The Atlanta Hawks have won seven of their last eight games, including their 108-100 win over the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup Quarterfinals last night, and are now headed to Las Vegas to take on the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Cup semifinals.
After their win over the Knicks last night in New York the Hawks improved to 14-12, sit in seventh place in the East with a three game cushion between them and the eighth place Brooklyn Nets, but they also find themselves only 2.5 games behind the Orlando Magic for the third spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
After being in a group with the 21-4 Eastern Conference leading Cleveland Cavaliers and the 19-5 reigning NBA champions Boston Celtics nobody expected the Atlanta Hawks to make it out of NBA Cup group play nonetheless make it all the way to the semifinals, and beating the Cavaliers and the Celtics on the road on their way to doing so.
The same goes for the regular season. When the season first began nobody had any real expectations for the Hawks, but after winning seven of their last eight games, and now being in the NBA Cup semifinals people are starting to believe in the Hawks, and earlier today, The Morning Shift gave you two reasons why the Hawks are having some nice success so far this season.
1.) Defense
“Defensively this team can carry you. No matter if the shots are falling or whatever else is going on this team can carry you, and that’s an exciting component when you look at what their track record is and what they’ve been.” Mike Johnson said
The Atlanta Hawks don’t have the best defense in the league by any stretch of the imagination, but they are tenacious, hard working, and physical on defense. Dyson Daniels deserves a lot of thanks for that because it seems like his defensive efforts have sparked the entire team to be better defensively, but De’Andre Hunter, Jalen Johnson, and number one overall pick Zaccharie Risacher have done a great job using their size and length to help shut down their opponents on the offensive end as well.
During the Trae Young era the Hawks haven’t been known for their defense at all, but again with their young guards and wings they’re starting to become a team that is actually more defensive minded, and you have to give credit to Head Coach Quin Snyder for that as well.
2.) Bench Production
The Atlanta Hawks are third in the NBA in bench scoring at 41.6 points per game, and a lot of that is thanks to De’Andre Hunter who has scored 18 or more points off the bench in eight straight games. Onyeka Okongwu and Bogdan Bogdanovic are no slouches off the bench either, and they’re liable to have a big game on any given night as well, so with Hunter, Okongwu, and Bogdanovic all making major contributions off the bench the Hawks have the most depth they’ve had since the 2021 season when they had Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu, Danilo Gallinari, and Lou Williams all coming off the bench, and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Beau Morgan said “the energy around this team feels different than it has in years” and he’s right it seems like this team is really having fun playing with each other, all the pieces fit well together, and now with the team fully healthy it’s resulting in wins as well.
