Atlanta fans will get another look at the one who got away when the Hawks host Luka Doncic — if his back cooperates — and the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.
It will be the first meeting between the teams this season. The Lakers, who defeated the Detroit Pistons 121-116 on Sunday, have won five in a row. The Hawks are riding a four-game winning streak after their 124-121 come-from-behind win over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.
“Five in a row? So, it is officially a winning streak,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Winning streaks start at five.”
Doncic did not play in Sunday’s game at Detroit because of tightness in his lower back. He missed the first game of the back-to-back and remains questionable for Monday when the Lakers play the second game of a four-game road trip.
Atlanta used the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft to select Doncic, then immediately traded him to Dallas for the draft rights to Trae Young and a future first-round pick. Doncic went on to win Rookie of the Year and has become one of the game’s biggest stars.
Doncic, who was traded to the Lakers in the middle of the 2024-25 season, is off to the best start of his career. He leads the NBA in scoring (40.1 points) and averages 7.8 rebounds and 7.7 assists. In 12 career games against Atlanta, Doncic is averaging 27.9 points, 8.4 rebounds and 8.6 assists.
With Doncic unavailable Sunday, Austin Reaves stepped up to score 43 points and matched his career high with 14 field goals. He averages 25.3 points and has been pleased by the five-game winning streak.
“It’s very encouraging,” Reaves said. “You’re not going to play a perfect game. There’s going to be some point along the four quarters where you can get a lot better and that’s the beautiful thing about basketball. A lot of our wins this year we haven’t really played that well — and that’s encouraging.”
Monday’s game also marks a homecoming for Walker Kessler, who grew up in the Atlanta suburbs and was Mr. Georgia Basketball in 2020. He had 12 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks against the Pistons.
The Hawks have the longest active winning streak in the Eastern Conference, but coach Quin Snyder knows it is too early to view the team as a finished product.
“I love that we’ve won a couple in a row, but I also know it’s early in the year and we just want to keep getting better,” Snyder said. “If we can do that and win at the same time, that’s the best scenario.”
Veteran Nickeil Alexander-Walker said the team understands the effort required to achieve success.
“You can’t control making shots every night, but you can control your effort, the game plan,” Alexander-Walker said. “Those are things that are in our control, making sure we were making the multiple-effort plays.”
It helped that the Hawks got Jalen Johnson back in the lineup on Saturday. He missed three games with a sprained ankle and returned against the Nets to score a season-high 30 points with seven rebounds and six assists.
The Hawks and Lakers split two games last season. The Hawks have won four of their last five against the Lakers in Atlanta.
–Field Level Media
