Even the most ardent Hawks fans \u2013 assuming that such a species exists \u2013 know that the Hawks\u2019 chances of playing any basketball beyond the end of this week are melting fast, and with Atlanta trailing 2-0 in its Eastern Conference quarterfinals playoff series against the Pacers, if there is a stand to be made, it has to be made tonight in Game 3.<\/p>\n
Eastern Conference ATS Matchup Stats<\/a> | Gambling Insight!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NBA Picks Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Over the last decade the Hawks have made a living lurking around for a round or two in the playoffs before compliantly heading home, and this season doesn\u2019t look a lot different. Atlanta didn\u2019t put up much of a fight in Indianapolis in either of the first two games of the series, losing by an average score of 110-94.<\/p>\n The Hawks had vowed to bring a more physical approach to Game 2 after getting bended, folded and mutilated in Game 1, but Atlanta was beaten by Indy in all phases of the game, with pretty much the same result.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s natural for us,\u201d said Indy\u2019s Paul George of the Hawks\u2019 new-found toughness. \u201cWe naturally play physical. It wasn\u2019t like, \u2018They\u2019re playing physical, let\u2019s retaliate.\u2019<\/p>\n That\u2019s how we approach the game — in a physical way. We\u2019re not interested in retaliating or injuring players; we\u2019re going to play tough, but (we\u2019re) not interested in all the other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n George laid 27 points on the Hawks\u2019 heads in Game 2 after a triple-double in Game 1, and it\u2019s clear that putting an end to his MVP-type play is Atlanta top priority if the Hawks have any intention of taking this series back to the heartland for a Game 5. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n The Pacers, meanwhile, are content to enjoy their recent offensive success and let the Hawks figure out things. Only Golden State and Oklahoma City are scoring at a higher rate than Indiana in the playoffs, and the Pacers own the largest margin of victory (11 ppg).<\/p>\n Of course, Atlanta\u2019s lackadaisical defensive play has something to do with that, and the Hawks aren\u2019t doing themselves any favors by shooting a high school-like 18 for 34 from the free throw line in the series.<\/p>\n The Hawks\u2019 starters were abused by Indiana in Game 2. In the first and third periods, when most of the minutes were logged by Jeff Teague, Al Horford and Josh Smith, Atlanta was outscored by a whopping 60-47.<\/p>\n That has to change tonight, and the first period could go a long way toward determining in there will be any bite at all in this series or Indiana can coast.<\/p>\n The Hawks have never been a circle-the-wagons type of club, and Atlanta has far more questions than answers.<\/p>\n Indiana is just playing too well. Pacers to cover the 2.5. Suggest a money line play on Indiana to bump up the profit a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pacers vs. Hawks NBA Handicapping Even the most ardent Hawks fans \u2013 assuming that such a species exists \u2013 know that the Hawks\u2019 chances of playing any basketball beyond the end of this week are melting fast, and with Atlanta trailing 2-0 in its Eastern Conference quarterfinals playoff series against the Pacers, if there is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":27625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4045,3319,58947,58948,8667,23074,1595,12358,58879,58949,58950,42338,11729],"class_list":["post-61886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-free-nba-picks","tag-game-3","tag-indiana-pacers-vs-atlanta-hawks","tag-indiana-pacers-vs-atlanta-hawks-odds","tag-nba-basketball-lines","tag-nba-betting-picks","tag-nba-gambling","tag-nba-playoff-picks","tag-nba-playoffs-odds","tag-pacers-hawks-free-prediction","tag-pacers-hawks-picks","tag-pacers-vs-hawks","tag-round-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62019,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61886\/revisions\/62019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIndiana Pacers (2-0) at Atlanta Hawks (0-2)
\nSaturday, April 27
\nPhilips Arena, Atlanta
\n7 p.m. EST
\nSpread \u2013 Hawks -2.5 at TopBet<\/a>
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