Battle for playoff position has Hawks’ attention

The Hawks are watching the standings.

Well, some more than others.

With five games remaining in their regular season, the Hawks are in a battle for home-court advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs. They are currently third in the Eastern Conference. They have the same record as the Celtics and currently hold the tiebreaker. The Heat and the Hornets are just a half-game back. That’s spots 3-6 still separated by the slimmest of margins as all four have the same number of losses.

“I watch because I’m nerdy with all that basketball stuff,” Kyle Korver said Monday. “I like it. The group that we are fighting with, we are going to play one of them in the first round. All four teams are playing great basketball. For us, we have to worry about playing our best by the time (the playoffs) come around.”

The Hawks host the Suns Tuesday in their last game against a Western Conference opponent. They end the season hosting the Raptors and Celtics and visiting the Cavaliers and Wizards. There is a great deal of playoff positioning to be determined. The Hawks, who clinched their ninth straight playoff appearance last week, are coming off back-to-back losses to the Raptors and Cavaliers, the top two teams in the conference.

“At this point, we can’t really control who we are going to play,” Al Horford said. “We have to focus on ourselves. You do look at (the standings) but it’s not like I look at it all the time. …

“(The race is) exciting. It’s different. It shows how much better the East has gotten.”

The tightness of the playoff race even has coach Mike Budenholzer taking a peek. He said he rarely pays attention to the standings, choosing to focus on the level of play of his team going into the postseason.

“That group is so tight so it’s really interesting,” Budenholzer said. “I’ll say we’ll end up where we end up but I want to have an idea. I don’t think we are overly concerned with third, sixth, fourth, fifth. We’re more concerned about how we are playing. If you play the right way then those things tend to fall into place. It will be an interesting last four or five games.”

Budenholzer said his staff of assistant coaches and video coordinators have not yet begun to zero in on specific opponents but have become the initial preparation process.

One thing a close playoff race means is that the dilemma of resting players is not an immediate concern. That season, the Hawks had the top seed wrapped up early and rested players. Some believe it was adversely affected the team’s momentum.

“We are not going to rest, maybe the last game I could see Bud doing something,” Korver said. “I think this team wants to play right now. I don’t think anybody wants a game off. No one is banged up. Bud does an amazing job all year long of managing our minutes. Our staff here does a great job of keeping us healthy and in shape. I don’t think we are in need of rest games.