The Hawks’ opening win inspired some confidence, though not as much as the thrashing delivered by the Magic on the Wizards last night (in which the Magic starters were resting the entire fourth quarter). The Magic might be underrated, which is saying something about a team projected to reach the conference. What does this mean? Hawks fans need to enjoy the fact that we’re in first place, even if it’s just for a day, because this is going to be a hard-fought division.
What To Watch For:
1) Marvin Williams-he was a model of efficiency in the previous game, and his back-up Mo Evans is injured and will miss some time. Marvin stands to benefit greatly from the coaching change, and his defense could be critical to the season since no one else on the roster can replicate it at his position. Lots of playing time for Marvin should be a good thing.
2) The second team-the bench outscored the Grizzlies’ bench by a huge margin, led by a big effort from Zaza. The Hawks are definitely a deeper team than the 76ers, so that trend could continue one more night.