Paging Dahntay Jones! Kobe Bryant is calling you out, good sir!

After his L.A. Lakers scuttled the Bobcats in Charlotte on Saturday night, securing his first victory in four games this season, the Black Mamba insisted he wouldn’t be slithering around the ATL this weekend in search of the guy who sprained his ankle last March. “Unfortunately, Dahntay Jones isn’t there anymore,” he told his Time Warner Cable Sports affiliate (actually, Jones IS in town... he just ain’t playing for the Hawks). “I’ll just have to wait for him to get back in the NBA.” Touché, Kobe, touché!

Tay might indeed be in attendance for tonight’s contest with the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Time Warner Cable SportsNet), but only if he buys a ticket. So Kobe (13.5 PPG, 7.0 APG, 43.9 FG%) will have to settle for a full evening of DeMarre Carroll checking him instead. Bryant will strive to get his Lakers back to the .500 mark against a 12-12 Hawks team hoping to eke back above .500 one more time.

At 11-12, the Lakers are making do without their injured point guard corps of Steve Nash (back/hamstring strains), Steve Blake (elbow ligament tear), and Jordan Farmar (hamstring tear), so Kobe returns to NBA action in full ballhandler mode. Look for Carroll to hound Kobe up the court to disrupt the Laker offense and force turnovers (Bryant has 6.3 TO/G in his four games so far), and close out near the end of the shot clock when the Lakers need a bailout shot from their star.

As it pertains to his turnovers, Bryant has someone available to absorb the blame. “Imma get into his Spaniard behind when I get into the locker room,” he says of Laker center Pau Gasol. Origins of posteriors aside, Kobe insists Gasol is not establishing proper post position: “He’s getting me turnovers because he can’t catch the damn ball,” he said with a smile.

In his own defense, Gasol insists Head Coach Mike D’Antoni doesn’t want him playing on the low block, and that demand has contributed to the poorest shooting in his career (41.8 FG%, well below last year’s career-low of 46.6%). Pau can help his cause by crashing the offensive boards more (career-low 1.6 O-Rebs per game) against a Hawks team that gave up 18 and 15 such rebounds in its last two games. Gasol and Chris Kaman could use a little help down low as well. The Lakers give up a league-leading 19.6 baskets per game in the (not-so-) restricted area.

Without Kobe, and with Pau’s continued struggles, the Lakers pretty much relied on 3-pointers to keep themselves in games. They lead the NBA with 10.0 treys per game on 39.1 3FG% (4^th in NBA) and are the only team reliant on 30 percent of their points coming from three-point territory. Leading culprits include guard Jodie Meeks (44.1 3FG%) and a cavalry of swingmen, including Nick Young (34.8 3FG%), Shawne Williams (33.3 3FG%), and Wesley Johnson (43.0 3FG%) each taking at least three shots per game.

Atlanta is bringing their forwards out to help along the perimeter, and while it’s hurt their rebounding (-3.9 per-game rebounding margin in December; -2.4 in October/November) it has helped tighten up the three-point scorching of late (28.7 Opponent 3FG% in December; 38.3% in October/November).

Los Angeles not having any true point guards available, in theory, should be a boon for the struggling Jeff Teague (11.8 PPG and 6.3 APG in December, down from 16.9 PPG and 8.1 APG; 35.4 FG% in his last eleven games) It’s hard to go by that premise, when he failed to assert himself on either end of the floor while the Knicks were playing without starting PG Raymond Felton.

Teague went 2-for-6 with four of Atlanta’s season-high 27 turnovers in New York on Saturday, and a lack of directed movement by teammates to get open routinely left Paul Millsap (9 TOs) and Al Horford (3 TOs) out to dry.This is not another night where Jeff should be deferring to Lou Williams (27 points, largely in garbage time) and Shelvin Mack to lead the offense. Dennis Schröder is back from Cali but won't see floor time in this game unless it's a laugher in either direction.

Teague and the Hawks’ backcourt have demonstrated little defensive resistance, and the Hawks have a 1-10 record when their opponents get 24 or more assists in a game, that sole win being the overtime Friday Night squeaker versus Washington that somehow became fodder for Tony Romo jokes. The Hawks (65.0%) and Lakers (63.3%) are respectively first and second in the NBA for the percentage of field goals assisted, so Teague’s activity on both ends is crucial to tonight’s outcome.

Without defensive pressure from the Hawks, Mike Woodson’s Knicks were able to control the pace of the Saturday night contest, generally getting the shots they wanted and keeping Atlanta’s points-off-turnovers (16) to a minimum. The Hawks “held” New York to a season-low 32 total rebounds, yet only out-boarded them by two. New York’s 11 turnovers were the fewest for a Hawks opponent since the paltry three turnovers the Knicks ceded to Atlanta in their 95-88 victory at Philips last month.

No matter how much Kobe tries to entertain the crowd, the Hawks gain an edge in tonight’s game if they commit to pressing ballhandlers into bad passes and undesirable shots, rebound well as a team, and score in transition with Laker guards playing on their heels.

Go Hawks!

~lw3