If the Hawks want to continue climbing in the NBA East, they’d better plan on trampling the league’s less fortunate. Every team they’ll face on an eight-day, four-game Western Conference road swing, which opens Wednesday night in Portland, has lost more games than it’s won.
Beware of thinking this an easy trail.
The Hawks are 5-6 on the road against sub-.500 teams after a 3-0 start and last Wednesday’s 107-84 loss at Charlotte might have been the season’s low point. Friday’s 108-101 overtime toe-stub in Milwaukee was barely easier to digest.
It’s a good thing Atlanta’s subs — those less likely to take anything for granted — have snapped to life. While scoring 102 of the Hawks’ 212 points over the past two games, the Hawks’ reserves have been humming.
“The bench has been really good,” head coach Mike Budenholzer said Monday after subs scored half the points in a 98-81 win over Orlando. “I think the bench has been coming with great energy. … The defensive energy is kind of fueling everything else so hopefully we can … get the starters to feed off that.”
With the emergence of Tim Hardaway Jr., the improving health of Tiago Splitter, contributions at both ends from Thabo Sefolosha, serious shooting from Mike Scott and solid work by Dennis Schroder, Atlanta’s bench has been on point.
Newcomers Hardaway and Splitter have been central to the subs’ surge. Their timing looks good.
In Portland, they’ll meet another red-hot bench.
The Blazers’ subs have outscored their opponents’ benches in five of the past six games, averaging 43.8 points. In Monday’s 108-98 win in Washington, Portland’s reserves outscored Washington’s 63-45. Portland’s fourth-year reserve center/forward Meyers Leonard went for 18 points Monday, making 4-of-7 3-pointers.
It’s all-for-one time for the Hawks.
“You don’t have anybody else but your teammates out [on the road] and your coaching staff,” Hardaway said. “You have to play for one another when you’re on these long trips.”
Of Atlanta’s reserves, forward Paul Millsap said, “We’ve actually been feeding off them. They push the tempo, they get after it on defense.”
The Hawks (25-17) are going to need help to break a third-place tie with the Bulls. After games at Portland (19-25), Sacramento (17-23), Phoenix (13-29) and Denver (16-26), they’ll play four straight against winning teams.
But they’re adding numbers.
Schroder’s led the team in assists the past two games, Scott has made at least one 3-pointer in a career-long nine straight games and Splitter has scored in double digits in consecutive games for the first time as a Hawk.
Hardaway was barely an afterthought while playing in just four of Atlanta’s first 35 games. He’s played in seven straight since, three times scoring eight points.
“He’s really added something … shooting, but it’s [nice] to see him attacking the basket, playing a little bit of pick-and-roll,” Budenholzer said. “The defense is the thing we’ve really been trying to work on, and … he’s worked really hard. He wants it badly.”
Splitter has struggled with injuries, but in scoring 10 points in each of the past two games, the big man is finding his groove.
“The last two games I felt a little bit better, but I still have a long way to go,” he said. “The calf is getting there. The groin is a process. Just working hard every day to get there.”
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