Hawks say winning ways are sustainable

33/Los Angeles Lakers/1971-72

27/Miami Heat/2012-13

22/Houston Rockets/2007-08

The air around these Hawks is rare.

Few teams in NBA history have won with the regularity of the Hawks over the past two months.

The Hawks own a franchise record of 16 straight wins. They have not lost in January. Only 26 other teams in league history have won at least 16 games in a row. Incidentally, 13 of those teams have gone on to win a league championship.

In addition, the Hawks have won 30 of the past 32 games. They have lost one since Christmas and twice since Thanksgiving. The Hawks are the 10th team in NBA history to have 30 or more wins in a stretch of 32 games.

The success has rarely been equaled. But is it sustainable?

There are still 37 regular-season games remaining before the playoffs. The Hawks insist they are not peaking too soon.

“We are playing a basketball that we can sustain,” Thabo Sefolosha said. “It’s not anybody doing something out of the ordinary that makes us win. Everybody is playing to their character. Everybody is playing to their role. It’s working for us. I think the pace out there is great. We keep our mind. Sometimes we are up, sometimes we are down coming into the fourth quarter, but we just find a way to do what we do best.”

Surely, the Hawks will lose again at some point. However, Hawks players point to their style of play as evidence of the sustainability of their winning ways. There is no superstar. There aren’t one or two players that dominate the offensive possessions.

“I think what helps with being consistent is there are a lot of people touching the ball every night,” Kyle Korver said. “If your game is focused on one or two guys and one of those two guys has a bad game, it makes it a lot harder for you to win. We are able to find the hotter hand a little bit and not relying on one guy.”

The Hawks don’t have a player in the top 33 in the league in scoring. However, all five starters average in double-figures and rank between Nos. 34 and 96. And the Hawks rank sixth in the NBA in points at 103.4 per game. They are tied for first in the league in fewest points allowed at 96.2 per game. The Hawks and the Trail Blazers are the only teams in the league in the top 10 in both categories. The 7.2 points per game differential is third in the league.

The Hawks (37-8) are one win shy of last season’s win total, one that got them into the playoffs for a seventh straight season. They already have the most wins in franchise history before the All-Star break with nine games remaining before the exhibition. They have opened a seven-game lead in the Eastern Conference.

Paul Millsap calls the Hawks’ system a “blueprint” for success.

“It gives you a lot of comfort,” Millsap said. “When things aren’t going right and you are having one of those 3 for 10 or 1 for 7 nights, you know somebody else will pick up the slack. That is what a full team does. It gives you that comfort level.”

The Hawks current 16-game win streak is the 20th longest in NBA history, a distinction they share with seven other teams. The 1995-96 Bulls, who hold the mark for the best record in NBA history, won a high of 18 straight games that season.

The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers own the longest winning streak in history of 33 games. As remarkable as the Hawks’ current stretch is, they are not yet half way to that record.

The key is a desire not to be satisfied and a commitment to getting better on a daily basis, the Hawks say. It’s not about winning now. It’s about winning in the postseason. They don’t throw parades down Peachtree Street for 16-game win streaks, after all.

“Guys know it’s a long season,” Jeff Teague said. “We just want to continue to rack up wins. We want to be a good team.”

But winning is fun, right?

“I like winning,” Teague said. “I’m enjoying it. I hope it continues.”