The Hawks gave a soldout Martin Luther King Day crowd plenty to cheer about Monday.
With a 93-82 victory against the Detroit Pistons, the Hawks won for the fifth consecutive year on the holiday for the civil rights leader.
Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll addressed the crowd before the game and said King’s “teachings still live on and his legacy still lives on.”
The Hawks have hosted an MLK holiday game for 16 consecutive years and 24 times overall.
“It’s great to come out here on this day,” Paul Millsap said after the Hawks win. “It’s an honor, especially in Atlanta.”
Weekly honor for Horford
Al Horford was chosen Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Jan. 12-18, the league said Monday. Horford won the award for the second time this season. He was also honored in December.
Horford helped the Hawks to wins in three of their four games last week. He was inactive for one of the contests for rest.
The Hawks center recorded his first career triple double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a win over the 76ers Tuesday. The 10 assists tied a career-high.
For the week, Horford averaged 21.6 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists. He shot 27 of 32 (.844) from the floor.
“It’s a nice honor but again it goes to show our team went undefeated,” Horford said. “I think that had a lot to do with it. It’s exciting.”
The Timberwolves’ Mo Williams won the award in the Western Conference for a week that included an NBA-season high 52-point game.
Mack out at least a week
Reserve guard Shelvin Mack will miss at least a week because of a strained calf muscle.
“I think we are still gathering some of the information … but he will be out a minimum of a week,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said Monday. “We’ll know more in the next day or two how much longer than that.”
Mack was injured in the second quarter of Saturday’s win at Chicago. He scored a layup with 9:16 remaining and came up limping. He was looked at by trainers during an ensuing timeout and eventually went back to the locker room. The team later announced the injury and the fact that Mack would not return.
Van Gundy praises Hawks
Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said that the Hawks deserve to have four players on the NBA All-Star team.
Van Gundy was asked before Monday’s Hawks-Pistons game which player or players from the Eastern Conference leaders should be represented next month in New York.
“I haven’t sat down and looked at everybody but you can make very strong cases for (Jeff) Teague, (Kyle) Korver, (Al) Horford and (Paul) Millsap — all four of them. When you look at their record, it would be hard to argue that they don’t deserve to have four guys playing. When you are winning 80 percent of your games, you obviously got a lot of people playing well so they should have a lot of people on that team.”
NBA All-Star balloting ends Monday at 11:59 p.m. The Hawks are unlikely to have a player voted in as a starter. One or more Hawks representatives would have to be selected among the seven reserves by conference coaches.
The All-Star starters will be announced on Thursday. Reserves will be announced on Jan. 29. The All-Star game will be played Feb. 15 at Madison Square Garden.
The Hawks, with a 34-8 record, lead the East by five games.
About the Author
