Before the Hawks jetted off for a two-game road trip, they looked back and liked what they saw of themselves. Now, they wonder if the pace and precision with which they beat the Bulls last weekend will travel so they might next bully the Hornets and Bucks.
That might not be as easy it would it appear because Atlanta has a bull’s-eye on its back.
Al Horford said the Hawks (23-15) have been chiefly to blame for the inconsistencies that have left them No. 4 in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Yet he also suggested that achieving the rock-steady results of last season, when they finished No. 1, is more difficult because of how opponents treat them.
To take games lightly on Wednesday in Charlotte (17-20) and Friday in Milwaukee (15-24) simply because the Hawks last Saturday trounced the No. 2 team in the East by 15 points would be a mistake.
“You can’t compare last year to this year. Last year, I feel like we snuck up on a lot of people,” Horford said after Tuesday’s practice. “This year, teams are ready for us. They’re ready to go and up to play against us.”
Roster undulations like the loss of starting forward DeMarre Carroll via free agency, the sluggish return of sharpshooter Kyle Korver from a broken ankle, and injury-related absences of newcomer Tiago Splitter have spread a rocky path before Atlanta.
The greater problem has been that Hawks haven’t always been ready to go.
If the Bulls game was an accurate measure of what Atlanta can do against top competition when dialed in, the Hawks’ whipping of a Chicago team that had won six straight wasn’t the only barometer worth reading.
Charlotte and Milwaukee were Nos. 12 and 13 in the East entering Tuesday. If the Hawks are to return to elite status, they’ll have to do more than beat the big boys. They need to drub the dregs. Of the Hawks’ 15 losses, six have come against teams with losing records entering Tuesday play. Last year, they lost just nine times to losing teams.
Charlotte has lost seven in a row. Not much incentive there.
“I think that’s going to be a really good challenge … our track record hasn’t been great with consistency,” forward Paul Millsap said. “Can we … beat a good team, (then) go in against a team that’s lost a few games in a row and compete? It’s another stepping stone for us.”
Coach Mike Budenholzer figures to have a full roster. The Hawks are so healthy, in fact, that they may have to dispatch a player or two from the bottom of the roster to the D-League for playing time.
Chiefly, they need to focus on focusing more and less on who they’re playing.
Even with two resounding wins behind them, including a 126-98 rout at lowly Philadelphia, Budenholzer remembers consecutive losses before that to the sub-.500 Knicks in a stretch of three losses in four games.
Budenholzer continues to sweat inconsistent energy and erratic defense against breaks. It doesn’t help that Atlanta is 27th among 30 NBA teams at defensive rebounding rate (73.8 percent of their opponents’ misses).
“Transition defense … if we can really start there, we’ll build a better defensive identity,” Budenholzer said. “[Defensive rebounding] was going to be my second [focus]. We’ve got to be a good defensive team if we want to get out and run.”
Even if opponents are better prepared for Atlanta, Horford has a good feeling.
“You really can’t look at the opponent. It really comes down to what we’re doing,” he said. “Those are the kinds of habits that I felt we built last year. You would think that it would translate, but sometimes for some reason it doesn’t.
“Teams start figuring things out so you have to make adjustments. That’s what we’ve been doing and we’re starting to figure it out again.”
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