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Before their recent four game win streak the Atlanta Hawks were on a pitiful losing streak of fourteen out of fifteen games. To say their recent win streak is a surprise is an understatement. Their latest win came with last night’s dominating road win at Charlotte.

Tonight the Raptors travel down to Atlanta off of a game days rest unlike Atlanta. The line currently sits at 2.5 and I believe there to be value here on the Raptors. Toronto is coming off a physical home loss to the Phoenix Suns and which they uncharacteristically stopped playing team basketball offensively and played to the Suns hand defensively.

Even during their four game win streak the Hawks have had noticeable flaws. Their guards are inept at making quality shots besides Kyle Korver. Off the bench Atlanta does not have quality substitutes to warrant the increase of minutes for a team playing a back to back.

Shelvin Mack, Mike Scott, Dennis Schroader, and old man Elton Brand have to be the weakest quartet tandem in the NBA as a bench group.

There are certain nights when the Hawks can play sound defense and live off their bread and butter big man in Paul Millsap to carry them to a victory. He did so last night against Charlotte shooting 12 for 20 and the Hawks held the Bobcats in the low 80’s.

But the other three wins by the Hawks need to be evaluated properly. The Bucks and Jazz are two of the worst teams in the NBA and Denver is a freelance team that plays as sporadic as any team.

Look for the Raptors to have a sound combination of defense in the paint to halt Millsap slightly and to get their own shots with ease on the offensive end. The key like I stated earlier will be the unproductive minutes the Hawks bench receives tonight coming off a back to back.