One game remains in the Atlanta Hawks regular season (5-16 vs HOU). The Southeast Division crown still up for grabs. A playoff opponent still to be determined. Home court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs quite possible. All of those scenarios seemed highly unlikely a few months earlier for a young struggling Atlanta Hawks squad.
Interim Head Coach Nate McMillan, while on the Midday Show, expressed to Nick Kayal (filling in for Andy) and Randy, that he feels his most important message to the team when he took over in early March was to simply, “Believe in yourself.”
Coach McMillan went on to elaborate the he stressed to the team that if they believed in themselves and their teammates, prepared hard each and every night, played with intensity and a sense of urgency that indeed they would be in this exact position by the end of the season.
Those simple but powerful words have led to huge results for this squad. Coach McMillan is 26-11 since he took over. The team has won six of the last seven, and currently have a 10 game winning streak at State Farm Arena. The Hawks could enter Sunday’s contest vs the Rockets with the division crown already locked up if the Miami Heat fall in either of their final two contests.
A season that started with high goals, all but seemed over in late February. But for the fans and critics that wrote this Atlanta Hawks squad off. Coach McMillan just has one question.
Did you BELIEVE?