The Oklahoma City Thunder certainly miss Kevin Durant when he is away. The team struggled in his absence last year and a hamstring injury caused the team to hit a rough patch this season as well. However, the former MVP is back and has Oklahoma City cruising at this point in the season as they prepare to face an Atlanta Hawks team searching for consistency among injuries.
Durant is quietly pushing the Thunder while Stephen Curry gets all the credit right now. Durant has returned from his injury to average 30.3 points on 58.5 percent shooting in the last three wins from the team. He is fresh off a game where he recorded 34 points and 13 rebounds in a win over the Detroit Pistons while he is shooting 52.4 percent from beyond the arc. Those are numbers that if they continue will earn him his second MVP trophy. The rebounds from Durant along with the big games from Russell Westbrook could make it easy for the Thunder to get past the Hawks as they are missing plenty of size due to injuries right now.
The Hawks are preparing to be without Tiago Splitter once again as the center deals with a hip injury. That will not help the team's rebounding percentage as they rank as one of the worst teams in the league in the category. The small lineup got the team dominated by the Spurs on Saturday as they got outrebounded 49-43 in the loss. The team paired that with poor shooting as they went 6 of 26 from beyond the arc in one of their worst performances of the year. The one thing going for the Hawks is that they rank near the top in forced turnovers.
While Durant continues to remain the MVP for the Thunder, Paul Millsap is doing just that for the Hawks. The power forward is averaging 19.5 points and 10.3 rebounds in his last four games with the Hawks. However, he was held to just eight points against the Spurs. In his last meeting with the Thunder in January of last year, Millsap managed 22 points and 10 rebounds. The Hawks could use for him to repeat those numbers again on Monday.