With plenty of NBA matches happening tonight, the one that caught our attention was Atlanta Hawks vs Minnesota Timberwolves matchup which will take place at State Farm Arena and will mark the 2nd H2H match between these two sides in 2018/19 season.

Atlanta Hawks are currently 12th in the East with an overall record of 20-41 and 2-3 in their last 5 games. Ever since the All-Star break, Atlanta Hawks managed to win against Phoenix Suns (120:112), but lost to Detroit Pistons (122:125) and Houston Rockets on Tuesday (119:111). Despite a 2-3 record in the last 5 and 4-6 in the last 10 games played, Hawks have been performing reasonably well overall. Not trying to praise them too much, as they will most likely finish at the bottom of the league, which is mostly due to their terrible defence. Atalanta defence ranks as the 4th least efficient defensive team in the league and the worst team when it comes to preventing opponents scoring, with an average of 118.2 ppg being scored against them. On the bright side, they can score points, which they proved in the last 3 games.

The visiting side tonight, Minnesota Timberwolves are currently 10th in the West with an overall record of 29-31 and 4-1 in the last 5 games. As they strive to finish in the playoffs, predicting if they will end up there is hard, I personally don't expect them to get to the top 8, however, Timberwolves are doing a good job trying to catch up to Spurs with a 4-1 record in the last 5. In the course of the last 5 games, Timberwolves lost to Bucks (140:128), and won against Clippers (130:120), Houston Rockets (121:111), Knicks (104:115) and Kings on Tuesday (112:105). The key player in Timberwolves "adventure" to the playoffs will be Towns, who is coming off a 34 point, 5 assists and 21 rebound game against Kings, which is expected to translate into the next match against Atlanta, who will have a hard time coping with Towns mostly due to their poor interior defence, where Towns is expected to get some easy points.

Atlanta Hawks will miss Taurean Prince alongside Miles Plumlee who has been out since January. On the other side, Minnesota Timberwolves will be without Teague, Dieng and Covington.

The last time these two sides met was on 29th December, the match ended after overtime (120:123) in Hawks favour. This time, we do not expect it to go the same way. Hawks despite playing well in recent 3 games don't have a team to stop Timberwolves, who will take advantage of Hawks poor defence. While Hawks are not terrible when it comes to scoring points, I don't believe this match will go their way. In addition to their issue with defence, Atlanta relies too much on their point guard Trae Young, which is now a well-known fact. In that regard, we expect Timberwolves to do their best and stop Trae Young before he will be able to get the Atlanta Hawks offence going. If Timberwolves manage to do that, this match should be an easy one for the visiting team to win.

With Atlanta poor defence and Towns in great shape, I expect plenty of points scored by Timberwolves. On the other side, Atlanta can produce plenty of points on their own as well. This should end up as a high scoring match and that is why we will be betting on over 235 points.

Prediction: Over 236.00 points