Nets and Hawks wrap up home and home set in Atlanta

Maybe the night time is the right time? The Brooklyn Nets came home after a successful three game road trip to play the Atlanta Hawks in an afternoon affair. The Nets weren’t able to build on their win in Dallas and wound up losing this game by 12 points. After this, the Nets are heading out the country! They’ll be heading to Mexico City to take part in the Mexico City games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat.

The opponent tonight will be the Atlanta Hawks. Read about Saturday’s game from their perspective.

Where to follow the game

YES Network on TV/ WCBS 880 AM on radio.

Injuries

The Nets are starting to get healthier so the only names on the injury report are D’Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin.

Same report as Saturday for the Hawks.

The game

Brooklyn won game one while Atlanta took game two.

If this game goes anything like Saturday’s did, turnovers will decide this one. Despite tying a season high in three pointers made with 17, the Nets coughed it up 19 times which led to 24 points off of turnovers for the Hawks. For a team with such a slim margin of error, the Nets will need to take better care of the ball if they want to win.

The Nets are getting healthier, and that makes life easier for Kenny Atkinson. Rondae Hollis Jefferson and Allen Crabbe made their returns on Saturday and played a little over 20 minutes each. Having two of his best players back and able to contribute will help Atkinson juggle his rotations better.

Player to watch: Ersan Ilyasova

How do you go about replacing a four time All Star? For Atlanta, they've had trouble replacing what Paul Millsap brought them. Ersan Ilyasova was brought in on a one year, six million contract to be a stop gap while Atlanta figures things out. Although his overall three point percentage for the season isn't particularly good, he did shoot 38.9 percent from deep in November. He's not a long term solution, but you could do a lot worse.

As Bryan Fonseca notes in a companion piece, he’s always been tough on the Nets, but he has a teammate who has a Nets killer, too.

Tervor Booker will be starting at the four for Brooklyn. He only played 15:44 on Saturday, his second lowest amount of the year (the lowest was when he played 9:44 in a game he got injured in). He should be out there a lot longer tonight and ought to help on the boards.

From the Vault

“Pay us what you owe us for all the years that you hoed us...”

More reading: Peachtree Hoops

• Brooklyn Nets Game Notes - Brooklyn Nets
• Atlanta Hawks Game Notes - Atlanta Hawks
• Coaches put friendship on hold as Hawks host Nets - STATS/STX
• Nets get chance for immediate revenge in must-win game - Brian Lewis - New York Post
• Joe Harris gets a shot at more playing time and delivers - Roger Rubin - Newsday
• Budenholzer: John Collins can gain while out with injury - Danny Knobler - Atlanta Journal-Constitution