We the South.
Atlanta went to Canada Friday night and turned Toronto’s ‘We the North’ slogan upside down.
The Hawks led by as many 26 points en route to 110-89 victory over the Raptors Friday night at the Air Canada Centre. It was another impressive victory for a team that has been long on superlatives during a remarkable run.
The East-leading Hawks destroyed the third-place team in the conference in a game with a playoff atmosphere. The Hawks (32-8, 17-3 road) have won 11 straight overall and on the road and 25 of the past 27 games. The Hawks have matched their longest winning streak since they started the 1997-98 season with 11 straight wins.
The Hawks also snapped a three-game losing streak to the Raptors, which including two early-season defeats. The Hawks avenged those losses and then some.
These Hawks are still not impressed. Well, maybe a little.
“We’ve never said it’s not impressive,” Paul Millsap said. “We are on a mission. It’s an impressive win today. To come here, after losing to these guys twice, it’s pretty impressive. But we know we have another game tomorrow. It’s the same thing. It’s not that it’s not impressive. We just move on quickly.”
The Hawks also improved to 27-1 in games where they have led by 10 or more points. The broke that plateau with 10:39 left in the second quarter.
The Raptors (26-13) fell 5-1/2 games behind the Hawks in the conference. DeMar DeRozan, in his second game back after missing 21 with a torn tendon, had a game-high 25 points. The Hawks limited Kyle Lowry to 11 points and Jonas Valanciunas to four points.
Al Horford led the Hawks with 22 points as all starters scored in double figures. Millsap (16), Jeff Teague (13), DeMarre Carroll (13), Kyle Korver (11) and Kent Bazemore (10) hit the double-digit mark as the Hawks shot 61 percent from the field, including 52 percent from 3-point range. Teague added nine assists.
“That’s when things go wrong, when you get happy,” Korver said. “We can’t do that. We like where we are headed.”
The Hawks jumped out to a 14-point lead, 52-38, at halftime. They ended the second quarter on a 14-6 run to earn the cushion. The 38 points tied a season low for the Raptors for any half this season.
It helped that the Hawks shot 63 percent (22 of 35) while the Raptors shot 39 percent (16 of 41) through the first two quarters. The Hawks forced the Raptors into 14 first-half turnovers.
The Hawks pushed their lead to as many as 24 points in the third quarter in the rout.
“Most important, I feel like we have very good rhythm right now,” Horford said. “We are playing. All the pieces are all starting to come together. We are starting to figure each other out and how to play together. That’s why we’ve had the success.”
The Hawks are now 3-0 on the road trip and conclude four games in five nights Saturday at Chicago. They return home for a season-long seven-game homestand the final two weeks of January.
“To be honest with you, we don’t have time to be impressed,” Teague said. “Tomorrow we go against Chicago and they are a great team in the Eastern Conference. It’s going to be another war, another battle. We have to prepare for that.”
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