Obviously, since the game isn’t televised, nor carried by the Hawks’ radio network, you won’t be able to follow this game aside from online updates in the box score, which should neither be timely nor accurate. Still, there’s a few things we hope to see in the box score tomorrow morning.
↵1) Number of possessions. Larry Drew has placed a huge emphasis on conditioning and is attempting to pick up the pace while installing his new offense. Even though it’s preseason, we’d like to see what kind of pace the Hawks are running. That’s one of the most significant changes which might make a difference against the Miami’s and Orlando’s in the East-using the mobility of the Hawks’ bigs to get up and down the floor.
↵2) Turnovers. One of the things the Hawks did best last season was to limit their turnovers. That’s largely a factor of their lack of ball movement on offense, but in combination with their high rate of offensive rebounding, it made them among the more efficient offenses in the league. You can expect turnovers.
↵3) The Rookies: most specifically, the roles that Jordan Crawford and Pape Sy play. They’ll almost certainly get their minutes tonight. Sy was used at the point in Summer League, when he wasn’t hurt. Jordan Crawford can expect some growing pains on the defensive end and, apparently, in the conditioning department as well.