The Atlanta Hawks open the Eastern Conference Finals tonight in Milwaukee against the Bucks.
The Hawks enter the series once again as underdogs, overlooked and counted out by a majority of national analysts.
Heavy.com NBA Columnist Sean Deveny feels its time people recognize the Hawks aren't advancing on accident and it's not the pretty part of the game that has seen them eliminate a pair of favorites.
"The Knicks felt confident in Round 1 and the Sixers did in Round 2, but this is a different Hawks team," says Deveney. "Defensively, that's where they are most underrated and underestimated.
"In Round 1, a lot of folks in New York what's wrong with Julius Randle, well he's playing that way because of the Hawks defense. What happened to Ben Simmons, well he went up against a pretty good defense. In all these places the Hawks have been victorious, the question becomes what happened to our team and nobody is saying the Hawks happened to your team," states Deveney.
In the First Round of the playoffs the Hawks held Knicks Forward Julius Randle well below his season average. Randle, who averaged 24 points in the regular season, was held to just 18 per game in the playoffs.
In the Second Round 76ers Guard Ben Simmons, who averaged 14 points in the regular season was limited to just 9.9 against the Hawks.
The Hawks are especially getting it done defensively when it matters the most, the end of games.
Of course Giannis is a different beast, the Bucks superstar averaged 28 points per game this season, good for 5th in the NBA this year. If the Hawks are going to advance to the Finals they will need that number to come down a bit.
To hear all of Sean Deveney's comments on Hawks-Bucks, click here.
