The Los Angeles Lakers get ready to face the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday – NBA Preview
The Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks will play their first game, after the All-Star weekend, on Tuesday night as the Lakers will host this game in the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. It will be an exciting game as both teams are talented and are among
the top five in their conferences, but both are entering in Tuesday night's game rather bitter. Before the All-Star break, the last 10 games of the Hawks were 5-5 and the Lakers had accomplished same numbers in their last 10 games. The Lakers had lost three
straight games right before the break, including a reputation damaging loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Regardless of their uninspiring play, the Lakers still own the third best record in the National Basketball Association Western Conference. The Lakers’ General Manager Mitch Kupchak thinks that embarrassing loss to the Cavaliers might become a turning point
for them.
"We have five days to think about it, and maybe that turns out to be a rallying point," Kupchak said last Thursday. "Let's see where it leads. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can climb up."
Kobe Bryant did not speak to the media after the loss to the Cavaliers, and took out his frustration in the All-Star game against the Eastern Conference. He made 37 points and 14 rebounds to win his fourth All-Star Most Valuable Player award, as he also
tied his own record in front of his home crowd. During the All-Star weekend, Bryant and Pau Gasol discussed and planned to come out strong from the losing streak. Gasol scored 17 points for the winners of All-Star’s West team.
"We're looking forward to it," Bryant said. "We're up for the challenge. Pau and I have been talking this whole time about looking forward to it, and getting back at it."
All three losses of Lakers were road losses, but Tuesday's game is a home game. This season, the Lakers have gone 19-8 from their home court and this makes them a tough host against Atlanta, a team who holds a good record as visitors.
Like the Lakers, the Hawks entered the break with some bad momentum, losing to the New York Knicks 102-90 on Wednesday. They have lost three out of four games to fall behind the Orlando Magic for the fourth position in the East. Their star center Al Horford
made 12 points and had 11 rebounds against the Knicks, it was his third game after sitting out with a bruised back injury.
Tuesday's game between the Hawks and Lakers is an exciting one as both teams need to put themselves on a winning streak if they have any desire to avail home court benefit right from the start of first round. The Hawks are in fifth place and need to play
some tough basketball if they want to climb up in the standings while the Lakers are currently in the third position, and they need to avoid a downward trend. This will be Lakers' first game at Staples Centre since their last game against the San Antonio Spurs,
which they lost 89-88 on February 3.
The game will start at 7:30pm PT on Tuesday and it looks like it will be one that nobody will want to miss.
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