For much of the day, No. 13 proved harder than most of the previous 12. The Hawks missed open shots, were a step slow – sometimes a step and a half – to rebounds, and three minutes into the fourth quarter they led by two points. They won by 11. They’re the New Hawks, which means all they do is win.
They haven’t lost since two days after Christmas, and with the next six games (and eight of nine) at Philips Arena, they might not lose again soon. They lead the NBA East by five games, and they’re on pace – here we pause to hyperventilate – to finish 66-16. And now for the truly dizzying part: A Las Vegas book has established these Hawks as the favorite to win the NBA title.
The NBA champion Atlanta Hawks. It sounds unbelievable. Until you actually watch this team, and then you think … why not?
They passed the regular season’s midpoint on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which means we’ve seen enough to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. The Hawks are 34-8, having won 27 of 29. This 13-game winning streak has been a tutorial in easy excellence. In a league where every game is supposed to come down to the final two minutes, the average margin of victory in these 13 has been 11.7 points.
For years we moaned that the Hawks lacked a true star, but they’ve constructed a roster where anybody can play like one. Before Monday’s game, Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said he believed four Hawks – Al Horford, Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap and Jeff Teague – should make the All-Star roster. Not four hours later, Van Gundy’s Pistons were undone by none of the above.
Mike Scott scored eight of the Hawks’ first 10 points in the fourth quarter – he’d finish with 20 in 21 minutes – and the first two of those four baskets illustrated just why this team is so hard to guard. The sets began with a simple downscreen for Korver and kept going. The guy who’s the best in business at shooting off screens shot on neither occasion. The first time he passed to Scott, who scored. The second time Korver passed to Horford, who passed to Scott, who scored.
The Hawks are second in the league in assists, but they’d surely lead if the NBA counted the way the NHL does. (In hockey, the pass that leads to the pass that leads to the goal gets statistical credit, too.) Of their 37 baskets Monday, 31 came off assists.
Said Scott: “When we’re running our offense and running off screens, it’s pretty much pretty easy to score and get good shots.”
This isn’t to downplay the Hawks’ defense, which has gone from the halfway decent of last season to downright wicked. But the reason this team is 34-8 is because it can believes it can score simply by doing what coach Mike Budenholzer has taught it to do – space the floor, drive the lane, make the extra pass. The Pistons defended well Monday, but in the end the Hawks had too many options and too many wrinkles.
This on a day when they were outrebounded 61-42 and their starting five didn’t manage an offensive rebound. With Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, Detroit is a big, strong team. The Hawks aren’t. But here’s this from Van Gundy: “They’re the only team in the league where every big guy they put on the floor can shoot. They don’t have a lot of size, but they can always pull your size away from the basket.”
Then this: “That opens things up for Teague. His development has been huge. When we played against them in Orlando, he was a little-bit-better-than-average point guard. Now he’s playing on the elite level. And Kyle Korver just gets better every year – somehow.”
Teague had one of his lesser games Monday, missing 11 of 15 shots, and Korver wasn’t stellar – only three three-pointers — by his standards, either. Didn’t matter. The Hawks won by 11. They won their 13th game in succession without playing anywhere near peak capacity.
It’s who they are. It’s what they’ve become. I’ve worked at the AJC for almost 31 years, which means I’ve tracked the Hawks for two-thirds of their Atlanta incarnation. I’ve covered teams that won 57 games, even one that wound up the East’s No. 1 seed. I’ve never seen one like this.
About the Author
