The season will end on Wednesday night in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament for the loser between No. 10 seed Atlanta and No. 9 Chicago, with the Bulls as short home favorites. The winner earns a date on Friday at the 7 vs. 8 loser for the East’s final playoff spot and a first-round matchup with NBA-best Boston.
Atlanta Hawks vs. Chicago Bulls 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament Game Info
When: Wednesday, April 17th, 2024, 9:30 PM ET
Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
TV: ESPN
Radio: 92.9 “The Game” WZGC FM (Hawks) // 670 The Score AM (Bulls)
Stream: NBA League Pass
NBA Odds: Hawks (+3) // Bulls (-3)
Why bet on the Atlanta Hawks?
Atlanta is in the play-in tournament for a third straight year. In 2022, it was the No. 9 seed and beat No. 10 Charlotte and then No. 8 Cleveland to advance to the East playoffs. Last year, the Hawks were the No. 8 seed and advanced with an upset of No. 7 Miami. Chicago was 2-1 vs. Atlanta this season.
The Hawks enter this game with zero momentum, as they lost a sixth straight game on Sunday, 157-115 at Indiana. The 157 points matched the Pacers’ highest-scoring game since they joined the NBA in 1976. Mouhamed Gueye added 19 points and Bogdan Bogdanovic 18 for the Hawks, who trailed 125-93 at the end of the third quarter and never threatened in the fourth.
Atlanta held out starting center Clint Capela for rest. Three other rotation players who average a combined 39.9 points, Jalen Johnson (sprained ankle), Saddiq Bey (torn knee ligament) and Onyeka Okongwu (sprained toe), sat out due to injury. Capela will play Tuesday, but the others are all out long term.
“That’s just something, as I’ve said, really, it’s no different from throughout the course of the year,” coach Quin Snyder said. “The guys that you do have, they have to be ready to go and have to play at a high level, and you can’t lament those things. So we’ll be ready.”
While the Hawks can score with anyone, they allowed 118.4 points per 100 possessions this season, a bottom-five number in the NBA. That number was down to 114.9 since the All-Star break. However, all but three of those games were without All-Star Trae Young, the offensive-minded guard who returned last week after missing 23 games with an injured finger.
In three games against the Bulls this season, Atlanta allowed 118.3 points per contest, and the 136 points Chicago scored on Feb. 12 were the most the team has scored all season. Atlanta needs the late-season defense to show up — with Young’s shooting on the other end — to have a chance. In the Hawks’ only win over the Bulls this season, they shot 19-for-40 from distance.
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