Now, it gets interesting.
The Hawks started the season with four games in six days, culminating with a second straight narrow win over the Hornets on Sunday for a 3-1 record. Next, the Hawks begin a stretch of four games in five days Tuesday at the Heat.
The NBA made it a point to limit the number of such brutal schedule stretches this offseason. They succeeded overall – just not for the Hawks. There are a total of 27 stints of four games in five nights this season, making the average of 0.9 per team. The number is down 61 percent from last season. Not only do the Hawks twice play four games in five nights, they do so twice this month.
After playing the Heat the Hawks host the Nets Wednesday, play at the Pelicans Friday and host the Wizards Saturday. They also play four games from Nov. 24-28. The division rivals Heat and Wizards are both 2-1, a half-game behind the leading Hawks. A lot about where the Hawks stand early in the season will be known by the weekend.
The Hawks were dreadful in a 106-94 season-opening loss to the Pistons at home last week. They reeled off three consecutive wins against the Knicks and Hornets. The wins against the Hornets came by a total of five points. In each case, Kemba Walker missed a potential game-tying shot at the buzzer.
The Hawks say they have gotten better since the opener. They are learning from mistakes and building on each win. They do so with Kent Bazemore as the new starting small forward and incorporating five new players into the system.
“We got together after the first game and shook it off,” said Tiago Splitter, one of the offseason acquisitions. “We saw the video, saw the mistakes, saw how we started the game. We’ve got to be different. Now, we are in the right way and we know we have to face difficult challenges but if you do it together you can be successful.”
Most of the lessons can come from a single quarter against the Hornets. On Friday, the Hornets outscored the Hawks 30-24 in the second quarter to climb back in the game. On Sunday, they held a 37-24 advantage to erase a 14-point deficit.
“You take the win and you learn from it,” Kyle Korver said. “Obviously, we have to be a 48-minute team. The third quarter hurt us and it hurt us in the first game (against the Hornets) too. It’s only been a few games but that’s a little bit of a pattern and something we have to focus on.”
The Hawks have again, as has become their trademark, receive balance scoring. Jeff Teague is the leading scorer at 18.3 points per game, good for only 34th in the NBA. Al Horford is 37th at 17.5 points and Paul Millsap is 48th at 16.0 points. No one main scorer but three in the top 50 in the league. Last season, Millsap led the Hawks in scoring at 16.7 points, good for 32nd in the league. The Hawks other four starters were Teague (T-42, 15.9), Horford (T-52, 15.2), DeMarre Carroll (T-79, 12.6) and Korver (T-85, 12.1). The balanced scoring attack led to 60 regular-season wins.
The Hawks will go through plenty of battling testing in the next month in their quest for improvement.
“You figure out how to win in all different circumstances,” Millsap said Sunday. “(The Hornets) are a good team but we have to bring it the whole game, for four quarters. I feel like we are building up to that. From game to game, we continue to get better.”
About the Author
