Hawks clinch No. 3 seed, look to reach Cleveland's level

Chances are if Hickson were growing up here nowadays, he would like this hometown team a lot better. The Hawks are completing their first 50-victory season since 1997-98, announcing themselves a team on the rise. The next step is to formally arrive, something Cleveland already has done.

The Cavs are already assured their second consecutive season of both 60-plus victories and owning the league’s best record. They swept the Hawks in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season and have beaten them in nine consecutive meetings, including those four postseason games.

Still, the Hawks believe injuries prevented them from giving Cleveland their best shot in the 2009 playoffs. They had a chance to win all three meetings this season before fading late. And the Cavaliers seem sincere when they say the Hawks are no pushovers.

“They give us a lot of problems,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said.

Maybe so, but the Hawks haven’t given the Cavs any losses lately. Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who considered the Hawks when he was a free agent in February before re-signing with the Cavs, said the Hawks are close.

“The last four or five years, they have improved every year and that is hard to do in this league, be consistent,” he said. “They are a good, young team. We always have a hard time playing against them. Each year it gets tougher for us.

“They are going to be one of the contenders to come out of the East. I don’t see why not. When it comes to the playoffs, anything can happen.”

The Hawks still aren’t sure of their playoffs path. They could face Miami (46-35) or Milwaukee (45-36) in the first round. The Heat lead Milwaukee by a game for the fifth seed but the Bucks hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Heat. Both teams will finish the regular season on Wednesday.

If Milwaukee wins at Boston and Miami loses to New Jersey, the Hawks would play the Heat. If Milwaukee loses, the Hawks would play the Bucks, regardless of the outcome of the Heat game.

The Hawks don’t seem to be gaining much public consideration as contenders to win the East. But neither of their potential opponents appear eager to draw them.

“They’ve gotten a lot better,” Brown said. “They’ve done a nice job adding pieces. [Mike] Bibby is one piece. Jamal Crawford is another piece. A guy that comes off the bench that no one talks about, Mo Evans, is another piece.

“[The Hawks are] a very talented team that has kept getting better every year. It’s been a quiet thing for them but everybody they’ve brought in has seemed to help.”

Those players were added to a core group that once took their lumps. The Hawks won just 13 games in 2004-05 in the first season for coach Mike Woodson and forward Josh Smith. Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson arrived the next year and the Hawks won 26 games. Johnson has described that time as “not even real basketball.”

The Hawks are long past those dark days even if they aren’t yet on Cleveland’s level.

“Their strength is they have been together for a while,” Ilgauskas said. “They know how to play in that system. They have been through some tough times together, ups and downs. They went through getting knocked out of the first round.

“That is [also] what we have been through. It just takes a while. Nothing happens overnight.”