nearly a month and that’s practice. They finally received a few days off at home after playing 15 games in 33 days, then went out and beat the Philadelphia 76ers by 36 points on Saturday night to improve to 4-1 on their homestand. The lack of recent travel, the extra days off last week and an easy win against the 76ers should leave the Clippers with plenty in the tank for the Hawks.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Clippers coach Doc Rivers is Atlanta’s all-time leader in assists (3,866).
2. Clippers C DeAndre Jordan has played in 274 consecutive games, the NBA’s longest active streak.
3. Atlanta SG Kyle Korver, who dipped to No. 2 in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage (51.3) after shooting 4-for-9 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, has eight rebounds in each of the last three games.